Reno Provisions Sneak Peek at 100 North Sierra

So the question in this case is not so much 'What is Provisions?' so much as 'What is Provisions not?"

Mark Estee's newest venture downtown is located at 100 North Sierra Street, in the cooly-painted building that used to house JC Penney waaaaay back in the day before my time here. Longtime locals still refer to it as such, as well as its neighbor, 'The Woolworths Building.'

Provisions will be many things. Let's start off with the entrance area. This will house the cafeteria seating area and private dining room, both shown in the three photos below.

With the cafeteria, think Whole Foods meets Dean & DeLuca, a higher-end market in Manhattan. While Whole Foods provides a self-serve cafeteria that charges by the pound (next thing you know, your beefed up lunch salad is $20), Provisions' cafeteria will be more like a luxury high school lunch assembly line of sorts, where you are served as you walk down the line. The cafeteria will serve up breakfast, lunch and dinner and feature a rotating menu.

The front entrance to Provisions.

The main cafeteria seating area plus a private dining room. The private dining room is the smaller framed area in this photo.

A panoramic shot of the main dining area for the cafeteria.

Nearly all of the seating and tables will be recycled from previous uses. All of the food will be prepared on-site in a massive kitchen in the basement level, which I will get to momentarily. You can bring your own container for the food and get a discount, and dine-in and take-out will both be available. Provisions will carry an art-deco theme throughout, and this will be carried into the dining room as well.

After normal operating hours, the cafeteria can be rented out for private parties, pop-up restaurants, or whatever.

Further back in Provisions, shown below, will be the market, retail area, and demo kitchen. The market will be similar to Dean & DeLuca, and feature fresh cuts of meat from the on-site butcher shop, fresh breads and pastries baked on-site, and a large deli case with prepared foods such as sandwiches and salads.

Since Provisions will follow the nose-to-tail branding and philosophy of Campo and Heritage, you'll be able to get all kinds of fresh cuts of meat from the market.

Also available in the small market will be most of the ingredients Estee uses in his restaurants, including spices, anchovies, chili sauce, and much more. Juices, gelato, coffee and smoothies will also be available in the market.

Looking at the space for the market and retail component.

Even further back in the space, will be the demo kitchen and retail component. Additional windows will be cut out on the ground level of 100 North Sierra on the First Street side for these areas to let  light in, which is good because during my tour it was so dark I couldn't really get a good shot of these areas.

The retail component will be a real store, and have its own direct side entrance on First Street, similar to Fitness for 10's side entrance. Here you'll be able to pick up kitchenware such as knives and cutting boards, as well as some packaged dry goods such as olive oils. Mark Estee is really hoping adding this retail component will spur additional retail in the same building and surrounding area.

In the far rear of the space will be a demo kitchen, fully wired for sound where you can catch cooking demonstrations, or rent out the space yourself to give a cooking demo, and the space can also be rented in conjunction with the cafeteria for a pop-up restaurant.

Mark then took us down into the basement, where the real magic happens, and the true genius of this concept will reside. 

The entire basement level will be a gigantic kitchen, which will include a butcher shop, a bakery, six burner stove, tilt-skillet, 6x6 fermentation cooler, a dry cooler for salamis, huge walk in refrigeration and freezers, and an artisan bread oven, the same one used at Buchon restaurant (he didn't mention which Buchon restaurant, but assuming the one in France or Vegas.)

The massive basement kitchen/prep area

The concept here is to centralize much of the food prep for Mark Estee's restaurants. For example, the buns for Burger Me will be baked here. Much of the prep work for Campo will be done here, as well as Heritage, because of their close proximity. But the concept extends beyond just Estee's restaurant, as he also wants to supply food for other retsurants as well. Anyone can come in and produce for their own restaurant....a local kitchen factory of sorts, and vertical integration at its finest.

Estee is shooting for a mid-november opening for all of this wonderfulness.

Beyond Provisions, the owner of 100 North Sierra is also investing into other parts of the building as well. Below, you can see the spots where second-floor windows will be installed. The 2nd Floor of 100 North Sierra will be converted to office space.

So there you have it! A sneak peek of Provisions, which will be a cafeteria, market, retail, cooking demo area, and food production facility. Talk about a mouthful!