Boot & Shoe steps forward as Sister
Name change marks year of transformation
Jen Cremer and Richard Clark hesitated to make any significant changes to Boot & Shoe Service when they took over the Oakland restaurant last year. At first.
The husbandwife team bought the CalItalian restaurant in summer 2018, a few months after the restaurant’s previous owner, Charlie Hallowell, had been accused by more than 30 former employees of sexual harassment . Business plummeted after the news broke.
“The idea was to resurrect this restaurant, bring back the parts everybody loved,” said Clark. “As we progressed, it became its own thing. Keeping the old name didn’t really make sense.”
Next month, Cremer and Clark plan to change the restaurant’s name to Sister, reflecting the familial quality they hope they’ve created with diners and staff.
The Oakland restaurant (3308 Grand Ave.) looks about the same, with its warm brick walls, open kitchen and prominent pizza oven. New signage and logos will soon arrive, as designed by Lauren Jochum. But that’s fairly superficial stuff — almost the entire staff has changed since The Chronicle’s first report on Hallowell in late 2017. Cremer and Clark have hired a new executive chef, bar manager and bread baker, who together have significantly changed Boot & Shoe’s offerings.
“It totally feels like a different restaurant now,” said Cremer, who was a manager at Hallowell’s Pizzaiolo for about four years before purchasing Boot & Shoe. Clark recently helped open Tartine Manufactory.
Martin Salata, a previous Pizzaiolo chef, moved the menu away from Hallowell’s signature CalItalian style, though the emphasis on pizza remains. Salata changed the dough from thin Neapolitan crust to a chewier, naturally leavened version with a sourdough starter. Other dishes see a more eclectic tinge, incorporating ingredients like miso and XO sauce, a Chinese condiment rich with dried seafood.
Salata and bar manager Alex Phillips (Camino, Locanda) work together on a lot of fermented products, which make their way into dishes and cocktails. A housebrewed kombucha, for example, blends with creme fraiche to top a waffle and goes into a mimosa during brunch. Phillips also brought a new emphasis on natural wine.
The restaurant sells its naturally leavened loaves to go in the mornings. The baker, Jarren Wilkinson, hails from Tartine.
Hiring the right team was a top concern for Cremer and Clark, who said they screen applicants carefully and explain the type of work environment they expect during interviews. They look for people who want to build a “new restaurant culture,” structured around respect and positivity.
“We didn’t want to have one of those restaurants where the chef is always yelling at people,” Clark said. “It’s something we see as being of something in the past, and we want to continue pushing that in the past.”
A zerotolerance policy toward sexual harassment goes along with that, they said.
“The sexual harassment behavior is almost a version of a lack of respect,” Clark said. “If we try to promote a certain respect between staff, it prevents other types of disrespect.”
That goes for customers, too. Cremer said she’s had to kick out two diners who harassed servers. She’s had no issues with staff yet.
When Cremer and Clark bought Boot & Shoe, questions and rumors flew. Were they friends with Hallowell? (They said no.) Was Hallowell still involved with the restaurant? (They said no.) Why would they continue Hallowell’s legacy by keeping the restaurant’s name?
“I don’t know if we had the confidence or ambition to say, ‘Let’s go in here and make a whole new restaurant,’ ” said Clark. “Not to mention the money. It would have cost a lot of money to change everything all at once.”
“We also didn’t want to scare away all those people who had been coming for 10 years,” added Cremer.
The gradual transition made more sense, and with a new sign saying “Sister,” the change will be complete soon. Cremer and Clark hope it will help further distance the restaurant from its former owner. (Hallowell apologized for his past behavior in a letter to the community in the fall and had previously admitted to some specific allegations reported in Chronicle investigations, while denying others.)
“We absolutely don’t condone the actions that were alleged against him, and we absolutely support everyone who quit, who risked their careers and their friendships to speak out,” Clark said. “I don’t know if that was ever made clear enough.”