Quick Take
Bad Animal ended its acclaimed Hanloh pop-up in December and brought its kitchen in-house, tapping former chef de cuisine Nick Hahn to lead the downtown Santa Cruz restaurant. While his precise, produce-driven dishes show clear promise and technical confidence, the opening menu feels like an early chapter — polished and wine-friendly, but still searching for the sense of surprise that defines the space.
The three-year run of chef Lalita Kaewsawang’s pop-up, Hanloh, at Bad Animal would be a hard act for anyone to follow. The modern Thai cuisine she brought to the downtown Santa Cruz natural wine bar-slash-eclectic used bookshop helped earn the multi-hyphenate establishment on Cedar Street numerous accolades, including a spot on the Los Angeles Times’ first list of 100 Best Restaurants in California in 2025.
But all things have their time, and the partnership between Bad Animal and Hanloh ended in December. In January, owners Andrew Sivak and Jess Mackay tapped Nick Hahn, Kaewsawang’s former chef de cuisine, to lead the kitchen and brought restaurant operations in-house. Over the past month, Hahn has piloted a new menu that’s billed as modern French bistro cuisine, drawing from numerous global influences to create expressive dishes that feel familiar.
It’s not the first time that Bad Animal has begun anew with a fresh concept. Chef Todd Parker opened the kitchen as an American bistro with German influences in 2018. Then during the COVID pandemic, the kitchen hosted several temporary chefs in residence, each with distinct points of view. Still, as I slid into a seat at the marble-topped bar, I tried to ignore the aching in my neck from the whiplash.
To anyone who fears change, what has stayed the same is that effortless coolness that slides over everyone who enters Bad Animal like a silk robe. The service remains personable and knowledgeable, with a wine list that intrigues, delights and at times challenges. You can still set your glass of Italian skin-contact malvasia on a nearby book shelf while your fingers flutter the aroma of old pages.
The food is still stimulating and wine-friendly. Hahn’s opening menu is compact, with three entrees alongside a handful of small plates and a couple desserts, and draws from a range of cuisines, from French to Indian to Japanese. His execution is precise, the textures and seasoning nearly flawless. Still, I kept wishing for a few more surprises, a similar sense of delightful discovery to match the unconventional offerings within the bookstore and wine list.
This is the first time 30-year-old Hahn has stepped into the executive chef role, after a decade working in restaurants in Chicago, Santa Cruz and Los Angeles. In the Windy City, he worked his way up from line cook at Kitsune, chef Iliana Regan’s Japanese-inspired restaurant, to routinely serving 500 covers as sous-chef at Nobu Chicago. He credits his growth as a young chef to working with Andrew Zimmerman, who taught him about live-fire cooking, and cultivating flavors from Southeast Asia, North Africa, India and beyond.
The miso-marinated black cod ($30) is a tribute to his time at Nobu and the iconic dish Nobu Matsuhisa created in the 1980s. Like its namesake, Hahn’s version made with locally caught fish is custardlike, caramelized and powerfully flavorful.
When his romantic partner got into a graduate program at UC Santa Cruz, they drove across the country together, and Hahn soon fell in love with the region’s produce, farmers and fishers. “There’s a lot of great cooking in Chicago, but the access to ingredients and being in such close proximity to them here is a dream come true,” he said.
Height-of-the-season flavors are the foundation of Hahn’s menu, from tiny, plump Miyagi oysters with bright yuzu mignonette ($4 each) to sweet Dungeness crab punctuated with chiles and fresh herbs on buttery slices of Manresa Bread’s levain ($18). This week, he quickly swapped out beef cheeks with Fogline Farm’s Pescadero-raised pork when it became available, pairing the braised shoulder ($38) with wintery celeriac purée and peppery watercress.
The menu feels safe, especially because it’s clear that Hahn has the culinary chops to take flavors further. A trio of gougéres ($8) was as cheesy and ephemeral as can be, but I’d eaten similar puffs many times before. And finishing the meal with a slice of Humboldt Fog feels expected. You’d have to have lived under a rock for the past 20 years to have not experienced that cheese. The chocolate mousse, with flakes of sea salt and toasted hazelnuts, is no doubt a crowd-pleaser. But in this space, it begged for a hot take.
There are exciting glimpses of the chef Hahn will become as he discovers his distinct vision. In the wild mushroom pasta ($24), Hahn opts for chewy, hand-cut Chinese-style noodles, emulsifying the thick strands with abundant garlic and earthy hedgehog mushrooms until they nearly melt together. He coaxes all the sweetness from a half-head of braised cabbage ($22), and serves it in a pool of sensual vadouvan curry and fiery chili crisp.
Hahn admitted articulating his culinary style is a challenge, but he’s inspired by his own food memories growing up in a Korean-Brazilian family. “The table always had a diverse spread. That mixing of cultures always made sense to me,” he said.
Sivak, Mackay and Hahn spent days discussing what to call their new concept — French, Californian, or Asian-inspired with global influences. “It’s really all of those things,” Hahn said. “It’s value-driven cooking with emphasis on the relationship between chef and farmer or purveyor, and working with them to bring out the best food at this very moment.”
He said he fell in love with Bad Animal while working at Hanloh, and it’s important to him that what he creates complements the wine, art, music and general ambiance. “What we’re trying to do is elevated, but with warmth and accessibility,” he said. In the coming months, Hahn aims to add more dishes to the menu as his team builds its skills and is able to produce a high standard consistently. He said he’s looking forward to incorporating more seasonal flavors as the weather shifts, from spring peas to summer corn and tomatoes.
Bad Animal regulars are adventurous and, speaking for myself at least, return to the unique space seeking the unconventional. Hahn should push some of his dishes into riskier territory, but it’s clear these are just the opening chapters of his story. I look forward to having a front-row seat while he writes the rest.
1011 Cedar St., Santa Cruz; badanimalbooks.com; 831-900-5031.
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