Pass
The kitchen, on the page.
Three rooms in the Bay Area. Seven courses. One chef-partner who answers the phone for reservations and stops by the table when the dishes go out.
From the kitchen
A note from the chef-partner.
I came up cooking in restaurants where the menu changed quarterly because someone in the front office said it had to. I do not run my kitchen that way. The menu changes when the produce changes, when the duck is ready, when the apricot tree at the farm in Sebastopol is finally giving fruit you would want to put on a plate.
That means there are weeks when the menu is the same as the week before. There are also weeks when half of it is new because someone called from a farm at six in the morning and said come pick this up before the deer find it. I think this is how a kitchen should work. I do not think it is precious. I think it is just attention.
We open the door at six. We close it when the last table leaves. The room is small. The menu is fixed. You are eating what we are cooking that night because that is what we cook.
Mira OkonkwoChef-partner, Pass
The rooms
Three small dining rooms.
Each room takes the same menu in different time. Same kitchen language, different room. Reservations open thirty days in advance and walk-ins are honored when the kitchen has time.
Pass Grand Avenue
The original. The kitchen runs along the back wall and the pass is the counter the diner sits across. Forty seats. The wine list is built around the chef-partner's friendships in the Sonoma producer community.
Pass Mission
Opened 2023 in the bones of an old union hall. The room is taller than the original and the menu is built around what the room asks for: dishes that earn the height with smoke and patience.
Pass Marin
Smallest of the three, twenty seats. Open Thursday through Sunday because the chef-partner's family is in town the rest of the week. The room looks at a redwood from the front window.
Tonight's seven courses
The menu as it stands this week.
Pricing for the seven-course menu is shared after a reservation is held. Wine pairing is offered as an addition, built per table by the wine director. Dietary accommodations are accepted in writing 48 hours before service.
Cucumber, lemon balm, rye milk
An opening that asks the table to slow down. Cold, herbaceous, fermented edges.
Smoked carrot, miso, koji butter
Carrots from the farm in Healdsburg, smoked over fruit wood the morning of service.
Sourdough, brown butter, salt-cured cream
The bread course is two bites. The cream is the menu's most-requested element.
Hokkaido scallop, dashi, kelp oil
Hand-dived. The kelp oil is built across three days from foraged Pacific kelp.
Aged duck, juniper, plum
Forty-day dry-aged duck from a single farm in Sonoma. Plum from the same farm.
Goat cheese, hazelnut praline, honeycomb
A pause before dessert. The honey is from the bees on the restaurant's rooftop.
Persimmon, chestnut, brown sugar
Persimmons from a single tree in the chef's grandmother's yard in San Francisco.
From the press
One quote, kept on the wall.
“The reason to drive to Pass is the patience. Most kitchens at this level cook for the photograph. Pass cooks for the table. The plate arrives, you eat it, the plate leaves, and the next plate arrives because the next plate is ready, not because a server is on a stopwatch.”
To reserve
The reservation is held by the room, not the platform.
Reservations are taken thirty days in advance, by phone or by writing. Walk-ins are seated when the kitchen has time and we always have time for someone who came from the neighborhood.
Pass Grand Avenue
+1 510 555 0419
grand@pass.example
Pass Mission
+1 415 555 0214
mission@pass.example
Pass Marin
+1 415 555 0316
marin@pass.example