Eight years ago, Nick Hahn had never worked in a restaurant and had zero culinary training. Now, having cooked at fine dining establishments like Nobu in Chicago and Michelin-starred n/naka in Los Angeles, he is the executive chef at a Santa Cruz must-visit.
“I had no idea that things would work out for me on the timeline that they did, or that I would one day be here living in Santa Cruz,” said Hahn, who has helmed the kitchen at Bad Animal since January.
Destination-worthy, yet with the vibe of a neighborhood gem, Bad Animal is a bookshop, wine bar and restaurant rolled into one. It specializes in used and rare books, natural wines that can be enjoyed on-site or purchased for takeaway, and a menu that puts a Santa Cruz spin on the modern Parisian bistro.
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It’s the latest chapter (pun intended) in Hahn’s impressive career arc. After graduating from the University of Chicago, where he studied visual arts and cinema and media studies, he practiced art during the day and bartended at night. He soon switched gears, working in advertising as a content strategist.
The job was unfulfilling but afforded him plenty of downtime. “I started fantasizing about cooking,” Hahn recalled. “I was watching food content all the time, like Eater and Bon Appétit videos and ‘Chef’s Table’ on Netflix.” He accumulated cookbooks and researched restaurants and chefs, near and far.
Top left clockwise: Chef Nick Hahn; Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif; miso cod; shelves are filled with books at Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif.
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Top down: Chef Nick Hahn; Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif; shelves are filled with books at Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif; Miso cod.
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In 2018, the then-23-year-old heard that chef Iliana Regan — whose restaurant, Elizabeth, had a Michelin star — was hiring for Kitsune, her Japanese pub in Chicago. Hahn recounted his email pitch: “I don’t have any experience, but I’m super interested, I believe in my work ethic, and I’m a fast learner.
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“They told me, ‘OK, why don’t you come in for a stage?’ I had no idea what that word was.”
The stage, or trial, resulted in his first restaurant gig. His second was at Proxi, a global street food spot from another chef (Andrew Zimmerman) whose earlier venture (Sepia) earned a Michelin star. “I worked with chefs who held the same kind of standards that they did at their fine dining restaurants, but we served food in a casual setting,” Hahn said.
Those experiences provided a foundation of skills — from how to cut an onion properly and manage a prep list to the organization and cleanliness necessary to run a high-level operation. Working his way through various kitchen stations, he was exposed to new ingredients and cooking techniques.
Hahn helped open Nobu’s Chicago location, where he was a sous chef prior to decamping to California’s Central Coast when his partner enrolled in a Master of Fine Arts program at UC Santa Cruz. He landed at Mentone, acclaimed chef David Kinch’s Riviera-inflected restaurant in Aptos. A meal at Bad Animal, however, led to an abbreviated turn at Mentone.
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Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
At the time, as part of Bad Animal’s culinary artist-in-residence program, chef Lalita Kaewsawang was running Hanloh Thai Food out of the downtown Santa Cruz venue. “As soon as I stepped into this place, I was enamored,” Hahn remembered. “I met Lalita, and it seemed like it would be a really good match for us to work together. I felt like there was an opportunity here that I didn’t want to miss out on.”
A novel concept
It’s easy to be charmed by Bad Animal, before ever taking a single bite or sip. The 3,000-square-foot space features a banquette that wraps around a corner, art hung salon-style, and chandeliers and a disco ball suspended amid metal ceiling trusses. Wall-to-wall bookshelves near the entrance are labeled “Hot S—t” — the bookshop’s version of staff picks. It seats about 40 inside and 10 or so more outside for dinner.
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The idea for the hybrid business dates back a decade, when Andrew Sivak and Jess MacKay, childhood friends from Michigan, were roommates in Santa Cruz. Bad Animal, whose moniker is derived from Euripides’ ancient Greek tragedy “The Bacchae,” merges their areas of expertise.
Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
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Copies of the Evergreen Review for sale at Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
After cheffing at San Francisco restaurants such as Zuni Café and Greens, MacKay shifted her focus to natural wine and moved to Santa Cruz in 2016. Sivak, who completed a Ph.D. in history of consciousness at UC Santa Cruz in 2015, was teaching at the university, as well as scouting rare books for book and music store Logos, which closed in 2017 after a 48-year run.
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He described the duo’s approach to the menu as “imagining Santa Cruz was a neighborhood in Paris. If they had access to the agriculture and proteins that we have here, what kind of food would be produced.”
Bad Animal debuted in spring 2019. Chef Todd Parker, an alum of Kinch’s three-Michelin-starred Manresa, oversaw the bistro-inspired fare. But less than a year in, the pandemic prompted a shutdown. (Parker went on to launch Bookie’s Pizza in Santa Cruz.)
A rare Shakespeare set sits behind the register at Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
Owner Andrew Sivak holds a rare Shakespeare Volume 10 at Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
In fall 2021, Sivak and MacKay reemerged with an artist-in-residence format for the restaurant. Chef Katherine Stern was the first, offering her farmers market-driven cuisine at Bad Animal. (She subsequently opened The Midway restaurant on Soquel Avenue.)
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Next up, in 2022, was Kaewsawang’s Hanloh Thai Food, which had built a fanbase through pop-ups. In June 2025, Hanloh made the Los Angeles Times’ list of 101 best restaurants in California. Four months later, though, Bad Animal announced that it was ending its residency program.
Given Hanloh’s success, the change may have puzzled some, but restoring the Bad Animal bistro was the plan all along. “We knew that once restaurant culture returned to what it was in the pre-pandemic years, that we would reclaim the kitchen,” Sivak said.
Back to a bistro
An Instagram post in December explained that Bad Animal was reverting to its origins with “a very Santa Cruz take on the current Parisian bistro scene, which is increasingly being shaped by the diverse backgrounds of a younger generation of chefs drawing on their own ethnic culinary experiences to push the boundaries of modern French cuisine.”
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Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
A familiar face would lead the kitchen: Hahn. Following his initial two-year stint at Bad Animal under Kaewsawang, he had returned to his hometown of Los Angeles, where he continued to hone his skills at n/naka, chef Niki Nakayama’s Michelin-starred Japanese restaurant.
In coming back to Santa Cruz at the beginning of 2026, Hahn envisioned “holding on to the attention to detail, but injecting a sense of warmth that isn’t so formal,” he said. “I take what I do very seriously, but I don’t want the guests to feel like eating here is a serious experience.”
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While dishes such as the gougères ($8) and radish and butter served with bread ($8) are French classics, others reflect Hahn’s upbringing in a Korean Brazilian household, surrounded by LA’s culinary diversity, as well as his professional chops.
Among the standouts of an August dinner was the artichoke and crostini starter ($10): a puree comprising artichokes from Rodoni Farms in Santa Cruz and maitakes from Far West Fungi in Moss Landing combined with caramelized shallots atop baguette slices. (Monterey’s Ad Astra supplies the bread.)
The popular miso cod ($34) nods to Hahn’s days at Nobu, where miso-marinated black cod is a signature. At Bad Animal, he sources the fish from Ocean2Table. “This is what’s so amazing about being in Santa Cruz: We get the freshest, highest-quality seafood,” he enthused. “Everything is traceable; everything is sustainable. I could tell you the name of the person who caught it and the name of their boat.”
Artichoke and maitake crostini at Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
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Miso cod, artichoke and mistake crostini, and chicken schnitzel at Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
Gougères at Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
The chicken schnitzel ($30) harkens to the bestselling pork schnitzel from Parker’s tenure at Bad Animal. Hahn’s schnitzel starts with whole chicken legs from Fogline Farm in Pescadero. The skin and bones are removed. The meat — a thigh and drumstick — is pounded to flatten and tenderize it, and then seasoned with dry spices. Once dredged in flour, eggs and panko breadcrumbs, the chicken is fried to order.
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The golden-brown cutlet was accompanied by a cabbage remoulade that incorporated produce from the farmers market down the street. “It feels universal in a way,” Hahn said of the entree, which also evokes chicken katsu or Milanese.
A winning trifecta
Sivak estimated that 40% of patrons take advantage of all three aspects of Bad Animal — buying food, wine and books. Gross sales are higher for the restaurant and bar, but net profit is higher on the book side. “Everything contributes in a wonderful way,” he said.
Customers are welcome to imbibe while perusing the shop’s 12,000 titles, ranging from a Cormac McCarthy paperback for a couple of bucks to a rare early-1700s Shakespeare set in the ballpark of $40,000. (I recently nabbed a pristine copy of “Jeremy Frey: Woven,” the artist’s first monograph, for $28 — roughly half its retail price.)
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Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
Bad Animal in Santa Cruz, Calif., Sept. 10, 2026.
Lance Yamamoto/SFGATE
As for folks spilling wine, according to Sivak, “it hasn’t been an issue. That’s always the initial reaction to the concept: ‘Well, everybody’s gonna splash wine and beer all over your inventory.’ I think it’s happened once, and it was an accident. So, yes, you can have a glass of pét-nat, and we’ll put a $20,000 book in your hands.”
Bad Animal has been such a hit, an expansion into the adjacent 1,000-square-foot space is underway. Expected to be ready in 2027, the addition will function as an art gallery and a private event site, plus allow for more books and diners.
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In the meantime, Hahn continues to finesse and broaden the menu, which includes a dozen-ish items. “Part of hiring a young, talented, dynamic chef is that the kitchen and the restaurant will evolve with him,” Sivak said. “We love what he’s doing — paying homage to these different Asian and French traditions, but making it hyperlocal. We’re along for the ride, too.”
Bad Animal, 1011 Cedar St., Santa Cruz. The kitchen and bar are open Wednesday through Sunday, 5-9 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday. The bookshop is open Wednesday through Sunday, noon-9 p.m., closed Monday and Tuesday.
Dining and Cooking