At Duna, the Fearless Made Familiar
Bar Tartine vets Nick Balla and Cortney Burns turn to the roots of home cooking to inspire and streamline their new endeavor.
“We’re trying to create a genuine, new experience: one that’s like eating at a friend’s kitchen counter.” This is how chef Nick Balla first introduces Duna. The new restaurant, an unassuming space nestled into a stretch of Valencia, is the brainchild of Nick and partner Cortney Burns, the duo behind the pioneering institution Bar Tartine and limited-run Japanese pop-up, Motze.
Subtle hints of these past projects dot the menu at the central-european inspired Duna, but the restaurant is unabashedly a move in another direction. Orders are placed at the counter, food service is a tag-team operation by the kitchen staff (there are no servers or hosts), and if you want another glass of wine or cider, you simply text a number.
This fuss-free style is just one of the ways the duo transforms the fearless into the familiar at Duna. Bold and innovative flavors reign, but are presented home-style. “We don’t focus on precision necessarily, we want our garnishes to be rustic. We like the ethos of peasant cooking: big chunks of scallions, everything chopped up into big pieces for bold flavor. A lot of our influence came from my dad, whose rule is to dirty as few things as possible. Most of the time when he’s cooking it’s just a big salad, made using a bowl and a paring knife. The beauty of that is that you get all these misshapen vegetables in the salad, nothing uniform.”
“A lot of our influence came from my dad, whose rule is to dirty as few things as possible. Most of the time when he’s cooking it’s just a big salad, made using a bowl and a paring knife.”
It makes sense that a portion of Duna’s menu is devoted to these types of chopped salads: flavors ranging from greek to midwestern deli-style, best eaten with a spoon. Elsewhere on the menu, a collection of unique dips and shareable dishes inspired by what Nick and Cortney like to eat at home, usually late at night on the couch, or sometimes at the park on a day off. Liptaeur cheese dip is a smoky, tangy accompaniment to dense slices of nutty rye bread; roasted chicken takes on the indulgent flavors of a generous coating of paprika gravy and sour cream and served over fresh noodles.
A fully-stocked larder allows for a certain flexibility as to what they can make with what they have, and how they can incorporate the bounty of Northern California produce. “A lot of new ideas are fate-driven, inspired by nothing more than a seasonal ingredient we might get from a farmer. A lot of stuff comes together from availability and fate.”
Ultimately, one question drives what goes on the menu: “what do we want to eat every day?” There is a thin line between the food served at the restaurant, and what Nick and Cortney eat at home: handed down family recipes, with little need for special appliances or heavy-handed techniques. The same philosophy is in play in both arenas: “Try to be simple, streamlined, not make a big mess, cook for the family — it’s the same thing. You can make the most amazing possible home-cooked dishes by being as simple as possible with your techniques.”
“You can make the most amazing possible home-cooked dishes by being as simple as possible with your techniques.”
From the food to the counter service, the Duna experience embodies what the team has coined as ‘kitchen hospitality:’ a service style similar to what you’d get dining at a friend’s, when everyone is eating standing up at the kitchen island and talking candidly about the food with the people who made it. And you’ll want to talk about it. Each dish, even ingredient, communicates a unique and personal perspective. One that will maybe even convince you to eat late-night chopped salad, with a spoon, on your couch.
Cook like Duna does at home with this week’s Dinner Kit, created in collaboration with Nick Balla and Cortney Burns. Order yours here.
