Porch & Swing Will Serve No Longer
From left to right: Justin Werner is Porch & Swing’s Executive Chef, Andrew Parish is the Master Mixologist as well as a Partner, and Kevin Bobby is a Partner. Seated in a chair is Mark Cruz, also a Partner. Photo credit Adam Gentry
Update: Porch & Swing closed in April of 2024, almost exactly three years from the publication of this original article. Restauranteur Kevin Bobby didn’t not respond to requests for comment.
To open a restaurant in April of 2020 seemed like madness. As panic gripped the nation and dining, along with everything else, ground to a halt, any newly opened restaurant seemed destined to fail. And yet Porch & Swing did just the opposite.
Serving cuisine inspired by Charleston, South Carolina, Porch & Swing not only continues to operate, but it dominates. Named best new restaurant in this month’s issue of Orange Coast Magazine, the year-old Irvine eatery has pulled off the impossible and become a pandemic-era hit. Perhaps infused by the spirit of the Holy City, as Charleston is called, this restaurant performed a miracle.
Kevin Bobby and Mark Cruz, two of the owners of the upscale Porch & Swing, wanted to open a poke spot in 2017. They signed a lease for a small restaurant in the office building where Porch & Swing currently stands. With poke’s popularity on the rise, they felt the occupants of the office building would happily line up for poke bowls at lunchtime. But then the building was acquired by EMMES Realty and the new owners decided a higher end restaurant was what the building needed. They knocked down the wall separating two restaurant spaces to make room for their vision.
“Once demolition was completed, EMMES requested a gastropub type of concept,” explains Bobby. “With that being completely out of Mark [Cruz] and I’s comfort zone, we knew the exact person to contact.”
That person was Andrew Parish, a master mixologist with a devoted celebrity following. As a dining industry insider, Bobby knew of Parish’s burnished reputation and reached out to discuss options for the restaurant. It was Parish who envisioned bringing a taste of Charleston to Irvine.
“We were at the drawing board for quite some time,” recalls Bobby. “We had no idea what we were going to do. One day, it finally clicked. Andrew [Parish] said, ‘Why don't we do a Charleston concept? That's where I'm from. Let’s take a trip out there and I’ll show you what I have in mind.’”
If Bobby and Cruz had any doubts, the trip to Charleston made them both converts of low country cuisine after dining at legendary local eateries like Husk, FIG and The Establishment. Once the partners identified the food they wanted to serve, they needed a chef to execute their vision. After a wide search, including a second trip to Charleston, they found the perfect candidate right here in Orange County.
“We spoke to [Playground chef and owner] Jason Quinn about our situation,” Bobby recalls, “and he had just the person in mind: Chef Justin Werner.”
Chef Werner had an illustrious career in some of the world’s finest restaurants before his stint working with Quinn at Playground. Werner cut his teeth at Craft and Colicchio & Sons under Tom Colicchio, before venturing on to Thomas Keller’s Per Se and Paul Liebrandt’s Corton. In 2012, Werner bested his competition and won an episode of The Food Network’s “Chopped.” He used his winnings from the show to travel to Copenhagen where he interned at Noma, considered the world’s best restaurant by many and officially given that title by Restaurant Magazine.
After helping Quinn, Werner planned to travel the world. When he met with Bobby, Cruz, and Parish about their Charleston concept, Werner’s travel plans were put on hold indefinitely.
“[Quinn] ended up setting us up,” says Bobby. “We met at a coffee shop about a week later. To sum up that first meeting, [Werner] answered every question perfectly. He said, ‘I am looking to build a name for myself and you guys are looking for a chef to run with an idea and basically giving them a blank canvas to work. Seems like a perfect scenario for all of us.’”
After their initial meeting, Werner provided a tasting for partners Bobby, Cruz, and Parish. That tasting solidified everyone’s hunch that Werner was the perfect fit.
Porch & Swing head chef, Justin Werner. Photo credit Emily J. Davis/Orange Coast Magazine
“With his resume, I was stoked to try his food,” remembers Bobby. “Andrew [Parish] and I were already saying, ‘This is the guy, this is the guy, I have a great feeling about him.’ He did a tasting for us and just knocked it out of the park. Never actually cooking that type of cuisine, the time and research that he put into it and just his ability to work with different flavor profiles and ingredients, it's just amazing. I was speechless. That was the first time I've ever tried anything like that. With everything that Chef Justin [Werner] makes, my palate go from A to Z in one bite.”
With all the pieces in place, Porch & Swing readied itself for a grand opening. And then COVID-19 hit.
“The first couple of months were rough,” Bobby says. “To open during a shelter-in-place order and only being allowed to serve to-go after waiting almost 3 years to complete our buildout was heartbreaking. Initially, sales were awful. It was just bad.”
Porch & Swing’s property owner supported the restaurant during those first difficult months.
“Thankfully our landlord was extremely accommodating to our situation,” says Bobby. “I can speak on behalf of my other concepts that some [landlords] have not been. Especially with a project of this size, it could have gone south real fast.”
The restaurant’s fortunes began to turn around when Orange County opened patio dining early in the summer of 2020.
“After a week it was still kind of so-so and then once people started catching wind of our open-air dining patio, it just took off out of nowhere,” says Bobby.
The partners expected Porch & Swing’s diners to come primarily from corporate office employees on their lunch breaks. The restaurant’s brisk evening business has been a pleasant surprise.
“The silver lining of 2020 for us has been the ability to build a night crowd,” Bobby says. “When initially signing this lease back in 2017, Andrew [Parish], Mark [Cruz], and myself were banking heavily on corporate traffic. With everyone working from home and our buildings at fifteen percent occupancy or less, that has obviously not been the case. This is a classic case of playing the hand we’ve been dealt and doing what we can with what we have. As the world starts to reopen, our lunch traffic will correct itself and hopefully, we can reminisce in hindsight over a drink and laugh about this for years to come.”
The Porch & Swing team have even bigger plans for their future.
Porch & Swing is featured on this month’s issue of Orange Coast Magaine.
In her glowing review, food writer Gretchen Kurz writes, “Executive chef Justin Werner and bar boss Andrew Parish were this close to welcoming diners, but then had to deliver their “Taste of Charleston” in a different way than they had planned. Their inaugural dinner menu was so heady, we had no choice but to follow this enchanting newcomer anywhere things went.”
In an attempt to make our quiet city just a tad cool, the restaurant is hosting monthly events that feature various vendors from the alcohol industry. Making Irvine cool may seem like a tall order, but this crew has already attained the impossible.
“We do have our work cut out for us,” concedes Bobby. “But so far everyone's been extremely receptive. Since we're closed on Sundays, we've been hosting an event once a month. Our next event will be on May 2nd and it’s a tequila and mezcal tasting. There will be a live band, vendor stations setup with unlimited pours, food, and our bar will be open showcasing some of our vendor selections in cocktail form. Our events are always a good time. Please drink responsibly and designate a driver or take an Uber.”
As if things couldn’t get any better for Porch & Swing, this week our county reached the Orange Tier, which allows for increased indoor dining capacity. It’s good news for the hardworking gang at Porch & Swing. They’re ready to make more diners into low country cuisine converts.
Porch & Swing is located at 2010 Main Street in Irvine. You can make a reservation online.
To read about Bobby’s experiences on television series “The Great Food Truck Race” and how he leveraged the show to launch his career, sign up for our newsletter.