Facing seemingly insolvable performance challenges from its kitchen ventilation system, Bridges Restaurant & Bar, Danville, Calif. was ready to outlay upwards of $20,000 for a new rooftop make-up air system.

Instead of exiting through the dual exhaust cooking hood, smoke and food odors wafted into portions of the 3,300-square-foot dining area raising complaints from patrons seated at tables near the kitchen.

The 24-year-old, independently-owned Bridges is popularly known in the San Francisco area for its casual-elegant dining and also as the famous location for actor Robin Williams’ comedic multiple costume changes in the 1993 Hollywood movie, “Mrs. Doubtfire.” Because of its upscale image and popularity, the vexing dining area cooking odors were bad for business and affected the overall guest experience, according to Kevin Gin, executive chef and a member of the restaurant’s investor consortium.

Furthermore, drafts from the existing make-up air HVAC system were drawing smoke and grease, that should have been contained within the cooking exhaust hood, and depositing them onto the diffuser, walls ceilings and other kitchen surfaces requiring more than $1,000 annually in maintenance labor and cleaning compounds.

Besides odor infiltration and maintenance costs, the drafts from the air conditioning supply over the food prep area was prematurely cooling prepared hot entrees while employees in other kitchen areas were uncomfortably hot.

Finding a Low Cost Solution
A large HVAC retrofit outlay seemed imminent until an arranged meeting between Gin and an HVAC ventilation product manger attending a Bridges-held 25th anniversary dinner for the nearby Food Service Technology Center (FSTC), a San Ramon, Calif.-based commercial foodservice equipment performance test lab funded by Pacific Gas & Electric. Nick Paschke, product manager at textile HVAC ductwork manufacturer, DuctSox Corp., Peosta, Iowa, recommended a custom textile air dispersion system designed specifically for kitchens. The ceiling-mounted device disperses airflow uniformly, parallel and in front of the kitchen exhaust hood. The fabric diffuser is an easy-to-install replacement for metal air distribution diffusers that commonly cause kitchen exhaust hood overflow.

Instead of a 5,000-cfm make-up air equipment replacement, only the kitchen’s lone conventional 3 x 3-foot supply box and four metal diffusers were switched out. Located over the food prep line to distribute air throughout the 1,000-square-foot kitchen, the diffusers were replaced with two eight-foot-long, 28-inch-diameter D-shaped KitchenSox fabric diffusers. Instead of the metal diffuser’s estimated 500-fpm airflow that caused turbulence and disruption of the cooking hood’s capture, the air is gently and evenly dispersed through the fabric into the entire kitchen area at a significantly slower 85-fpm rate. Without the previous high velocity airflow and subsequent turbulence, the dual exhaust cooking hood now efficiently performs up to its design standards and captures smoke, grease particulates and cooking odors without overflow.

CulinAire Systems, El Dorado Hills, Calif., a foodservice ventilation contractor specializing in demand ventilation controls and engineered kitchen ventilation equipment, fabricated the sheet metal plenum and metal/fabric adaptors that supply the 16 linear feet of fabric duct. The fabric duct system and metal accessories were installed by CulinAire overnight without disruption to the kitchen operation.

Without the drafts, the excessive airborne smoke, grease deposits and dirt that the return air system had once drawn onto diffusers, kitchen walls, ceilings and cabinets no longer occurs, which has expedited daily cleaning and sanitation routines.

Gin also plans annual cleaning since the fabric diffuser can be disassembled by kitchen staffers in just minutes and commercially laundered, a process that would require days to complete by an outside contractor with a metal system.

Green Mission Accomplished
By improving the air distribution and eliminating the hood’s hot air overflow into the kitchen, a considerable energy savings supplements Bridges’ green mission, which is strategically marketed among its clientele. Gin said it’s difficult to pinpoint energy savings of the new system because FSTC continually uses Bridges as a beta test site for new technology. However, Gin did estimate recent Bridges’ conservation efforts are saving the restaurant more than 20-percent in energy costs with quick investment paybacks.

For example, FSTC oversees results of Bridges’ variable speed Intelli-Hood control, which is manufactured by Melink Corp., Milford, Ohio, and won the renowned “AHR Innovation Award” in the ventilation category presented at the 2012 AHR Expo in Chicago.

Other green equipment includes:
· A Cyclone Xi 96-percent efficient hot water heater by A.O. Smith, Ashland City, Tenn.;
· A variable temperature control for more efficiently running walk-in cooler operation by E-Control Systems, Sherman Oaks, Calif.;
· High temperature/reduced water kitchen and bar dishwashers by Hobart Corp., Troy, Ohio;
· A lighting retrofit from standard bulbs to compact fluorescent;
· The highest efficiency equipment available today in fryers, convection ovens and ice machines by Vulcan-Hart Co., Baltimore, Md.; the Garland Group, Freeland, Pa.; and Manitowoc Ice Inc., Manitowoc, Wis.; respectively.

Bridges’ challenges with HVAC ventilation was solved completely with fabric diffusers that cost less than ten percent of the approximate $20,000 for a new make-up air system. Furthermore, the energy savings and reduced maintenance costs offer a payback of less than one year on the air diffusion system. “This is really a common problem (inadequate cooking hood drafting) I think many restaurants suffer from and don’t realize there’s a simple, inexpensive solution,” said Gin. “We once thought replacing the HVAC system would improve our kitchen ventilation challenges, but we now realize it probably wouldn’t have remedied what was actually a ventilation problem that fabric ductwork solved.”

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Just before the Hood Mountain Regional Park parking lot, a narrow road barely big enough for a car climbs into the forest. Paved in parts, the road twists and rises until it reaches a mountain meadow that has served as a family’s gathering place for five generations.

Offering sweeping views of Sonoma County, the 289-acre property, called El Recreo, burned in both the 2017 and 2020 wildfires.

But it has recovered slowly, and all the while shaped the lives of its caretakers in the Perrin, Bucklin, Tilt and English families. Now, in a deal with the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, El Recreo is set to remain preserved as conservation land.

The district is in the homestretch of purchasing a $898,000 conservation easement for the property – a complicated process that has taken about nine years, needing buy-in from all of the property’s 13 owners. The easement will extinguish future development rights on the land, meaning it would be permanently protected even if sold.

“It just seemed like the natural thing to do,” said Arden Bucklin-Sporer, whose family owns the property.

It borders Hood Mountain on the north side, overlooking Oakmont. The property will not be opened to the public and will remain available for the family’s private use.

But the benefits of preserving land like El Recreo as a conservation area extend beyond public recreation, said Lauren Alpert, a community relations assistant for the open space district.

“When you’re protecting areas like this you’re protecting watershed, clean air,” Alpert said. Wildlife habitat – the property takes in headwaters for both the Santa Rosa and Sonoma creek drainages – and scenic viewsheds are other conservation benefits.

Alpert added that El Recreo will also serve as an important wildland buffer for its neighboring developed communities including Oakmont and Kenwood.

This is not the family’s first foray into conservation. Bucklin-Sporer’s mother and stepfather were Anne and Otto Teller, local land stewardship visionaries who helped found the Sonoma Land Trust.

It was Bucklin-Sporer’s grandmother, Adelaid Perrin, who began that family legacy, when she purchased El Recreo for around $48,000 in the 1950s.

Born in Guatemala, Perrin spent her early childhood on a coffee farm until the family moved back to California following her father’s death from malaria, Bucklin-Sporer said.

An “ardent admirer” of nature, independent and with “energy off the wall,” Perrin turned her attention to finding a family retreat once her three daughters were grown. It was El Recreo’s wild meadow nestled near the top of the mountain that sealed the deal, Bucklin-Sporer said.

Over the years the family left much of the land untouched, but built two homes and a swimming pool near the meadow. It was there that Anne Teller would bring her four children from their home in San Francisco during the weekends, and for weeks during the summer. She used it to teach them self-sufficiency, economy and an appreciation for the natural world.

“I think all of us are the way we are because of this place,” Bucklin-Sporer said.

Growing up, Bucklin-Sporer and her siblings would ride horses, care for injured birds they found including owls and a vulture, and acquired skills including identifying animal tracks.

Many have since pursued careers connected to land stewardship and ecology, including farming, restoration and nonprofit work, Bucklin Sporer said.

Supervisor Susan Gorin, who represents the area encompassing El Recreo, praised the family’s “extraordinary legacy they have, and continue to leave.”

“You need to take responsibility and manage the land,” Gorin said. “Especially in threat of fire.”

The family is both city and country, Bucklin-Sporer joked as she walked a grassy path to a knoll on a recent sunny morning.

Strolling along in Birkenstocks, undaunted by the prickly underbrush and ever-present threat of rattlesnakes, Bucklin-Sporer chewed on a blade of grass and led the way to a knoll overlooking Hood Mountain. Her rescue dog Xochi followed behind.

The destination held special meaning. It is where Bucklin-Sporer’s brother got married, and where their grandmother, mother and aunts’ ashes now rest.

“They burned twice so that’s good,” Bucklin-Sporer said, sharing some of her dry humor as she referenced the 2017 and 2020 wildfires

The wildfires ripped through El Recreo, leaving behind scorched trees and taking the family’s two homes.

The foundation and chimney of the house that Bucklin-Sporer’s parents built stood still. A partial brick wall also remains, holding a rusted sign bearing the home’s 8000 address.

Bucklin-Sporer said she visits the site frequently to check on its status.

The loss was devastating.

Though the family’s many generations are now far flung, with members in San Francisco and beyond, El Recreo remains their heart, Bucklin-Sporer said.

The property now serves as their camp. Two tents and an Airstream trailer sit around a pool that survived the fires at the far end of the meadow. An outdoor wooden stand spruced up with string lights and complete with a sink, grill and griddle make up a kitchen of sorts.

The choice to keep the property “wild” is a reflection of Perrin’s love for all things nature, and Anne Teller’s commitment to low-impact living, Bucklin-Sporer said.

“That was my mother’s perspective,” she noted. “You want to keep it simple, you don’t want a lot of water use, you want to keep it thrifty.”

Following the wildfires, the family has watched the land grow back slowly and in some surprising ways.

Bucklin-Sporer said they have seen new types of woodpeckers on the property, as well as more quail.

Her youngest son, August Sporer, 30, observed that more wildflowers are visible in the places where trees burned.

The conservation deal allows the owners to build two homes on the property, to replace the ones that burned. Bucklin-Sporer and her siblings and cousins ​​have left that decision to the next generation.

“I’m curious and keen to know what they want to do with it,” Bucklin-Sporer said.

The rest of the property will remain as is, and much like it was decades ago.

August Sporer praised the decision.

“This was a fantastic way to make sure this stays in the family,” Sporer said.

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.

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