Over the last 25 years, Pat Kuleto has achieved world-wide renown for designing over 150 restaurants including San Francisco's Fog City Diner, Kuleto's and Postrio, Atlanta's Buckhead Diner and Chop's, and Chicago's Papagus.
More recently, Kuleto has become well known as a restaurateur in his collaborations with three acclaimed chefs. Designing and building a restaurant for each chef has allowed them to create the kind of food they have always wanted to create in an atmosphere inspired by their individual styles.
In addition, Kuleto has become a restaurateur through his collaborations with acclaimed Bay Area chefs. In 1993, he opened Boulevard in San Francisco with chef/co-owner Nancy Oakes, formerly of L'Avenue. Together, they created an American classic that has come to epitomize contemporary cuisine at its best and which has been chosen the Bay Area's favorite restaurant in the Zagat Survey for 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2001. To this day, the striking and timeless industrial Belle Époque design of Boulevard is heralded for its charm, class and creativity.
Kuleto and chef/co-owner Mark Franz, of Stars Restaurant fame, opened Farallon in 1997 near San Francisco's Union Square. Drawing on their mutual love of the ocean, Kuleto designed an undersea fantasy to match Franz' inspired "Coastal Cuisine" menu. The whimsical and seductive dining room is resplendent with aquatic flights of fancy.
Later in 1997, Kuleto collaborated with chef/co-owner Traci Des Jardins, known for her work at Rubicon, to open Jardinière. Housed in a beautiful landmark building in San Francisco's Civic Center neighborhood, the restaurant showcases sophisticated, award-winning French-California cuisine served in a celebratory environment that is dramatic and sexy yet still warm and inviting.
In 2000, Kuleto and partners Mark Franz, chef/co-owner of Farallon and Richard Miyashiro, C.O.O. of Pat Kuleto Restaurant Development & Management Company, purchased Nick's Cove on Tomales Bay. That project will restore the historic 100-year-old restaurant and its bayside cottages and is slated to open in 2002.
In the fall of 2001, Kuleto and former Campton Place chef Todd Humphries opened Martini House in St. Helena in the Napa Valley. Built in 1923, the California craftsman bungalow-style building was home to the late Walter Martini, an opera singer and Prohibition-era bootlegger. Kuleto's dazzling design sets the stage for the world-class 600-bottle wine list and complements Humphries' "Napa Cuisine" menu based on best-loved foods of the Wine Country. Martini House highlights include hand-built fireplaces in three rooms, Kuleto's signature light fixtures evocative of woven Indian baskets and acorns, the open staircase that descends into the wine cellar and the outdoor garden seating around a 75-year-old fountain beneath vine-covered arbors and trellises.
Kuleto has also found the time to pursue his love of wine. The grounds around his St. Helena home are planted with vineyards and he is in the process of completing his 30,000 case winery, Kuleto Estate Winery. The winery will host its first crush this year, enabling him to produce limited quantities of exceptional wines, especially Cabernet, Pinot Noir, Sangiovese and Chardonnay. Bottling his wines under the labels Kuleto Villa and Kuleto Estate Family Vineyards, he plans to release other varietals including Zinfandel and Syrah. His wines are available at selected Bay Area restaurants and retailers.
It was not Kuleto's intent to become a culinary entrepreneur. A licensed general contractor at age 25, his career in the restaurant industry began with his designing and building over 20 Refectory Steakhouses in the 1970's. He gained international attention in 1985 with the creation of San Francisco's Fog City Diner and has gone on to change the culinary landscape thus setting a new standard for utilizing design to enhance the dining experience.
Reflecting on the current scope of his passions and talents, Kuleto observes, "My job has always been to make people happy. Now as a restaurateur, vintner and gardener, I've grown from the medium of design to include things that more fully embrace the wonderful world of food and wine."