State Bird Provisions' Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski on Reservations & Their New Project

Last month, chefs Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski closed their enormously popular San Francisco restaurant State Bird Provisions for a remodel. It came on the heels of an epic first year-and-a-half in which the restaurant — where small plates are wheeled around to diners on a cart, dim sum-style — earned accolades from everyone from the James Beard Foundation to Bon Appétit. News of the remodel also dropped at roughly the same time as the revelation that Silicon Valley nerds were using bots to get reservations at State Bird.

Last week at Feast Portland, Eater met up with Brioza and Krasinski to talk about whether it's really that hard to score a reservation at State Bird Provisions. In the interview, they share a few details about what they've got in store for The Progress, a new restaurant that is going in next door to State Bird. They also discuss what it's like growing as chefs and restaurateurs, and how State Bird is "really evolving into what maybe we were meant to be."

So you guys have had a pretty crazy year and a half. How has it felt for you guys, including getting the Beard Award, too?
Stuart Brioza: The Beard Award capped it off for us. It's kind of unbelievable. There's a certain amount of attention spent to new restaurants, of course. I opened one restaurant in my career. Everywhere [else] we've worked has been an established restaurant. You're carrying the torch or breathing new life into it. You feel like you have an obligation to that restaurant to carry the torch. [You] certainly make your own name, but you're coming into an environment that is already established. I guess this is what happens when you have a new restaurant.

"Our philosophy has always been to be a restaurant that's all-inclusive." >>