The Makers: Precision and Memory Shape SPK in Kenwood
By Tim Carl
A New York Morning in Sonoma County
SONOMA COUNTY, Calif. — We first heard about it from winemaker Dan Petroski. In his Harvest Day 57 Substack post, he wrote about finding “a true New York–style B.E.C.” in Sonoma Valley — a foil-wrapped breakfast sandwich that somehow carried the pulse of a Manhattan morning. That note led us straight to SPK Coffee & Breakfast Sandwich, a compact walk-up counter in front of Golden Bear Station on Highway 12 in Kenwood.
By midmorning, a line has begun to form at the open-air counter, the sound of traffic blending with the hiss of steaming milk. Cars and trucks hum past as husband-and-wife team Heidy He and Chef Joshua Smookler move through their routine at SPK, which they own and operate together along with Golden Bear Station. Outside, Heidy makes coffee for guests who sit at pink tables beneath green umbrellas, sipping lattes from blue paper cups printed with “We Are Happy to Serve You.” Inside, Smookler works the griddle alone most mornings, moving with quiet precision. He toasts the roll, cracks the egg, turns the bacon once, melts the cheese and folds each sandwich into paper and foil. Every motion is deliberate.
Each sandwich is a small act of comfort — warm, familiar and exact. Smookler builds them the same way every time, not from stubbornness but from memory.
“How you do one thing is how you do everything,” he said. “The sandwich looks simple, but there’s nowhere to hide. If the egg’s wrong, the whole thing is wrong.”
The Discipline of Simplicity
SPK stands for salt, pepper, ketchup — the quick shorthand of New York bodegas (small neighborhood delis where locals stop for coffee and breakfast before work). Smookler kept the name but replaced the condiment.
“We don’t actually use ketchup,” he said. “It’s a Japanese tonkatsu-style sauce. Less sweet, more depth.”
The change may sound small, but it defines the whole approach — grounded in tradition, exact in craft, unwilling to compromise. That same precision is why there are no substitutions on the menu.
“It’s not about denying preferences,” he said. “Each sandwich has to be built a certain way or it stops being what it is.”
The menu is stripped to essentials — three sandwiches, one pastry, one cookie and coffee. The B.E.C. on a Kaiser Roll ($8), the B.E.C. on a Boichik Bagel ($12) and the New Jersey Pork Roll ($16) anchor the lineup. The pork version uses an Amish-style fermented ham cured with lactic acid, more like charcuterie than deli meat.
“It’s more complex,” Smookler said. “You can’t find anything like it out here.”
Each sandwich is wrapped first in paper, then in foil to hold its heat — just like the ones handed out from bodegas on cold New York mornings.
“They’re supposed to be eaten while walking,” he said. “In New York, you grab one on a freezing day and it’s still hot at the last bite.”
The kouign-amann pastry that Heidy bakes glows caramel brown in the case. It’s usually gone by 9 a.m. A single XXL cookie ($5), buttery and gooey with chocolate, sits next to a stack of blue-and-white paper cups. The latte ($5.50) pours smooth, its milk brushed with faint swirls of tan.
Every Element Counts
Smookler’s ingredients tell the story. The eggs are Happy Egg organic free-range, with deep golden yolks. The bacon comes from Nueske’s in Wisconsin, thick-cut and smoky. The Kaiser rolls are soft but sturdy, coated with poppy seeds. The bagels are from Boichik Bagels in Berkeley — chewy, covered in sesame seeds and close enough to the real New York thing to satisfy any homesick visitor.
Coffee beans arrive from Sparrow Coffee Roastery in Chicago, roasted by Chris Chacko, whose blends appear at Michelin-starred restaurants such as Single Thread.
“He’s meticulous,” Smookler said. “He roasts with intention, and that’s how we cook.”
Even the cups matter. The blue-and-white Greek-diner paper cup — the one seen in “The Sopranos,” “The Office” and “The Wolf of Wall Street” — is the same one Smookler remembers from childhood.
“That cup is what morning looked like when I was growing up,” he said. “It’s memory in your hand.”
The Family Behind the Counter
Smookler and Heidy built SPK themselves. The business is self-funded, the scale deliberate. They live nearby in Kenwood with their two children, ages 11 and 13.
“We wanted to build something honest and sustainable,” he said. “It’s not big, but it’s ours.”
Heidy runs the counter and makes the pastries every morning.
“We practiced for two years,” she said. “Now people plan their mornings around them.”
The couple moves in rhythm — she greets customers and steams milk outside while he builds each sandwich inside. It’s a quiet choreography born of years working together in restaurants.
From Long Island to Kenwood
Smookler was born in Korea and adopted by a Jewish family on Long Island. His earliest memories are of deli counters and diners — pastrami, matzo-ball soup, bacon-egg-and-cheese sandwiches.
“That’s what New York tastes like to me,” he said. “It’s comfort, it’s energy, it’s home.”
After working in fine dining, he and Heidy opened Mu Ramen in Queens, a small pop-up behind a bagel shop that critic Pete Wells later called one of New York’s best. The attention was sudden and intense.
In 2021 they left the city for Sonoma County, seeking space and calm. They opened Animo in Sonoma, then Golden Bear Station in Kenwood. SPK Coffee & Breakfast Sandwich has become their latest chapter — and a link back to the flavors of home.
“We love it here,” Smookler said. “But we missed these kinds of breakfasts. So we decided to make them ourselves.”
The Regulars Arrive Early
Jill Lustenberger, from Oakmont, said she stopped once and now drives in weekly.
“The first time I bought a B.E.C. I took it home and it was still hot,” she said. “The yolk and sauce soaked into the roll. It was perfect. I mean perfect.”
Jacqueline Lee, from Santa Rosa, heard about SPK from her boyfriend’s mother, a longtime local restaurant owner.
“We take breakfast sandwiches seriously where I’m from,” she said. “You can’t customize your own here and that’s a good sign. It means they know what they’re doing.”
She ordered several to bring to work.
“Everyone loved them,” she said. “It’s exactly what this area needed — fast, real, made with care.”
Smookler nods at the comments but keeps working. The foil pile rises, the espresso machine sighs and the smell of bacon drifts across Highway 12 toward the vineyards.
A Philosophy in a Sandwich
For Smookler, SPK is about more than breakfast. It’s a way of translating memory — bringing the rhythm of New York mornings into the calm of Sonoma Valley.
“Food connects people to memory,” he said. “If someone bites into this and remembers home or some past experience, that’s success.”
He and Heidy plan to expand slowly, experimenting with pastrami on rye and a proper cheesesteak, both built on the same principle of precision over volume.
“Simple doesn’t mean easy,” he said. “Every step and ingredient has to be perfect.”
By 10 a.m. the line fades, the griddle cools and the blue cups sit stacked by the window. Smookler wipes the counter, takes a sip of coffee and looks out at the road.
“You do it right and people taste it,” he said. “It’s not just food — it’s a way of remembering.”
SPK & Coffee, 8445 Sonoma Highway, Kenwood. Open Wednesday through Friday, 7 to 11 a.m., Saturday and Sunday, 8 a.m. to noon.
—
Tim Carl is a NorCal-based photojournalist.
Editor’s Note: The Makers is a series from Sonoma County Features that profiles the people behind the region’s most dedicated food, wine and craft endeavors — not as brands, but as hands-on stewards of technique, care and community.
Today’s Polls:
Explore These Related Articles:
Browse All Sonoma County Features Stories
or explore…
All Napa Valley Features Stories
