Chef David Kinch Leaving Manresa, Puts It up for Sale

August 23, 2022 – Could a Keith Richards reference be a sign of what chef David Kinch’s next project will be? 

The press statement announcing Kinch’s plans to leave his three-Michelin-starred fine-dining restaurant Manresa and put it up for sale concluded with this quote: “‘As Keith would say, “Got to move while it’s still fun,” a line from the seminal 1978 Rolling Stones song “Before They Make me Run.”

And might that new venture be the music-related venue in downtown Santa Cruz that Edible Monterey Bay has reported him hinting at in the past?

Kinch—a Santa Cruz resident who opened Manresa 20 years ago in Los Gatos—has gradually gone in a more casual direction, launching his Manresa Bread, The Bywater and Mentone in Aptos.

Richards wrote the song, something of a plea to the Canadian authorities to let him walk from the threat of a prison sentence after being charged with heroin possession, but Kinch’s allusion could be read as a reference to any number of motivations to move on from Manresa and give himself the chance to compose what’s next.

It makes sense that his exit from Manresa could be propelled in part by a desire to finally create something inspired by his deep passion for music—especially jazz, blues, African and rock’s heyday—acquired, along with a passion for cooking, while a youth in New Orleans. 

As he suggests himself in his statement, he is seeking to trade what he calls the “back-breaking” work of being a chef for other passions that have been sidelined for a restaurant that he said “has essentially been my whole life” for the last two decades, and to still be physically able to enjoy them. 

Kinch also could be referring to a need to be sprung from the prison-like obsession to be at the top of one’s game, which attaining and maintaining a three-star rating requires. And certainly it will allow him to move on while he still feels a great pleasure and pride in providing the dining experience of a lifetime, at a time when restaurant guests are growing increasingly finicky and the embattled fine-dining model has not yet lost its viability altogether.  

“Starting January 1, I hope to establish a new equilibrium, to focus on the next exciting chapter of my life. I’m looking forward to dedicating my professional efforts on The Bywater, Mentone, and Manresa Bread,” he said in the announcement, “and having the time and freedom to explore some exciting new pursuits, and revisit long-neglected passions.”   

Kinch has been focused on achieving more of a work/life balance—and giving himself the time to create his more casual restaurants—since a fire abruptly shut down Manresa in 2014. And after first writing a cookbook, “Manresa: An Edible Reflection,” that combined intricate sous-chef-requiring recipes and stunning photographs to create food porn of the highest order, he recently wrote an intentionally more approachable one, “At Home in the Kitchen: Simple Recipes from a Chef’s Night Off,” with co-author Devin Fuller, that includes Kinch’s recipes and hand-picked playlist that he uses in his own home to throw informal dinner parties for his friends. 

“You know I’m kind of finished with fine dining,” he said as he was preparing to open Mentone, referring to the kind of more informal new restaurant ideas he was exploring. 

But Kinch felt his effort to become a more balanced person helped him improve Manresa—already an icon for conveying a sense of place with his exceptionally creative takes on preparing consummate California Central Coast ingredients, with dishes like Tidal Pool and Into the Garden—and his new ventures didn’t stop the accolades. 

To date, Kinch himself has been named one of the Top 10 chefs in the world by his two- and three- Michelin starred peers, the James Beard Foundation’s Best Pacific Chef, GQ’s Chef of the year and was nominated for the 2020 James Beard Outstanding Chef award before withdrawing his name, saying that celebrating his restaurant’s achievements did not seem appropriate given the pandemic and its devastation of the industry. Additionally, Kinch won an Emmy for his season of “The Mind of Chef.”  

Manresa itself was awarded its 3rd Michelin star a year after the fire and has since continued to receive the accolade for six consecutive years, as well as being named to La Liste Top 10 restaurants internationally and Wine Enthusiast’s America’s Best Wine Restaurants,” among others. Meanwhile, Manresa wine director Jim Rollston and general manager Jenny Yun have won top prizes for their own work. 

But “a three-Michelin-starred restaurant requires nothing less than your best” Kinch noted in the statement Monday, and he not only has the passion and compulsion as the chef to deliver it in exquisite and inventive cuisine, but as the owner, feels the same compulsion to provide superb service that includes Kinch himself in the dining room, graciously welcoming guests and delivering tableside finishes like a cloud of truffle shavings. 

“In the Ferrari that is Manresa, with all the moving parts and all the personnel, I’m not the clutch, I’m the driver,” he said in 2019, referring to how important it was for him to learn to delegate and, for example, not be the one “covered in fish scales” in the back of the restaurant, as people may think. Instead, he has to be more strategic with his time, and limit his kitchen activities to higher order things like tasting, collaborating in the development of new dishes, orchestrating and supporting his staff. 

What’s more, the same drive that helped Kinch make Manresa so spectacular also has kept Kinch attentive to all of his newest restaurants every day when he’s in town, at times attending lineup at The Bywater, baking Italian and French Rivera-inspired wood-fired pizzas at Mentone, and meeting with his business partner in Manresa Bread, head baker Avery Ruzicka. 

This pace of course has its limits, and while Kinch hopes that Manresa will continue under a new buyer, the 61-year-old Kinch is ready to draw a line under what he and his staff have achieved with Manresa thus far. 

“Until the end of the year, I look forward to a joyous four months, welcoming back all who have supported us over the years to enjoy the restaurant one last time in its current iteration, Kinch said in his statement. “Let’s have a party and celebrate together!”

It must not be easy to walk away from three Michelin stars, but it’s even more difficult to imagine Kinch no longer the official chef in charge of any restaurant kitchen. (He has others in that role at his more casual restaurants.)

But there is still that concept near and dear to his heart that he’s been contemplating for some time. And not only has he said he can imagine himself doing all the cooking again at a small, intimate restaurant in the Caribbean or South of France in his retirement, but without the “home” that he said he sought to create with Manresa, he is sure to be cooking all the more for his friends at his house in Santa Cruz.

Meantime, if you can spare the $365 and five hours to indulge in the mind-blowing, 13-course tasting menu at Manresa before December 31, from this diner’s experience, you won’t be disappointed. Otherwise, you’ll still be able to enjoy Kinch’s influence at his other restaurants, or cook his recipes at home. For the full effect, however, choose vinyl for listening to his musical selections from “At Home in the Kitchen.”