More Collaboration: San Francisco’s Coi Taking Over The Laurel Kitchen

Cocoa-cured foie gras at Laurel | Photography by Jason Varney and Samuel Markey

Yesterday, we were pleased to announce the return of something we haven’t seen in a little while–a collaboration dinner between the teams at Will and Jaxon. It was interesting to us because it has seemed like the collaboration dinner has been a fading trend lately, something overwhelmed or forgotten under the summer’s glut of food events, tasting menus, bar takeovers and whiskey, wine or beer dinners.

And that’s fine. These kind of things? They come and go. But collaborations are almost always exciting because unlike some special event menu or pairing (where, generally, the same crew is working in the same kitchen they always do, with all their influences and biases intact), the collaboration introduces a chaos element into things: The arrival of a whole new chef (or a whole new crew) with their own ideas about what food is supposed to look and taste like.

So one collaboration dinner? That’s good news. But two is (we hope) starting to look like the return of a trend. And the one that’s coming up at Laurel looks like it could be a good one.

Chef Nick Elmi let us know yesterday that on Wednesday, November 16, he’s going to be welcoming the crew from San Francisco’s Coi into the kitchen at Laurel–something he has only done one time before when he brought in Jesse Ito (now at Royal Sushi and Izakaya).

But this collaboration dinner is also kinda extra special because Coi? It’s one of the best restaurants in San Francisco. It was recently awarded two Michelin stars. It’s got four stars in its hometown. And under two different chefs now, it has been known as a place where the boundaries of cuisine get pushed in just about every direction.

There’s no menu yet for the dinner, but we do know that tickets will run you $160 for eight courses. They’ll run it as a BYO event still, but Laurel is also offering a wine pairing for $95. If you’re interested (and you should be very interested), I’d reach out to Laurel fast to get a seat. It’s probably going to fill up fast.

Oh, and one more thing? It seems like Elmi feels the same way we do about the whole collaboration dinner thing because he also told us that he’s “going to try to bring in more chefs from around the country over the next few months to have some fun.”

Man, I really hope that’s true.

Laurel [f8b8z]