Ume

Daniel Patterson built his reputation at Coi, the San Francisco tasting-menu restaurant that earned national attention for its California-foraged, technique-driven cooking. Ume, his Oakland project at 2214 Broadway, translated that sensibility into something more casual: Japanese-influenced Californian cuisine served in a format that included composed bowls alongside more conventional plates. The menu leaned into the kind of cross-cultural specificity that defines the Bay Area's most considered cooking. Documented dishes included charred broccoli dressed with a miso-based sauce and braised oxtail bowls finished with kim chee — combinations that drew on Japanese pantry staples while staying grounded in California produce and technique. The ramen-inflected bowls section gave the menu a structural anchor, separating it from the broader Patterson canon without abandoning its precision. The space itself occupied the same building as Patterson's earlier Oakland restaurant Plum, with Plum Bar operating alongside and handling the drinks program. That continuity gave Ume a ready infrastructure and a built-in audience familiar with the address. East Bay Express covered the restaurant during its run, placing it within Oakland's conversation about chef-driven, neighbourhood-accessible dining at a mid-range to upscale-casual price point. Ume's run was short, which is worth stating plainly: the restaurant closed before accumulating the kind of long-form critical record that Patterson's other projects attracted. What it documented, even briefly, was a specific argument about how Japanese technique and Californian ingredients could meet at a counter-casual register rather than a formal tasting-menu one. For anyone tracking how Patterson's thinking evolved between Coi and his later community-focused work, Ume represents a distinct and documented chapter.

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