Jon's Street Eats Seeks Investors for Oakland Restaurant

Tamara Palmer

Jon Kosorek wants to put down roots.

​Jon Kosorek launched Jon's Street Eats last summer, hoping to get enough exposure with the food cart that he could eventually find investors for a restaurant. Now that he has a few Oakland brick-and-mortar spots in mind, and one in particular that he really likes, Kosorek is kicking his call for investors into high gear.

A 19-year restaurant veteran, Kosorek's resume includes the former Jeanty at Jack's in SF and Fork in San Anselmo (now called Dream Farm). His own dream, in his words, is to build an "approachable, quality-driven restaurant" that showcases sustainably raised meats, local produce, and almost everything made from scratch. The cart, naturally, limits what Kosorek can do. "I'm capable of so much more," he says.

We'd love to see what that means, since he's already pushed the limits of street food. On any given day Kosorek balances typically indoor fare (house-smoked salmon carpaccio, hog's head terrine, chicken liver mousse) with more portable choices (fish and chip sandwiches, pork belly tacos, Spanish tortilla).

Kosorek says he's not locked into any single restaurant concept. "The location will help determine the concept," he says.

Tamara Palmer

House-smoked king salmon carpaccio.

​"I really would like to do something that is approachable on a daily or weekly basis," Kosorek says. "I would like to create an establishment where people can take their children or a date, where people can have a lunch meeting or after-work drinks, and where the staff is professional but not pompous."

Kosorek may or may not keep the cart going once he secures a permanent restaurant site, depending on whether or not the site is conducive to keeping a cart. "In a perfect world, I can keep the cart and send it out on nice days," he says.

After splitting weekdays between Emeryville, Oakland, and Alameda, Jon's Street Eats now appears in Emeryville Monday through Thursday. Find the exact location via Twitter. Kosorek says interested investors (or anyone with a lead) can e-mail him at newspot4jse@gmail.com.