Phil West tells us the story behind Range and his way to San Francisco.

There are nearly 1000 businesses in the Bay Area using Instawork to hire staff 😍 Today we’d like to introduce you to one of our long-term users.

I met Phil West on a Monday morning at his restaurant Range in the Mission.

… If I was to describe Phil West in one sentence? A very nice and laid-back guy with an enormous passion for food. I had a lot of fun interviewing him, get to know his story and hear his thoughts on the value of diversity in food. We hope that you Instawork readers out there will enjoy this as much as I enjoyed interviewing Phil 😊

Phil West at Range

Please introduce yourself.

My name is Phil West and I live in San Francisco. I’ve been here for over 20 years, but I’m originally from New York City. I’m the owner of Range.

What’s the story behind Range?

My wife and I have been in the industry for many many years. We actually met cooking. When we started dating, we thought maybe we wanna do something 👫 . After being together for a while, we got married and basically on our honeymoon we said ‘We are tired of working for other people’ and decided to do it for ourselves. My wife is from San Diego. But we’ve both been here since the mid 90s, came about the same time. So we lived in the Mission pretty much the entire time we’ve been in San Francisco and we were looking and scouting for places. Then we saw this places which used to be called Timo’s. We took over the restaurant, rebuilt it and named it Range.

What’s your favourite meal on the Range Menu?

You can’t ask a chef that, haha! Because it implies that I don’t like certain things as much as others. Well, I think… as far as what we do here, very typical California ethos of letting our ingredients speak for themselves, we go lightly in the kitchen and we try to not mess things up too much, because we have amazing product here. I think it’s similar to the Chez Panisse approach to food. We’ve been doing it for years, just using our ingredients and evaluating our ingredients and making sure we treat them with proper care and prepare them in a way that makes them shine in the best way possible.

Where do you get your ingredients from?

From anywhere from 40 to 60 farms throughout the year, depending on what we are getting and the season. I go to the Farmers Markets 3 times a week. My sous chef goes as well. So we’re hitting all the different markets in the city 🏃🏽 💨. I also go to the Ferry Building on Saturdays. But there’s a Mission market right here that we go to on Thursdays

“..my Mom worked in publishing and my Dad worked on Wall Street, two things I didn’t really see myself doing. I was very active and couldn’t sit still”

How did you become a cook?

I’ve always cooked. During high school I spent summers in New York City cooking at restaurants and continued even while I was at Northwestern. I knew there was something about it that I enjoy. And… yes, I did receive an English degree 📝. I really liked that aspect of college. I had the luxury of going to college without knowing exactly what I was going to do with my life. My parents always told me to follow my heart and not do something I didn’t want to do. Growing up in New York City, my Mom worked in publishing 📚 and my Dad worked on Wall Street 📉, two things I didn’t really see myself doing. I was very active and couldn’t sit still. I graduated with an English Degree and didn’t necessarily want to teach or looking to sit behind a desk. I had this love of cooking and the only other skills I had were playing frisbee and guitar. But my parents were only willing to let me go so far, right. I wasn’t gonna become a musician, I wasn’t good enough... But I worked at a restaurant for a year right after college. I was making $4 an hour doing the most menial tasks, waking up at 3:30 in the morning, doing crazy stuff. And I’ll never forget my friends and roommates coming up the stairs from being up all night partying and I’d be coming down the stairs going to work. After a year of doing that I said to myself ‘I still enjoy this, I’m really excited about this type of work’ so I thought this was a good test for me and so I went to culinary school after that. Ever since then I worked in Chicago, in New Orleans and then I came out here. That’s it. I think the college degree was great, it kinda got all the extraneous stuff out of me. So when I went to culinary school I was very serious about it. But I think it’s so important as a business owner to have that base of education. It’s a nice thing that has helped me manage the restaurant and figure out how to make certain decisions.

“I have a home in San Francisco now.”

How’s you life in San Francisco compared to New York City?

New York is so different. I’m definitely more of a slower-pace-type of person. I love New York City, my family still lives there. My mom still lives in the house I grew up in. I still go back all the time and I don’t have any bad things to say about it. But in the end I think I enjoy the pace of life here in San Francisco. It’s a smaller city, so it feels a little more close-knit. I enjoy that. I knew if I went back east after going to college in Chicago, I’d never leave the east coast again. So I wanted to explore the west coast. I came out here, really enjoyed it, I found my wife here and we started a family 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦. I have a home in San Francisco now 🏡.

New York Knicks or Golden State Warriors?

I’ll always be a Knicks fan. I do not mind it when the Warriors win and I certainly root for the Warriors. The Knicks are so bad anyways that you have to root for the Warriors. But I gotta stay with my home team. My 8 year old son on the other hand is into sports and he knows I am a New York sports fan, but he wants the baseball Giants to win, he wants the 49ers to win and he’s a big Warriors fan. Even though I try to educate him on New York sports… I think I’ve miserably lost that battle.

“I’ll always be a Knicks fan.”

What other cuisines do you like?

I love food in general. There aren’t many cuisines I don’t like. I love Mexican food 🇲🇽 and Japanese food 🇯🇵. But I’m really not the type to pick favourites. I like to explore stuff. My thing about food is when I go out to eat or someone’s cooking for me personally I want to know what their viewpoint is. That is more important to me. Do I know what they are trying to do with the food? There’s great Italian or great regional Italian. But am I understanding what this chef or person is trying to accomplish? I like American Italian red sauce food just as much as I might enjoy super authentic thin-crust neapolitan pizza.

“Food is near and dear to many people on many different levels.”

Are you critical when someone else cooks for you?

Never. Food is near and dear to many people on many different levels ❤️. A few weeks ago we went to a friend’s house who cooked for us and we had Dungeness crab and garlic noodles. It was all delicious. But is it something I’d serve in my restaurant? No, not necessarily. Not because of its quality, but this is a home-cooked meal that is enjoyed by these people and I enjoyed partaking in that experience. I eat my kids’ leftover mac and cheese and hotdogs. I’m not fussy about food at all. I grew up in New York so I love a good hotdog 🗽. And some of them are just not made with artisanal meats, but I still enjoy those things. It’s part of how I grew up. There’s no right or wrong way for me, but just experiencing all types of food.

“We love going to Nopalito, which is great for everybody because they have great margaritas for the adults, the food is also great.”

Where do you usually love to eat in San Francisco?

There are a few places. I have a family, a son and a daughter. So unfortunately with my schedule I don’t have a whole lot of date nights with my wife. We tend to go out with the family. We love going to Nopalito, which is great for everybody because they have great margaritas for the adults, the food is also great. The kids actually really love sushi so we go to Ichi. I love going out with the kids and enjoying a great meal. And it’s a nice exposure for them. The other place that Cameron and I recently went and enjoyed was Kin Khao. It was really good!

Do you and your wife cook together at home or separately? If yes, do you guys harmonise in the kitchen?

No. If we cook at home, then I usually do the cooking and she certainly helps, but it’s definitely my lead. She is still a good cook, but she hasn’t really cooked professionally in many many years. I mean we met cooking, we met in a kitchen, she was in culinary school, so that’s how we got to know each other. We decided at some point she would be much better at running the front of the house. However, we certainly have a great understanding of what we enjoy eating so I know not to cook things she isn’t into and vice versa. But she cooks for me occasionally, breakfast maybe.

“It’s an ingredient-focused California bistro cuisine and not fussing with it too much.”

How would you pitch Range in one sentence to a stranger?

I almost like to say, it’s kinda like a California Bistro in a way. I appreciate the European sensibility of food being an important part of everyone’s culture and life. And again, I know this is much more than a sentence but I cannot describe it in a sentence. It’s an ingredient-focused California bistro ☀️.