“Where can we source some fish bones?” asks Chef Will—a question that cuts through the warm hum of the Flea Street dining room. Surprisingly, oddly specific, and yet entirely ordinary when directed at Jesse Cool, the restaurant’s founder and soulful force.
Chef Will had stepped out of the kitchen and into the heart of the evening to check in with Jesse Cool: How were the guests? What were they loving? What did the team need? What was being requested again and again?
The answer, it turned out, was more of the wildly popular cioppino—a dish that begins not with fanfare, but with the quiet urgency of sourcing the perfect white fish bones. These bones, locally and sustainably caught, require care and time to prepare, as well as the right relationships and connections.
It’s not the kind of moment most would expect at one of the Bay Area’s most celebrated dining destinations, but Flea Street is built on exactly this: a constant thread of care, craft and connection to delicious food.
Flea Street is built on exactly this: a constant thread of care, craft and connection to delicious food.
It’s also the kind of moment that defines Jesse Cool, tastemaker, restaurateur and calmly persistent advocate for what she calls “thoughtful dining.” In Jesse’s world, every ingredient has a purpose, a story, a person behind it. Every taste on the plate is a celebration—of food, of flavor and of the deeply connected ecosystem that needs to be fed and nurtured too. This includes paying a fair price to farmers and producers and ensuring her staff is cared for, all part of the story of what makes the restaurant experience special.
Nestled in Menlo Park since 1980, Flea Street is not just a restaurant; it’s a movement. It’s where menus feature local farms and wines, and housemade specialties and favorites (like Jesse’s family Buttermilk Biscuits) greet you like old friends. Where restaurants using the terms organic, clean and sustainably sourced were once dismissed as tasteless “lunatic fringe”—a label Jesse now laughs at—remain at the heart of her food and restaurant today.
Nestled in Menlo Park since 1980, Flea Street is not just a restaurant; it’s a movement. It’s where menus feature local farms and wines, and housemade specialties and favorites (like Jesse’s family Buttermilk Biscuits) greet you like old friends. Where restaurants using the terms organic, clean and sustainably sourced were once dismissed as tasteless “lunatic fringe”—a label Jesse now laughs at—remain at the heart of her food and restaurant today.
Back then, Jesse had to rethink how she presented her promise of offering healthy, good and good-for-you food and drink in a thoughtful, upscale restaurant setting. Instead of just telling people about the flavor and the benefits, she found ways to share with them the benefits of a thoughtful and delicious plate.
Today, it’s a badge of honor. But even before the buzzwords—farm to table, sustainable, locavore—she was already doing the work. Not because it was trendy, but because it was right, true and down right tasty.
At Flea Street, thoughtful dining begins with the ingredient. If the foundation isn’t beautiful, the plate won’t be. “Everything you do is driven by where the ingredient comes from, how it’s grown, how it tastes and the relationships that bring it to your table,” Jesse’s son once said—a perfect distillation of her ethos. Whether it’s herbs, edible flowers and tomatoes from her restaurant garden, pasture-raised poultry from Root Down Farm, goat cheese from Harley Farms, hand-kneaded loaves from Panorama Bakery, or the latest seasonal picks from the farmers market, what arrives at your table is rooted in the relationships that built it.
And what a table it is.
The dining room feels like home—if your home had the atmosphere of a modern farmhouse, a curated wine list from the Santa Cruz Mountains and a bartender shaking handcrafted Martinis with small-batch gin and fresh herbs, sometimes picked by “garden fairies” in the restaurant garden. Guests often stop Jesse when she is in the house to say thank you, to tell her they’re celebrating a birthday, a new job, a life milestone. Flea Street has become a place where food and meaning are inseparable. A space where you taste great food—and feel good about eating it.
That feeling is no accident.
Thoughtful dining is not just a philosophy. It’s a commitment—to sourcing with intention, to seasonal creativity, to ethical practices and to honoring the labor and love that go into every bite.
“We’re ingredient-driven,” Jesse explains. “We start local, and move outward with purpose.” Over 80% of the ingredients are from California, many hyper-local to the restaurant’s own community. Nothing is artificial. Nothing is wasted. Everything—from the cioppino’s fish stock (made from those white fish bones) to the edible flowers on your salad—is a deliberate expression of care.
That kind of sourcing isn’t easy. Supply chains can be fragile. Organic strawberries might not show up one day. A key cheese might be missing. Jesse and her team don’t hide those challenges they work through them, respectfully and transparently. “It was never a perfect world,” she admits. “But we always try, each and every season.” Even in today’s more supportive market, thoughtful dining remains a labor of love. Of effort. Of reconnecting with local relationships. Of daily recommitment.
The reward? Guests leave Flea Street not just fed, but nurtured. This is the essence of The Connected Plate—a table that links farmer to forager, cook to server, guest to grower. A plate that celebrates not just flavor, but provenance. Not just the dish, but the path it took to arrive in front of you. Jesse Cool is more than a chef; she’s a steward of the values we often forget to bring into dining: gratitude, mindfulness, respect and joy. Because in her world, and at her restaurant, the plate is more than a dish. It’s a conversation. A connection. It’s a celebration worth having, again and again.
