James Beard Award's Best New Restaurant On Upcoming Project, The Progress
San Francisco couple Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, behind State Bird Provisions, took home the James Beard Award for Best New Restaurant last night, but in the next couple of years they may be back again for the same award.
"We're blown away because State Bird was never meant to happen," Brioza told us, but the co-chef couple has also been working on The Progress, a larger sister restaurant of sorts to State Bird, which will open in the same building. "It's like the right thing to do where we can have kind of a dueling restaurant," Brioza said.
The restaurant will house 70 to 80 seats and feature the same style of food as State Bird, Krasinski tells us, meaning we can only hope for more pancakes and crispy quail. Luckily for big groups, portions will be larger but still meant for sharing. "We cook food that's our style, so [the food] will be the same style but a different way of serving it," Krasinski said. "We love sharing food with people. [Like], everybody loves pizza; to sit down and break bread with people automatically creates a conversation and a dialogue."
The Progress' menu will reportedly feature both small plates and shared larger plates, but Brioza refuses to share any menu ideas. "You know when people come into your home and you stand around your kitchen and snack on little bites? Progress will have the same feeling but as if you're all sharing the same dish," he said. The Progress is slated for an opening next year, Brioza says, but for now they'll just celebrate their James Beard win. How, you ask? "Man, it's X-rated."