I moved to San Francisco in 1989 and graduated from the California Culinary Academy in 1991. The next three decades were spent in some of the city’s defining kitchens — was part of opening Roti, Cypress Club, Rubicon, Abiquiu and the first Whole Foods in San Francisco — followed by seven years running the kitchen at Piacere, three at Rumi, and consulting work building out restaurants across the Bay Area, including Sir & Star in western Marin.
Somewhere in the middle of all that, I got hooked on a strange, specific idea: that vinegar, like wine, deserves a vintage.
Before the pandemic, I registered Atomiq as a Cottage Food Operation with the City of San Francisco and started making it real — full batches of vinegar, and reductions made from frozen wine grapes sourced from Brehm Vineyards. I ran out of money before I ran out of ideas, took a job at Avedano’s Holly Park Market to get through the pandemic, and started up again in late 2023.
Atomiq is what happens next: single-varietal, vintage-dated vinegars, and the seasonal condiments made from them.