Community

People matter. Our clients, employees, designers, and builders are vital to our success. We strive to be conscientious and bring positive change through our work. We want to live, work and eat in a community that shares our values.

Mastery

Discipline, collaboration and continual improvement mean that we advance ourselves to offer a better experience for our clients and employees.

Relevance

Food, design and technology underpin our approach - time and place are important to creating a unique experience for our clients and, in turn, for their customers.

Levi Hunt, Owner

Levi started his restaurant career in the pastry kitchen at San Francisco’s iconic Boulevard Restaurant, meticulously caramelizing crème brûlées and churning ice cream from scratch. Inspired by the discipline and community built within that kitchen, he started taking cooking classes before his shift, and ultimately completed culinary school. After several more years working from kitchens to management, Levi discovered restaurant construction as his sweet spot after overseeing the expansion of a local bakery chain, tripling the number of stores over the course of four years (growing the chain from six to 18 stores!).

After dreaming of opening his own restaurant for so long, Levi realized he could offer a skillset that might have an even greater impact on the food community in the Bay Area: building exceptional restaurants for visionary restaurateurs. Leveraging his love of cooking combined with his expertise in building and project management, Levi has spent the last seven years doing just that. In 2015, Levi launched Cookline, knowing he could play a role in transforming the restaurant building experience into one of partnership and innovation, while appreciating the realities of business ownership in the bay area.

Chris Brown, Owner

Chris started his construction career as facilities and project manager for restaurants, working with general contractors on new builds and remodels. This experience gave Chris an intimate, real-life understanding of the challenges associated with building, opening and operating restaurants. As a founding owner of Cookline, Chris worked as a Project Manager, delivering remodels and new restaurants for independent and franchise clients. These days, Chris oversees day-to-day operations of Cookline, including financial oversight. The company is guided by his steady hand and solution-oriented nature.

Valerie Oja, Director of Operations

Valerie’s interest in construction and project management began shortly after she earned her bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Her knack for problem solving and her need to understand how things are built have always naturally guided her, and in her early career she “learned by doing” at various commercial job sites as a project engineer for general contractors building senior living facilities and apartments. Upon joining Cookline, she sharpened her skills at developing process and efficiencies, as well as developed a newfound appreciation for restaurants and the restaurant industry. As Cookline’s Director of Operations, she ensures the team is performing to its highest potential. Her experience, along with her problem-solving ability, natural leadership and communication skills have kept the company highly trained, disciplined, motivated and organized to deliver successful projects and restaurants for our clients.