VALLEJO — Nicole Hodge, the owner of Provisions, thought she would never open a restaurant. She had worked as a private chef and caterer for most of her career and when she rented the space at 300 Virginia St. in downtown Vallejo, her intention was to use it as a catering kitchen. But as time went on, people would stop by and ask her about the food she was cooking.
“They were seeing food go out the door to my clients in Berkeley, Oakland, and San Francisco and stopping me,” Hodge said. “‘What are you making? This smells so good! When are you going to open a restaurant?’”
Seeing the interest, she started opening for Saturday pop-ups in 2017, selling fried chicken sandwiches with a recipe she had used for over 20 years. Soon there was a long line every Saturday and Hodge realized a restaurant had a chance to succeed.
“When I decided to open Provisions in June of 2018 it was just a little hole in the wall, and it was only food to go. There wasn't a place to sit,” Hodge said. “I slowly started to add some tables and some chairs. As time went on and I was able to save more money, I made more changes until it grew into what you see today.”
The success of Provisions couldn’t have happened without Hodge’s partnership with Robin Crossman, a chef who has collaborated with Hodge since her catering days.
Prior to becoming the executive chef at Provisions, Crossman worked for some of the most renowned restaurants and chefs in the Bay Area. He was hired at Eccolo, an Italian restaurant in Berkeley run by chefs Chris Lee and Samin Nosrat when he was only 15 years old. There he learned about seasonal California cuisine. Crossman went next to Camino in Oakland under chef Russell Moore, where he learned everything about animal butchery. And after a few other places and his own charcuterie and sausage pop-up events, he spent five years at the popular Spanish restaurant Duende, working with chef Paul Canales.
The evolving menu at Provisions is a collaboration between Crossman and Hodge. “The menu grew organically as we saw what Vallejo was interested in eating,” Hodge said. “We would try out specials, and if they were a big hit and the kitchen was able to execute them, we would add them to the menu. We continue to experiment, to see what works and what doesn't work. What people want from us.”
One thing Vallejoans love is breakfast, so Provisions has now expanded breakfast hours until 12 p.m. Chicken and waffles and chicken sandwiches are big hits. They have also added house made sausages.
“That's one of my big specialties and big interests,” Crossman said. “I made a small batch of chorizo one time and it sold out in three or four days, so now I make one hundred pounds of sausages a month, give or take.”
Provisions got steadily busier but the outdated kitchen equipment didn’t allow the staff to meet the increased demand. In May, Hodge updated and expanded the kitchen. They went from six burners to 10, added a much larger flat-top to prepare food and a salamander (an above the stove broiler).
“It allows us to cook food not only more quickly, but with more care and attention, because we have more space to spread out,” Crossman said.
The renovation has brought permanent new items to the menu, such as shrimp and grits. “That dish takes up a burner space in the morning to make the grits, and more space on the flat top to cook the shrimp separate from everything else, because it's an allergen, so we weren't able to offer it with great regularity. Now we have it every day,” Hodge explained.
They are also offering watermelon feta salad, a summer corn dish and BLT sandwiches, which only appear on the menu when heirloom tomatoes are in season. Although the sandwiches had been offered in the past, they were a bone of contention with the kitchen staff.
“Customers really love that sandwich, but it takes a lot of space and time,” Hodge said. “Every year when it was BLT season and I added it to the menu, the cooks were mad at me for weeks, and this year they haven't been mad at me.”
Another addition is tapas night on Thursdays, from 4 to 8 p.m. “We started the tapas night because there's a need for a good cocktail in Vallejo that's not at a dive bar, and we're able to provide a high quality cocktail in a lovely setting where you can bring your family and children and have a little snack,” Hodge said.
Crossman prepares six tapas every Thursday, including croquetas with rotating flavors. “We do gambas al ajillo (shrimp with garlic), a really nice heirloom tomato and stone fruit salad with Manchego cheese, a bacon wrapped date, house made olives and arancini,” Crossman said. As it happens with the regular menu, the tapas will evolve responding to customers’ preferences.
Seasonality is always top of mind for Provisions. Every Saturday you’ll find Crossman and Hodge hauling a big cart at the Vallejo farmers’ market to buy produce. And staple dishes will rotate elements throughout the seasons. “Tomatoes may become butternut squash and then we move into asparagus season,” Crossman said. “I like to do that with our eggs benedict, always keep the kind of toppings and the setup rotating.”
A factor in Provisions’ success is the low staff turnover. The restaurant has 32 employees, including 8 cooks and 2 pastry chefs. Hodge offers health benefits, a matching 401K program and a living wage salary. “Once people have been here for a year, our staff sticks around,” she said.
Another alluring factor is the creative freedom in the kitchen. “I like to collaborate with my sous chef (Camerina Rubio) and with line cooks about new ideas,” Crossman said. “We don’t really do fussy food. It’s accessible, but high quality and done right.”
If you go to Provisions and don’t know what to choose, Crossman said, “Try the egg benedicts, which are only available on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday morning. And don’t sleep on the sausages!”
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