Matthew Sieve didn’t set out to be a restaurateur. “I tried to get out of the business,” he laughs. He’d worked in his family’s restaurant since he was a kid, bussing tables and slinging orders, before heading to college to get a degree in nuclear physics, of all things.
“Nuclear physics would have paid the bills,” he says. “I just didn’t like it.”
So he did what any ex-nuclear physicist would do. He opened five restaurants in San Diego with Jeffrey Fink: Madison on Park, Sonny’s Pizza, two Madi locations, and as of this month, Josie’s in Hillcrest. Josie’s is his love letter to his Minnesota roots. Named for his great aunt, it’s his take on Midwestern hospitality: that down-home, small-town vibe that’s hard to pin down elsewhere.
“I just thought San Diego needed something like we have back home,” he says.
Chef Learnel Williams will head the kitchen. Trained in classic French technique at Le Cordon Bleu, Williams’ resume reads like a star-studded call sheet: Eataly, Trattoria Dell’Arte in New York City, and Thomas Keller’s three Michelin-starred Per Se. Moving from Per Se to pancakes must mean the restaurant team isn’t playing around.
Expect eggs Benedict, a Denver omelet, buttermilk pancakes, lox on rye, biscuits & gravy, a hot honey chicken biscuit, and apple pie French toast bites meant to be shared—as if!
“It’s a good blend of new and nostalgic,” Sieve says. Guests will be able to hear the clink-clank of silverware, see the hustle and bustle of the kitchen, grab a coffee to-go from the counter, and settle down with a newspaper from the provided news rack. Who says print is dead?
