Rise + Roam Reboots with New Star Chef

August 17, 2021 – From the get-go, it was possible to unpack layers of meaning from Rise + Roam’s name.

And that’s just from the first half: Rise early to start baking. Tend the breads and pastries as they rise in the oven. Help the Folktale Group that R+R fits into (with the eponymous winery and 7th & Dolores Steakhouse) rise along with them. Give the Carmel culinary scene a little lift too.

(You can also have some fun word play with “roam,” roaming for great ingredients and grazing on the Roman-style pizza they made a signature early on.)

But more rising was on the way: Rise to the challenge of opening less three weeks before COVID closures. And rise further with ambitions to add a sit-down dinner concept led by chef Jerry Regester, who came aboard last week.

That news would be enough to get foodies excited. The bigger reason my heart rate is rising with the addition of Regester is that he enjoys more artistic license than ever before.

His meals are already memorable, thanks to extended stints under Cal Stamenov at Highlands Inn and Bernardus Lodge, experience launching Intercontinental The Clement and time running the show at the Monterey Plaza Hotel and The Preserve.

When he got The Plaza executive chef gig in 2016 he told me his style could be called “rustic elegance…not too crazy, not 20 ingredients, just focused flavor, really being choosy on what [ingredients] I pick.”

He describes his new opportunity with verve.

“It’s a dream come true,” he says, “and [the freedom] is what brought me in, the chance to work on something that can become mine and not have that corporate structure.”

He’s leading the project with Folktale founder Greg Ahn and Gayle Grammatico, who will run the front of the house at R + R after coming over from Folktale’s mothership property where she did events and sales. Folktale Director of Culinary Todd Fisher is supporting everywhere appropriate but has 7D as his primary focus.

“Todd’s there for support and to provide a little guidance, almost like a big brother,” Regester says. “It’s still part of the Folktale Group. We all help each other.” 

But back to the creative freedom. Ahn notes Regester’s getting so inventive one team objective is to focus dishes that may have a little much going on. 

“It’s probably a little jarring after so much corporate experience,” Ahn says. “Every time he and I talk, he’s asking, ‘What do you think about doing this?’ And I say, “Well, you’re the boss.”

After a Car Week baptism-by-fire, Regester and R + R (R + R + R!) closed Monday, August 16, to workshop the new menu and start visioning the restaurant. It reopens with the new menu Thursday, August 19. On Monday Regester went through eight different takes on a single dish alone by the time we spoke early afternoon Monday.

“He’s like let’s do this, and one idea leads to another,” Ahn says. “He’s giddy like a little kid, he’s got space to run.”

“If I want to change [something], I change it, if something doesn’t work, I can take it off,” Regester says. “It’s pretty awesome when you’re a chef and you can do that. I don’t have to do clam chowder.”  

Ahn sounds a little giddy himself at the prospect of constant seasonal and creative changes to the menu: “I say to friends, ‘Don’t tell me it’s your favorite dish or we’re going to change it.’ I think in a town with a culinary scene that can get a little stagnant, one thing we’re hoping to encourage is reinvention.”

With additional leadership from R + R’s new pastry chef Jessica Haney, who migrated from The Plaza with Regester, an early focus is on items that celebrate Rise + Roam’s primary gift: baking.

Haney started her pastry rise when she was a youngster, helping her mom in the kitchen at home, and tasting desserts in her father’s Plumes coffee shop in downtown Monterey as a teen. She worked for pastry whiz Ben Spungin at Bernardus Lodge before she revamped the dessert program at the Monterey Plaza Hotel on the same team as Regester.  

“I’ve always loved sweets and desserts, how happy they made people,” Haney says, “how they help celebrate and bring loved ones together.” 

On the menu development front, Regester ticks off a crab chowder with bread brioche as thickener; “chef’s crumbs” on salads; seared tuna on brioche; panzanella salad with Swank Farms heirloom tomatoes; and panini with customized crust as possibilities in play.

“We have great bread,” Regester says. “Let’s use it everywhere we can.”

Plans for the big dining room and its open kitchen are far too premature for the Folktale team to share anything very specific. But Regester anticipates “a whole new restaurant” by end of the year. And there is a clear and present emphasis on approachability. 

“We want to make another great restaurant that’s not stuffy or pretentious,” Regester says. “It’s fitting in and matching with the environment.”

“Regester’s keeping his tweezers in his pocket,” Ahn says. 

Some are intimidated by the scene at 7D, so I asked if R + R 2.0 is, at least in part, a counterpoint to a sophisticated sister eatery down the street with the high ceilings and glassed-off kitchen. 

“This will be subdued,” Regester says, “turned down a little.” 

OK, chef. Maybe it’s be subdued on the price points and scene side of things. But not on the enthusiasm or creative freedom fronts. Which sounds like a tasty place to be.

Rise + Roam Bakery & Pizzeria is open at Mission and 7th in Carmel 7am-3pm Monday-Wednesday, 7am-8pm Thursday and Sunday, and 7am-9pm Friday-Saturday at riseandroambakery.com.