Spartan Daily

Hay Market serves up delicious delights in Willow Glen

Wesley Dugle, Spartan Daily

The Porchetta sandwhich (Italian pork roast) served on a baguette with arugula and pickled apples for a mix of salty and sweet at Hay Market in Willow Glen. Photo by Jeffrey Cianci / Spartan Daily

Joe Cirone has been working in the restaurant business for almost 20 years, and his new idea on how the South Bay has dinner is Hay Market.

For most of this San Jose native's career, Cirone has been helping others design and open restaurants as a consultant.

Right out of college, Cirone worked as a menu designer with several restaurants, before deciding to enroll at Peter Kump Cooking School in New York.

After graduating from Peter Kump, Cirone worked with several others as a consultant, helping open numerous restaurants around the country and working with well-known chefs, such as David Kinch who currently heads the Michelin two-star restaurant Manresa in Los Gatos.

Cirone enjoyed working as a consultant but said it can be difficult with his obsession-to-detail personality.

“You’ve always got somebody over your shoulder,” Cirone said. “I’m a bit of a stickler and I get ideas set, outside of that I still have to make people happy.”

After helping others open their restaurants, Cirone returned to the Bay Area, using what he learned as a consultant and opened Hay Market, his own unique restaurant in Willow Glen.

“Doing this, the only one I get to blame is myself if it doesn't work right,” Cirone said of his first business.

Never do the same thing twice. 

With backing from his father and a close family friend, Cirone purchased an open property on Lincoln Avenue, which had already been fitted as a restaurant, making renovation easy for Cirone.

The small bistro is decorated like a barn, with bales of hay in the front window, a small tractor, old books and old wooden crates to finish the Americana motif.

Cirone said he gathered items from several family farms such as old tools, shelves and refrigerators, as well as through scouring Craigslist’s farm equipment on a daily basis.

“I was the one picking through the closets finding funky stuff and I held on to it, that is where a lot of this came from,” Cirone said describing his artifact collecting. “Somebody will say, ‘it came from your heart’ well I really don’t think of it that way, it just seems to fit and work.”

Several tall wooden tables, built by Cirone and his father, serve for the restaurants communal seating, a social experiment of sorts that can be exciting or fall flat depending on the guests.

“It’s fun, it creates an eclectic atmosphere, but when you’ve got a cold table where nobody is talking to each other, it sticks out like a sore thumb,” Cirone said, adding he would rather see guests sharing food and wine and the experience of their meals together.

Cirone likes to say he never does the same thing twice. That is true for the restaurants he opens as well as the menu items at Hay Market.

“This happens on a daily basis here, we never do the same thing twice — all of that said, its an aggressive daily process,” Cirone said.

Large chalkboards on the wall display Hay Market’s daily changing menu.

Cirone and his chefs use fresh local ingredients, working with available produce of the season to create a menu that is pleasing to the customer and economically smart for the restaurant.

“It's easier financially for me,” Cirone said of a menu dictated by the market. “I’m online every night checking the pricing knowing, ‘Well I’m not going to do that tomorrow, I’m going to do this because it is coming out of the ground.’”

Getting to play with food. 

Hay Market’s Sous-Chef Benjamin Thomas was a plumber for 16 years before he went to the Professional Culinary Institute in Campbell.

“Joe just lets us play,” Thomas said. "Literally we come up with things and he likes it and he’s like ‘okay cool lets do it — it's a hodgepodge of everybody's ideas."

Thomas, who has his own garden with several chickens, said other than the environmental aspect of it, using local and organic produce is just enjoyable for him.

“I just think it’s fun, I’d rather have stuff that I grow and people I know grow, it’s interesting,” Thomas said.

With the changing menu, Thomas said there have been many dishes to try and develop but he spoke of several as favorites such as oxtails with foie gras and mascarpone as well as pork shanks cooked several hours in apple juice.

When asked why Hay Market is so unique to the Bay Area, Thomas’s answer was simple.

“No one is doing it,” Thomas said with a laugh. “No one is doing this communal table, the menu changes daily and you’re not getting your average food here, everything tastes amazing.”

The Critics call.

From start to finish dining at Hay Market is an enjoyably different experience.

You seat yourself at one of the large communal tables and order from what is available on the chalkboards.

At lunch, I enjoyed a delicious pork sandwich with pickled apples and whole grain mustard served on a cutting board.

For dinner, a duck liver risotto was smooth, savory and filling.

Your check arrives with warm damp towels and temporary tattoos, and you pay and sign the bill on an iPad — a fitting touch of cool for a Silicon Valley restaurant.

I believe Cirone’s Hay Market can really take off — the unique concept of the restaurant is a breath of much needed fresh air in a scene saturated with taquerias and chain restaurants.

While guests may need to get use to the new style such as communal tables and a changing menu, they will be rewarded with fresh delicious meals and a pleasing experience shared with other foodies. Veteran restaurant consultant Joe Cirone creates unique south bay bistro Hay Market in Willow Glen.