Our Team

Our kitchen is the heart & soul of the restaurant, everything we prepare is fresh & of the highest quality, our Chefs and kitchen staff treat every ingredient with love, creativity, care & attention to provide our diners with a delicious & honest to goodness home cooked meal.

Chef Jon

Jonathan Clemons has been cooking since he was 17 years old, moving his way up the ranks from dishwasher to chef, and now part owner of The Porch Restaurant & Bar. Clemons graduated from Western Culinary Institute in Portland, Oregon and completed his cooking internship at Robbers Roost Steak and Seafood restaurant in Foresthill, CA. After graduating he mastered his natural cooking ability in various upscale restaurants across the northwest, falling in love with the flavors of the area. Most recently Chef Jon has been soaking up the flavors of the south, traveling and eating to immerse himself in the traditions of that cuisine. Signature dishes at The Porch like buttermilk fried free range chicken, bbq shrimp and grits and the shrimp po’ boy with jalapeno aioli, bacon and avocado, allow Chef Jon to showcase his talent for reinventing a dish using his own twist. ” I like to challenge myself and my diners to stray away from our comfort zones by trying new pairings and flavor combinations.”

The Porch menu is seasonally influenced and relies on the bounties produced in this versatile growing region. Chef Jon gathers his ingredients from an extensive list of local providers and farmers that he has built a relationship with during his years of working in Sacramento. He does not necessarily believe in a singular cooking philosophy, but wants to approach every day in the kitchen as a new adventure, learn and use as much as he can by what surrounds him, and never sacrifice quality for any reason. ” I like to try and appeal to a broad range of people and leave them all with the thought that they just had the best meal of their lives.”

Kari Hawley, Pastry Chef

Kari started working at the porch in 2012 as a dishwasher. Through hard work and dedication she was able to learn her way around the kitchen as a prep cook, line cook and baker. What had started as just a job quickly turned in to a passion and career. What she enjoys most about the Porch is that, “I get to be creative and apart of a team.” She says being a pastry chef is, “A challenging career but extremely rewarding. My goal is to serve the best desserts i can utilizing the highest quality ingredients our region has to offer. I want the dining experience to be both visually and tastefully enjoyable.”