Geoff Davis

Absolute honor to be included the 2nd ranked Top 100 @sfchronicle_food ! On the Podium! Incredibly proud of the team @burdell_oak , truly humbled by your hard work and commitment to excellence, and all the other winners and the amazing restaurants not included as well. I have a hard time with the idea of ranking food and making food a competition. Restaurants are about connecting people: guests, cooks, service teams, admin, winemakers, importers, farmers, fisherman, ranchers, delivery drivers and so on and so being able to build this community for us and see how others do it is so rewarding. Congrats @fourkings__ #1!!

Happy Birthday @chefgeoffdavis @burdell_oak

We’re excited to celebrate the following Maven clients on being selected as 2026 James Beard Award semifinalists! 🍽️⭐️

It’s meaningful to see several of Sprouts’ host restaurants & chefs included among the 2026 James Beard Award Semifinalists. Their culinary excellence is matched by their generosity - creating space for Sprouts’ youth to learn, grow, & build confidence in real kitchen environments. We extend our sincere thanks to all of our partners who invest their time, skill, & care in mentoring our youth, who hold dreams just as big as these. It Takes a Village. @chefgeoffdavis of @burdell_oak @foreigncinemasf @musketroom & @rafsnewyork @tartsdefeybesse | @moniquefeybesse & @paul_feybesse #mentorshipmatters #beardfoundation #sproutscheftraining

@tierra_vegetables

Act now to save Tierra Vegetables! ➡️ After 45 years of sustainable farming, Wayne and Lee James may be forced to close their Santa Rosa farm, @tierra_vegetables , unless they can raise enough money to buy their farmland by December 1. Without financial support from our community, they risk losing everything they’ve built: the land they’ve sustainably stewarded for decades and all of its infrastructure, including a commercial kitchen. The siblings have many plans beyond purchasing the farm, from expanding their CSA program to passing on their legacy to the next generation. They’ve teamed up with @chefgeoffdavis to take over the farm’s operations after they retire. But if they aren’t able to buy the land, this beloved farm will be lost. 🔗 Donate to their GoFundMe now to secure Tierra Vegetables’ future, and visit the link in our bio to read the full article.

Fall is here! @umbelroots farm beets- Chioggia & Red Cylinder roasted and marinated and served with @starroutefarms and @dirtygirlproduce chicories, @kjorchards Babylonian pomegranate, @umbelroots mints, @marinrootsfarm shiso, dressed with @hiddenstarorchards pomegranate and shallot vinaigrette made with @sciabicasoliveoil and a squeeze of 🍋.

My introduction to @tierra_vegetables (and to Lee & Wayne) was at a @burdell_oak farm dinner on September 10, 2022. Hosting that dinner was such a dream — seeing the land where our food came from, walking up to that white barn, and instantly falling in love with the farm. I remember looking at @zarzar.binx and @jenn_domme and saying, "I love it here, I'm going to work here one day." By the end of the night, I had a job. Three years later, Tierra is still at the heart of my favorite stories. Whether I’m at the farm stand, the farmers market, or FOH at Burdell, I get to share how we source these beautiful ingredients and bring them to the plate. I’ve handed guests heirloom corn cobs so they could see where their cornbread came from, told them those Sungold tomatoes were picked by me that very morning, and introduced them to the Chantenay carrots — the “Cadillac of carrots,” as Lee calls them — so simple, yet unforgettable. And don't get me started on the rhubarb, it has a way of bringing folks together. That’s the magic of Tierra — bringing people closer to their food. It's a reminder of why I love doing this work. 🌽🍅🥕 Tierra Vegetables has nourished our community for decades — through their CSA, farm stand, Bay Area restaurants, and @foodwise Farmers Market at the Ferry Building. Their HUGE vegetables, heirloom corn, and abundant chiles are beloved, but what makes them truly special is the care and dedication behind every harvest. Right now, Tierra needs our help more than ever. Any donation, big or small, will help secure their land and keep their legacy alive for generations to come. The link to their GoFundMe is in my bio and if you can help us continue to share Tierra's story, we'd be so grateful. 💜

SOLD OUT! Some of our favorite Napa folks are coming to visit Burdell to host a very special dinner on Sunday, October 12th! This is our very first Grandma Series-Meet the Winemaker mashup! We are thrilled to intoduce Darryl Bell of Stateline Road Smokehouse and Steve Matthiasson of Matthiasson Winery. Meet our Guest Chef: Darryl Bell Jr., a Kansas City native, trained in Michelin-starred kitchens worldwide before founding Stateline Road BBQ. His products, inspired by his hometown, gained acclaim from chefs like Thomas Keller and are featured internationally. In 2023, he opened Stateline Road Smokehouse in Napa Valley, becoming the city’s first Black restaurateur since the 1800s. Meet the Winemaker: Steve Matthiasson is a Napa Valley farming winemaker who champions organic, low-intervention viticulture. Since founding Matthiasson Wines with his wife Jill in 2003, he crafts classically balanced wines from both familiar and rare varieties. A respected consultant to iconic wineries, Steve has won Winemaker of the Year from Food & Wine and the San Francisco Chronicle. Deeply committed to soil health and environmental stewardship, he helps define sustainable winegrowing in California. Menu will be posted soon! Link in bio. 🖼️ @thegreatdoodleshow

2 years!! Counting each year as an unlikely blessing and hard fought achievement. Burdell is a dream come true not just for me but for all of the people that make it happen everyday. It truly takes the heart of the team to do it daily. With (definitely not quite enough) real money, a dream and a calculated plan, and a group of talented people, We created a place that honors traditions but also looks forward and challenges preconceptions. We ask the question: where Soul food is going? I always wanted to see Soul food have agency. Have a future, a voice, a path to newness. To rededicate Black food to great ingredients and value the land, the sea, the people that are stewards of it all. Soul food is a real and dynamic cuisine on the level of all other more revered cuisines. It needs to shed its box….. I’m proud of all the box shedding we’ve done. We don’t sell food, that comes free with our experience, and making the experience better each day is our obsession. We simply aren’t for everyone (which took me a while to figure out) some people have their minds set on what we should and shouldn’t cook, who the other guests should be, how much it should cost, and what is authentic and what isn’t. Agency challenged. To be honest, we have had some struggles and failures as we navigated without a roadmap a new way of compensation that didn’t involve tips, finding all the right people that care as deeply about the details as we do, and being financially stable enough to take a few risks. We live in a time when love is more quiet than hate. Some of it is earned but so are the positive recognitions, it’s ok to be debated about. I have opinions too. This is one of the toughest times to do business: tariffs, inflation, a sales tax increase… it’s hard to do good and to do well in these conditions. We’ve continued to find ways to make it. In this time when some of our friends are facing tough times doing business here in Oakland and the Bay Area it’s important that we continue to get your support. We love ya’ll and would not be here without all of you. We hope to see you soon.

Memories: standing in the kitchen as Geoff Davis (@chefgeoffdavis ) cooked up some smothered pork chops at his and Zara’s (@zarzar.binx ) place in December ‘22. As the three of us sat down and ate, they shared with me the vision of @burdell_oak , which opened two years ago today. I love what they’re doing at Burdell and I’m happy to make it a must visit whenever I’m in town. Congratulations to the whole team for the first two of many more years to come.

Looking for the next stop…. 📸 @romo___