Resy’s Off Menu Week Brings Exciting New Dishes To Bay’s Top Restaurants

Photo Credit: Tsunami Panhandle

Hungry to experience something new? Resy, the restaurant reservations website, that’s also a digital destination for food-lovers, has you covered. From Monday, June 17 through Sunday, June 23, the brand is hosting an exciting new program, Off Menu Week, at ten of the Bay Area’s most popular eateries.

Photo Credit: Resy

Cassava, Heritage Restaurant & Bar, Lord Stanley, Protégé, Abstract Table, The Morris, Nihon Whisky Lounge, Tsunami Panhandle, Hopscotch and Range Life are the eateries where chefs have crafted innovative new menu items. Resy gave the chefs one simple instruction: “Create a minimum of four dishes, and let your creativity run free!”

Photo Credit: Protégé

The platform is hoping that Off Menu Week will be a new and exciting way for chefs to interact with diners personally. It also gives chefs a chance to experiment with items that they are contemplating putting on their menus. With more chefs following in the footsteps of Michael Mina and setting up test kitchens to try out new dishes, this is an event that allows smaller restaurants to follow suit.

Photo Credit: Resy

So what can diners look forward to? Plenty of deliciousness. At Protégé in Palo Alto chef Anthony Secviar is serving upscale bar snacks like lobster hush puppies, a wedge salad, double cheeseburger, and chocolate chip cookie milkshake. “Partnering with Resy for Off Menu Week gave us the opportunity to have some fun,” Secviar says. “I’ve always loved diner-food and have been curious what a Michelin-starred kitchen could do with some classic Americana dishes…this is your chance; get it while it lasts!”

Photo Credit: Hopscotch

Over in Oakland at Hopscotch chef Kyle Itani is doing the opposite of Secviar: he’s taking his classic Southern favorites and turning them into more refined dishes. “Since opening, three of our dishes have become items that we are known for and will thus never essentially change: Yonsei oyster, buttermilk fried chicken, and the first base burger,” Itani says. “We are using this opportunity to present these ingredients or preparations in alternative ways—ways we love, but which don’t usually fit into our daily menu.” The off-menu items are uni and scallop ravioli, chicken fried quail, and vertical beef tasting shabu-shabu style.