One more prominent restaurant space that has lain dormant since the pandemic is getting a new tenant, and it's the sleek space that Mexico City chef Gabriela Camara renovated in 2015 to house her restaurant Cala.
The 3,400-square-foot space at 149 Fell Street will soon become home to Kiln, a new restaurant from Sons & Daughters co-founder and former executive chef Teague Moriarty. The SF Business Times caught the news of the move, but so far Moriarty isn't commenting on the new venture.
Update: While Moriarty is an investor, the team behind Kiln is former Sons & Daughters Chef de Cuisine John Wesley and General Manager Julianna Yang.
In what appears to be a press release on Foodgressing from last month, Moriarty announced that he was "stepping away from the kitchen completely" at the Michelin-starred Sons & Daughters, the fine-dining spot on Nob Hill that he co-founded with culinary school buddy Matt McNamara in 2010. The 14-course prix fixe at the intimate restaurant is now being led by executive chef Harrison Cheney, who joined the kitchen last October.
"I’m proud to pass the torch of the restaurant’s culinary direction to Harrison," Moriarty said. "His artistic approach, dedication to guest satisfaction, and attention to detail perfectly complement our team at Sons & Daughters."
Cheney is taking the restaurant in a New Nordic direction, having worked for a chunk of his career at the Michelin two-star Gastrologik in Stockholm. McNamara is not mentioned or quoted in the release.
A rep for Moriarty would only tell the Business Times that the team behind Sons & Daughters will not be involved in Kiln.
Moriarty and McNamara were in their late twenties when they were jointly named Rising Star chefs by the Chronicle in 2012, a year and a half after Sons & Daughters made its debut — and they earned their first Michelin star even earlier, in 2011. They went on to open the more casual The Square in North Beach in 2014, and their Nob Hill cafe Sweet Woodruff, both of which have since closed.
Sons & Daughters retained its Michelin star in the new guide release, which was announced in early December, and Moriarty continues to serve as owner.
Kiln has an opening timeframe of "Summer 2023" on its nascent website, and you can follow Kiln on Instagram for updates.
The Cala space, which briefly became home to the non-profit Farming Hope during the pandemic, has not served Camara's seafood-centric Mexican cuisine since early 2020. Camara herself, who relocated to San Francisco in 2015 to expand on her Mexico City success Contramar, returned with her son to Mexico City in mid-2019 to take a job with Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, as an advisor.
Top image via Yelp
