What’s in a Name
We often choose where to dine based on buzz, food, or a chef’s reputation—but how often do we consider the meaning behind a restaurant’s name? Like a person’s identity, the name carries significance and story.
For this month’s Tock 10 collection, we look more closely at what’s in a name.
We often choose where to dine based on buzz, food, or a chef’s reputation—but how often do we consider the meaning behind a restaurant’s name? Like a person’s identity, the name carries significance and story.
For this month’s Tock 10 collection, we look more closely at what’s in a name.
Ashes & Diamonds
Napa, CA
The name
For Kashy Khaledi, inspiration struck while watching the 1958 Polish war film Ashes & Diamonds. A line from a poem in the movie now graces every cork in A&D’s bottles: Ashes hold the glory of a star-like diamond, the morning star of everlasting triumph.
Founded in 2017 by Khaledi (former Capitol Records exec and son of Darioush Winery founder Darioush Khaledi), A&D has partnered with acclaimed winemakers to craft wines echoing Napa’s early days. Grammy-nominated artist Brian Roettinger, known for creating album packaging for Jay-Z and Lady Gaga, designed A&D’s distinctive labels.
A&D captures a slower, more stylish era of pre-fame Napa. The minimalist midcentury architecture sets the stage for leisurely tastings in their 1960s Palm Springs-inspired space. Sip ageable single-vineyard selections to zippy blends to low-intervention rosés, paired with local provisions or a signature chicken schnitzel sandwich.
Atomix
New York, NY
The name
After wowing New York with Atoboy, their casual Korean-inspired restaurant highlighting banchan, Chef Junghyun “JP” Park and his wife Ellia, who oversees front of house operations, raised the stakes with a 14-seat, two-Michelin-starred tasting menu concept called Atomix. Continuing the theme of “ato,” meaning “gift” in Korean, they aim to create meaningful experiences. “The most important thing for hospitality is to impact someone’s life,” Ellia told Cherry Bombe. “If I can make a small impact, that is our ultimate goal.”
Each course arrives with a beautifully designed card detailing the dish’s ingredients, inspiration, and even the ceramics used, fostering meaningful conversation between staff and guests. The attention to detail extends to personal touches like letting diners select their own chopsticks after enjoying welcome drinks in the subterranean lounge. These elements helped Atomix earn the number six spot on The World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and number four on The New York Times’ 100 Best Restaurants list. Quite a gift.
Top critics have described Atomix as seamless, perfect, moving, beautiful, and joyous—and we couldn’t agree more. The Park’s vision of presenting stunning food in unpretentious ways delivers “ato” each night.
Chikahan
Houston, TX
The name
As Houston’s first Filipino-inspired tasting menu restaurant, Chikahan derives its name from the Tagalog “chika chika,” meaning chit-chat or gossip. “The name Chikahan was intentional,” Chef-owner Andrew Musico tells us. “In Filipino culture, chikahan is more than just gossip—it’s the kind of lively conversation that happens when people gather around food. It’s storytelling, laughter, catching up, and sometimes, even a little playful banter.”
Musico grew up in Houston and trained at critically acclaimed restaurants Oxheart and Aqui. Now, he puts modern twists on classic dishes like tapa prepared with lamb chops and kinilaw, a Filipino ceviche made with gulf seafood. Beverage director Danny Frounfelkner, formerly of Houston’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop, leads an innovative NA program.
Personal touches, like the lounge couch Musico built himself, and the woven basket lights that hang from the ceiling, give way to a communal atmosphere. “Some elements,” Musico says, “like shared dishes, interactive plating, and thoughtful pacing allow people to engage more naturally with their table.”
ILÉ
Los Angeles, CA
The name
ILÉ, meaning “home” in the West African Yoruba language, embodies its name completely. This unique restaurant is set inside the chef’s actual home, offering guests a truly personal invitation to experience West African cuisine and hospitality.
Chef Tolu “Eros” Erogbogbo, nicknamed “the billionaire chef” after launching successful ventures starting as a teenager in Nigeria, brought West African cuisine to global audiences through pop-ups in Dubai and Europe. After settling in LA in 2021, he transformed his Hollywood home into an intimate dining space to showcase his homeland’s aromatic, spice-driven cuisine. “West African cuisine is one of the world’s most influential food cultures that dates back thousands of years,” Eros said to Travel Noire. “To eat our food is to honor our history.”
ILÉ feels like an intimate dinner party where Chef Eros personally plates and serves each dish—like Senegalese caramelized onion chicken, Ghanian-perfumed jollof rice, and spiced lamb in zoboberry demi-glace—while sharing stories about his West African fare with guests at two communal tables.
Jook Sing
Chicago, IL
The name
Jook Sing refers to a term of endearment toward a person of Asian descent born in Western countries, having a foot in both cultures. “Jook Sing embraces the multicultural crossover many of us experience—the sense of not fully belonging,” partner Josue Mancero tells us. “Our menu is far from traditional, and we’re proud of that. It’s a story of someone inspired by their Eastern traditions but shaped by Western culture. From the graffiti on our walls to the hip-hop playing, we live this blend every day.”
The team behind Chicago wine bar Press Room takes inspiration from Asia’s bustling night markets. Partners Jeff Williams and Josue Mancero collaborate on the eclectic menu while Jorge Vallejo stays on top of the colorful bar program. Vibrant murals, string lights, and paper lanterns transport you from Chicago to a lively Asian street scene.
For the menu spanning Japanese, Indonesian, Filipino, Thai, Singaporean, and Malaysian cuisines. Enjoy crispy togarashi tofu, Dan Dan noodles, or galangal-lemongrass shrimp curry paired with bright cocktails. They regularly bring in guest bartenders, from Chicago’s Lazy Bird to Miami’s Cafe La Trova, to add even more cultures into the fold.
Kamonegi
Seattle, WA
The name
In Japanese, “kamo ga negi wo shotte kuru” (a duck flies in with a leek) suggests that one good thing leads to another. “Kamonegi means duck and leek, namely that a duck bringing a leek in its mouth is one good thing that brings another,” Chef-owner Matsuko Soma shared with Seattle. “I think our fortune recently is a reflection of the name we chose. I hope to keep living up to the recognition we’ve received and just work harder.”
Soma’s journey with noodles began by watching her grandmother cut soba from homegrown buckwheat in Japan. After culinary school and working in Seattle’s top restaurants, she returned to Japan for intensive soba training, then opened Kamonegi in 2017. Her mastery of soba, tempura, and sake has earned numerous accolades, including Food & Wine best new chef and James Beard nominations.
This intimate space, with its warm woods and open kitchen, is like a nice hug. Soma’s daily-made soba noodles showcase her culinary creativity, from the namesake dish with duck and leek in hot dipping broth to innovative combinations incorporating global ingredients like pork birria and foie gras mousse.
Kiln
San Francisco, CA
The name
With pure intense heat, a kiln changes raw materials while retaining their essential soul. That’s what makes San Francisco’s Kiln special: the sum of its parts—from staff to dishes to decor—metaphorically passes through the kiln each night to create a magical experience. “When something gets fired into a kiln, it transforms,’ co-owner John Wesley told Eater SF. ‘In a restaurant setting, that’s applied to food and, hopefully, guests, but also staff. People that come in and spend time here should leave different than when they came in.'”
Two Bay Area natives—Chef John Wesley and Julianna Yang—forged their partnership while working at the Michelin-starred Sons & Daughters. The intuitive passion for hospitality of these kindred spirits led them to receive a Michelin star of their own for their nightly 18- to 20-course meal.
It’s all about dramatic simplicity and intentionally stark ambiance. Sure, the overhead lights make it hard to snap social shots, but that’s the point. “We don’t cook food for social media. We cook for our guests,” Wesley tells us. This philosophy shines through their carefully sourced ingredients prepared with Japanese, Scandinavian, and French techniques. As Wesley notes, everything on the plate serves a purpose.
Masseria
Washington, D.C.
The name
When creating the restaurant, Chef Nicholas Stefanelli wanted it to feel like the sprawling country farming estates, called masserias, that dot the Puglian countryside, his family’s ancestral home. That warmth is felt throughout as Stefanelli and his team strive to make you feel like family, a goal he pursues each night.
As the first standalone restaurant in D.C.’s former Union Market warehouse district, Michelin-starred Masseria blends industrial elegance with rustic Mediterranean warmth, whether in the sunroom, the bar, or the main Sala looking into the open, moss-green-tiled kitchen. Stefanelli pulls inspiration from coastal Puglia while sourcing ingredients close to home, merging these influences for the tasting and à la carte menus that feature luxe interpretations of traditional Italian recipes.
It genuinely is about the complete experience—the interaction with the servers, the open kitchen, and the ever-changing menu. They might even tweak a dish to better complement your wine selection. “How far you want to take that journey or where you want to take that journey is completely up to you as the guest,” Stefanelli tells us. “We’re just here to help bring it along and bring that experience up.”
Paadee
Portland, OR
The name
Paadee, meaning “to bring good things,” follows the philosophy that walking the path of happiness looks like leaving guests fully satisfied. The restaurant aims to serve comforting Thai food that both evokes the owner’s childhood memories and reinvigorates guests’ spirits.
Chef Earl Ninsom first got the taste of cooking when, at just eight years old in Bangkok, he prepared his mother a simple dish of rice and porridge. Today he owns a small-yet-mighty Thai restaurant empire in Portland, including the acclaimed spots Eem, Hat Yai, and Langbaan, which won the 2024 James Beard Award for outstanding restaurant.
Paadee comes alive through its rich, warming dishes and welcoming spirit. The kitchen excels in simple pleasures: Thai omelet laab with toasted rice powder and peanuts, papaya salad with dried shrimp and green beans, aromatic green curry, and perfectly executed traditional pad Thai. “The food may not be perfect, but it is sincere and authentic,” Ninsom told Portland’s KGW—and we love his humility.
Tatemó
Houston, TX
The name
When the pandemic derailed restaurant plans, the Tatemó team pivoted to selling colorful nixtamalized heirloom maize tortillas and masa at Houston farmers markets. This setback evolved into success through pop-ups, eventually leading to the 2022 opening of their maize-driven tasting-menu restaurant. The name Tatemó, from Spanish “tatemar” (to roast, toast, or grill), reflects their motto: Sin maize no hay pais—without corn there is no country.
Chef Emmanuel Chavez and partner Megan Maul transformed their passion for heirloom maize into one of Houston’s most sought-after reservations. In this intimate 16-seat space—an unmarked storefront that quickly earned recognition from Michelin and James Beard—Chavez honors generations of tradition by incorporating maize in various forms, including tortillas, flour, and tempura. “I feel like it’s our responsibility to bring Mexican cuisine forward,” Chavez told Food & Wine. “And it starts with a tortilla, as simple as that sounds.”
The seasonal tasting menu transforms simple ingredients into extraordinary dishes, like bluefin tuna tostadas, huitlacoche-stuffed queso fresco quesadillas, and masa tempura sweet potato in plantain tortilla with mole negro.
Words by Ari Bendersky
Ari Bendersky is a Chicago-based lifestyle journalist focusing on food, wine, spirits, and travel, and the creator of the Something Glorious newsletter on Substack. He has contributed to a number of leading publications including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal magazine, People, Men's Journal, Food & Wine, Eater, Wine Enthusiast, RollingStone.com, and many more.
Illustration by Mike McQuade
Mike McQuade (b.1981) is an American artist and illustrator. Mike creates conceptual and abstract based collage works for a range of projects and clients. His work has been published in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Atlantic, and Vanity Fair. Mike has also worked on projects with Knoll Furniture, Apple, and Criterion Collection.
