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Ofena Fits Like A Glove

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A special of porchetta to celebrate Ofena's first anniversary.
A special of porchetta to celebrate Ofena’s first anniversary.

Tim Humphrey’s Ofena restaurant is a passion project if there ever was one, filled with meaningful touchstones from his life.

Located on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco’s Lakeside Village, the building sat empty for a dozen years before the the chef-owner and his business partner, Tan Truong of San Francisco’s Ju-Ni and Handroll Project, took it over.

Named after the town in Italy from where his great-grandparents hailed before immigrating to the United States, Ofena the restaurant just celebrated its first anniversary last month. When he was 30, Humphrey took his mom to that town. After she passed away, he found her travel journals about that trip. Now, her handwriting is immortalized in the lettering for “Ofena” on the menu, as well on the neon sign on the front of the restaurant.

The script used for the restaurant's name is from the handwriting of Chef Tim Humphrey's late-mother.
The script used for the restaurant’s name is from the handwriting of Chef Tim Humphrey’s late-mother.
Executive Chef Tim Humphrey, who has cooked at a legion of well-known Northern California restaurants.
Executive Chef Tim Humphrey, who has cooked at a legion of well-known Northern California restaurants.

When you get to the dessert menu, you’ll find an especially sweet tribute to another longtime friend of Humphrey’s, a server who worked at many of his previous restaurants who passed away from leukemia. More on that later.

It’s all characteristic of the warmth you’ll find at this restaurant, which was packed last Saturday night when I was invited in as a guest of Humphrey’s.

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