Here’s a San Francisco story: a former KFC in the Mission is recycled into a hip little diner called Spork. An experienced and inventive chef, Bruce Binns, playfully riffs on fast-food style with a menu based on fresh ingredients accompanied by a fun, affordable mini-wine list.
The skeleton of KFC lurks beneath the cork floor, the gray walls hung with giant digital photos of fingers and numbers, and the partially open kitchen behind a new curvy sea foam counter and stools. Square front windows remain, as does the bulbous polystyrene roof, spray-painted gray. Waitresses wear gray polo dresses with red belts; waiters, gray polo shirts and black pants. Customers sit in retro-utilitarian plywood chairs at rubber-trimmed Formica tables, in low booths and banquettes. Kitchen venting has become a canted light fixture in the dining room. Part of the fun is figuring out what was what, and what is new.
