05/23/2026
Our opening menu and photos from Memorial Day weekend, 2005. Our very first reservations, 21 years ago this week. Our Painted Lady is finally old enough to drink the wonderful wines we’ve been pouring since she was born.
Our opening menu, pictured here, was four courses, any three selections for $39 a guest. I was developing, prepping, and executing sixteen to twenty dishes five or six nights a week, with just a little help during service. We were young and determined. We recruited team members from wherever we could, sometimes literally off the street. And we had the good fortune of working alongside some truly wonderful people who helped carry us through those first months.
Opening a restaurant is its own kind of madness.
There’s a Jefferson quote that’s always stayed with me: “I find that the harder I work, the more luck I seem to have.” In those first days, luck came dressed as long hours, tireless prep, and a stubborn refusal to quit.
Looking back at these photos, I’m struck by how young we were, how much we didn’t yet know, and how grateful we are that we got the chance to do it at all.
To everyone who walked through our doors that first weekend, and in the days that followed, thank you. 21 years later, we’re still here because of you.
