The tree House, Oakland

Joe Perryman and Tawana Nichols founded The Tree House to celebrate their love of simple food cooked well. They caution diners not to mistake simple for boring, though. They like to play with flavor combinations and cooking techniques, but they also like to let each ingredient in a dish speak for itself. They sometimes serve their cheeseburgers, for instance, with whole corn on the cob simply bedecked with butter, salt, and a name tag that says, "Hi, my name is Corn." And during breakfast, the chefs combine entrees of diced potatoes, kielbasa, and eggs, and layer bacon, potatoes, sunny-side up eggs, and cheese for The Tree House Stack.