By David Landis, The Gay Gourmet—
In just over 4 years, the marvelous restaurant Hilda and Jesse in North Beach has become something of both a foodie and queer destination. Who knew that a café devoted mostly to breakfast (but also serving dinner) could earn a coveted Michelin star? Better yet, this fine eatery embraces a queer sensibility that exudes fun and friendliness, with some of the finest food in town. Yours truly had the pleasure of speaking with Chef/Co-Owner Ollie K.C. Liedags and Co-Owner Rachel Sillcocks to learn more.
David Landis: How did your backgrounds lead you to Hilda and Jesse, and how did you decide to create the restaurant?
Chef Ollie: Rachel and I met about 12 years ago at Range (now closed), where Rachel was the chef and I was sous chef. We’d always talked about how daytime dining didn’t get the same attention as dinner. We wanted to make it as special as going out for a nice dinner, so we started doing pop-ups—brunch for dinner—to see how people responded. As far as the name is concerned, Hilda was my grandmother, and Jesse was Rachel’s grandfather. They both lived with us and were very impactful to both of our lives.
Rachel Sillcocks: We’d go to farmers’ markets, then come back, and make food because we were hungry. We thought, what if we could make something delicious with dinner-quality ingredients, but in a daytime format? That was definitely something San Francisco was missing.
David Landis: From the breakfast idea, how did it grow into breakfast and dinner?
Rachel Sillcocks: We opened at the end of 2021, just before Omicron (Covid, Part 2). Originally, we planned far more daytime services to create better balance for ourselves and our staff. But when Omicron hit and people weren’t going back to the office, we had to pivot from mostly brunch to 3 dinners and 2 brunches to survive.
David Landis: It’s such a fun and colorful experience. Can you talk about that design choice?
Chef Ollie: When we opened, a lot of restaurants had that very masculine vibe—concrete, wood, and not much color. We thought, why not change it up? I really wanted to work with Noz Nozawa, our designer. I loved how maximalist her design was. I’m pretty quirky and colorful, so it was cool to create a space that feels warm and inviting with that retro diner vibe.
Rachel Sillcocks: The space catches people off guard, and lets their defenses down. When you walk in, you feel joy and levity. We wanted people to feel comfortable eating serious food without having to act a certain way to enjoy it.
David Landis: Do you both prefer the term queer to describe yourselves?
Chef Ollie: Queer is fine. I’m trans, and my pronouns are they, he—I’m still figuring that stuff out.
Rachel Sillcocks: My pronouns are: she, her.
David Landis: I love that you have a lot of queer people on your staff. Here you are in North Beach, not the Castro, and it’s unexpected and very welcoming.
Rachel Sillcocks: We got really lucky with the people who have wanted to come and work with us. We have a lot of queer people who work here, and a lot of people who aren’t queer. It’s just become this space that’s fun to work in, and it allows people to be who they are, which is really important.
Chef Ollie: It allows us all to learn from each other, and to work with people from different backgrounds and cultures.
David Landis: Do you have a favorite item on the menu? And I do want you to talk about your “gayest pancakes ever.”
Rachel Sillcocks: I’m a vegetable person. One of the things Ollie does so well is the way they treat vegetables. One of my favorites is our charred baby cabbage with carrot dill dip, brown butter, toasted pecans, and grated cabrillo cheese. Caramelized cabbage is one of the most delicious things in the world. It’s cooked with the same level of skill and intention as a steak.
Chef Ollie: A classic that’s been on since the beginning is the avocado “toast”—toast in quotations. It shows my cooking style of taking something predictable and turning it upside down. It’s still nostalgic, but interesting. With horseradish, sour cream, and onion dip, sweet potato tempura, dill, and togarashi—it’s not your average avocado toast. I have fun turning the ordinary into extraordinary.
Rachel Sillcocks: (Regarding “the gayest pancakes ever”:) We’ve had this sandwich board since our pop-up days. A couple people who worked for us put it together right around Pride and named our pancakes “the gayest pancakes ever.” The pancakes started as a side dish for a Labor Day barbecue. Ollie isn’t a huge fan of pancakes, because they’re too sweet. So, they added savory components and grilled blueberries with buttermilk. People loved them, and they’ve become a signature item.
Chef Ollie: When I first did them, Rachel was like, you know these are going to be a thing, right? You can’t ever take these off the menu. Definitely, she was right about that.
David Landis: Can you explain the difference between your two functions at the restaurant?
Chef Ollie: I’m the Chef, Co-Owner. I come up with the menus, and deal with the kitchen portion of the restaurant.
Rachel Sillcocks: I’m the other Co-Owner, and I do front of house and operations.
David Landis: Is there such a thing as queer food or a queer sensibility to food?
Chef Ollie: Definitely. We often use the term “queering” at Hilda and Jesse. As a queer person, I think more about colors,
thinking outside the box, not taking myself too seriously, and having fun with the food. Being queer amplifies that spirit. Queer is a great definition for this restaurant in many ways.
David Landis: How did you pick North Beach for your location?
Rachel Sillcocks: Ollie found the space on Craigslist during the pandemic. What drew us was the space itself—the light, the windows, the size—not the neighborhood. It wasn’t a conscious choice to put a queer restaurant in North Beach. But we’ve become North Beach’s queer restaurant. The neighborhood has embraced us. It’s been a good evolution.
David Landis: You’re one of a few Michelin-starred restaurants that serve brunch in San Francisco. What was it like when you first got the call that you’d received this Michelin Award?
Chef Ollie: As a chef, we all want recognition for our hard work. Being a business owner changes that. Most of my career I hoped to receive a Michelin star, but it’s different when you own the business. It helped us in so many ways. We were very surprised. It was incredible, especially for our staff. We’ve been through a lot. We come as ourselves every day, not trying to be anybody else. It feels even more special because we got it being who we are.
Chef Ollie: Sometimes it takes having street cred for people to see what you’re doing. In the queer community especially, people are excited about the award. The ceremony was wild. We thought we were just invited as a courtesy. Then they announced a service award and Rachel went on stage. Then they said, wouldn’t it be cool if we learned Chef Ollie also received a Michelin star? We got both awards in one night. We were shocked.
Rachel Sillcocks: The award is truly a testament to our team. We’d been through a lot together and were working really hard because we believed in what we were doing. The Michelin validation enabled us to continue and feed more people. It was such a gift to everybody who was fighting for us. We built it, but we couldn’t do it without them.
David Landis: Congratulations. You should be very proud. I have a curveball question. I’m not really a sports fan, but this is a sports fan question. Do you follow the Golden State Valkyries, and have you been to Rikki’s in the Castro to watch a game?
Chef Ollie: We actually went as a restaurant to see a Valkyries game. It was one of the playoff games. Caitlin Clark was supposed to play, but then couldn’t—but that was a really cool experience. And absolutely, we’re fans. I don’t think either of us are, like, huge sports fans at the moment, but … you know, hell yeah, women’s basketball is hot. As a former basketball player myself, you know, it’s definitely popular.
David Landis: You’re a former basketball player?
Chef Ollie: Yeah, I was on track to play in college, but then I started cooking, and that was another lifetime ago. I think what’s happening with the Valkyries and women’s basketball right now is pretty awesome, so … hopefully we’ll get to go again as a group. But no, I haven’t been to Rikki’s yet, either, but we’d like to go.
David Landis: It’s a very special place because it’s very welcoming, and there aren’t a lot of places for queer women and trans people to gather.
Well, this has been really fun. Is there anything on the horizon that you might want to talk about?
Chef Ollie: We’re working on something. Stay tuned!
Hilda and Jesse: https://www.hildaandjessesf.com/
Note to my loyal readers: This will be my last column for a while. I will be out for yet another shoulder surgery, but I will be back with taste buds tingling later this spring.
David Landis, aka “The Gay Gourmet,” is a foodie, a freelance writer, and a retired PR maven. You can email him at: davidlandissf@gmail.com Or visit him online at:
www.gaygourmetsf.com
The Gay Gourmet
Published on February 12, 2026
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