appreciate new ingredients or global flavors. Sushi bars were rare before the 1990s. Now they are a requirement. “You want established restaurants, but also new—not being trendy just to be trendy,” Bayonito says. The overarching question is, “How do you capture people who are interested in food?” Wolff is currently consulting with a new Korean concept, JeJu Kitchen in Carmel. She is hoping to slot into another layer—unique to the immediate area, nice but also casual. “The dining experience is still very much growing here,” Wolff observes. Carmel had become staid, with a wealth of traditional, Old World menus opposite neighborhood favorites. But she points out that a few chefs doing something different can reignite a dining scene. Wolff is referring to several restaurants. But the most prominent of these are Foray, where Chef Michael Chang and his team are local and seasonal to the point of foraging, along with Jonny and Monique Black’s Chez Noir, which earned a reputation for culinary heights—as well as a Michelin star—in its first year. They were followed by Nicolás Cocina de Herencia, a Carmel offshoot of the brilliant Salinas venue Villa Azteca. “I don’t think anyone realized how stagnant it was,” Wolff explains. “They brought some va-va-voom that was needed.” Culcasi agrees that trendy kitchens stir excitement, while existing ones provide a foundation. “New restaurants open and our regulars will try them,” he points out. “But they always come back.” At its core, Regester believes that a dining scene needs kitchens with menus that are achievable and approachable, with dishes that are well executed. As for the rest of it, restaurant professionals may not have settled on a firm definition of “dining scene.” The meaning remains a bit open-ended. Their understanding of the expression, however, is more nuanced than those who use it so casually. To those in the service industry, “trendy dining scene” is more a word of warning. For a scene to be sustainable, Shake says, “you have choices.” Nicolás Cocina de Herencia 30 The Best of Monterey Bay ® EAT + DRINK 2024-2025 scene.indd 3 4/16/24 5:39 PM
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