For many years, Honor Kitchen & Cocktails has been conspicuously situated on the corner of Powell and Hollis streets in Emeryville. A corner of my eye registered it as I drove by on the way to Bay Street, the train station or the freeway. But the façade always projected something forlorn, an air of abandonment. For some reason, it conjured up images from William Faulkner’s short story, “A Rose for Emily,” as if the building were trapped in the past and haunted by it.
After closing its doors for the past two years, Honor opened again in August with a building makeover sure to delight home improvement producers from HGTV. Honor is one of five businesses that make up Gar and Lara Truppelli’s Chalet Restaurant Group, which also includes Oakland’s Lake Chalet Seafood Bar & Grill.
During the pandemic, Honor set up a tent to cover the parking lot for outdoor dining and takeaway. That parking lot has since been replaced by a modern indoor-outdoor dining room that recalls similar architectural concepts at the Lake Chalet, the Google Visitor Experience Cafe in Mountain View and Sebastopol’s The Barlow Market District. All made possible by California’s abbreviated winter.
Instead of Faulkner’s old ghosts, one of Joey Rose’s colorful murals generates an inviting sense of joie de vivre. The parking lot behind Honor doesn’t belong to the restaurant. Keeping this change in mind for diners, the path to the front doors has been carefully landscaped with native plants. The planted pathway leads to the entrance, a fenced-in patio with fire pits and cushioned benches. While the last days of summer persist, a large row of front windows stays wide open. Even sitting at a table inside feels like al fresco dining.
A marquee sign outside reads, “The Dude Abides.” In our telephone interview, Chalet Restaurant Group’s executive chef, Ray Wirtz, told me that Gar Truppelli is a fan of the Jeff Bridges’ movie The Big Lebowski. “The decor is his vision, to make the space light and airy,” he said. The adjacent bar, which customers walk through the dining room to enter, Wirtz described as “warm and fuzzy” and “an indoor space that’s dark and comfortable.” Truppelli wanted Honor to provide both spaces for diners to eat and drink indoors or outside. The cocktail menu consists of a mix of old favorites and some newer creations by Gar and a former bar manager.
Wirtz’s new menu starts with “handmade and hand-stretched” pizzas. “It’s not a big, round pie,” the chef said. “It’s an oval with a very pronounced crust, and just thick enough in the center to hold its own.” When the Truppellis first met each other, Gar promised Lara he would make the perfect pizza sauce so that he could, one day, run a restaurant.
Uncharacteristically, I ordered fish and chips ($26) with a green pea slaw instead of a pizza, so I can’t speak about the quality of Gar’s sauce. But Honor’s “Outta the Deep Blue Sea” section of the menu springs from Wirtz’s previous experience at seafood restaurants McCormick & Schmick’s and Elliott’s Oyster House in Seattle.
The gruyere-crusted halibut ($27) was baked until tender, the presence of cheese fairly negligible. Small slivers of asparagus were ideally cooked just beyond al dente, as were a collection of creamy gigantes beans. My only problem with the fish and chips was the plating. All the components were jammed into a basket into which the slaw slipped beneath and between the large stack of french fries. Despite this obstacle, I managed to find and finish off every last morsel.
I often avoid ordering fish when dining out due to many pescatarian mishaps in the past. But something about the breezy, cheerful interior inspired me to try again. Thankfully, Wirtz knows a thing or two about how to prepare sea creatures. “If you think of fish, you can describe them in three different ways: texture, flake and flavor profile,” he said. “We put halibut on the menu because it’s everybody’s favorite.” Wirtz added that halibut tastes “so much better than rockfish,” which so many other restaurants use to make fish and chips.
Honor, open Wed to Thu 11:30am to 9pm, Fri to Sat 11:30am to 10pm, Sun 11:30am to 8pm. 1411 Powell St., Emeryville. 833.482.8376. honoremeryville.com
