Chef Jonathan Blackford spent nearly 10 years helming the kitchen at the iconic A Restaurant (formerly The Arches) in Newport Beach, and helped launch its sister restaurant, CdM, in Corona del Mar in March of 2019.
Earlier this year, Chef Blackford decided that after a decade he was ready to move on and, with the help of a local businessman, open his own restaurant.
“We were going to do a full-scale restaurant, then COVID hit, and the thought of putting in $4 to $5 million for a buildout and paying $30,000 to $40,000 a month in rent plus hiring staff, and not knowing when we would be at full capacity—that did not sound like a smart idea,” Chef Blackford told me last month when I checked out his new culinary concept, Fork & Knife, on 17th Street in Costa Mesa.
Chef Blackford scaled back his original idea and came up with a ghost kitchen concept where customers could order meals to go. But most ghost kitchens are in industrial parks, and “nobody is going to drive there to pick up a meal,” reasoned Blackford (see story, page 1).
“So we started looking at more centralized locations. We always wanted to do a market but sell things we can make in-house. I looked around at what people are doing, and grab-and-go has become really popular, but most of them are disappointing from a chef’s perspective.”
Blackford’s solution: Fork & Knife, a combination restaurant/market without tables, yet offering everything from grab-and-go sandwiches and entrees to customized dinners to grocery and pantry items not found in most stores.
Fork & Knife offers seasonal, from-scratch fully prepared meals, as well as retail-focused items such as fresh-made pastas, jams, sauces, dressings and even jars of Chef Blackford’s famous duck liver pate with huckleberry.
Other items include such artisan products as heirloom grains from Anson Mills, heirloom beans from Rancho Gordo, and authentic Spanish products from La Espanola Meats.
A daily Hot Menu can be ordered online or by phone, with 24 hours advance notice. Every Friday is paella day, with Chef Blackford offering his own versions of classic paella.
When Chef Blackford was experimenting with various cooking techniques for his grab-and-go items, he discovered he had to cook his dishes vastly different from his normal method.
“We can’t cook it regular and reheat it and have it turn out the same, so we started playing around with cooking at a really low temperature and charring the food after we cook it,” explained Blackford. “Now, almost everything we cook is at 200 degrees, and then we do some kind of flavor development after the fact. When you go home and reheat it, it is super tender, very juicy, and retains a lot of the moisture.”
“We fulfill the people who don’t want to cook at home, the ones that just want to pick up dinner” added Blackford.
Picking up dinner is the key—Blackford purposely has not provided seating inside or on the sidewalk. That way, he can provide customers with the same $28 restaurant dinner but only charge $19 because of lower overhead.
“When I go out, as a chef I look at the food more than the ambiance. People focus on the ambiance, the scene, the vibe, but for me it has always been about the food. That’s what we’re trying to do—give the same quality food at a reasonable price.”
The concept is working.
“We are hitting our sales goals. We’re pretty happy about that. We have had supportive people, friends, family, even locals in Costa Mesa have been awesome. They say they’d rather give us money than go somewhere else.”
After sampling several grab-and-go dishes, along with the decadent pate (as good as I remember it from CdM restaurant), I can see why Chef Blackford has hit on a winning formula. The food is fun, fresh, creative, and ready-to-eat. That’s a winning combination.
Fork & Knife, 401 E. 17th Street, Suite A2, Costa Mesa, (949) 877-0330, forkandknifecm.com.
