The San Francisco Bay Area is known for a lot of things—avocado toast, skyrocketing rental rates, and that oh-so-specific sourdough bread. But there’s something a little more caffeinated that doesn’t always make the list—unique specialty coffee. While brands like Blue Bottle or Philz may pop immediately into your mind when it comes to coffee, there are an overwhelming number of independent coffee roasters that call the Bay their home.

These roasters bring their own unique background, history, and skillset to the beans they serve, making each brew a little different from the next. Whether you’re a light-roast aficionado, a morning grump looking for a little joy, or you’re simply trying to find your new favorite cafe to work for the day, this guide has a hand-crafted selection for everyone.

Ritual Coffee Roasters

432b Octavia St
San Francisco, CA 94102

“I think San Francisco is one of the best cities in the entire world for coffee—if not the best,” says Eileen Rinaldi, founder and owner of Ritual Coffee Roasters in San Francisco.

Rinaldi takes a lot of pride in creating a physical product in a city now known largely for its technology production. “I think there’s something about the ecology of the Bay Area,” says Rinaldi. “It’s part of our ethos to push the boundaries further and see how we can do things better…We’re just never satisfied with the coffee. We love it, but we always want to do better.”

Ritual joins a long line of San Francisco coffee roasters—including famous brands like Folgers and Hills Bros.—and product manufacturers that aren’t always associated with the city’s booming industries. “I’m excited about this scene of San Francisco coffee roasters that is connected to a scene of manufacturing in San Francisco” says Rinaldi, “And I think that’s critical to us maintaining a diverse economy here.”

Rinaldi says that Ritual specializes in lighter roasts, a process that is delicate and difficult to produce in large quantities. Where some would compare roasting coffee to steaks on a grill, Rinaldi prefers to use baking a cake in her analogy.

“If you throw steaks on a grill, it’s great if the inside is pretty much still raw,” says Rinaldi. “But when you bake a cake and the inside isn’t cooked, it’s inedible. [With] light roasting, you want to get the center of the bean fully cooked essentially without scorching the outside.”

“What makes that especially challenging for roasters is different beans have different densities, different moisture contents,” continues Rinaldi. It’s only a few seconds that separates not-quite-roasted coffee that doesn’t brew properly from a roast with a lot of flavor.

Ritual has cafes all across San Francisco, and one in Napa, where you can grab a cup for yourself—the location in Hayes Valley is just about perfect if you’re looking for some window shopping. If you’d rather craft your brew at home, you can check out their handy brew guides that will walk you through just about every way to make coffee you can think of—and a couple you might not have known before.

Highwire Coffee Roasters

5655 College Ave
Oakland, CA 94618

With four locations all across the Bay Area, and many more cafes serving their beans, you’ve most likely seen Highwire’s striking packaging while in search of your morning cup—simple brown bags with bold black typeface and intricate images reminiscent of woodblock prints that were created in Highwire’s early days by a barista and graphic designer named Katie Miller. With names like “The Core” and “Conscientious Objector,” the whole presentation is hard to ignore—much like the ethos behind the company itself.

Robert Myers, one of the co-founders of Highwire, got his start in coffee in the Bay Area while working at Peet’s. He saw coffee’s ability to build community and was inspired to start his own roaster—one that makes space for people to help one another.

“Most of the people I’ve ever met who work in coffee are just good people. They’re interesting people,” says Myers, “When I became a coffee roaster I didn’t want to be in competition.I didn’t see that it needed to be competition.” His admiration for the people in the coffee business has impacted his business ethos in a deep way. In fact, over the last few years, Highwire has helped several small roasters get their start by teaching them how to roast (if they need it) and renting them space within their own roastery.

“One of the biggest barriers to entry for people who want to realize their dream in coffee is how prohibitive buying a coffee roaster has always been,” says Myers. “We could open up our space [at Highwire] to other business people and really be part of people realizing their dream. And that to me is a much nicer space than who’s doing better in sales or who has more followers on social media.”

Myers says it’s gratifying to see roasters graduate to their own space and continue to contribute to the diverse voices within the Bay Area coffee scene.

Bicycle Coffee

364 2nd St
Oakland, CA 94607

Bicycle Coffee has the type of over-the-top scrappy origin story that makes it distinctly Bay Area—including roasting their first batch in a popcorn maker and getting it into the hands of top-floor FiDi execs via a little phone-call trickery. Now, Bicycle is an international enterprise with locations in the Bay, Los Angeles, and Tokyo.

The roastery takes its name from their delivery method. All orders are delivered via bicycle, with the bags of coffee stacked into small trailers specially designed for the task.

“We have trailers we designed and built ourselves,” says Brad Butler, co-founder. “They hold hundreds of pounds [of coffee] and there’s nothing else like them on the market.”

Initially, bicycles were the most cost-effective form of delivery they had. But they later discovered that it was also a great way to beat traffic and avoid parking fees in San Francisco’s downtown area. Butler also feels that by moving through their local communities via bicycle, it helps keep them connected with their customers in a more personal way.

“You have a competitive advantage if you do everything you can to do good and create community with your business,” says Butler. And after doing business in the Bay Area for nearly ten years, he says that’s been key to staying power in a place changing as rapidly as their home-base in Oakland.

“You see old-timey places going away,” says Butler. “You see new places popping up and [then] going away…you feel the squeeze, and recognize that the only way [you’ll] win is by building long-term relationships. “Butler explains that those relationships expand to everyone who walks through the door of each Bicycle location—either via a simple conversation while the coffee is brewed or through offering free cups of coffee every Friday.

Slojoy

1528 Webster St
Oakland, CA 94612

The newest roaster on this list, Slojoy has only been in Oakland for four years, but in that time they’ve graduated from a small space in the back of a local market to their very own walk-up window on Webster street.

Christopher Stites, founder, says that his path to coffee was quick and borderline spontaneous. “We came back from a visit in Maui to a coffee farm and fell in love with the process,” says Stites. He started roasting in his kitchen, sending bags to friends and family, then rapidly graduated to their current location.

Slojoy’s signature slogan is “spread coffee,” which comes from the founder’s desire to deliver something joyful in coffee and community faith building. Stites is both a coffee roaster and a pastor, helping lead services at The Movement church in East Oakland.

“Joy is different from happiness where it’s slow, but it’s lasting,” says Stites of the roastery’s name.

Part of the “joy” in “Slojoy” is that each batch of coffee is small—usually around 50 to 60 pounds a week—and is roasted just about every 6 or 7 days. In addition to a dedication to freshness, each cup of Slojoy coffee served at the window comes with a little something special to put a perk in your step.

“We just want to encourage folks,” says Stites. “We write a handwritten note for every cup that goes out. We have a built-in ‘pay-it-forward’ option where we’ve seen over $600 go through of people buying other people coffee.”

Timeless Coffee

4252 Piedmont Ave
Oakland, CA 94611

Finally, for the vegan coffee lover who doesn’t want to second-guess their pastry choices, there’s Timeless.

Founder RJ Leimpeter was working in San Francisco at Sightglass when he decided he wanted to bring a specialized cafe to his own neighborhood in Oakland.

“I grew up in the East Bay,” says Leimpeter. “I really wanted to be part of my neighborhood.” He also really wanted to create a shop with all-vegan offerings.

“We make everything in house and our entire kitchen is vegan,” says Leimpeter. But despite his life-long coffee career, he needed some help in the baked-goods department.

“Violett Slocum was a major part of the reason why I started the business,” says Leimpeter. “She’s so talented at baking, and I got her to join on with me to do all the kitchen stuff. All the food stuff is her.” The pastry options at Timeless range from donuts and other single-serve items to entire cakes which you can custom order for your next special occasion.

Leimpeter also wanted to keep things as local as possible. “One of the key things that we do is the importers we use are based in Oakland,” says Leimpeter, citing Coffee Shrub and Red Fox Coffee Merchants as a few of the importers he works with. “Their practices of importing beans are top-notch.”

Timeless now has two locations—one in the Piedmont and one in Berkeley on College Ave—and a coffee subscription service where you can get their fresh-roasted beans delivered to your front door.

Chef Dominique Crenn has reached the pinnacle of success in the culinary world, at least for Michelin devotees.

Most chefs only dream of getting noticed. Crenn recently was awarded three Michelin stars for her restaurant Atelier Crenn in San Francisco. She is the first female chef in the United States to achieve a top ranking.

“We were not seeking it. We don’t seek those things. It’s what we do with it that matters. It doesn’t mean that we are better than others,” Crenn says.

But she acknowledges the value of recognition for her staff. “It’s good for the team. For me, it’s a platform and it’s also showing young girls you can achieve a lot in your life,” she says.

Crenn has successfully navigated an industry that has been largely male-dominated. Over the years she’s received lots of accolades, including a James Beard Award for Best Chef this year.

In 2015, Crenn was Eater’s chef of the year. In 2016, San Pellegrino named her the world’s best female chef. But she is dismissive of awards that judge women and men’s culinary skills separately. “When you give someone an award and you tell them that they are the best female chef in the world, you alienate them from their peers,” she says. “It’s unbelievable. Since when do we have to do a category for women?”

The highly acclaimed chef never went to culinary school. She has a business degree from the Academy of International Commerce. As a kid growing up in Brittany on the west coast of France, she spent a lot of time in farm country. Crenn moved to San Francisco in her 20s, rising up the ranks in different restaurants.

“When I started to work in the kitchen, there’s not a lot of women that were working and I didn’t try to pay attention to that,” she says. “I had to work harder than others and I was a bit picked on sometimes. But I’m a very strong person. Nobody touched me.”

Crenn’s culinary talent was noticed early in her career, allowing her a fast pass in the kitchens she has worked in. “Anybody that comes in, a new person is supposed to spend six months downstairs in the basement doing prep work. I didn’t. I got on the line right away.”

Crenn opened Atelier Crenn in 2011. She also owns Bar Crenn and Petit Crenn.

Interview Highlights

On facing people who thought she was moving up quickly in the restaurant world because she’s female:

There was one guy. I remember him. I’m not going to say his name. He was very short. I called him Napoleon. You know, I’ve never been aggressive to anyone, but I looked at him in his eyes and I said, “Listen, you can think anything of me but what I’m going to show you is what I can do and if you’re not happy, then I don’t really care. I think the chef is happy so that’s what drives me here. I need to please my chef, but I’m also pleasing myself. That’s it. I know what I’m doing is the work and I’m working harder than you because right now you are talking to me — and that time that you’re talking to me, you should spend maybe to fix or prep your thing.” You have to talk like this. You can’t engage in violence because I think they want you to fight. I fight with words.

On San Francisco restaurant critic Michael Bauer’s comments to The New York Times about Crenn. He said, “She has been successful because she does have talent and she has worked hard. But let’s be honest, also because she has enormous charisma. She’s beautiful and has that French accent.”

I didn’t like it, but I have to tell you that monsieur Bauer came to me and he told me about what was said in the newspaper was taken out of context and I did listen to him. And what I realized at that moment — I think he never should have said that. … Saying that about me is a little bit degrading. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but that should not be a factor in anything. And yes, charisma — what is charisma? I’m trying to be genuine every time I speak or every time I’m out there. Maybe you call it charisma, but this is who I am.

On Bauer saying ‘she cooks the way men are cooking’

That was not right, either. I think what he was trying to say, you know, the field that I’m in and also the style of the restaurant especially with Atelier Crenn is a little bit different than a casual restaurant, and he wanted this to be a compliment. But I’m not saying what he said was right. I’m just trying not to be aggressive about it. What I want to say from this is that words matter, and the consequences can be hurtful to others.

On how she is using her platform in the #MeToo era

I am just a little fish in the sea. But I do understand that everything that I do could have a little impact. I had a few men chefs that had sent me emails and they have said to me, ‘We have never met, but I have to tell you that I am not proud about the way that I have been treating people — not just women but a lot of people in my life — and you have inspired me to be a better person. I hope you can give me some advice.’ That’s powerful. I truly believe that some people go through life and they’ve been taught not the right way. But I can’t judge them.

On those in the restaurant industry who have been accused of sexual harassment

Some I will not give them the pass. I’m giving the pass to people that haven’t done anything violent, especially sexual violence. They have no place to be in an industry where you are supposed to bring people together.

On who should get a second chance

For me, it’s people that perhaps work in that environment and … they were perhaps followers, but they realized they should have spoken up. Because when you look at the world, we are all complicit.

Copyright 2018 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.

This week takes a look at the recently opened Ayala, offering beautiful seafood and a chic style, while a trip across the Bay reveals innovative and affordable dishes at Dosa by Dosa, and you can check them out during Oakland Restaurant Week (among many other places). Boot and Shoe Service hosts a fire relief dinner series, and say cheers to Winter Cocktails of the Farmers Market.

A Chic Seafood Restaurant Opens Downtown: Ayala

Ayala
398 Geary St., San Francisco
Open nightly for dinner 5:30pm–10pm, with Martini Hour Mon–Thu 4:30pm–5:30pm and Fri–Sat 4pm–5:30pm.

For locals, it can be tough to think of a cool and stylish place to eat downtown that doesn’t cater to tourist tastes — especially if it’s in a hotel — but the newly opened Ayala has got it going on. Located in Union Square’s Hotel G, the airy dining room and bar have an easygoing style that feels more Los Angeles than San Francisco. It’s a California seafood–centric restaurant, and chef-partner Bill Montagne brought on the talented executive chef Melissa Perfit (Bar Crudo, Hard Water), who is skilled in doing creative and delicious things with seafood (and sourcing the good stuff). 

You don’t want to miss the beautiful seafood “charcuterie” plate ($21), which includes four seafood presentations, like halibut with grapefruit and fennel, and black cod with kombu and chartreuse. The lightly dressed section includes the freshest littleneck clams on the half-shell in a bright green frothy sauce, with jicama, cucumber, black tobiko, and lobster oil ($11 for 3). Salads include a perfect Louie ($21), with Dungeness, prawns, creamy egg, and avocado. Everything pairs well with their lighter cocktails, like A Diving Bell, and the aromatic Officer and a Gentian. The wine selections from GM Essam Kardosh (Del Popolo) and wine director Nick Tilly are also full of food-friendly beauties.

Larger dishes include the decadent nori spaghettini ($29), with Dungeness, white miso, and topped with furikake and a pop of acidity from Buddha’s hand. It’s a treat to have cioppino ($37) prepared with such respect for the seafood within: here, it’s a cioppino verde, a tomatillo-poblano broth, filled with Dungeness, prawns, squid, and lobster butter toast on the side that you’ll dunk in the broth. It’s a touch on the spendy side, and quality seafood isn’t cheap, but let the bread fill you up. You also want the English muffin with herb-cultured butter ($6). I was tempted to order an extra one to bring home for breakfast.

We finished our evening at the bar, the best way to experience a nightcap from their inspired cocktail list from bar director Julian Cox (Tartine), and try an amaro from their extensive list. 

The Fine-Casual Dosa by Dosa in Oakland Has New Tricks Up Its Kurta Sleeves

Dosa by Dosa
2301 Broadway, Oakland
Open Sun–Thu 11am–9:30pm, Fri–Sat 11am–10pm, weekend brunch Sat–Sun 9am–3pm.

Oakland is lucky to have a fast/fine-casual version of San Francisco’s popular South Indian Dosa — Dosa by Dosa. On a recent visit, there were dishes that made me really wish we had a location in SF! The all-day, street food menu includes small plates, like their popular vada pav (spiced potato slider with caramelized onions, peppers, and served in a soft Parker House-style bun, a fulfilling bite for $4.95), and the inventive idli fries ($4.95) were a brilliant type of South Indian French fry, made of rice and lentil patties, sliced, and served with a roasted chile-garlic chutney (don’t miss them). There’s also a variety of stuffed naan, like a fluffy one filled with cheese ($5.50), served with a bright chutney.

More new items include their salad bowls, like a delightfully flavorful one with seasonal greens and spiced, free-range lamb kebab (just $13.95) with red onion, tomato, cucumber, a hearty base of lemon rice, and dill-raita dressing, or you can opt for their rice bowls with four kinds of curries, like butternut squash dal. And the street wraps are like rice-free burritos made with grilled and tender roti dipped in egg (so good), with fillings like butter chicken or prawn masala, plus pickled red onion, cucumber, tomato, and cilantro (the most expensive one is $12.95). Or, of course, there’s an entire section of dosas.

The location has a full bar, offering classic Dosa cocktails like their Peony, to the spiritous Dirty Chutney, a spin on an Indian martini (all just $11). There are slushies, lassis, and non-alcoholic picks, chai and spiced coconut cold brew, wine, and beer — you will not go thirsty. And don’t miss the happy hour Mon–Fri 4pm–6pm for even better deals.

Oakland Restaurant Week Offers a Chance to Explore Oakland’s Vibrant Dining Scene

Oakland Restaurant Week
January 11–20
Various locations

Oakland Restaurant Week returns January 11–20, with over 100 Oakland restaurants participating, which means they will offer prix-fixe lunch and/or dinner menus at $10, $20, $30, $40 and $50 price points (the promotional prices reflect up to 25% off regular à la carte items). Participating restaurants include top spots like Reem’s California, Itani Ramen, A16 Rockridge, Grand Lake Kitchen, and Dosa by Dosa, and it’s a chance to check out newcomers like Farmhouse Kitchen and the new Bardo Lounge & Supper Club. Check the site for details on their special offers.

There are also a few special events, like a benefit dinner for Oakland Restaurant Week’s non-profit partner, Alameda County Community Food Bank, at Bardo on Monday, January 14, among other events, like a progressive dinner. Another bonus: Local Food Adventures Oakland Food Tours, an East Bay walking food tour company, will offer tours in Oakland’s Grand Lake and Rockridge neighborhoods during both weekends of ORW for 20 percent off (use the code ORW19, book tours here).

Wintertime Produce Is Ready to Make an Appearance in Cocktails at the Farmers Market

Winter Cocktails of the Farmers Market
San Francisco Ferry Building
1 The Embarcadero, San Francisco
Wednesday, January 30, 5:30pm–8pm
Tickets: $60 (+ $3.99 fee) until January 23, $65 after

Cocktail lovers know how much fun the CUESA and NorCal USBG Cocktails of Farmers Market series is, and the next event is happening on January 30 at the Ferry Building: Cheers to Change Makers: Winter Cocktails of the Farmers Market. At this walk-around happy hour tasting, 13 SF bartenders (like Kaiyo, 1760, and Pacific Cocktail Haven) and 3 chefs (Nicolette Manescalchi, A16 Rockridge; Chris Cosentino, Cockscomb; and Monica Martinez, Don Bugito; with more added soon!) will be transforming winter produce into creative drinks and bites. Guests receive three full-sized signature cocktails and tasty bites from each restaurant, along with unlimited sample-size sips.

It’s all in celebration of CUESA’s new public art installation: The Food Change, featuring photo-murals of the diverse farmers, advocates, and visionaries in our midst. Cheers!

Fire Relief Dinner Series at Boot and Shoe Service

Boot and Shoe Service
3308 Grand Ave., Oakland
Various dates
Tickets: $250.00 ($259.74 with service fee)

The 2018 Camp Fire created so much devastation and loss (nearly 14,000 homes and 5,000 other structures were destroyed), and the Boot and Shoe Service restaurant in Oakland is hosting a fundraiser series of dinners to help provide relief. In fact, 100 percent of the proceeds will go to the Camp Fire Evacuation Relief Fund, which supports evacuation centers that opened their doors and pantries to people who lost their homes, and will transition the funds into long-term recovery efforts as soon as immediate needs are met.

The dinners only have 10 seats, and will be prepared by celebrated local chefs in Boot and Shoe’s private back kitchen. Guests will dine on a large communal table as they engage in conversation with the chefs as they prepare and plate a multi-course dinner at the table served with paired wines and beverages.

The first two dinners are sold out, but the next one is on February 13 with the talented Sophina Uong, and then February 23: Kelly Mariani and Emma Lip, Scribe Winery; March 13: Brandon Jew of Mister Jiu’s and Dominica Rice of Cosecha; and March 27: Chris Lee: The Old Fashioned Butcher with son, Tom Lee, and Suzanne Drexhage of Bartavelle.

Thanks to the following donors for their assistance with these meals: Marin Sun Farms, Liberty Duck Farm, Beaune Imports, Ordinaire Wine Shop, Kermit Lynch, Oakland Yard Wine Shop, and Bedrock Wine Co.

Freshly motivated to accomplish New Year’s resolutions after the excess of the holidays, a lot of people choose to scale back drinking alcohol during January. A “dry January” looks different for each person, depending on what they’re trying to accomplish — maybe they keep the glass of wine with dinner but skip the bar outings on Friday night. Or maybe they limit themselves to one drink only at the company happy hour.

Regardless, skipping drinking can sometimes feel like it’s costing you your social life. Whether you’re suffering FOMO seeing your friends at the newest wine bar or compromising your goal for a second beer at game night, finding ways to stick to your guns when everyone around you is drinking can be rough. But, it can be a positive to stick it out according to life coach and speaker Allie Stark.

“Deciding to cut back or stop consuming alcohol after the excess of the holiday season is an active change in a behavior that will inherently influence your thoughts and your feelings,” says Stark. “This can have a large impact on your relationships, your motivation at work, your internal confidence, and so much more.”

Stark suggests communicating your goals clearly and openly with friends and family, then stick to the folk who understand why you’re choosing not to drink — at least for a little bit. “Actively choose to surround yourself with friends and family that respect your decision to not drink for the time being, as it will allow for an easier and more enjoyable experience while it is taking place,” says Stark.

Luckily, there is an endless combination of places to meet friends and enjoy one another in the Bay Area that don’t involve alcohol. Here are just a few to get you started:

Church of Eight Wheels

554 Fillmore St
San Francisco, CA 94117

For more than 40 years, The Church of 8 Wheels has operated a lively roller disco in a former Catholic church on Fillmore street. Friday and Saturday nights are 18+ skates, and for $15 cash (entrance and skate rental) you can join fellow roller enthusiasts underneath the stained glass and disco ball. Whether you’re a seasoned pro or this is your first time strapping on skates, you’ll fit right in the circular flow, and you don’t have to worry about falling. Not only does everyone do it, but safety staff will scoot to your side in no time to keep you from getting run over and help you back on your wheels.

Aside from satisfying that internal whimsy we all have — who doesn’t look at a massive open space like a church and think, “dang, I could roller skate in here?” — a Friday night at The Church of 8 Wheels hits more than a couple of the usual New Year’s resolution marks. You’ll be exercising, trying something new, and because there’s no alcohol on the premises, you’ll be swapping a beer for a Gatorade or Coca-cola. If you like to be resolute as a family, The Church offers a family skate on Saturdays, 3-5 pm.

Grand Lake Theatre

3200 Grand Ave
Oakland, CA 94610

Opened in 1926, the Grand Lake Theatre has been showing movies in Oakland for more than 90 years. Nestled between Lakeshore and Grand Ave, the theatre’s long-standing presence and declarative marquee messages have made it a community staple. While their matinee prices are a draw on their own at $6 (and $5 all day Tuesday!), the theatre itself makes seeing a movie at Grand Lake a full-on experience.

Upon entering, you’re greeted by a chandelier and plush, dark antique carpeting that winds up a stunning grand staircase. The original main screen has maintained its jazz-age glam with greek columns and ceiling filigree. The additional screens were added and redesigned in the 80’s, pulling inspiration from the theatre’s decade of origin — one is “Egyptian,” the other “Moorish.”  

So far as snacks go, Grand Lake offers standard fare like popcorn, soda, and favorite movie sweets all at the expected movie prices. There don’t seem to be designs to add in pizza or beer like at other independent movie theatres in the bay — and that’s okay. In pursuit of supporting a local institution, however, the few extra dollars for a snack are worth it, meaning your potential resolution to skip alcohol and do more in your neighborhood will hit the mark.

Teance Fine Teas

1780 Fourth St
Berkeley, CA 94710

Grabbing a coffee together is always a popular alternative to going for a drink, but not everyone enjoys pour-overs or lattes. For the discerning tea drinker, Teance Fine Teas offers an inviting and tranquil place to enjoy a seemingly endless variety of loose leaf teas.

Pronounced “tee-ahnce,” (think “ambiance” and “tea” together) the tea shop has been in Berkeley for more than a decade, expanding into its current space on the popular fourth street. While customers can come in and pick up a favorite tea to take home, they’re also more than welcome to share a pot of house tea ($5) or a fine tea blend ($7) together in the upstairs seating area. The space is quiet, with sleek modern lines and a fountain in the center of the store with real live koi.

For a full experience beyond simply having a cuppa, you can do a tea flight at the downstairs counter. Each flight is three types of tea of your choice ($27) and a staff member will guide you through each, offering samples of different steeps, talking through the history of the tea, and answering your questions. Tea varieties include white, green (Chinese and Japanese), oolong (Chinese and Taiwanese), red, and pu-erh, the last of which comes in a tightly compacted disc and requires a knife to break off for steeping, which puts a little excitement into an otherwise soothing experience.

The specially designed counter features space for small groups to experience a tea flight together and one flight is absolutely shareable with two people. For groups of four or more, however, you should call ahead to book an appointment as space is limited.

Creme Brewlee Bistro

2948 S Norfolk St
San Mateo, CA 94403

Sometimes the best surprises are in unassuming places. Creme Brewlee is one such adventure, a combination bistro and dessert spot in the Marina Plaza Shopping Center in San Mateo. The menu includes a diverse array of items that range halfway across the globe and back: coffee, lattes, gelato, hot pot, shaved snow, and of course, the titular creme brulee.

One of the most unique sweets is the shaved snow, a fluffy, layered take on its crunchier cousin of the icy variety. Snow at Creme Brewlee is $8 and includes your choice of snow flavor, syrup, and two toppings (with additional toppings for fifty cents apiece). It’s not overwhelmingly sweet despite being made entirely of frozen sugar, and the soft crunch on each bite is exactly like eating snow when you were a kid. Except, of course, this snow is meant to be eaten. Bring a friend or a loved one for this snow pile, however, as your $8 buys you a literal mound of dessert.

Creme Brewlee doesn’t do much for your resolution to eat healthier, but you’ll be exploring a new neighborhood, a new dessert style, and most importantly, skipping sugary cocktails in favor of something super “cool.”

Albany Bowl

540 San Pablo Ave
Albany, CA 94706

Finally, what better way to enjoy a little sober fun with friends than bowling? You may be outraged at the very idea of entering a bowling alley without also purchasing a pitcher to split, but Albany Bowl has more than enough french fries, onion rings, and sweet pin knockdowns to make you forget you wanted a beer in the first place.

Located right on San Pablo Avenue in Albany, this retro bowling alley has been in operation since 1949. Regular rates run $6 per game per person, with a $4.50 flat shoe rental if you don’t already have your own. However, each day of the week brings its own discounts or specials, like $1.50 games on Monday and Tuesday nights or a killer 2 games-for-1 deal for groups of Cal-Berkeley students.

Little J’s Cafe attaches directly to Albany Bowl and offers American diner favorites like burgers and tater tots. If you’re hoping to order snacks while avoiding temptation, the bar is all the way in the back of the bowling alley far and away from Little J’s. Order your french fries and enjoy your resolute choices without ever having to think twice.

Plan a visit to Obispo on 24th Street for rum and savory dishes, warm up with bone marrow ramen at Ushi Taro, check out the new Pizzeria Delfina Downtown, and two pop-up events with roasted pig and a wagyu tasting menu.

Explore the Many Facets of Rum at Obispo

Obispo
3266 24th St., San Francisco
Mon–Sat 6pm–2am

Now open in the Mission is Obispo, the latest project from Bar Agricole and Trou Normand’s Thad Vogler, who has created a very special homage to rum, its origins and challenging history, its craft, and many expressions. Vogler is known for his passion for terroir and the artisan, so don’t expect any umbrella drinks: if you want to really get to know rum, you’ll drink it neat here. The bar offering is highly edited and carefully curated.

The cocktails include a trio of Mojitos, the dreamy El Presidente made with vermouth, the National with a welcome hit of pineapple, and the ‘Ti Punch features the funky kick of rhum agricole (which is distilled from fresh cane sugar). All the cocktails are priced at $14 and under (most are closer to $10) — Vogler wanted to ensure they were affordable for the neighborhood.

Seth Stowaway has built a menu that highlights dishes from places and cultures where rum is produced, from Jamaican oxtail stew ($15/$28) to a hearty cubano ($15) to choripan ($12) in Argentina. The can’t-miss dish is the spicy, juicy, grilled pollo de Obispo ($18/$34 for a whole bird) — it has a wonderful smoky kiss. You can get it in a plate lunch that comes with two sides ($20), like the creamy maduros, macaroni salad (it has a high nostalgia factor), congrí (rice and beans), collards, and more. Or you can just nibble on some beef or potato empanadas ($4 each) with chimichurri. 

Obispo is unexpectedly spacious — there’s seating at tables in the front, the bar, and then there’s a back room with even more tables and a look into the semi-open kitchen; Wylie Price designed the space. The handcrafted simplicity of all the wood tables and chairs pairs with the reproduced folk mural above the bar from artist Bill Traylor (who was born into slavery) — Vogler partnered with SF’s Museum of the African Diaspora for ongoing art installations, which can help remind and educate guests about rum’s history (and roots in slavery and colonialism). He also worked with Calle 24 on being mindful of the needs of the neighborhood (keeping prices affordable, all the staff speaks Spanish, and the menu is in Spanish) to help preserve its character; both organizations will also receive some profits.

There’s a wonderful atmosphere in the bar, from the Latin music to the soft candlelight to the smell of mint (and smoky chicken), the sound of cocktails being stirred, and a room full of industry folks coming by to check it out. You should too. 

Roasted Pig Pop-Up with Prubechu at Harmonic Brewing

Harmonic Brewing
1050 26th St., San Francisco
Friday January 18, 4pm–9pm
$12 pre-order, $14 on premise

Anyone who has been missing the Chamorro cooking of Prubechu in the Mission (the former Guamanian restaurant from chef Shawn Naputi and general manager Shawn Camacho) won’t want to miss their pop-up at Harmonic Brewing. On Friday, January 18, they will be cooking a whole-roasted pig, and serving it with red rice and pickles. You can pre-order a plate for $12, or hope to get one on-premise for $14. Enjoy some of Harmonic’s amazing brews, and it’s kid- and dog-friendly, so bring the whole fam!

Pizzeria Delfina Opens Downtown with Some New Offerings

Pizzeria Delfina Downtown
688 Mission St., San Francisco
Mon-Sun 11:30am–10pm and Sun 11:30am–9pm

Fans of Pizzeria Delfina’s crispy crust pizzas and antipasti (like their chilled tripe!) have a new location to visit for lunch or dinner: Pizzeria Delfina Downtown. The 46-seat space has a clean and airy look, complete with a fun SF mural by Shawn Bullen — there’s outdoor seating too.

The pizzas are as good as ever — don’t miss the carbonara (with guanciale, egg, pecorino, scallions, black pepper) and if you want another pasta dish for your pizza, there’s their amatriciana (guanciale, chile, tomato, pecorino, black pepper) — both were $19 each. Some new things to note: there are a few pasta options from chef de cuisine Madison Montoto (similar to the expanded menu offered at the Pacific Heights location) that rotate weekly, plus some seasonal vegetable sides, and you’ll also find an expanded wine list from wine director Sally Kim of Italian and Californian selections, including two special wines for Pizzeria Delfina from Scribe (a chardonnay poured en magnum!) and De Conciliis.

The other fun addition happening is their new soft-serve from Double 8 Dairy: fior di latte or chocolate or swirl (made with creamy buffalo milk) — you definitely want to save room for dessert.

Something to Try: Decadent Beef Ramen with Bone Marrow

Ushi Taro
1382 9th Ave., San Francisco
Mon–Fri 5pm–9:30pm, Sat–Sun 11:30am–2:30pm, 5pm–9:30pm

If you’re a lover of bone marrow, there’s a ramen shop in the Inner Sunset that is known for offering a bone marrow supplement to your bowl of noodles called Ushi Taro. There are five kinds of broth (beef paitan or spicy, shio, vegan, or oxtail and tomato) and bowls that range from $12–$15, and while they call it ramen, I think ramen purists will be happier if they think of it as a tasty bowl of noodles, but not a pinnacle of ramen broth technique and noodle sourcing.

The bone marrow supplement is $6, which gets hit with a swath of black truffle paste and is torched before being added on top of your bowl (you scoop it into your bowl for a big flavor boost, but be careful to not burn your fingers on the bone). Oxtail or beef tenderloin are other supplements, for $5 each. The bowls come with meaty oyster mushrooms, which are a great pairing with the beefy notes. Sadly the sliced onsen egg shows up cold in the bowl ($1.50 extra for some bowls), but at least the yolk was custardy and flavorful.

Personally, I loved the heartiness of the oxtail and tomato, which is more of a Cantonese pairing than Japanese, and was perfect on a rainy night. My friend enjoyed his beef paitan, with notes of kelp and bonito, but the oxtail and tomato was the unexpected winner for full flavor (and richness). 

Appetizers include juicy beef gyoza with spicy soy, a few tempura options (okra, mushroom), and other beefy options. There’s also an oxtail stew and tomato rice bowl option, and gyudon. There is no alcohol served nor is BYOB allowed, so your tab will stay reasonable. It’s a casual spot, with people coming in for a bowl at communal tables or the counters, and then heading out soon thereafter. 

Enjoy a Wagyu Tasting Menu from the Upcoming Gozu with Avery

Avery
1552 Fillmore St., San Francisco
January 23–25
First seating at 5:30pm, last seating at 9:30pm
$98 set menu with optional supplements and beverage pairings. Reserve on Tock.

Chef Marc Zimmerman, previously of Alexander’s Steakhouse (and Nobu and Restaurant Guy Savoy), is opening Ittoryu Gozu in SoMa, a restaurant that will center on wagyu beef and robata-style cooking. But until that opens, you can check out his cooking in a collaborative dinner at Avery with chef-owner Rodney Wages (with four dishes from each chef).

From January 23–25, they will be offering an eight-course menu for $98, highlighting rare cuts of beef, and traditional robata techniques with creative culinary touches. Dishes will include wagyu ‘nduja; beef marrow chawanmushi; and grilled fish and snow beef fat; there will also be the option to add two supplements for a total of ten courses.

Leave the brightly lit terrariums for the youthful that require to be seen for their own vanity. Leave the dimly lit and questionable used napkin strewn countertop greasy spoons to me.

If I’m not stepping into a coffee shop diner that feels like I’m stepping back in time, I don’t want anything to do with it. We created a list of five Bay Area diners where you can be left alone while you eat, or bring your gaggle of friends for a weekend brunch. But, why you would want to ruin a perfectly good diner with your loud bottomless mimosa-chasing friends?

Age has buried diners all across the country. San Francisco is no stranger to losing some of its beloved diners. Gone the way of the dinosaurs have been Lafayatte Coffee Shop, Lucky Penny (closed for condos) and the most beloved, 24 hour Sparky’s on Church and Market. In political correctness landia, the straight forward diner server we associate with some of our memorable cinematic moments would not be allowed to thrive in most of California.

Along with the disappearance of this independent spirit, is the disappearance of mom-and-pop coffee shops. With formica countertops and vinyl booths, these simple, and often small, restaurants offer a no-frills experience for those who just want to indulge in the comforts of Americana breakfast and lunch staples. Luckily, the Bay Area’s definition of Americana — like its definition of almost everything else — is a spectrum. So, even your most Americana diner will have spam and eggs over rice, bulgogi stuffed hash browns, loco mocos and chilaquiles with homemade salsa.

Anna’s Family Coffee

444 Jackson St
Hayward, California
94544

Everyone knows that the only thing you should even consider ordering in this wood panel veneered spot is the chilaquiles. That’s not actually true, as they have a wicked huevos con nopales dish.

Chilaquiles is a dish consisting of corn tortillas torn into pieces and pan fried until crispy, then simmered in your choice of sauce (sometimes roja, verde or even mole) until the tortilla starts to submit to the sauce and softens. It seems counterintuitive to fry and then simmer, but somehow Anna’s manages to retain the crispy edges of the tortilla pieces and tops it with your choice of egg (please let it be a runny yolk). Some people even ask them to mix in carne asada. But, do yourself a favor and ask them to mix in some chorizo. The Chilaquiles sauce starts to samba with the rich egg yolks and the spicy chorizo fat is constantly trying to cut in and boogaloo. Did I mention the plate comes with Spanish rice and refried beans?

Fifth Wheel

898 San Leandro Blvd
San Leandro, California
94577

Fifth Wheel’s menu states that the restaurant was established in the 1950s. Before John and Lisa Lee took over in 1978, there had only been two previous owners and the restaurant ran 24 hours a day. In 2016, dedicated patrons impatiently sat by and chomped at the bit while their favorite breakfast spot was temporarily closed for upwards of a year, possibly two.

Luckily, the Lees are back to whipping up favorites like chicken fried steak with your choice of country or brown gravy, fluffy golden pancakes, chicken teriyaki and grits. Diners can be seen mixing and matching dish components and side orders, creating their own comforting classics like loco moco: hamburger patty served over rice, covered in brown gravy and topped with an egg. This is not a place to bring a large group, as it only has 11 counter stools and enough table seating for 16. Aside from the delicious and affordable eats, the limited seating explains why there is constantly a line out of the door.

Han’s Coffee Shop

900 Sutter St
San Francisco, California
94109

Two words: Bulgogi Omelette. Nothing like a protein overload to sustain your life as a cubicle jockey at the local tech company. But, who can resist a soy sauce flavored rice encased inside a gossamer thin omelette topped with hard seared pieces of beef marinated in soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic and pureed Asian pears. Bibimbap served to you in an oversized metal mixing bowl for the glutton you are. And if you’re not in the mood for Korean bbq with your breakfast, that’s ok.

They still have all the best hits of American diner classics such as a corned beef hash that sits on the flat top to develop an otherworldly exterior crust. One of the regulars, who is a nearby neighbor, informed me that this site has functioned as a diner for upwards of 40-years, changing ownership often. But, it’s only since 2009 that it’s been owned by Han.

Ole’s Waffle Shop

1507 Park St
Alameda, California
94501

Ole’s Waffle Shop is named after Ole Swanson, an immigrant that established this waffle centric location in the 1930s. Then “in 1972, Bob Adams purchased the diner from Ole himself on his way home from a movie with nothing more than a handshake and a promise.” And a $100 down payment.

KQED may have listed Ole’s as one of the top five places in the Bay Area to get a waffle, but they may have overlooked their fried chicken. These days, it seems fried chicken is always served in one of two forms: exorbitantly priced from being served up as some truffle coated gold dusted trend or bucketed up via drive thru. Sit in one of Ole’s burnt orange vinyl booths or take a stool at the low coffee counter and order the Southern fried chicken and waffles for a different experience. The chicken thighs are barely coated on the outside, allowing the oil to have maximum contact with the skin until it turns dark golden brown. Jaggedy ridges and valleys form on the exterior and, as your teeth sink into the dark meat, you can hear the crispy crackle. Ole’s waffles are not of the Belgian kind, they are of the Waffle Shop variety: thin and wide with shallow crevices. Pair the two together with some warm pancake syrup and you’ve got a winner.

Ole’s isn’t interested in changing to benefit trends, just ask one of their servers who has been there for nearly 40-years. Opened seven days a week, Ole’s serves breakfast, lunch and dinner from 5:30AM most days, closing at midnight on weekends.

Art’s Cafe

747 Irving St
San Francisco, California
94122

As soon as you walk in, it’s hard not to notice Owner Hae Ryong Yoon’s (who immigrated from Korea in 1982) sort of pensive face. The second thing you notice is Hae flipping the one thing that seems to dominate the elongated flat top just a foot away from diners mulling away their breakfast at the counter: hash browns. The special here is hash brown sandwiches; a large hash brown square cooked on the flat top and folded over your choice of stuffing.

These hash brown eiderdowns seem to be cooked until they’re at their crispiest and then filled with things like teriyaki beef, spinach, tofu or mushrooms. Grilled banana and walnut french toast is your basic sandwich bread cut into four sectors, dunked into an egg batter and cooked on the flat top. But what separates the quality of Art’s is the fact that the bananas are also grilled on the flat top so they get wobbly and caramelized. The champion bite is hot buttery grilled french toast, earthy toasted walnuts, sweet and warmed through caramelized banana and a bit of salty sausage or bacon. While Art’s has been in this location for around 60-years, Hae and his wife Sarah have been serving up these addictive flavorings since 1989.

This is not a place to bring a group or even more than another person. It’s counter seating only and there are only a dozen stools. Cash Only.

Whether you’re in SF or the 510, here are two places for khao mun gai (Thai chicken and rice), plus deals for SF Restaurant Week, check out the Peruvian tasting menu at JORA, and don’t miss an important (and delicious) Pencils for Kids fundraiser.

Explore Peruvian Ingredients and Unique Dishes in JORA’s Tasting Menu

JORA
Pop-up: San Francisco location
Saturday dinners
Reserve on Feastly, $85

When was the last time you’ve had Peruvian food? Have you ever tried canchita chulpi, or chicken and cashew soup? At the JORA Peruvian Cuisine (pronounced “hor-ah”) pop-up in SoMa, chef Rodrigo Fernandini offers a seasonal tasting menu that will introduce you to new ingredients and regional dishes, but if you’re a native Peruvian, you’ll enjoy his updated spin on the flavors of home. 

Fernandini graduated from Le Cordon Bleu in Lima, Perú, and the past ten years has cooked at top local restaurants, including Madera in Menlo Park, Adega (San Jose), Zola (Palo Alto), and Quattro (East Palo Alto). He’s taking a break from the grueling hours working in other restaurant kitchens so he can dedicate his time to fine-tune JORA’s tasting menu and concept with his business partner for their future restaurant.

He’s especially proud of the leche de tigre in his ceviche con sentimiento, made with mahi mahi, sweet potato, crunchy red onion, Cuzco giant corn, and canchita chulpi (which tastes like corn nuts). It’s truly excellent. And the inchicapi is something special: it’s an Amazonian stew made with chicken stock and cashews (which he smokes and toasts), and he nestles bits of fried chicken, fried yucca, and bacon in the creamy stew, plus pine nut purée and cilantro oil.

While the experience feels a bit steep for $85 (especially when dining in a dark pop-up space with wobbly benches, but at least you have your own table), it’s definitely an abundant five-course menu with a great deal of prep and thought put into it (and a chance to try new and unique ingredients). The timing is also a well-oiled machine, unlike some pop-ups. There have been some recent issues with alcoholic beverages at the venue, and you can’t BYOB, but there’s the option of a pairing with non-alcoholic Peruvian drinks for now—they hope the venue has the license sorted out within a month or so. The dinners sell out, so look at the calendar and book your spot on Feastly soon. 

A Simple and Affordable Meal at Gai in the Castro

Gai
3463 16th St., San Francisco
Open daily 11:30 am–8:30 pm

If you’re looking for a simple meal, one that is fulfilling and homey and won’t break the bank, the new khao mun gai spot in the Castro, Gai, should fit the bill. It’s in the former Sofia Cafe, and the menu is focused on just one thing: khao mun gai (Thai slow-poached chicken over chicken fat rice, with a side of chicken broth and sliced cucumbers seasoned with a lightly spicy sesame dressing). It’s a classic dish in Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam, and the three sauces they offer reflect the three locales: the Thai sauce here is made of soy, ginger, and cilantro; in Singapore, it’s called hainan gai, served with a sauce of ginger and spring onions; while in Vietnam at Hoi An, it would be com ga, with a sauce of ginger, citrus, and fish sauce.

It’s a fast-casual place: you order at the counter, and for $12.95, you get breast and thigh meat, although you can request breast only, dark meat only ($10.95), or tofu. You can also swap out the white rice for brown, or cabbage salad. That’s it, nice and simple. The chicken is juicy and tender, although I found the rice to be overcooked and not “fragrant” enough, but the cucumbers had more personality than most places. I also like a bit more punch in my Thai KMG sauce (and soybeans). I wouldn’t go out of my way to eat here, but if I lived in the neighborhood, I’d be there quite a bit (I love KMG—it’s an antidote to the overindulgence that happens if you’re a restaurant columnist). 

You can drink wine, beer, Thai iced tea, Vietnamese iced coffee, sodas, and coconut water. The staff cares about eliminating food waste by using the whole chicken, but some of the non-environmentally conscious serveware was a disconnect, like the plastic cups for water, and if a guest is dining at the restaurant, there’s no need to put a lid on the soup before bringing it to them.

A Charming Berkeley Restaurant for Casual But Thoughtfully Prepared Thai Food

Funky Elephant
313 Ninth St., Suite 120, Berkeley
Open Tue-Thu 11:30am–3pm and 5pm –9pm, Fri 11:30am–3pm and 5pm –9:30pm, Sat 12pm–9:30pm, and Sun 12pm–9pm.

Over in West Berkeley off Gilman, there’s a casual Thai spot called Funky Elephant that feels like the Thai version of Nyum Bai when you walk in—it’s a quirky and tiny space with creative seating options (and tables covered in colorful oilcloth like you see in Thai street markets). It wafts pleasantly of fish sauce, and the Beach Boys were playing, and I was instantly charmed—and I hadn’t even seen the disco bathroom light yet. It’s perfect for lunch: dishes are well-made, and taste so fresh and so clean clean. It’s not about quantity here (with sub-par ingredients)—it’s more about being just-right and quality. Chef Supasit Puttikaew worked at Hawker Fare in San Francisco, and makes everything by hand, from the curries to sausage.

I tried their khao mun gai ($15), which came with perfectly poached (organic) chicken breast, although their rice doesn’t feature any chicken fat magic—just ginger and garlic. But their KMG sauce with fermented soy beans more than made up for it flavorwise—it reminded me of the vibrant sauces I tried in Bangkok, ka-pow. The clear broth was also full of chicken-y magic flavor.

Another dish I tried is one I haven’t seen since traveling in Thailand: kanom jeen ($15). Here, it’s a delicate, housemade red curry, with tender rock cod filet, vermicelli noodles, and a side of bean sprouts, cabbage, cilantro, and a spritz of lime that you add. (This dish is part of their menu for Berkeley Restaurant Week, through January 27.)

My server was so friendly (anyone who offers you extra KMG sauce to go with your leftovers is a star).  I want to come back for their crispy rice salad (nam kao tod) and fried egg salad (yum chai dao)—I love how the Thai cooks fry their eggs—and I’d even try their pad thai here, expecting something authentically made without any shortcuts.

A Special Fundraiser to Help Support Children with Their  Education: Small World Big Flavors

Small World Big Flavors
Cambria Gallery
1045 Bryant St., San Francisco
Tickets: $75

Coming up on Thursday, January 31, is the annual fundraiser for Pencils for Kids, Inc. called Small World Big Flavors, in order to raise funds to support PFK’s annual mission trips to Thailand, Bali, and Myanmar. PFK delivers backpacks, school supplies, and uniforms to children in need, and will reach over 2,200 children this year. I was so fortunate to attend an inspiring mission trip to Northern Thailand in 2017 and was so moved by everything this organization does to help children in developing countries to attend school and build a foundation for a better future. An education is something a child will have forever, and PFK has been committed to this mission for ten years (and counting!). But they can’t do it without your help. (If you are unable to attend, but would like to make a donation, please visit here.)

Guests who attend and support Small World Big Flavors will find dishes from SF restaurants like Azalina’s, Beyond Burma, ChiliCali, Esan Classic, and Garden Creamery. There will also be beverages provided by Remy-Cointreau and HelioRoast Coffee, plus wines too. 

You’ll be able to bid on silent auction prizes, and there will be an amazing raffle prize: round-trip tickets for two to Hong Kong on Cathay Pacific in Premium Economy and three nights at a hotel. Good luck!

Start Planning Your Week of Dining for SF Restaurant Week

SF Restaurant Week
January 23–31

It’s that time of the year when over 100 SF restaurants are suddenly offering prix-fixe menus: it’s SF Restaurant Week! From January 23–31, visit restaurants for special deals on lunch (two-plus courses for $15 or $25) and dinner (three-plus courses for $40 or $65). Many restaurants offer their well-known dishes, so it’s a great time to tick some “wanna go” places off your list. 

Top restaurants to consider include August (1) Five (you can try their bison keema pao for lunch), Central Kitchen, China Live (don’t miss their “working hands” dumplings, and you get a jar of their chile sauce), Flores is even including a cocktail with their menu, Maybeck’s is offering an abundant dinner menu, ROOH’s dinner menu includes their beef short rib curry, Spruce’s lunch menu includes their famed burger, and Wayfare Tavern’s fried chicken is on the menu! You can view the menu offerings online.

When it comes to a simple morning indulgence, few things beat a cup of coffee and a warm donut—except maybe two donuts. Luckily, like with most foodie favorites, the Bay Area has a plethora of donut spots for you to try. Maybe you’re looking for the best classic donut, or you want to try a bunch of different flavors without committing to an entire donut. Maybe you’re on the hunt for an understated yet satisfying vegan option.

For this Bay Area Bites Guide, we have you covered. We’ve rounded up some classic favorites and exciting newcomers to the donut scenes in San Francisco and Oakland, taking you on a tasty tour from one side of the Bay bridge to the other. It’s worth noting, however, that this list is not exhaustive. There are always new sweet spots to be discovered—even if you haven’t had your coffee yet.

Twisted Donuts

1243 Noriega St
San Francisco, CA 94122

Located smack in the middle of the Sunset district in San Francisco (just between the Inner and the Outer), Twisted Donuts is a small shop with a lot to offer. Open since 2014, Twisted specializes in nailing the classics during the week, like their old-fashioned cake or bavarian cream-filled donuts. But on the weekends, you can expand your palate to something a little more adventurous—like a “Fruirrito.”

A Fruirrito is a deep-fried wrapped confection filled with something sweet and it is absolutely a two-person undertaking. For example, the Nutella Fruirrito is layers of flakey pastry wrapped burrito-style around Nutella filling. The outside is glazed with sugar and topped with walnuts. It’s delicious, ridiculous, and unique to Twisted’s weekend menu.

Like many donut shops around the Bay, Twisted Donuts asks for a $5 minimum when using your card for purchases, so either bring cash or plan to grab a cup of coffee to go with your donuts. If the latter, then be prepared for choice paralysis as the brew offerings range from several flavors, blends, and roasts so you can pair your cup with your bite. Once you’re ready, you can hike up the Mosaic Stairs on 16th, just a short walk away from Twisted. It’s a great view of the Bay and the perfect way to walk off your breakfast.

Dynamo Donut + Coffee

2760 24th St
San Francisco, CA 94110

One of the first things you’ll notice walking up to Dynamo Donut + Coffee on 24th street in the Mission is the original Camila Valdez sculpture on the roof. Even though you have to crane your neck to see it, the pink donut with a pair of women’s legs attached is hard to miss. Luckily, Dynamo’s donuts are attention-grabbing, so between the art and the snacks there’s plenty to see.

Dynamo has an impressive list of regular offerings, including some gluten-free options, that are anything but “everyday donuts.” Flavors like Passionfruit Milk Chocolate and Maple Bacon Apple are on the board every day, or you can try a seasonal offering Pumpkin Chocolate Chip in October, or Persimmon in November. For the gluten-intolerant donut-lover there’s monthly options like carrot cake or lemon poppyseed, but as a heads up to those with especially sensitive allergies, “I Am Not a Glutens” donuts are fried in the same oil as their more gluteny counterparts.

While the Mission location is a walk-up window, they also have a few tables inside their retro-inspired space. The open kitchen layout makes it so you can watch the donut making process while you enjoy your breakfast. If you’d like to munch and walk, you can take in the murals at Balmy Alley just a few blocks away.

Donut Savant

1934 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612

Jumping across the Bay Bridge lands you at Donut Savant in downtown Oakland, just outside the 19th street BART station. If you’re looking for a way to try a lot of different types of donuts without having to commit to a full dozen, then the wide variety of donut holes and bite-size pastries will be the perfect fit for you.

You may be familiar with the traditional donut hole—a small, bite-sized ball of donut meant to symbolize the middle of the donut that’s usually absent. In this case, however, you can get cronut holes and cinnamon roll holes in addition to more traditional glazed and cinnamon sugar donut holes. The cronut holes in particular are impressive as they manage to take all the flakey, sugary goodness of a cronut and make it bite-size without losing anything from the larger version. Of course, if you fall in love with a bite and want the full version, that’s always available as well.

If you’d like to order a pour-over and stay awhile with your donut samplings, then Donut Savant’s sleek and comfortable space has several tables for you to perch at. Otherwise, you can take a box to go and have a donut picnic at Lake Merritt, which is walking distance from the shop.

Sweet Belly Desserts

435 19th St
Oakland, CA 94612

If you’d like to make a day of your donut tour, Sweet Belly Desserts is just around the corner from Donut Savant in downtown Oakland. The sugary answer to Uptown’s wildly popular Belly, Sweet Belly offers handcrafted ice cream creations and other desserts. It’s the made-to-order mini donuts, however, that steal the show.

Much like its bright and immediately Instagrammable interior, ordering mini donuts at Sweet Belly is an experience. First, you decide the type of sugar your donuts will be tossed in—plain, cinnamon, and several exciting fruit options like citrus and strawberry. Then you choose a drizzle, which is a sweet syrup topping, and the dip, which can be a flavored whipped cream or a fruit sauce. It’s not until you’ve completed your order that the donuts are fried, making them fresh and still warm upon arrival.

Sweet Belly’s mini donuts come in boxes of six or twelve, and the packaging is lovely, with small designed desserts surrounding embossed lettering. You can take them as a gift or simply indulge in a few #foodie posts for your social media (we won’t blame you).

For those looking to satisfy a particularly intense sweet tooth, you can combine Sweet Belly’s handcrafted soft serve with a mini donut. It’s about $5 and it’s everything your daydream cravings have ever wanted.

Pepples Donut Farm

6037 San Pablo Ave.
Oakland, CA 94608

With multiple locations all across the Bay, Pepples Donut Farm is a favorite spot for vegan donuts—and just about vegan anything. Monday through Friday you can pick up donuts and coffee from 7am to 3pm, or you can settle in for a full vegan breakfast 9am to 230pm. If you’re more of a brunch person, then you can grab a table on Saturday or Sunday for Donut Farm’s full menu.

There are some skeptical parties that aren’t sure what to make of vegan baked goods. Generally, it’s clear that those skeptics simply haven’t tried them yet, and Donut Farm’s donuts are a great place to start. The plain cake donut, for example, is moist and springy, with the crunch of sugar on the outside that makes it a real “regular donut” imitator in every way. For the donut connoisseurs, the top shelf offerings range from Salted Caramel to Whiskey Tangerine Fig to Sweet Curry (if you can catch it on rotation).

If you’re more interested in weekend donuts than a full brunch event, then Donut Farm has a special roster of donuts only available on Saturday and Sunday. You can snag a Banana Fritter, Cinnamon Swirl Twist or a Jelly-Filled, for example.

This week’s Table Talk gives you a taste of what’s on the menu at the newly opened El Pípila in SoMa and Paper Rooster in the Tenderloin, plus a crab feast for Valentine’s Day, and two ongoing prime rib specials.

Enjoy a Meal of Soulful, Guanajuatan Cuisine at El Pípila

El Pípila
879 Brannan St., San Francisco
Open Mon–Sat 11am–7pm

There’s nothing like home cooking, and at the newly open El Pípila in SoMa, you can pretend owner Guadalupe Guerrero and her daughters Brenda and Alejandra are cooking just for you. This stylish counter restaurant is a dream come true for this hardworking family who has been working on this restaurant for over five years (Guadalupe was accepted in the La Cocina incubator program in 2012). It also took a number of partners, architects, contractors, and more who offered in-kind donations and pro bono services to pull it all off, and now we all benefit by having this hard-won restaurant in our city.

The menu is based on authentic dishes from Guanajuato and special family recipes, with everything made by hand — Guadalupe’s pozole verde (with bacon) is a must, a bright and super-satisfying tomatillo-based chicken stew with cilantro, serrano chiles, and garlic. It will fix any cold or bad day — there’s a reason it has a dedicated following.

There are hearty enchiladas, her famed beef albondigas, sopes, a variety of flautas, and the tacos include a savory nopales taco with chile negro, their famous carnitas, and lightly fried shrimp tacos with pico de gallo, a Guerrero family favorite. Tortillas are made by hand with fresh masa from Oakland’s La Finca Tortillería, and you can also try the bigote dorado, a large corn masa pocket filled with carne asada, lettuce, cream, and queso fresco.

Since they’re right across from Airbnb, you’ll also find some updated dishes, like a kale salad with fresh nopales, pinto beans, cherry tomatoes, red onion, queso fresco, and spicy cilantro vinaigrette that brings it all together — it’s a healthy yet hearty main dish salad. 

When Guadalupe first emigrated to the United States in 1998, she worked 12-hour days at a taqueria in Berkeley, seven days a week, in order to save up enough money to bring her two daughters here. And now they’re all working together, in their very own restaurant that is full of heart and soul and pride. It’s a sweet ending, just like their chocoflan.

A New Chinese-American Sandwich Shop

Paper Rooster 
670 Larkin St., San Francisco
Mon–Sat 11am–3pm

Sandwich lovers, if you’re looking to mix up your usual selection of turkey, banh mi, or an Italian combo, there’s a new Chinese-American sandwich shop in the Tenderloin called Paper Rooster in the former The Chairman location. SF native and exceedingly kind owner Stanley Yee is a first-time restaurant owner, and puts so much thought into the assembly of these sandwiches, which are either made with chicken or are vegetarian.

The Emperor is like a rich chicken salad (it’s a wetter style of sandwich) made of roasted halal chicken dressed with hoisin-mayo, plus crispy chicken skin inside, sliced housemade pickles, spring onion, and sliced tomato, all nestled in a torpedo roll from Panorama that comes with griddle marks from a panino press (the Reserve is made with XO sauce instead of hoisin). It has a little kick to it and is quite a hearty sandwich for $10. I recommend getting a side of the housemade sriracha chips ($3.25) and putting some in your sandwich as you eat it for extra crunch. There are six chicken sandwiches to choose from.

There are also two fried chicken options, with jasmine tea–brined chicken, garlic aioli, and tomatoes; if you get the Warrior, you get housemade Vietnamese pickles, while the General comes with sweet chile sauce and greens. The fried chicken has a dark and craggy coating (but isn’t covered with too much breading) and has a juicy interior, which contrasts perfectly with the sliced pickle. There are a couple fried sriracha tofu options as well.

Vegetarians will also find a five-spice eggplant and mushroom sandwich, or fennel-artichoke salad, or roasted Chinese BBQ sweet potatoes. Sadly the winter tomatoes were rather wan, but here’s hoping Yee sources some that have a bit more life and color to them until summer tomatoes return in all their glory.

There are housemade sodas as well, made with his own syrups—“The Super” ginger ale is bright and spicy, and comes with ginger syrup, fresh lime juice, lime rind, and carbonated water, and is an awesome soda to pair with the chicken sandwiches. There’s also a jasmine or lime soda. Grab some Pocky on your way out and start thinking about which sandwich you want to try next.

Forget the Roses, Hit Up a Crab Feast for Valentine’s Day Instead

Tacolicious
1548 Stockton St., San Francisco
Thursday, February 14, 6:30pm–9:30pm
Tickets: $120, including tip (not tax)

Wanna get crabby for Valentine’s Day? Tacolicious is hosting their annual Crab Bender, which is when singles, BFFs, couples, and strangers all get together around a communal table covered with newspaper, roll up their sleeves, and get pickin’ on a feast of roasted Dungeness crab (with fennel, thyme, and chile). You also get Mexican-style clam chowder with charred poblanos and bacon; Josey Baker bread; winter chopped salad with chicories and Gorgonzola; and horchata pot de crème. Beer pairings will be provided by Alameda-based Faction Brewing. Now that’s a love fest.

Prime Rib Lovers Have Two New Prix-Fixe Dinner Options

One Market Restaurant
1 Market St., San Francisco
$47.95 and up, plus tax and gratuity
Friday and Saturday nights, 5:30pm–9pm

Cockscomb
564 Fourth St., San Francisco
$55 per guest, plus tax, 4% surcharge, and 20% gratuity
Last Sundays, 4pm–8:30pm

When you’re going to indulge in a steak dinner, prime rib remains a favorite of many steak lovers. There are two new options for you to get your prime rib on, starting with One Market Restaurant, where chef Mark Dommen is now serving rotisserie wood–fired prime rib every Friday and Saturday night from 5:30pm–9pm. It’s part of a special prix-fixe prime rib dinner, featuring a classic Pt. Reyes Blue Cheese wedge salad to start, followed by your choice of the “Market Street cut” ($47.95) or bone-in cut ($55.95) of rotisserie wood–fired prime rib, served with creamed spinach, horseradish cream, and made-to-order popovers. For just $4.95, you can add a Singular Sensation dessert, such as bergamot-citrus meringue tart, the famed Bradley’s butterscotch pudding, or chocolate toffee almond crunch cake.

Over at Cockscomb, chef Chris Cosentino’s holiday prime rib was so popular they decided to extend it into a monthly dinner special on the last Sunday of every month. The Prime Rib Sunday Supper is a three-course, prix-fixe menu with a choice of three beef cuts (Queen Cut: 16oz. boneless; English Cut: 16oz. boneless, sliced thin, English-style; or King Cut: 24oz. with bone, $5 supplement), served with horseradish, au jus, and popovers.

You also get two accompaniments, such as fried Brussels sprouts with agrodolce, garlicky collard greens, baked potato, or cheesy, whipped Aligot potatoes, and more. You also get a wedge salad with chopped egg, bacon, and creamy blue cheese dressing. For dessert, you can choose banana cream pie or sticky toffee pudding. Now that’s one way to combat the Sunday Scaries.

Lunar New Year is almost upon us, and anyone whose family celebrates this momentous annual affair is probably already preparing for the big day. Fact: Lunar New Year is the beginning of the year for people who follow the lunar calendar (literally a calendar coordinated by the cycles of the moon). Chinese New Year, Vietnamese New Year (Tết), and so on fall under this umbrella. If you feel like going out, there’s always the Oakland Lunar New Year Celebration (Feb. 10th), the San Francisco Parade (Feb. 23rd), the San Jose Lunar New Year-Tet Festival (Feb. 8-10), and more.

If your family doesn’t feel like cooking but do want to celebrate the Year of the Pig, we’ve assembled a list of a few locations doing special menus. If you know of other restaurants or pop-ups celebrating Lunar New Year with something special, let us know!

M.Y. China

845 Market St level 4
San Francisco, CA 94103

From February 5th-February 23rd, 2019, M.Y. China is celebrating the Year of the Pig with a big menu suggested for sharing between six people ($288) so groups of friends and family can all come in and celebrate Lunar New Year together. Dishes include Happy Family Soup (chicken, lamb, pork, bamboo shoots, wild mushroom medley), Salted Egg Yolk Shrimp, Sweet Taro Soup and more.

This year, Executive Chef Tony Wu and his culinary team have added a special dim sum extravaganza for smaller groups to share! The $55 Piggie Basket includes:

• (3) Lava Pigg Bao
• (3) Lamb Shiu Mai
• (3) Crab Roe Juicy Dumpling
• (3) Tofu with Shrimp
• (3) Pan Fried Pork and Scallion Bao
• (3) Seafood Dumpling
• (3) Har Gow
• Dried Pork Floss and Scallion Bun
• Multigrain Rice Wrap
• Chicken Feet
• And a trio of sauces – Spicy Soy, Red Vinegar with Ginger, and X.O. Sauce

Want to catch a glimpse of celebrity chef Martin Yan? He will be popping in the restaurant occasionally during the New Year celebration, but your best bet is to follow them on social media (@tastemychina) for updates on his whereabouts.

Tay Ho Oakland

344 12th St
Oakland, CA 94607

Tay Ho Oakland (a Check, Please! Bay Area alumnus) will be closed February 3rd-5th, but they will be serving up Vietnamese traditional dishes the whole week before and the whole week after in celebration. To be clear, that means January 29nd-February 2nd and February 6th-February 10th!

The traditional dishes they plan on serving include caramel braised pork belly and eggs (thit kho trung), the traditional Vietnamese Tet sticky rice cake (bánh tet) and pickled vegetable (Dua Mon). Bonus, they’re going to have a special themed cocktail as well!

Harborview Restaurant and Bar

4 Embarcadero Center
San Francisco, CA 94111

Want to splurge even more? Harborview Restaurant and Bar, the new restaurant that opened last fall in place of Crystal Jade, is offering two decadent options (with a price point to match). The more expensive menu is $1188 and serves 10 people, but it includes items like lobster, abalone and truffle. For a bit more, they have a menu of add-on items like Braised Abalone with Fish Maw ($55), Roasted Pork Knuckle ($38), Pan Fried Coconut Sticky Rice ($6) and so on.

The menu will be available from February 1st-February 23rd. The end date is the same date as the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco so you could go for a meal and then watch a show.

Presidio Social Club

563 Ruger St
San Francisco, CA 94129

The restaurant is kicking off the Chinese New Year with its first-ever celebration on February 6th with a special dinner from 6-9pm (regular dinner seating won’t be available that night). For $75, you get two drinks and access to all dining stations, and the evening will feature dim sum carts, a Master Soup Dumpling maker, Chinese Lion Dancers, themed cocktails, and more. From February 5th-12th, Presidio Social Club will also have rotating specialty a la carte menu items inspired by the Lunar New Year.

For dim sum options at said special dinner, you’ll find tasty items like mui choy kow yut (pork belly stewed in Chinese black vinegar & preserved greens), hoi sin shumai (shrimp & petrale sole shumai), spareribs, and more. Noodles, dumplings and bigger items will include offerings like Chef Williams’s hand pulled noodles with beef shortribs, xiao long baos, PSC’s favorite Broadway & Columbus duck noodles (Chinatown roast duck, pappardelle noodles, duck broth, butter & scallions) and steamed whole fish.

Tickets are still available.

Dragon Beaux

5700 Geary Blvd
San Francisco, CA 94121

When asked if they were doing anything special, Dragon Beaux came through…with four different options! The Family Dinner Set Menus A ($668) and B ($599) can both serve 10 people, and Family Dinner Set Menus C ($228) and D ($228) are recommended for 4-6 guests. All the menus definitely look delicious, but Menu B caught my eye:

• Super BBQ Combo Platter
• Sauteed A4 Wagyu Beef Cube with Wild Mushroom in Teriyaki Sauce
• Crispy Almond Prawn in Honey Aioli
• Fish Maw & Dried Scallop Chicken Soup
• Braised Dried Oyster with Pig Tongue & Black Seaweed
• Steamed Lobsters with Garlic Sauce
• Steamed Concubine Chicken
• Smoked Chili Sea Bass
• Gold & Silver Egg Fried Rice

These menus are available from February 1st-February 10th. Yum!

E&O Kitchen and Bar

314 Sutter St
San Francisco, CA 94108

At Union Square’s modern Asian restaurant, E&O Kitchen and Bar, Executive Chef Sharon Nahm has created a pork-centric menu in celebration of the new year. This hog wild menu will feature pork dishes from different regions of Asia. And don’t forget the pairings! Cheeky pig themed beers and cocktails will also be featured throughout the month of February to keep the Year of the Pig celebration going.

How are you celebrating the Lunar New Year? Is it with family and friends? Are you flying, driving, or hopping on the train anywhere? Tag us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter with your celebrations!

CUESA (Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture), the educational nonprofit behind the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, is unveiling The Food Change, a bold new project championing farmers, advocates, and everyday people who are making positive change in our food system.

Through a larger-than-life public art installation at San Francisco’s iconic Ferry Building with portraits by photographer Anne Hamersky, a companion website (thefoodchange.org), and live educational events, The Food Change will engage thousands of visitors in creating a fair, regenerative, and delicious food future.

CUESA is unveiling The Food Change at the Ferry Building at two celebratory events next week, featuring project participants. Additional talks, tours, and parties are planned throughout the year.

• Wednesday, January 30, 5:30-8pm: Cheers to Change Makers: Winter Cocktails of the Farmers Market
• Saturday, February 2, 11:30-1pm: The Food Change Big Reveal

From climate change to food access, The Food Change covers a broad range of urgent food, environmental, and social issues, featuring farmers, food makers, and activists such as Shakirah Simley (Nourish|Resist), Judith Redmond (Full Belly Farm), Mai Nguyen (California Grain Campaign), Monica Martinez (Don Bugito), and other change makers working toward solutions.

“The Food Change shines a bright light on people fighting for a better food system and invites everyone to take part,” says Nina Ichikawa, Policy Director of the Berkeley Food Institute, who appears on the “Food Democracy” panel of The Food Change.

The Food Change will be experienced by thousands of visitors to the historic Ferry Building and CUESA’s 25-year-old Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, which takes place outside the building on Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. The building’s south arcade is home to CUESA’s teaching kitchen, where CUESA hosts free youth and public education programs that serve thousands of students and community members each year.

A Multifaceted Educational Project

The Food Change will inspire and engage visitors of all ages through high-impact visuals, storytelling, and educational experiences:

• Public art installation at the Ferry Building: 15 larger-than-life eight-foot-square portraits of Change Makers under the arches of San Francisco’s Ferry Building (home to CUESA’s world-renowned Ferry Plaza Farmers Market) will provide an immersive experience designed to provoke thought and conversation.
• New Website: A companion website (thefoodchange.org) will help visitors dig deeper into the issues, connect with change makers, and find resources to take action.
• Live educational events: CUESA will host public talks, farm tours, and other parties designed around Food Change themes in 2019 and beyond.

Take a look at the new Mexican restaurant, La Calenda, from Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, The Saratoga is hosting a weekly ramen special on Wednesdays, and three Valentine’s Day dinners worth the expense and hassle of going out on a very busy night of hearts and flowers.

Thomas Keller’s Mexican Restaurant, La Calenda, Is Unsurprisingly Quite Delicious

La Calenda
6518 Washington St., Yountville
Open daily 5pm–11pm

In an unexpected move from the Thomas Keller Restaurant Group, they opened a casual Mexican restaurant in Yountville, in the former Hurley’s, where you’ll now find destination-worthy tacos and more. La Calenda‘s chef de cuisine is Kaelin Ulrich Trilling, who was raised in Oaxaca — he worked on his father’s tomato farm, and his mother, Susana Trilling, is a known culinary personality, with a PBS series and cooking school (Seasons of My Heart), and many cookbooks. 

At La Calenda, he was able to introduce purveyors and artisans from his home region to Yountville. Dried chiles — including chilhuacle negro, costeño rojo, and chile mixe — are from Oaxaca, and they use Tamoa to source heirloom corn from various regions of Central and Southern Mexico, including multigenerational corn growers and tortilleros. But then there’s a focus on our fantastic local products as well, like beans from Rancho Gordo, mushrooms from Connie Green of Wineforest Wild Foods, and goat milk from Sonoma County. The French Laundry Culinary Garden supplies traditional herbs, including pápalo, pipicha, and cilantro criollo, and will increase its production of squash year-round, and the kitchen will use its blossoms, fruit, and seeds. 

The totopos are so good here, it looks like TKRG will need to figure out how to sell them separately in stores (please do that), and the accompanying salsa verde and the brick red salsa mixe are stellar, plus a perfectly seasoned guacamole that will become your new gold standard ($13 for all). Add in an order of the queso fundido ($11)—made with queso Chihuahua — and prepare to get a crush on the smoky salsa a las brasas. It’s also your first encounter with the housemade tortillas here — on our visit, they were tortillas rojas, so fragrant and earthy. 

The tamal de calabaza ($6) has a delicate, creamy texture, with vegetal notes from the hoja santa and comes with a puree of butternut squash, and spicy black bean salsa with aji amarillo.

Meats really shine here, from the juicy tacos al pastor (shaved off a trompo/vertical spit) with roasted pineapple, shaved onion, and an outstanding salsa morita ($11 for two), to the rich and deeply savory tacos de barbacoa, with braised short rib topped with a verdant blanket of salsa avocado, plus cilantro and an unexpected spicy sprig of watercress ($13 for two). We were happy to have more of the roja tortillas.

And then there’s the plato fuerte of puerco en mole verde ($22), thick slices of the most tender and pork jowl (prepared sous vide for eight hours and then finished on the wood-fired grill), so you get a satisfyingly seared exterior on the fat-laced meat, served with creamy Rancho Gordo white beans in green mole, all hiding under a few baby Swiss chard leaves. 

There’s a children’s menu, and quite the cocktail list for adults (most of the drinks are pre-batched to keep up with volume, the bar gets absolutely slammed). Try their spin on a Paper Plane (Avión de Papel) made with tequila, a great cocktail to start your meal with, and the Negroni with mezcal and porcini-infused Campari is savory and a good match with the tacos de barbacoa. The bar team is talented and fun, so hang out in the bar area if you can for a drink. In selecting local wines, the La Calenda team worked with the Mexican-American Vintner’s Association (MAVA), a nonprofit association in Napa Valley that partners with Latinix vintners and winemakers.

The lively restaurant is now open nightly until 11pm, and doesn’t take reservations (unless you have a group of 10 or more), so expect a wait — unless you’re like me and come in midweek at 9:15pm and find all the room you need; you can also order food to go. It has a casual hacienda style, with wood tables and high-backed chairs, and all the dishware and glasses are made by various artisans in Oaxaca. It’s approachable, welcoming, and family-friendly, with extremely attentive service, and is also pretty high-volume, a far cry from the hushed atmosphere at The French Laundry.

A Wednesday Ramen Special at The Saratoga

The Saratoga
1000 Larkin St., San Francisco

Rainy, chilly nights are built for ramen, and The Saratoga is offering a weekly ramen special every Wednesday through February 13th. The first two weeks were a pop-up of sorts with chef Dennis Lee of Namu Gaji, serving his garlic-sesame-miso ramen with crispy delicata squash, roast tomato, bean sprouts, shiitake, mizuna, sesame mayu, nori, and onsen egg ($16). For the coming weeks, The Saratoga’s chef Francisco Baca will be offering his own bowl, and you can take your pick of some Japanese whiskey pairings (The Saratoga is known for their shimmering wall and selection of whiskey). A perfect Wednesday winter’s night: whiskey and ramen. Follow @thesaratogasf for menu updates.

Three Options for Valentine’s Day That Are Worth Going Out For

February 14, 2019
Nightbird
330 Gough St., San Francisco

If you’re looking for something that’s the right balance of romance and camp, Nightbird is offering a “Fairytale Love” menu for $200, which will feature food moments in movie scenes about love. Chef Alter and her partner Ron Boyd are celebrating their lucky 13 anniversary and they’re both February babies, so they’re excited to celebrate with guests!

A16
2355 Chestnut St., San Francisco

Another birthday is at A16, which is turning 15 on February 14! Chef Nicolette Manescalchi has created a classic Southern Italian menu, a Lover’s Feast, and Wine Director Shelley Lindgren is pouring wines that have become a part of the A16 family along with some rare gems. The family-style dinner ($98 per person) includes Kumamoto oysters with Meyer lemon, ogo seaweed, olio nuovo; beet tonnarelli with sour orange, garlic, goat milk ricotta salata; and acqua pazza lobster.

Night Fishing: Ostara
The Midway
900 Marin St., San Francisco
7pm–9pm
Tickets: $125

For a completely artsy dinner, one of The Midway Gallery’s resident artists, Isis Hockenos, returns with another one of her surreal dining events, Night Fishing: Ostara. Descend into a magical, mythical realm of enchanted revelers, bewitching nymphs, and playful satyrs, and feel whispers of the approaching days of Spring. There will be music and muses and merry-makers, and a seasonal, multi-course dinner with wine pairings.  

by Nick Czap

Of the six paramitas—or perfections—of practice in Zen Buddhism, the first is generosity. Within the context of Buddhism, there’s a curious twist to generosity, because when you consider an act of generosity in light of the interconnectedness of all things, it follows that there is no difference between the giver, the gift, and the receiver.

And while I’m not a Buddhist myself, a recent evening at Greens, on which I felt a particular oneness with the food, leads me to think there may be some truth to the idea.

There was another element at work as well, a longstanding affection for a San Francisco landmark that early on had shaped my perception of just how powerful the experience of eating at a restaurant could be, while demonstrating that vegetarian cuisine was as worthy of respect and reverence as any other.

As a newly minted San Franciscan, my first visit to Greens in the early 1990s was a revelation. A strict vegetarian at the time, my outlook on restaurants of the genre—shaped by leftist food co-op cafes, various Hare Krishna establishments, and the no-longer-extant British chain, Cranks—was correspondingly bleak. Imagine, then, the thrill of that long-ago summer evening in a vast, airy dining room, elegantly furnished and brilliantly illuminated by a Golden Gate sunset, and of food so beautiful, flavorful, and nourishing that it left an herbivore flushed with gratitude, and his omnivorous relatives feeling that they hadn’t missed a thing.

In the course of some recent outings to Fort Mason—for art fairs, open studios, and the odd beer-quenched afternoon at Radhaus—it occurred to me that Greens and I were due for a reunion. Coincidentally, Greens, which turns 40 this July, was at a pivotal juncture, having just emerged from a protracted closure, with a new chef in the kitchen.

Considering how radical it seemed in the early ’90s, one wonders what SF made of Greens when it opened on the site of a former military base in 1979. The restaurant was founded by the San Francisco Zen Center, an organization that encompasses three Soto Zen Buddhist practice communities—at Green Gulch Farm in Marin, City Center in San Francisco, and Tassajara in the Ventana Wilderness. The vegetarian food at Tassajara—which invites members of the public for retreats in spring and summer—was very popular with visitors from the Bay Area, and the community surmised that the same food could attract a following in the city. A restaurant could serve as a place for Zen trainees to work and practice together, and if it succeeded, could help support the Zen Center financially.

Green’s executive chef, Annie Somerville, came to the restaurant in 1981 after working in the kitchen at the Zen Center in SF, and as the head cook at Tassajara. “When I came to Greens,” she said with a note of amusement, “it was supposed to be just a short stint.” She worked alongside the restaurant’s first chef, Deborah Madison, who established a culinary tone that continues to this day. “I give credit to Deborah Madison for that—taking produce and turning it into something very beautiful on the plate.”

Somerville emphasized that the success of the restaurant also owed much to its location. “A lot of the experience of Greens is not just the food. When you walk in the door and have that beautiful experience of space, looking out at the bridge and the headlands and the bay, you really do feel transformed. At that point, 50 percent of our job is done.”

Early last year, Somerville began gradually reducing her involvement in the restaurant’s day-to-day operations. “I’ve worked at Greens for 37 years,” she said. “It’s very much a part of my life. But I can just say that at some point you know it’s time for change. It was time for me to step back, and it was time for the restaurant for me to step back.” To that end, in the middle of last year, Greens hired Denise St. Onge, an experienced young chef, as its chef de cuisine. When I met with St. Onge recently, she talked about her personal connection to Greens.

St. Onge, who is half-Thai, was raised Buddhist and grew up both in Thailand and in the Oakland hills. “My mother was a chef in Oakland, at the Vulcan Cafe,” she said, “and my sister and I traveled a lot as kids, and became foodies naturally through that experience. My mom passed away from cancer in 1998, and during that journey with her, we started a vegetarian macrobiotic diet, did a lot of meditation, and came to Greens a lot. It was probably 1995. I always thought it was a really beautiful restaurant and institution, and a very peaceful place.”

After studying international relations at SF State, St. Onge decided she wanted to cook. “I started off as a stage at Michael Mina,” which at the time was one of only two two-Michelin-star restaurants in the city, “and worked for free until they hired me.” In the years that followed, she worked at a number of the city’s most highly regarded restaurants, including Gary Danko, SPQR, Prospect, and Atelier Crenn. Greens, as it happened, would prove to be something of a baptism by fire.

On June 20, shortly after St. Onge was hired, a blaze broke out in the kitchen’s ventilation system. Greens announced that it would be “closed for a few weeks” to repair the damage. Fire inspectors, however, discovered a number of issues, which led to a decision to replace the entire kitchen, and a closure that would ultimately last four months. The reopening in mid-October, in the midst of a socially conscious investing conference at Fort Mason, was anything but soft. Greens’ general manager, Min Kim, described the scenario: “Denise had to execute a full dining room and 26 other private events in three and a half days. After that, we were ready for anything.”

On an evening in mid-December, Greens seemed to be fully back in its groove. The only discernible difference was that the dining room looked especially snappy, its new chairs and carpets, and a fresh coat of paint a fringe benefit of the four-month closure. The sun had not quite set, and from our table by the window, my wife and I could just make out the fog-cloaked towers of the bridge and the masts of the sailboats lilting gently in the nearby marina. The mood was serene, the lighting soft, a refreshing respite from the glare of the halogens favored by so many restaurants in an age of social media.

As we took turns nipping into a bowl of almonds that had been tossed in olive oil and sea salt and slow-roasted to a brilliant crunch, I sipped a brisk, bright negroni—a blend of Botanist Islay dry gin, Carpano Antica sweet vermouth, and the bitter apéritif liqueur, Gran Classico.

As a first course, I chose carrot-ginger soup. Delightfully colorful, a rich orange-ocher, it was garnished with a single, plump falafel and some juicy micro greens—radish or arugula, possibly. Warm, sweet, and savory with a subtle gingery kick, it was comforting, fortifying, and invigorating all at once.

We then shared a wonderfully sweet and juicy Warren pear, poached in white wine and mulling spices, charcoal-grilled, and garnished with spicy greens in a tangy vinaigrette and a scattering of toasted hazelnuts. Equally scrumptious was a dish of griddle cakes—gently seared, delicately savory rounds made from a batter of cheddar cauliflower florets, egg yolk, feta cheese, chili flakes, scallions, and the Mexican corn flour masa harina.

For the main, we divvied up a pizza, a handsome pie with a crisp-crumbly crust—made from a mix of cornmeal and ultra-finely-ground 00 flour—topped with roasted squash, caramelized onion, Asiago and goat cheese, and an assertively flavorful pesto made from pine nuts, scallions, Parmigiano-Reggiano, garlic, and olive oil.

Of the five enticing desserts, we chose two: a warm and fragrant apple galette à la house-made butter pecan ice cream; and a spot-on butterscotch pot de crème topped with a delectably crisp and buttery-sweet cacao nib tuile.

If the food felt familiar, and reassuringly so, it’s because St. Onge is as keenly interested in where Greens came from as where it’s going. “I’ve been studying the Greens cookbooks,” she said, “and looking through all of our files of past menus,” studying the influences that Madison first brought to the kitchen, and the way the food had evolved during Somerville’s tenure. “I personally have a lot of ideas about where we can grow on the menu, incorporating more vegan options, and also incorporating Zen Buddhist heritage.”

Somerville, who still shops for the restaurant at the Ferry Plaza farmers’ market and makes herself available for menu ideas and other consultations, expressed a deep trust in St. Onge’s instincts. “Denise is much younger than I am, and has worked in a number of great restaurants,” she said. “We’re lucky to have someone there who has a sense of the place and respects it. We’re a time-honored place, and at the same time, people want change. It’s good to let things evolve. If a dish clicks, the customers will tell us. And we listen to them.”

This article originally appeared on 7×7 Bay Area.

Visit Sasa in Japantown for a quality and affordable omakase experience, watch the Oscars over great food and cocktails at a gala event, get a sneak peek of Noosh at a pre-opening dinner and through delivery, and snag a seat at La Cocina’s Week of Women in Food.

A Rare Find: an Affordable and Quality Omakase Experience in San Francisco

Sasa
22 Peace Plaza, Suite 530, San Francisco
Tue–Sun lunch 12pm–2:30pm and dinner 5pm–9:30pm

Usually, being a lover of sushi requires a flush bank account, especially if you’re a connoisseur of the good stuff, with many omakase experiences starting at $125 at most sushi counters in San Francisco. But what if I told you that tucked away in Japantown is a sushi place that has a chef tasting menu for $60, and it features some small dishes, plus quality nigiri selections (eight in all!), like umi masu (ocean trout from Tasmania) with shiso, and kinmedai (golden eye snapper) that is cherrywood cold smoked and served with yuzu kosho (spicy Japanese citrus paste). Each nigiri presentation has its own flavorful additions, from dabs of pickled plum paste to lime zest. The rice is also well-prepared and seasoned.

Just one clunker for me was the bafun uni from Hokkaido ($12 each) that I ordered as an addition — the quality of the nori wasn’t very notable and was soft. But the huge glasses of sake they pour here help make up for it.

Chef-owner Weida (David) Chen is also behind SF’s Hinata, which he opened in 2016. He was such a lover of Japanese food that he dropped out of college and decided to learn to make sushi. He was trained for six years by a Michelin-rated sushi chef in the Bay Area and assisted his master chef Takatoshi Toshi (Sushi Ran) at the Global Sushi Challenge in Tokyo, Japan in 2015 (they placed third).

The menu offers all kinds of options — you could just come in for a 10-piece nigiri tasting for $45, but then you’d miss the fun opening hassun and closing courses with the $60 chef omakase tasting, like corn tofu and akadashi (red miso) soup. There are also à la carte appetizers and larger plate options. They additionally offer lunch service, in case you’re looking for a special lunch treat, including a nine-piece chirashi bowl.

It’s a handsome restaurant, with natural wood accents and tables, and contemporary black chairs. There’s a small sushi bar in the front corner, with room for four, but everyone is primarily sitting at tables. Also unusual: they have a table for large groups.  

Get Your Ticket for the Most Over-the-Top Oscars Party in Town

Academy of Friends
Sunday, February 24
5pm–9pm, VIP at 4pm
City View at Metreon
135 4th St. #4000, San Francisco
Tickets: $300–$750; use code tablehopper for 20 percent off through 2/17

What are your plans for Oscars night? If grazing your way through 18 tables from some of SF’s top restaurants, with cocktails, entertainment, and a beautiful view from Metreon’s City View venue sounds like your kind of night, then you’ll want to get your ticket to the 39th annual Academy of Friends Gala. It’s a huge fundraiser for six Bay Area HIV/AIDS service organizations, and a popular event for the gay community (wait until you see the men in Speedos who are spray-painted gold to look like Oscars statuettes—just be careful not to hug them or you’ll get gold all over you).

This is my third year curating the restaurants for the gala, and our generous restaurant partners really bring it! The lineup of restaurants this year includes ALX, Avery (VIP), Ayala, desserts from Bluestem Brasserie, Cento Osteria, China Live, Gio Gelati, the new Izakaya Sushi Ran, coffee and espresso drinks from Mr. Espresso to keep the party going, Michelin-starred Nico (VIP), Rooh, Slanted Door, Tank18, The Caviar Co. (VIP), The Saratoga, Uno Dos, and Trace. It’s going to be a fun feast.

There will be cocktail and wine stations, a silent auction with fantastic items (from artwork to restaurant gift certificates, like Maybeck’s!), live entertainment, and plenty of photo opps. The theme is Neptune’s Fantasy, so it’s going to be an underwater-themed world. Expect to see some mermaids. 

Don’t miss the limited discount code (tablehopper), which is good for 20 percent off your ticket through February 17. 100 percent of proceeds are distributed to HIV/AIDS services. See you there!

Enjoy a Sneak Peek of Noosh at These Dinners or With Delivery

Noosh
2001 Fillmore St., San Francisco
Valentine’s dinners ($95): reserve on Tock

Savvy Bay Area diners have been eagerly awaiting the opening of Noosh on Fillmore. This stylish and soulful Eastern Mediterranean restaurant from husband-and-wife chefs and co-founders Laura and Sayat Ozyilmaz and co-founder John Litz is opening very soon, but until that happens, they’re opening the restaurant for some special one-off events…and delivery!

If you don’t have Valentine’s Day plans yet, you’ll want to book a spot ASAP to this abundant dinner that will feature marinated bay scallops, lamb shoulder with lamb bacon marmalade, pear ‘biji biji, and it includes canapés and a welcome cocktail. $95, with dinner served both on Thursday, February 14 (currently waitlist only) and Friday, February 15, with 6pm and 9pm seatings. It’s meant to be a festive experience with shared tables, so don’t expect a private two-top at this dinner.

Don’t want to leave your house? Noosh is doing things a little bit untraditionally, and has launched delivery on Caviar! You can try their stunning dips and spreads, such as warm babaganoosh (their cute spelling), smoked labne with cucumbers and Aleppo, and a very notable red pepper muhammara; all spreads come with their daily housemade pita bread, which is so fluffy.

There are also pita sandwiches, like a classic sabich (with hummus, eggplant, and an egg), or a Greek-inspired po’boy with fried calamari and smoked tzatziki. There are pillowy flatbreads shaped like a canoe that will remind you of Turkey, kebabs (including housemade halloumi kebabs topped with a rose-honey and Szechuan peppercorn mix), lamb meatballs (they’re loaded with flavor), a carrot salad, and more. 

Dishes vary for lunch and dinner; available daily 10:30am–2pm and 5:30pm–9pm. Order via Caviar, and that code will give first-timers $10 off your first two orders.

Celebrate International Women’s Day at La Cocina’s Week of Women in Food

A Week of Women in Food
March 3–9
Various locations

International Women’s Day is on March 8, so why not celebrate the talented and hardworking chefs of La Cocina for a week? These women chefs are collaborating in a series of ticketed dinners called A Week of Women in Food, featuring La Cocina chefs paired with top restaurateurs, winemakers, and bartenders. You can join El Pípila and August 1 Five, or chef Fernay McPherson (Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement) with Erin Wade (Homeroom). Each dinner will accommodate 45–60 guests in one seating for a multi-course meal, plus beer, wine, spirits, and non-alcoholic pairings from some of the most talented women in the beverage industry. 

Get your tickets soon, some dinners are filling up. All proceeds from ticket sales benefit La Cocina’s incubator program that works to identify, support, and cultivate more women chefs and owners.

This is an updated guide to our 2017 Celebrate Black History Month At These Black-Owned Bay Area Restaurants.

February is a time for us to honor Black History Month with art, music, and, of course, food. There are a number of chefs around the Bay Area providing a special menu this month, but, with this guide, you can support black-owned restaurants doing their thing year-round.

Sadly, some of the restaurants we covered in our 2017 list have closed since then, so we created this new one. Please note, this guide does not include every black-owned restaurant, bar, bakery or pop-up in the whole Bay Area, so please feel free to add any favorites we may have missed by tagging us on social! You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter.

Isla Vida

1325 Fillmore St.
San Francisco, CA

In our last visit to Isla Vida, chef-owner Jay Foster and co-owner Matthew Washington told us, “We’re trying to touch on a few of the little things that we really like, try to represent it really well and hopefully make our ancestors proud.” Though it took over a decade to get the idea to be a reality, their Caribbean-centric restaurant finally opened last year in the Fillmore district, the former “Harlem of the West.” Black-owned restaurants previously thrived there, but now Isla Vida (in a space formerly taken by another black-owned business, Black Bark BBQ) is just one of a few black-owned businesses in the neighborhood.

There’s not many places to get Caribbean food in the Bay, and Foster and Washington have definitely done their research. As Trevor quotes in his piece about the restaurant, Foster is simply “trying to follow the footsteps of our ancestors culinarily. The food of the Diaspora is very similar…it just depends on where the boat stopped.”

Kendejah Restaurant

197 Pelton Center Way
San Leandro, CA

Have you sampled Liberian cuisine? Time to visit the Bay Area’s only Liberian spot, Kendejah Restaurant in San Leandro (which Check, Please! Bay Area visited in Season 13). According to the owner, Dougie Uso, he wants you to feel like you’re visiting a friend’s house, so the vibe is very friendly and casual, but you can get a dash of history with your food at the same time.

Recommendations from the show? Oxtail stew, attieke with fish and jollof rice to name a few.

Reve Bistro

960 Moraga Road F
Lafayette, CA 94549

Chef Paul Magu-Lecugy, a classically trained French chef whose esteemed resume includes the Gérard Besson in Paris, La Bastide de Moustiers, and the Ritz Carlton and St. Regis in San Francisco, always had dreams of opening a bistro that offers a five star dining experience at an affordable price. Today, Magu-Lecugy owns and operates Reve (“dream” in French) in Lafayette, offering Lamorinda residents the chance to experience a traditional French bistro, not unlike those he experienced during his childhood in Paris.

With an extensive wine list (mostly French and some Californian) and seasonal menus featuring fresh ingredients, Reve (which made an appearance on Check, Please! Bay Area) offers a culinary escape to France, without the price of a plane ticket.

Brown Sugar Kitchen

This is an honorary mention since Brown Sugar Kitchen made the 2017 list! Chef and owner Tanya Holland opened Brown Sugar Kitchen in 2008 on Mandela Parkway in West Oakland, but that location closed in the latter half of 2017 to make way for Holland’s projects in Uptown Oakland and the San Francisco Ferry Building. For anyone that has been missing the buttermilk fried chicken and Holland’s other signature items, the Ferry Building location just opened!

For now, you can also try making some of that fried chicken and cornmeal waffles with her recipes on Celebrity Chefs.

Horn Barbecue

Pop-up
Oakland, CA

Despite making its mark as one of the best Texas inspired BBQ eateries in the bay, cooking Barbeque wasn’t always owner and chef Matt Horn’s goal. According to Horn’s bio, after grilling a particularly bad batch of spare ribs, Horn vowed to “never cook bad cue again” and took to his Grandmother’s backyard to perfect the art of pit-smoking meats. To say Horn has honed his meat-smoking techniques is an understatement; with days to prepare between each pop-up, no shortage of time and dedication is put towards preparing meats (including brisket, homemade sausage and pork cuts), as well as homemade rubs and sauces.

You can catch Matt Horn, and his 500-gallon custom smoker, Lucille, at various pop-up locations around Oakland – check Horn Barbecue’s Facebook page for future dates and locations!

For more eateries to visit during Black History Month, see below.

San Francisco

• Miyako Old-Fashioned Ice Cream (Fillmore)
• Auntie April’s (Bayview) Watch Check, Please! Bay Area review
• Sheba Piano Lounge (Fillmore)
• Little Skillet (China Basin)
• Queen’s Louisiana Po-Boy Cafe (Bayview)
• Radio Africa Kitchen (Bayview) – Check out their Community Tuesdays events this month
• Sam Jordan’s Bar (Bayview)
• Frisco Fried (Bayview)Yvonne’s Southern Sweets (Bayview)
• Amawele’s South African Kitchen (Embarcadero)
• Club Waziema (Panhandle)
• Two Jacks Nik’s Place (Hayes Valley)
• International Smoke (Financial District)

South Bay/Peninsula

• Back a Yard Caribbean Grill (Menlo Park & San Jose) Watch Check, Please! Bay Area review
• Walia Ethiopian Cuisine (San Jose)
• Zeni Ethiopian Restaurant (San Jose) Watch Check, Please! Bay Area review

East Bay

• Lena’s Soul Food Cafe (Oakland)
• Kingston 11 Cuisine (Oakland) Watch Check, Please! Bay Area review
• Southern Cafe (Oakland and Antioch)
• Lois the Pie Queen (Oakland)
• Home of Chicken and Waffles (Oakland)
• Souley Vegan (Oakland)
• Miss Ollie’s (Oakland)
• Crumble & Whisk Patisserie (Berkeley)
• Everett & Jones Barbeque (Oakland, Berkeley and Hayward)
• PieTisserie (Oakland)
• New Karibbean City (Oakland)
• Goeffrey’s Inner Circle (Oakland)
• Ensarro Ethiopian (Oakland)
• Miliki (Oakland)
• Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement  (Emeryville)
• Suya African Grill (Oakland)
• ENAT Honey Winery (Oakland)
• Reve Bistro (Lafayette)
• Oeste (Oakland)
• Cupcakin’ Bake Shop (Oakland and Berkeley)

Track down this al pastor dish for Sunday brunch, enjoy Arabic or Ethiopian home cooking (and hospitality), a new monthly guest chef burger special, and an annual artisan cheese festival you won’t want to miss.

Don’t Miss Tank18’s Incredible Al Pastor Dish at Sunday Brunch

Tank18 Restaurant & Urban Winery
1345 Howard St., San Francisco
Sunday brunch 11am–3pm

Brunch is very popular in SF, but sometimes it can be tooooo popular — it can be as tough to find a table for a group of friends as a Friday night table at primetime. But at Tank18 in SoMa, they have a spacious dining room, one that features just as many tables for large groups as two- and four-tops, maybe more. You may know Tank18 as a winery, but they actually have a full bar, on full display at Sunday brunch in their Bloody Mary, which comes with salumi and pickles, or choose from two other kinds, plus a paloma, coffee flip, and more.

There are dishes on chef Brandon Cavazos’s brunch menu that will appeal (shakshuka with nopales, pan de mie French toast) but the hands-down winner, the one you should get a couple friends together for ASAP is the pork al pastor ($32). You get a pound of the most savory, juicy, pork shoulder cooked sous vide with al pastor rub — it’s seared to order on the plancha, giving it a nicely crispy edge, and served in the most flavor-packed, rich, reduced sauce (we’re talking 40 quarts of pork bone stock reduced to 4, with charred onion and pork skin for extra texture and deep sabor). The shoulder is served with avocado crema, escabeche, sliced radish, charred jalapeños, and pillowy tortillas from La Palma, plus cracklings on top for extra crunch, and it’s pure pork perfection.

Another sleeper hit is the mojo rice ($8), green and bright with cilantro, parsley, and garlic, and topped with sliced housemade breakfast sausage with a little hit of ginger and grilled shishito. Yet another reason to get your pork-loving posse together for a fun Sunday brunch.

Beit Rima
138 Church St., San Francisco
Open Tue–Sun 11am–10pm

Enjoy Quality, Homestyle Arabic Dishes at the New Beit Rima

There’s nothing like being greeted at a fast-casual place with a complimentary cup of hot, sweet, minty black tea and kindly asked to take a seat with “Don’t worry, I will take your order at the table.” The hospitality at Beit Rima (“Rima’s House”) is matched by the delightfully and deliciously homey food, which is proudly proclaimed as “Arabic comfort food” on the business sign and logo. It’s an homage to chef-owner Samir Mogannam’s mother and her wonderful cooking (she is originally from Jordan), although he has quite the cooking pedigree himself from cooking at Aziza, Tawla, and Dyafa.

The location was previously Burgermeister, and his father, Paul Mogannam, was the founder of Burgermeister, who is retiring and passing it on to his son. The tables are now covered in green and white checkered tablecloths, with classic wood spindle chairs, and there are hanging houseplants and other residential décor touches throughout the space. The only thing that isn’t welcoming is how chilly it is inside, so don’t forget your jacket.

The menu is built to share, but you can easily come for a solo meal of the chicken shish tawook plate ($12), with tender, grilled bites of yogurt-marinated chicken with “mom’s rice,” charred onion and red pepper, toum (Lebanese garlic sauce), hummus, pickles (plus beet-pickled turnips), and a half of warm and lightly fluffy pita. Mom would also want you to eat your greens, so get the fattoush ($8) salad, which comes with charred dates and a kicky dressing with pomegranate vinegar.

Mezze include a warm bowl of ful (fava beans), mashed with garlic, olive oil, and lemon, with a little bit of chickpeas ($7); you can order a supplement of a soft egg on top, and it comes with pita. The flavorful hummus was silky with nutty notes of tahini and there’s the option to get it with ground and spiced beef on top along with some pine nuts ($12), another dip you’ll want to scoop up with the warm pita. There’s shakshuka all day, falafel, beef kabobs, vegetables from Mariquita Farm for dipping, and more mezze, plus muhalabbia milk pudding for dessert, and nothing is over $14. You’ll be well-fed and doted on, which will bring you back as quickly as the good food will.

A Quintessential Neighborhood Place: Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen

Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen 
484 Ellis St., San Francisco
Open daily 11:30am–9pm

Nestled right in the heart of the Tenderloin is Tadu Ethiopian Kitchen, a popular stop for some theater-goers who are okay with walking through a couple of the neighborhood’s scruffier blocks for a meal. Husband-and-wife Elias and Nani Shawel have created a colorful spot you can’t ignore, with artwork on the bright mandarin orange walls. Inside, there are just a handful of tables, with couples and friends sharing plates of tibs (chicken, lamb, or beef) and scooping up kitfo (buttery chopped beef, usually served on the rare side — we ordered ours medium rare and it came out perfectly) with spongy and tangy injera bread from baskets on a counter. 

The menu is full of vegetarian and vegan options, like chickpeas with turmeric and ginger; collard greens with ginger, garlic and onions; and lentils. Don’t miss the vegetarian combination hiding in the specialty entrées section, which includes kik alicha wot (chickpeas), misir wot (split lentils), gomen (collard greens), alicha tikil gomen (cabbage, potatoes, and carrots), plus some salad and buticha (mashed chickpea), a full spread for just $12.95. They even offer gluten-free injera for an extra $3. Portions are hearty — two people will have more than enough to eat by ordering one dish each. Hopefully you’re dining with someone who likes to share — and eat with their hands — because everything comes out on a big plate that you eat from communally.

Everything tasted very homemade and freshly made, with tender meat morsels, but the flavors didn’t have the pop of Berbere (spice mix) like I’ve had at other places. It ends up you need to tell your server to really bring the flava, otherwise they keep things pretty tame. Even our spicy kitfo came out pretty mellow. When the owner saw I was seeking more than the little bowl of Berbere spice he brought over, he told me the next time I should request the kulet: here, it’s a deeply savory and thickened onion sauce, almost a paste, loaded with Berbere that they can cook into your dishes. Ah ha! That’s the stuff. So now you know.

This location doesn’t have any alcohol, but you can try telba, a slippery-textured drink made with ground flax seeds and honey. While I wouldn’t call this place a destination, if I was looking for something homey and affordable (and vegetarian) in the neighborhood, it fits the bill. There is a newer and brighter location in Mission Bay as well.

Causwells Launches a Monthly Guest Chef Burger

Causwells
Guest Burger Series (monthly)
2346 Chestnut St., San Francisco

Causwells in the Marina already makes one of the best double cheeseburgers in town, but now it’s truly double trouble since they just introduced a guest burger series. Every month, they will feature a rotating burger special from favorite restaurants throughout the Bay Area. For February, the burger collaboration features a burger with chef Telmo Faria of Uma Casa and Piri Pica: the OG Mosto Burger (double smash patties, Oaxaca cheese, poblanos, spicy serrano aioli, pickled red onion). You can get the burger for $16.95. Upcoming burgers include March with Media Noche and April with Prospect. 

Get Your Cheese on at This Annual Weekend Festival

California Artisan Cheese Festival
March 23–24
Various Sonoma and Marin County locations
Tickets

Sound the cheese alarm: coming up on March 23 is the thirteenth annual California Artisan Cheese Festival, a two-day weekend event that includes cheese tastings, pairings, farm and producer tours, and a culinary competition, all of which are held at various locations in Sonoma and Marin Counties. You’ll also have the opportunity to experience new, limited-production, and rare artisan cheeses, all while learning about the art of cheesemaking from some of the industry’s most knowledgeable experts through a variety of interactive seminars. Don’t miss fun tasting events like Cheese, Bites & Booze! and Bubbles & Brunch, plus the Artisan Cheese Tasting & Marketplace on Sunday, March 24. Tickets are going fast, so don’t delay.

Whether you’re a pastrami fanatic or eat vegetarian, Turner’s Kitchen has some fantastic sandwiches, plus two places for Mardi Gras parties, and start planning a field trip to Marshall for the reopening of Tony’s Seafood from Hog Island Oyster Co.

Visit Turner’s Kitchen for Some of the City’s Most Lovingly Prepared Sandwiches

Turner’s Kitchen
3505 B 17th St., San Francisco
Open daily 10:30am–4pm

There is a definite art to making a good sandwich, and then there’s a certain level of creativity and skill needed to make a truly great sandwich, plus quality ingredients. At Turner’s Kitchen in the Mission, owner Ken Turner has got it all going on. He took over the former Clare’s Deli and opened Turner’s in its place in 2016, keeping Clare’s beloved French Dip on the menu (and fortunately keeping Bryce and Javier in the kitchen!). But the rest of the ever-evolving menu reveals his culinary background (he cooked at Zuni for seven years) and a love of seasonal vegetables, trips to the farmers’ market, making housemade sauces, and more. 

If you follow @turnerskitchensf on Instagram, you’ll constantly see some of the most delicious-looking (and sounding) combinations he makes for the daily specials, like roasted eggplant, melted Fontina cheese, red sauce, and basil pesto on a toasted ciabatta roll. Or you get some storytelling: “Sandwich special inspired by singing karaoke in Korea Town and eating pierogi at Veselka around 3am in NY. Roast turkey, Munster cheese, wild arugula, house apple sauce (four types of apples, lots of butter, a little cinnamon, cider vinegar), sour cream, roasted garlic and fresh dill on sliced sourdough.” He even suggests chip and drink pairings in his posts.

Turner’s is known for their hot pastrami specials: the one pictured here was inspired by Philadelphia cheesesteak sandwiches, but with a little California influence: hot pastrami, melted Havarti (Swiss pictured here), roasted Brussels sprouts (in pastrami fat), sautéed sweet peppers, and lots of caramelized onions. I got there too late in the afternoon to have it on Dutch crunch, but my French roll from Panorama was fresh and held it all together. What a sandwich for $12.

They may adore pastrami at Turner’s, but they also love their daily vegetarian wrap specials, which show a lot of love and care. From a meatless Monday–inspired Indian wrap, to this one: quinoa, roasted sweet potato purée, sautéed sweet peppers, roasted cauliflower, arugula, Gorgonzola, and house buffalo sauce in a spinach wrap — nope, vegetarians, vegans, and healthy eaters do not miss out here. I loved my Dorothy Gene special: avocado, fresh ricotta, roasted sweet potato purée, arugula, poblano peppers, sunflower seeds, fresh lime, and olive oil in a spinach wrap ($10). I just threw in a little piri-piri sauce at home to spike it up, because that’s how I roll. They also do some great soups, and there is always one that is vegetarian.

Winners on their daily menu include the Mission Fig (applewood smoked ham, roast turkey, melted Swiss, arugula, cucumber, and fig-caramelized onion jam on sliced sourdough) and their Gobbler, which comes with smoked turkey, cranberry sauce, mustard-sage stuffing, and melted Brie. $12 for some mighty stellar sandwiches.

A couple things to note: there are a few tables and counters (it’s a tiny spot), but you can always eat your sandwich in the 500 Club next door (and they’ll even deliver it to your bar stool!). Turner’s also just switched over to credit cards only, but you can buy a gift card for $20.

Two Mardi Gras Parties Where the Good Times Will Definitely Roll (and Are Unlimited)

Alba Ray’s
2293 Mission St, San Francisco
Tuesday, March 5
6pm–11pm
Tickets: $85

Brunch Sat–Sun; seatings 10am–2:30pm

San Francisco may be far from New Orleans, but our love of good food and parties means we don’t like to miss out on any Mardi Gras festivities. This year, Alba Ray’s in the Mission is celebrating with a Mardi Gras party, and a monthlong bottomless brunch! Their Fat Tuesday Blowout will have them turning their dining room into Frenchmen Street, with a live band bumpin’ all night and unlimited food, starting with passed hors-d’oeuvres, and then there will be many food stations serving New Orleans favorites, like boudin balls, crawfish boil, jambalaya, fried chicken, beignets, and king cupcakes (and more!). The party runs 6pm–11pm, and your ticket also includes two drink tickets. Let the good times roll!

Just in case you don’t want the party to stop, every weekend in March, Alba Ray’s will be hosting a Mardi Gras Bottomless Brunch, with unlimited food and booze and a live band! You can feast on boudin Benedict, biscuits and gravy, soufflé pancake, and more, plus rosé, frozen Irish coffee, mimosas, and more, just $42 with a 90-minute limit. 

Town Hall
342 Howard St., San Francisco
Tuesday, March 5
Begins at 6pm.
Info/tickets: $85 + tax/advance; $110/door

Town Hall is celebrating its fifteenth anniversary this year, so you can expect their annual Mardi Gras celebration is going to be quite the extravaganza (although it always is!). It’s a night of unlimited fun from owners Mitchell and Steven Rosenthal, who really love to host a big party (it runs late). The unlimited food and drink includes Louisiana-style Hurricanes, Abita beer, Leblon caipirinhas, red and white wine, and all-you-can-eat Southern specialties such as a raw bar (uh huh!), fried chicken, jambalaya, gumbo, their famed St. Louis ribs, a crawfish boil, andouille sausage, shrimp ‘n grits, buttermilk biscuits, corn bread, and king cake. 

There will be live music by The Joe Cohen Show, featuring Wil Blades, and wait until you see the samba dancers (Amor do Samba), plus there are beads, masks, feather boas, and face painting to help get you into the NOLA spirit.

Hog Island Oyster Co. Unveils the Renovated Tony’s Seafood in Marshall

Tony’s Seafood
18863 CA-1, Marshall

Oyster fans love heading up to Hog Island Oyster Co. on Tomales Bay in Marshall year-round, and about a mile south, the old school Tony’s Seafood has been another favorite for decades, which dates back to 1948! It was originally established by Anton “Tony” Konatich, a Croatian fisherman hailing from the Isle of Iz, and three generations of the Konatich family ran this seafood joint for 70 years. In 2017, the family reached out to Hog Island co-founders, John Finger and Terry Sawyer, to see if they wanted to buy this venerable family business, and now after months of restoration, the Hog Island team is excited to reopen Tony’s on March 1. 

Helming the kitchen is chef Matt Shapiro (Marlow & Sons, Wise Sons, Walzwerk, Schmidt’s, Hog Island), also a fisherman and forager, who has been with Hog Island Oyster Co. since 2014. His menu will include classics like fish and chips (AK True Cod), an oyster po’ boy, a Northern California Dungeness crab roll (in season), oysters on the half-shell and barbecued, a crudo, linguine with clams, and a daily “heads and tails” dish, a catch of the day, and some landlubber dishes like a Stemple Creek hamburger with tartar sauce.

The 96-seat restaurant has a stunning view of Tomales Bay, with a smaller outdoor waterside patio for alfresco dining, plus a waterside dining room is available for private parties (up to 30 guests). Tony’s will continue to be a local hangout and community gathering place, and there will be a Locals’ Night on Fridays, featuring live music and off-menu specials.  

After they open, winter hours will be Friday–Sunday 11:30am–8pm, along with a series of ticketed dinner events planned for Thursday nights. Spring opening hours will expand to Thursday through Monday 11:30am–8pm in April. Spring can’t get here fast enough.

“I know from my own experience, being hungry to write about food but clueless on where to start, that you need mentors and coaches willing to share what they know. It’s easier to tell original stories in food, in whatever medium, when you feel part of a creative community engaged in the same work,” explains John Birdsall, one of the Food Media Lab event chairs.

To open up the conversation and educate both those already in the industry and those who aspire to join it, the San Francisco Cooking School (SFCS) is launching their first ever annual Food Media Lab from June 17th-19th. The goal of this three-day workshop will be to “educate, inspire, and grow the industry’s next generation of food media professionals,” and attendees will learn things like pitching a story, how to plan a podcast, navigating a contract and more.

SFCS founder and director Jodi Liano explains, “Food media has exploded nationally in recent years with a stronger emphasis on diversity, personal narratives, politics, and progressive social movements. We are excited to host this event and bring together both aspiring and seasoned media professionals to learn from one another, openly discuss the media landscape, and explore the art of storytelling.”

That’s why “The Stories You Tell” is the common theme for this community workshop, and attendees will hopefully leave feeling inspired and armed with the knowledge and tools needed to bring their stories to life. Along with opportunities to rub shoulders with some of the brightest minds in the food world today, attendees can expect plenty of content to take home and interactive sessions around different aspects of food media: writing about food (cookbooks, memoirs, personal essays, blogging, and exploration of food culture), visual/audio media (photography, videos, and podcasting) and building your audience via social media.

And who will you meet and learn from at the Food Media Lab? Leading the charge with Liano are event chairs and award-winning authors, John Birdsall (Two-time James Beard Award-winning Writer) and Andrea Nguyen (James Beard Cookbook Award Winner). Some of the biggest names in the food industry will also be in attendance like Tejal Rao (California Restaurant Critic of The New York Times), Soleil Ho (San Francisco Chronicle Restaurant Critic; Host of podcast, The Racist Sandwich), Chris Ying (former Editor in Chief of Lucky Peach), Nik Sharma (San Francisco Chronicle “A Brown Kitchen” columnist and author of Season), Eric Wolfinger (food photographer and videographer), Andrew Friedman (Host of Andrew Talks to Chefs), and many more.

To make sure attendees will get the most out of the experience being held at SFCS, only 50 spots are available! Because it’s such a small group, participants will be able to (and are encouraged to) ask questions at all the workshops and interactive sessions. There will also be a Happy Hour on the first day after all the workshops and a daily one-hour lunch break (food provided) where both speakers and participants can mix and mingle.

The opportunity for attendees to network with each other and with guest speakers is also one of the biggest benefits that the Food Media Lab provides. “Many people want to impact the food media landscape yet the paths to do so aren’t evident. The Lab brings those people together with seasoned professionals whom we’ve identified as thoughtful leaders and generous teachers. The synergy will be amazing. There’s nothing like this — yet,” says Nguyen, one of the event chairs. And, hopefully, this workshop series will bring new blood into the food media industry to continue the trend we’re seeing of more diverse voices, perspectives and stories around food.

Interested in attending? Tickets for the Food Media Lab are available on their website and are $995 each — there will not be tickets available for individual days.

Interested in attending but unable to afford the cost of the ticket? Thanks to donations from sponsors like Ernest Vineyards, Fort Point Beer Company, Hint Water, Jane the Bakery, Kasa Indian, Proposition Chicken, and Souvla, some scholarships will be available for attendees (find more information on the Food Media Lab site).

The full lineup for each day is listed below but could change as we get closer to the event date.

San Francisco Cooking School
690 Van Ness Ave
San Francisco, CA
94102

Food Media Lab
Website
Instagram
Facebook
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Buy tickets here

June 17: Books and Feature Writing – Confidence, Perseverance, and Your Point of View

• Keynote – Chris Ying
• Workshop: Why Owning Your POV Matters – John Birdsall
• Workshop: Navigating the Proposal and Contract – Lorena Jones & Danielle Svetcov
• Interactive Session: How to Craft a Feature Story Pitch + “Pitch It” Activity – Emma Christensen & Rachel Levin with John Birdsall & Andrea Nguyen

June 18: Photography and Podcasting – Bringing your stories to life through images and sounds

• Keynote – Eric Wolfinger
• Workshop: Photography with a Purpose – Nik Sharma
• Workshop: Podcasting Workflow – Andrew Friedman
• Interactive Session: How to Market and Promote Your Podcast – Soleil Ho & Brian Hogan Stewart
• Interactive Session: “Let’s Do a Podcast” Activity – Andrew Friedman, Soleil Ho, & Brian Hogan Stewart

June 19: Building Your Unique Tribe – Why a Platform Matters

• Keynote – Tejal Rao
• Workshop: Crafting a Public Voice – Amanda Haas
• Workshop: Navigating Different Networks and Technologies – Bruce Cole
• Interactive Session: Sponsored and Branded Content – Does it Help or Hurt + “Create a Branded Partnership Plan” Activity – Phyllis Grant, Amy Guittard, and Irvin Lin

by Sarah Chorey

We all know the saying good things come to those who wait.

In the case of Brown Sugar Kitchen, good things—in the form of finger-lickin’ buttermilk fried chicken and cornmeal waffles—are now being heaped upon plates from San Francisco’s Embarcadero to Uptown Oakland; those who’ve waited include not just soul-food-starved foodies across the city and the East Bay, but also the restaurant’s chef-owner Tanya Holland herself.

[aside postID=”bayareabites_125020″ label=”Brown Sugar Kitchen’s Buttermilk Fried Chicken”]

For over a decade, Holland threw her Creole heart into cooking southern-inspired classics with soul at her West Oakland restaurant, making a name for herself and her signature fried chicken and waffles, and even drawing city folks over to one of The Town’s less desirable boroughs for a taste of what Oakland foodies were talking about.

Lovers of Holland’s fluffy biscuits and savory smoked chicken-and-rice gumbo let out a collective nooooo when the eatery closed its doors in 2017; and while word of Holland’s lease at SF’s Ferry Building, snagged from Daniel Patterson’s Il Cane Rosso back in 2016, has been making mouths water for years, the team needed time to raise funds for the project. Insert Holland’s well-fought showing in season 15 of Top Chef, and that brings us up to speed, without a Top Chef title but with a burgeoning restaurant empire set to soak the Bay Area in maple syrup. Who dat.

[aside postID=”bayareabites_122533″ label=”Tanya Holland’s Chocolate Bourbon Pecan Pie” align=”left”]

That’s right, Holland has at last opened not one but two restaurants: The long-anticipated, fast-casual, counter-service version of Brown Sugar Kitchen at the Ferry Building, and a much larger (4,000 square feet!), full-service restaurant with an expanded offering in trending Uptown Oakland, near Drake’s Dealership and Calavera. There’s even buzz about an outpost of BSK soon to open at Oakland International Airport, as well as something cooking with the Golden State Warriors (well-known fans of hers) for the new Chase Center in SF’s Mission Bay.

But before we all get ahead ourselves, let’s just start with breakfast: Morning items such as a baked egg tart, cheesy grits with poached eggs, and breakfast sandwiches will only be available at the Ferry Building till 11am, so plan accordingly (lunch is served till 2pm). Here’s a taste of what’s on offer in SF.

The fried chicken and waffles steal a lot of the limelight, but the fried chicken sando is more than respectable, served on an Acme roll with aioli mayo and a generous portion of slaw. It’s been selling out on the daily.

Now that’s a biscuit. Holland and her team have perfected the art of the perfect biscuit —it’s flaky on the outside, with layers of soft, buttery dough. Find both plain buttermilk (pictured) and bacon, cheddar, and scallion versions on the menu. Jam is optional, but these bad boys do just fine on their own.

Buttery, finely ground, and with an ideal level of creaminess, these grits work as a side with organic cheddar cheese, or as a hearty meal with the addition of poached eggs.

More for the carb category: Holland’s mac-and-cheese is a gluten-free foodie’s worst nightmare—i.e. heaven for the rest of us—with a rich, velvety texture and a sprinkling of crunchy breadcrumbs.

If you’ve saved room for something sweet. Brown Sugar’s beignets are literally pillows of dough, plump and playful, with a healthy coating of powdered sugar. You can work out tomorrow.

While you’re working your way to the front of the line, expect to be tempted by treats from their bakery case. Keep an eye out for flaky hand pies stuffed with fruity fillings.

But that’s not all—there are also chocolate pecan bars—that’s part brownie, part pecan pie—to take home.

Brown Sugar Kitchen
Sundays-Thursdays 11am to 2pm
1 Ferry Building Suite 41
San Francisco
Wednesdays-Saturdays 7am to 2pm, Sundays 8am to 2pm
2295 Broadway
Oakland

This article originally appeared on 7×7 Bay Area.

Every morning at around 5 a.m., Armando Ibarra wakes up in the back of his van. He’s been living there for the last couple of years. On his dashboard rests a holy candle. A rosary hangs from the rearview mirror.

Ibarra walks over to his job, at a chain hotel near San Francisco’s airport. He says at least he can wash up there. “I take a shower, drink my coffee, smoke a cigarette and ready to work.”

The hotel restaurant where Ibarra works as a food runner boasts creative, artisanal and healthy meals. People in the San Francisco Bay Area are known for being foodies (the city now has the most Michelin three-star restaurants in the U.S.).

But behind kitchen doors, tension has been stewing for years: Service industry workers like Ibarra say they can no longer afford to live in the Bay Area on their wages. And restaurant owners say the high cost of life has made it hard to retain staff, and even to stay in business.

The Bay Area is notoriously expensive. As the tech industry grows, rents have soared. A one-bedroom apartment costs well over $3,000 a month. The minimum wage just went up to $15 an hour, but the cost of living also keeps rising.

Ibarra makes around $15 an hour. He used to commute from neighboring San Jose, one of the most expensive cities in the country. He paid $800 a month for a room, but just slept there.

When traffic was bad, the drive back from work could take as much as three hours. “You would go bumper-to-bumper, bumper-to-bumper sometimes. You get crazy,” Ibarra says.

He considered renting near work. But he couldn’t afford it. He figured he was already spending as much as four hours a day in the car, so he might as well just sleep there.

The plight of low-wage workers like Ibarra is affecting the restaurant business. Just last year, several high-profile eateries shut down. One of them was Camino, known for its wood-fired cuisine. Co-owner Allison Hopelain says the restaurant took a major hit when its chef moved to Seattle because he couldn’t afford to live in the Bay Area.

“[He] felt like he would have better opportunities there in terms of opening his own place, buying a home,” Hopelain says. She says things started unraveling when he left. Last year, after about a decade in business, Camino closed.

Hopelain went on to open The Kebabery in Oakland. It’s a small, cafeteria-style joint. You just pick your food and find a table. She says it’s a much more affordable business model, but she also thinks it’s what a lot of customers want.

Decades ago, eating out was a special occasion, but these days Hopelain says people want to grab a quick, affordable bite of good food, and head back to their lives.

A few minutes north of Oakland, Peter Levitt says his restaurant, with waiters, hosts and food runners, is part of a dying breed. “Your old diners with booths and breakfast and lunch table service. It’s over,” he says.

Saul’s, a Jewish deli, is a landmark in Berkeley near the University of California campus. Professors and locals hold meetings in the cozy booths over bagels, blintzes, smoked fish and a warm matzo ball soup.

Saul’s was established in the 1980s and Levitt has seen a change in the cost of living here unfold before his own eyes. With workers getting pushed out of the Bay Area, he says, “we’ve seen our staff coming from further and further away.” One of his cooks sleeps at his extended family’s house nearby, during work days, to shorten his commute.

Levitt says Saul’s might have to adapt to the changing times. “As minimum wages go up, and particularly as housing prices go up, the menu prices have to go up, because you have to pay more to retain your labor force,” he says. “And at some point maybe there won’t be enough clientele out there to pay the cost of table service to sustain this kind of restaurant.”

Some restaurants in the area are even turning to automation. Located in San Francisco’s Financial District, Creator offers burgers created by local celebrity chefs.

But the burgers are made by a giant robot that slices the brioche bun, grates the cheese and cuts the tomatoes. The end result: a $6 burger.

Alex Vardakostas grew up flipping patties at his parents’ restaurant, a burger joint in a little California surf town. He says the robot can flip burgers better, and more cheaply.

[aside postID=”bayareabites_130151″ label=”Fad Or The Future? Robot-Made Burgers Wow The Crowds In San Francisco”]

“The only way you can make a burger of this kind of quality at that price is using a device that’s going to grind meat to order. It’s going to slice the tomato to order, slice the bun to order,” Vardakostas says.

Meanwhile, at the hotel restaurant where Armando Ibarra works, a burger costs about $20.

“You know, even when I get the discount, that’s too much,” he says.

He says he usually just goes to Burger King or Taco Bell, or stops by a gas station to eat before heading back to his van to sleep.

Copyright 2019 NPR. To see more, visit NPR.org.