October 30, 2014 – Our stellar local restaurant scene is about to glow even more brightly with the addition of award-winning chef Jason Franey at Restaurant 1833 in Monterey.
James Beard award finalist and one of Food & Wine magazine’s best new chefs of 2011, Franey is currently executive chef at Seattle’s landmark Canlis restaurant and will start as executive chef at Restaurant 1833 in mid-December.
The Monterey restaurant is the flagship property of David Bernahl’s Coastal Luxury Management, which runs Pebble Beach Food & Wine and this year opened highly acclaimed new restaurants in Las Vegas and Los Angeles.
“I’m super excited about the move,” said Franey, “I’ve been participating in Pebble Beach Food & Wine for the past three years and it’s exciting to be joining such a dynamic company.”
Franey said he used to spend weekends on the Monterey Peninsula and fell in love with our area when he worked at San Francisco’s Campton Place under chef Daniel Humm early in his career. In 2006, he followed Humm to New York to work as his executive sous chef at Eleven Madison Park.
Franey also participated in Relais & Châteaux’s Grands Chefs event at L’Auberge in Carmel earlier this year and remembers what a pleasure it was cooking with all the fresh and foraged local ingredients. “We took a walk out into the woods and found nasturtiums and wood sorrel; and all the produce down there and the fish from the Monterey Bay are so great,” he said.
At Canlis, Franey’s food is labeled “Contemporary Northwest Cuisine,” but he calls it “a contemporary refined style.” For Pebble Beach Food & Wine last spring he prepared a dish of Panna Cotta with Peas and Lamb Tongue with Curry Vinaigrette and Apples.
The new chef says he hasn’t yet tried the food at Restaurant 1833, but he plans to keep the same menu through the holidays, and then revamp the offerings at the beginning of 2015. Opening 1833 executive chef Levi Mezich was promoted to corporate chef last February and former exec chef Abby Burk left the post a couple of weeks ago after five months on the job.
CEO and managing partner of CLM, David Bernahl, said in a news release, “I’m continuously humbled by the growth and success that Coastal Luxury Management has experienced since inception. That good fortune has only been possible because of a ridiculously talented and committed team of impassioned individuals. Today we welcome another paramount addition into our family as we look to the future for CLM and Restaurant 1833. Chef Franey and our team plan on accomplishing many great things together.”
Restaurant 1833 also announced they are promoting their inventive mixologist Michael Lay to “Chief of Booze” for all the group’s enterprises. Lay was featured in Zagat’s “30 under 30” selection in 2013 as an up and comer in the food and beverage trade. The restaurant plans to hire a new resident mixologist and sommelier.
About the author
Deborah Luhrman is publisher and editor of Edible Monterey Bay. A lifelong journalist, she has reported from around the globe, but now prefers covering our flourishing local food scene and growing her own vegetables in the Santa Cruz Mountains.
