Campton Place
San Francisco 'I got Bradley out of a magazine,' says William F. Wilkinson, president and founder of San Francisco's small, stylish, impeccable Campton Place, a member of Preferred Hotels Worldwide. The former vice president and general manager of The Stanford Court, San Francisco, whose early career included posts at the Waldorf-Astoria and Restaurant Associates, New York, has a sense of humor.
A preopening advertisement in the summer of 1983, in the The Wall Street Journal told the world that 'A small, luxury hotel in San Francisco is interviewing for bartenders with a touch for traditional hand-shaken cocktails... Degrees in psychology, anthropology and mixology desirable but not required... Other positions also available including 2nd base and shortstop on the hotel's softball team.' Wilkinson really was looking to hire staff members--who also might play for Campton Place in that season's San Francisco Hotel League. He was also stressing that 'Campton Place was an elegant hotel that still had a sense of humor about itself, and that its employees were good sports.'
Wilkinson's plans for Campton Place's restaurant depended on finding just the right chef. 'San Francisco is a restaurant city. There are some very fine restaurants here. Friends encouraged me to hire a local chef. But we have a different tone here at Campton Place. A good hotel, like a home, is consistent throughout. At Campton Place, that is symbolized by such touches as fine bone china--the kind one would have at home. I wanted this to be an important restaurant, but not a temple of gastronomy where food is worshipped. I didn't need an executive chef with administrative capacities. And I didn't need a huge fancy menu. Ours is typewritten, very simple, fresh, limited. I needed some one who was wild about food. But where to find such a chef? I asked my mentor Jim Nassikas (founder, Stanford Court), who told me to get Food & Wine magazine's latest issue with a feature on 60 top chefs. Where do you start with 60 chefs? I decided to start with the smiling ones. Brad had the biggest smile. So, I called him--and he said `No.''
Deja vu: Wilkinson opened Campton Place, 1983; opens Checkers in Los Angeles, 1989.
After talking with several other chefs featured in the article, Wilkinson became more convinced than ever that Ogden was the one he wanted. Eventually, Ogden came out to take a look--and stayed until March of this year, when he left to open his own restaurant, The Lark Creek Inn, in Marin County, 25 minutes from downtown San Francisco. Ogden and his partner Michael Dellar (formerly with Spectrum) bought an 1888 Victorian building formerly owned by Victor and Roland Gotti, which they are converting into 'an American country inn with an herb garden in front, and a creek in back. There will be 110 seats in the dining room, a 30-seat bar with its own menu, a private room upstairs and French doors opening onto an enclosed porch. There will be a wood-burning oven with a rotisserie built into it for roasting suckling pigs, lamb, fish and game. The menu will change daily. And, there are four acres of land to do our own gardening on.'
The proof of Wilkinson's vision of what Campton Place restaurant should be is how, under Ogden's culinary genius, it came to be everything Wilkinson believed it could. 'We've had a wonderful relationship and he's a wonderful man,' says Wilkinson. 'I'm proud of him and I like him. Good hoteliers have a feeling for the business, an interest in the details. I'm a Nassikas disciple. I believe in the things he believes in. There is no real magic in our business, just paying attention to the details, being mindful and gathering people around us who share our values, then giving them opportunities and resources to excell. That's how we create our own little miracles.'
Wilkinson has appointed Ogden's successor: Executive Chef Jan I. Birnbaum, who has been sous chef at Campton Place for the past year. Born and raised in Baton Rouge, La., he worked in restaurants during college years at the University of Louisiana. He moved to New Orleans in 1978 to enter a culinary apprenticeship program and found a job in K-Paul's Louisiana Kitchen, working and studying with Paul Prudhomme for four years. Before Campton Place, he was head chef for a year at The Quilted Giraffe in New York.
Wilkinson is dedicated heart and soul to the small, elegant independent hotel. 'These are, however, unsettled times. With the increase in foreign investment, an enormous amount of profit can be made in selling an independent hotel.' But instead of selling his hotel, Wilkinson is opening a second one: Checkers, a 190-room Preferred luxury hotel in the heart of downtown Los Angeles. The restaurant, Checkers, will have 80 seats. And the chef will be Jerry Comfort, who worked at Stanford Court, Masa's and Stars.
PHOTO : Pan Roasted Scallops with Peppered Corn Spoonbread and Shrimp and Glazed Onions (l.) is
PHOTO : the kind of food that made Campton Place and Bradley Ogden famous: a refined version of
PHOTO : good old-fashioned food.
PHOTO : Outgoing Chef Bradley Ogden and incoming Chef Jan Birnbaum (l., l. to r.) photographed in
PHOTO : the kitchen at Campton Place. Grandmother's banana cream pie was nothing like Campton
PHOTO : Place's version (far l.), as created in the bakeshop by Cameron Ryan.
PHOTO : A salad for the '90s: Warm Spinach Salad with Spicy Squid and Black Pepper Goat Cheese
PHOTO : (l.) is the next generation of the traditional spinach, bacon, mushroom salad with hot
PHOTO : sweet-and-sour dressing.
PHOTO : William F. Wilkinson (far l.), president, Campton Place, stands framed by the
PHOTO : restaurant's entrance arch. Chloe Warren (l.) maitre d'hotel, opened the restaurant, set
PHOTO : up training programs and food and beverage systems.
