‘Poultry As An Event’

Bay Area native Nico Russell began his career in kitchens across San Francisco, including the Silicon Valley institution Chez TJ, before moving to New York in 2011.

In New York and abroad, he refined his craft at several multi–Michelin-starred restaurants, including Restaurant Daniel, Chef’s Table at Brooklyn Fare, and Mirazur in the south of France.

In 2018, Russell opened Oxalis in Brooklyn, the first of four concepts he would develop over the next nine years. Oxalis earned and retained a Michelin star for five consecutive years until its closure in 2023. It was followed by Place des Fêtes, named “Best New Restaurant” in 2022 by New York Magazine, and most recently Café Mado, which debuted on The New York Times’ Top 100 Restaurants list in its first year (2025).

In Spring 2026, Russell returned to the Bay Area to lead the kitchen at Café Vivant. His cooking is grounded in a hyper-local, deeply seasonal approach, with a disciplined focus on premium poultry - expressed through a menu that reads like a farmers’ market through a highly specific lens.