Making Good Progress

Chef-partners and husband-wife team Stuart Brioza and Nicole Kransinski have another winner on their hands. Literally, as their second San Francisco restaurant The Progress– which opened last December- is a recent nominee for the James Beard Foundation 2015 awards. It’s the lone Bay Area representative for Best New Restaurant, but their first restaurant, State Bird Provisions, already took that honor in 2012.  The follow-up to State Bird took more than three years to plan, and while the culinary style of State Bird is American dim sum, The Progress is more like a banquet version. Dinners are served family-style from a six-course menu priced at $65 per person. Guests are offered a nightly changing menu and the table collectively decides on the six dishes they want to order by way of paper and pencil, in effect creating their own dinner party.

Already impossible to get a seat, just like State Bird- the reservation system is constantly being hacked by those clever Silicon Valley techies- but walk-ins can be accommodated, and they just rolled out an under-$10 Bar Menu. The glowing, two-level restaurant is beautifully designed- simple yet warm- with a high ceiling that arches overhead like a wave, and custom lights that mirror the curve of the building. For his menu, Brioza liberally mixes cultures, and one dish that’s already a signature is the shaved cauliflower and romanesco with herbs and greens, heavily larded with pig fries- which is delicious, I swear. In its short time, The Progress has already gone platinum, just like its predecessor. The restaurant’s biggest competition, as it turns out, is its own sibling next door. www.theprogress-sf.com