Ian Hockenberger In at Revamped Park Chalet; Dennis Lee Takes Over Kitchen at Magnolia Brewery

The Park Chalet Garden Restaurant has gone through an identity change and is now being called The Park Chalet Coastal Beer Garden, with Ian Hockenberger at the kitchen's helm. Hockenberger, 48, joins Park Chalet after bouncing around the country, working at now-closed San Francisco restaurants Elroy's, Jianna and Cobalt Tavern followed by stints in Kansas City and Sacramento. He's making a fish-focused menu with seafood standards like a seared ahi tuna sandwich and a seafood boil, plus dishes inspired by adjacent Beach Chalet, like the fisherman's catch with crab, mussels, clams, prawn, corn, kielbasa sausage and potatoes. Park Chalet went all-out for Hockenberger, sprucing up the place with fresh paint, new carpeting and a refinished bar.

Over at Magnolia Brewery in Upper Haight, Dennis Lee (Namu Gaji) has quietly been working on a new menu with owner Dave McLean, Hoodline reports. The pair have a history collaborating together — at Smokestack in Dogpatch, Lee barbecues the meat and McLean brews the beer. The new menu isn't done yet and changes are rolling out slowly, but Lee is going for "traditional pub fare through a Dennis Lee lens," which he expands on by saying, "My idea of pub food is something where you get that comfort food and it’s something you can have for lunch or dinner." He'll be leaning on Namu and Smokestack, using both spaces to help prep Magnolia's food (pork loins, steaks and sausages are already being prepped at Smokestack, says Inside Scoop) and snagging Namu's farm produce to use. It'll all lead to one smaller all-day menu (which will most definitely not include barbecue) that changes frequently, plus a separate weekend brunch menu.