ABOUT ONE BY SPORK

We host 18 guests each night for a uniquely intimate and immersive culinary experience. Seated around a circular chef’s counter with a front-row view of our open kitchen, we offer a single tasting menu with curated beverage pairings to complement each course.

Rooted in classic French technique, our approach marries time-honored methods like dry-aging and fermentation with cutting-edge practices enhanced by modernist tools.

From hyper-scratch cooking—where even the bread and butter are made in-house—to incorporating ingredients from our expansive on-site urban micro farm, every plate is a balance of tradition and creativity, with flavor always leading the way.

A singular dining experience.

BEVERAGE PROGRAM

Eighteen guests. Two pairing paths. One standard of excellence.

Our beverage program is a creative equal to the kitchen — not an accompaniment to the food, but a parallel conversation with it.

Beverage Director Cecil Usher designs each pairing as its own course, alternating between cocktails and wine to build a deliberate arc across the meal: from light and aromatic, through savory and structured, to bold and sweet. Every drink is made with the same obsessive craft applied to the plate — using house ferments, rotary evaporation, hydrosols, ultrasonic extraction, and clarification techniques developed in-house.

The non-alcoholic pairing is not a substitution. It is fully re-engineered — built on distillates, lacto-fermented juices, botanical bitters, tannin extraction, and tea — to deliver the same structural complexity and narrative arc as the spirited pairing.

THE EXPERIENCE

"The prix fixe meal is more like a performance." - Pittsburgh Magazine

One by Spork is intimate by design. Our guests gather around a circular chef's counter — close enough to watch a sauce get finished, to ask the person who made your drink what's in it, to feel the difference between a restaurant that serves food and one that tells a story through it.

The evening moves with intention. It begins in the lounge with welcome bites and a first drink. It unfolds at the counter, course by course, with every dish and pairing introduced by the people who made them. It ends back in the lounge, with dessert, an after-dinner drink, and a parting gift of house-made bean-to-bar chocolate.

Polished and personal. Precise and alive. We’ve spent years building toward providing this experience for you!

OUR URBAN MICRO FARM

A Living Pantry

After years of building soil health, what began as a garden has evolved into one of the city’s first high-production, in-ground urban micro farms (read more about it in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Our dedicated team of gardeners has transitioned from raised beds to in-ground cultivation—expanding our growing capacity by nearly 300%—and we’re working toward USDA urban farm registration.

Our urban micro farm is more than a source of ingredients—it’s an extension of our kitchen. By growing with intention and preserving with purpose, we create a menu that’s deeply connected to time and place. Here, the garden isn’t just outside; it’s woven into every bite, every sip, and every season.

OUR FERMENTATION PROGRAM

The Foundation of Flavor

At One by Spork, fermentation is not just a technique—it’s a philosophy that guides our culinary & beverage program. Fermentation adds layers of depth, complexity, brightness and umami that cannot be achieved any other way, helping us elevate each course of the tasting menu. We craft dozens of variations of misos, garums, and amazakes, using everything from rye bread and chickpeas to macadamias and mushrooms. A spoonful of garum might enrich a sauce, a miso made from red peas could season a dressing, or a silky amazake may show up in your cocktail pairing. Every dish and drink benefits from this quiet alchemy, adding character and complexity while staying rooted in deliciousness.

To support this work, we built a dedicated fermentation room—an environment designed to nurture koji rice and amino pastes with precision and care. It’s a space held to the highest standards of safety and craft, where temperature, humidity, and time are carefully logged and monitored each day. For guests, that simply means the flavors in front of you are alive, layered, and expressive of a process that blends tradition with innovation. Whether you’re tasting a clarified tomato ferment, a miso-infused chocolate, or a cocktail built on house-made amazake, you’re experiencing the patient art of fermentation at its most vibrant.

OUR VISION AND OUR HISTORY

Our Vision

One by Spork is the truest form thus far of what we’ve been building since the original Spork opened its doors in 2016. Our mission then was to bring something fresh and exciting to Pittsburgh’s dining scene. We are creating something that belongs to a a national conversation about what restaurants can be; not just in Pittsburgh - everywhere.

Every ferment, every pairing, every course is created with this standard in mind. We’re not interested in simply being the best tasting menu in Pittsburgh. We’re interested in being one of the best anywhere.

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

From the start, it was more than just a restaurant—it was a space driven by passion, creativity, and a commitment to elevating the dining experience. What began as a tapas concept quickly evolved into something more: a dynamic, ever-evolving culinary journey that pushed boundaries and redefined what dining in Pittsburgh could be.

Over eight incredible years, we explored, experimented, and grew—not just in what we served but in how we approached food. We developed an urban garden to bring fresh, seasonal ingredients into our kitchen, introduced amuse-bouches to add a layer of artistry to our menus, and continuously refined our craft. Every shift in our approach brought us closer to something bigger—including a James Beard nomination in 2020.

By 2024, we knew it was time to take the next bold step. As we closed Spork’s doors for the final time, we reflected on everything we had built and where we wanted to go next. One by Spork is the result of that evolution: a singular, curated experience that distills everything we love about hospitality into one immersive culinary adventure.