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Two Palo Alto restaurants are revamping their menus and adding fresh flavors from “Top Chef” alumni.
Horsefeather in Town & Country Village is rolling out a brand-new menu built in partnership with Casey Thompson, a four-time Michelin Bib Gourmand chef, and Sekoya on California Avenue is leaning into hyperseasonal, local ingredients with new head chef, Ray Saad. Both Thompson and Saad are “Top Chef” alumni, with Thompson placing as runner-up on “Top Chef: Miami” and Saad appearing on Season 9 of “MBC Top Chef.”
Horsefeather overhauls its menu, emphasizing ‘fun’
Horsefeather, a craft cocktail bar and new American restaurant, debuted in 2016 in San Francisco, expanding to Palo Alto last year. Its menu features options such as fried chicken thighs with Sriracha honey, corn esquites and mac and cheese, as well as a double cheeseburger with chuck and brisket, smoked onion, lettuce, special sauce and pickles on a brioche bun. But all that is about to change.
Horsefeather is slowly phasing its old menu out – and an entirely new menu curated by Thompson in.
“I love nothing more than a playful menu,” Thompson said. “I like being cheeky.”
Horsefeather’s new menu will still offer bar-centric food with Asian flavors and/or techniques, but Thompson hopes her new menu will make Horsefeather even more “fun.” She said that the new menu will encapsulate the fun feeling behind the name Horsefeather – a play off the term “horse feathers,” meaning something is nonsense.
One of Thompson’s favorite new items is the Southern-fried chicken wings with hot chicken butter and do chua (Vietnamese pickled carrots and daikon radish).
“I am from Texas, and I love Southern food,” she said. “I took the technique of Nashville hot chicken and turned it into a chicken wing, and then instead of using something like Sichuan peppers to stay in the style of their menu, I kept it Nashville hot, but then tweaked the side of it. So we did pickled daikon and pickled carrots to go with it.”
Another standout item is the miso yaki skirt steak, Thompson said, served with crispy potato strings, creamed greens and yuzu-kosho butter.
“It’s umami-forward, savory (and) unctuous,” she said.
Other menu items include green chile queso with salsa and warm tortilla chips; tater tots topped with Kewpie mayo, bacon, tonkatsu sauce, charred scallion and bonito; a fluffy egg spread served with toast points, chives, cornichons and red onion; and a fried fish sandwich with trout roe tartar sauce.
“What I’m trying to do is eat the foods that people know, and then just make them fun because that is (Horsefeather’s) atmosphere.”
Thompson’s menu will first start as limited-time preview prix-fixe dinners before her a la carte menu replaces the current Horsefeather menu. Horsefeather’s menu in San Francisco will remain the same.
Horsefeather, 855 El Camino Real, Ste 151, Palo Alto; 650-648-4845, Instagram: @horsefeather.pa. Open Monday from 4-9 p.m., Tuesday to Thursday from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.
Sekoya introduces happy hour prix-fixe, gains new head chef
Restaurateurs Steve and Sean Ugur opened Sekoya in 2023 as a new American, California-fusion restaurant and bar. Steve Ugur was a founding owner of Pausa Bar & Cookery (he sold his portion of the business in May) and gained experience butchering and dry-aging at his family’s restaurant, Porterhouse.
But even after three years on California Avenue, Steve Ugur said Sekoya seems to be somewhat under the radar.
“We want to be more of a neighborhood spot for Palo Alto because I can’t tell you how many people come in here who live in Palo Alto or even Portola Valley or Mountain View and they had no idea this restaurant’s here, and they think we just opened,” Steve Ugur said.
Ray Saad, who previously worked at Michelin-starred Daniel in New York, is Sekoya’s new head chef, chosen for his “passion for food,” Steve Ugur said.
“I believe cooking is a form of communication to people,” Saad said. “I try to use the best ingredients, try to make them pop on the plate, try to not do too much at the same time, show the skills and the product.”
Saad said his goal is to make the food at Sekoya even more seasonal and local. Expect to see some Mediterranean influences pulled from his Lebanese heritage, such as za’aatar and labneh, used to accompany local Californian ingredients.
Sekoya now offers a three-course dinner for $59 during Amber Hour, the term the restaurant uses for its happy hour. Portions are the exact same size as those offered during dinner service, and features all-new dishes from Saad such as charred cabbage with house-smoked labneh, confit lemons, toasted pecans, hazelnuts and coriander oil; eggplant katsu with quinoa pomodoro, smoked eggplant puree, mint-yogurt and za’atar; and watermelon granita with strawberry sorbet, mint and lemon zest.
All dishes on the Amber Hour menu are new (except the butterscotch pudding), and about 30% of Sekoya’s regular menu is new as well. Saad said that every dish he’s put on the menu is important to him.
“It’s kind of my emotions on a plate,” he said. “It’s everything about me on a dish, and so they’re each unique in a different way.”
The food isn’t the only thing new at Sekoya – the restaurant also underwent renovation to improve acoustics and dampen the sound as well as change the low lounge-style seating and sofas to tables and chairs.
Steve Ugur said he hopes the new Amber Hour prix-fixe will entice the Palo Alto community to dine at Sekoya, noting that car-free California Avenue has made Sekoya somewhat hidden.
Sekoya Lounge & Kitchen, 417 California Ave., Palo Alto; 650-313-2414, Instagram: @sekoyapaloalto. Open Monday to Thursday from 5-9 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 4-10 p.m. Amber Hour Monday to Thursday from 5-6 p.m., Friday and Saturday from 4-6 p.m.
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