Danville chefs taking over Lafayette’s Yankee Pier space
Esin and Curtis deCarion, the culinary team who run two popular Danville restaurants — Esin and Revel Kitchen & Bar — are now expanding north, to Lafayette.
They’ve taken over the space that had been home to the seafood-focused Yankee Pier for 11 years and are hoping for an October opening.
Their new restaurant will be called Social Bird Kitchen + Bar. Esin says the concept will be similar to that of Revel, a farm/ranch-to-table bistro with a menu that ranges from small plates and bar bites (lamb sliders, Little Gem salads, house-pickled vegetables) to “heartier fare” (entrees often feature Mary’s Poultry, Painted Hills beef, Liberty Farms duck).
The pair’s Bay Area résumés run deep and include Evvia and MacArthur Park, both in Palo Alto, before they joined Paragon in San Francisco as a chef-sous chef team. After a move to the East Bay, they opened Esin Cafe, which attracted the notice of famed food writer Marion Cunningham. In 2008, they moved the restaurant to a larger space and then in 2014, they opened Revel.
Check for updates on the new space on the pair’s Revel Facebook page, www.facebook.com/revelkitchenandbar/.