“Cooking for the community that I have been part of for twenty years is where my passion lies: it’s in talking with farmers every day and handpicking what my cooks and I will serve every night, and it’s in talking with guests about what boat the fish came off of. It’s very personal to me and I have dedicated my life to it.”

Soft-boiled quail egg with fried leeks and brown butter hollandaise; confit chicken leg with turnip purée, burnt kaffir lime, chicken jus and farro chip; aerated cheesecake with pistachio dacquoise, rhubarb purée and brunoise.

Nightbird is the rarest of birds: a sophisticated, grown-up restaurant that doesn’t take itself too seriously. It is very much a reflection of its chef-owner, Kim Alter: her quiet confidence and lack of pretension pervade her restaurant’s elegant, understated atmosphere and cooking. Alter’s fivecourse tasting menu changes every two weeks. You might find oysters paired with tomatoes and seaweed, or a pistachio dacquoise topped with aerated cheesecake. What doesn’t change is Nightbird’s warm, gracious service and effortless class. It is a restaurant that’s as in tune with the seasons as it is the desires of its customers.

“(Kim Alter) cuts a shy profile, but Nightbird is in many ways the boldest of projects: a very worthy restaurant that doesn’t try to call attention to itself.” –Josh Sens, San Francisco Magazine