Paul Kavouksorian, Owner

Paul’s last name may be Armenian, but his heritage is equal parts Daughters of the American Revolution. Like its owner, Paul K derives as much of its heritage from old-fashioned eating spots in upstate New York as it does from the kitchens of Beirut or Jerusalem.

Paul’s father was born and raised in the Armenian Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem and his mother was born in the Midwest and raised there and in Utica, New York. The couple met during her junior year abroad at the American University in Beirut. After years of long-distance courtship, the couple finally settled down together in Utica.

His parents’ wanderlust did not reach into their kitchen. “The food we ate at home was pure Protestant cooking,” Paul recalls. “You were lucky if you got salt.”

Paul did not learn about Armenian food until his father’s parents moved to upstate New York. They introduced foods like tabouleh and baklava into his life. “When we went over to their house for dinner, I would go early so I could watch my grandmother cook and sneak tastes before my brothers and sisters arrived.”

Paul got his first taste of the restaurant life when he found work as a busboy at a Treadway Inn his senior year of high school. “I loved the camaraderie of the restaurant business. I was the best busboy they ever had.”

After a couple years of college exploring majors from aviation to pre-med, Paul committed to the food business and enrolled at the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York.

When he graduated, he went to work at George Lang’s Hungaria restaurant. From there, he moved to San Francisco, where he worked at the Hyatt Union Square and then the Cliff Hotel.

In 1983 Paul opened his own café, Picnix, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood of San Francisco. “I got to produce simple food with an edge – sandwiches, salads, breakfast stuff and party stuff.” Most of all, he enjoyed becoming a part of the neighborhood and getting to know the people who lived and worked there.

Since opening paul k in Hayes Valley, Paul has enjoyed getting to know another neighborhood and clientele. The ambience of a restaurant is as important to him as the food. His passions for good company and good California cooking with Levantine touches are the foundation of restaurant paul k.