After eight nominations and no wins, Nancy Oakes and Pat Kuleto's American-French Boulevard nabbed 2012's Outstanding Restaurant honor at this year's James Beard Awards. A well-deserved (and somewhat tardy) win, Boulevard beat out Balthazar (NYC), Blue Hill (NYC), Highlands Bar and Grill (Birmingham, AL), and Vetri (Philadelpha). Also, though not nominated for the Best Pasty Chef accolade, noted sweet-tooth Emily Luchetti (Waterbar) was inducted into the Who of Food & Beverage in America. more ›

The James Beard Award nominees were announced Monday, and SFist's searing portrait of the Jack in the Box Bacon Shake was not nominated in the media category. (Fie, nominating committee! Fie!) Other than that, the Bay Area received many mentions today, and that's great news. Nancy Oakes' Boulevard was once again listed on the Outstanding Restaurant nominee list. And Best Chef: Pacific category honors went to Daniel Patterson (Coi), Chris Cosentino (Incanto), Michael Chiarello (Bottega), and Christopher Kostow (Meadowood). Also, Thomas McNaughton of Flour + Water landed on the Rising Star list (again!) with Danny Bowien of Mission Chinese Food. more ›

The James Beard Awards (the CableACE Awards of food) announced their semifinalist list today. Not surprisingly, many Bay Area gastronomes made the cut. Mission Chinese Food's Danny Bowien, Thomas McNaughton of Flour + Water, Park Tavern, Mr. Gary Danko, Boulevard, and more all stand the chance of becoming finalists. But who doesn't get an award this year? Happy Donuts and Papalote, for starters. But feel free to complain about who lost out in the comments. more ›

Our inbox is simply littered—littered!—with invitations to openings and galas and VIP-ness and other very important things happening this Sunday. Events where media types, like your SFist editor, enjoy getting tipsy to the tits. Alas, we cannot RSVP oui to any of them. Why? Because the Golden Globes are on Sunday, you clod. How did you not know that? You are in California, you should know this already. Whether cooking meth in Grass Valley or mainlining meth in The Salton Sea, it's your duty as a Californian to take time to honor this unofficial fledgling state holiday: Golden Globes Sunday. (Yes, we know they're bestowed by the inane Foreign Press Association, but the Globes, at they're very core, are sun-kissed Hollywood magic!) And what better way to watch the blood diamond-dipped festivities than inside a theater in the Richmond District? more ›

The Good Food Awards unfurl over the weekend and the Ferry Building is where you'll want to be. (If not for the food and wine, come for the chronic celebrity sightings. Par example: Jake Gyllenhaal perused artisanal goods over the weekend, which you probably missed while getting smashed in Dolores Park.) Where to start? Well, this year's opening reception on Friday, January 13 will be open to the public for the first time. (For a weighty $100, yes; but you're sure to consume that amount in food and booze, so it all breaks even... more or less.) In addition to honored chocolates, preserves, pickle, meats, coffee cheeses and more, Alice Waters and Ruth Reichl will be there to sprinkle their special brand of elfin slow-food personality and magic to and fro. more ›

The just-announced San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards weren't as egregious and self-conscious as in years past. But not by much. The gaggle of local film aesthetes selected Terrence Malik's (overwhelming and divine) Tree of Life as the best picture of the year. Next to Lars Von Trier's Melancholia, it was our second favorite longwinded yet powerful and powerfully pretty movie this year about life's brevity and fragility. Malick also nabbed as Best Director. more ›

Local chef/owner Josh Skenes (Saison) won the Outstanding Culinary Award by the The International Culinary Center on Tuesday. Skenes, an alumni of said International Culinary Center, was among five individuals to nab the (PR-tinged) award for excellence in, like, you know, cooking stuff. Before opening Saison, Skenes opened Stonehill Tavern at the St. Regis Resort (Dana Point in la maison, yo!). more ›

Noted chef David Kinch scored GQ's annual Chef of the Year award this year. "In a world of Molto food empires and spiky-haired TV hosts," GQ scribe Charles Bowden writes, "David Kinch is an anomaly." Why? Well for starters, he's a cook who cooks in his kitchen "in a single restaurant and a single garden, quietly inventing a new kind of cooking and dazzling anyone lucky enough to sit at his table." But did you also know that Kinch is a) Wynton Marsalis' best friend and b) a bad motherfucker? more ›

In yet another year of predicable winners on the horizon (not Konstantin Novoselov again, please!), white hot 'it' astrophysicist Saul Perlmutter surprised many when he took home the Nobel Prize in Physics for his understated yet deeply moving work in supernovae with the Supernova Cosmology Project at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Critics have praised his performance as "electrifying," "a revelation," and "brutally honest." Perlmutter shared the major award with hotshot guy pals Brian Schmidt, an astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the Australian National University, and Adam Riess, professor of physics and astronomy at Johns Hopkins University. more ›

For the second year in a row, readers selected SFist as the Best Local Blog in the SF Bay Guardian Best of the Bay. Aw shucks. Thanks to those of you who voted for us. We're honored. Really. A few other noteworthy online folks who won this year? Marcia Gagliardi's Tablehopper took Best Food Drinks Blog/Site, Camper English's Alcademics was named Best Liquor Lowdown, and the beloved Laura Beck's Vegansaurus snagged Best Righteous Vegan Sass. more ›

Before tonight's chef and restaurants awards are handed out at the 2011 James Beard Awards, early technical awards in the non-chef categories (i.e., books, broadcast, journalism and restaurant design) were bestowed Friday night. A few Bay Area notables were among the winners, including Aidlin Darling Design for Outstanding Restaurant Design at Bar Agricole, Secrets of the Sommeliers: How to Think and Drink Like the World’s Top Wine Professionals by Jordan Mackay and Rajat Parr for Ten Speed Press, and the Chronicle's Jon Bonné and Miriam Morgan for Outstanding Food Section of a General Interest Publication. Congratulations to all the winners! We look forward to brown-nosing you at various food events around town. [Inside Scoop] more ›

San Pellegrino, the fizzy bottled water located below the Vitamin Water and Lipton Brisk at our nearest corner store, revealed their annual World's Best 50 Restaurant awards today. The kicker? Annual favorite the French Laundry was nowhere on the list. (Somewhere in Yountville, in a dark and quiet corner, a plump sprig of thyme shrivels up and rises into the ether.) Grub Street reports: "This year's big snub has to go to Thomas Keller's French Laundry, which was relegated to the runners-up list. In fact, with the exception of Alinea (6), all of the rest of the U.S. picks are based in New York City: Momofuku Ssam Bar (40), Eleven Madison Park (24 — up from No. 50 last year), Le Bernardin (18), Daniel (11), and Per Se (10)." more ›

The Pulitzer Prize winners were announced today. And guess what? No one from the Bay Area won. Even though local pubs (new and old) entered a bunch of samples -- it's super pricy per entry, around $10,000, which makes the coveted award all the more egregious -- San Francisco and the Bay Area came up empty. Alas. Anyway, the award for Public Service went to the Los Angeles Times for its stories about the city of Bell and the outrageous salaries of its elected officials. The award for Best Online News once again went to ProPublica for their national coverage of Wall Street. Congrats, guys! That's money well spent. Visit Pulitzer.org for a complete list of winners. more ›

The James Beard Foundation announced its final nominees today for their annual awards bestowment, set to take place on May 9. As expected a slew of nominees are right here in the Bay Area. A few notables: Jon Bonné (Saveur/Inside Scoop), Michael Chiarello's Bottega cookbook, Daniel Patterson (Coi, Plum), Richard Reddington (Redd), Bar Agricole, Benu, Charles Phan (Slanted Door), and, of course, Gary Danko. more ›

During last night's Grammy Awards - did you watch?! - a few winners "with strong Bay Area ties" took home trophies. Neil Young won best rock song for "Angry World"; Berkeley Repertory Theatre's "American Idiot," which transitioned to Broadway last year, won best musical show album; and Pixar's Toy Story 3 won composer Randy Newman a Grammy. Outside the Bay Area, Canadian pop toddler Justin Bieber failed to win Best New Artist, with the award instead going to Esperanza Spalding, who now faces the collected wrath of angry teenagers. [Chronicle] more ›

MUSIC: Veteran queer rockers Pansy Division play their first show in SF since 2009, with special guests The Minks, an all-female Kinks cover band, and Bad Backs, a new band formed by a former member of Erase Errata. Sounds like a can't-miss show! more ›

San Francisco Giants fan Lauren Ruffo, displays her Giant's sleeve and her Giant's bear, named Aubrey Huff, after having her picture taken with the Giant's 2010 World Series trophy on display at the Capitol in Sacramento on Thursday. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) more ›

Speaking of Facebook accolades, the San Francisco Critics Circle Awards bestowed The Social Network, the non-gritty Harvard drama about barely-legal college kids, lawsuits and social media, with three awards Monday night, including best picture, best adapted screenplay (Aaron Sorkin) and best director (David Fincher). more ›

Refined gentleman's magazine Esquire named Gather the 2010 “Best New Restaurant” and bestowed its "Chef of the Year" honor to its chef, Sean Baker. And why wouldn't they? Just look at Baker. He's gorgeous. Anyway, the official announcement, we're told, will made at a ceremonial dinner to be held in New York City tonight. more ›

The MacArthur Foundation named 23 MacArthur Fellows for 2010 today. That is to say, 23 smartypants learned from the Foundation that they will each land a cool $500,000 in "no strings attached" financial support over the next five years. We're jealous. more ›

SF Bay Guardian's annual "Best of San Francisco" issue came out today. And? SFist won Best Local Blog in the Readers Poll category. (Aw shucks, San Francisco, thank you so very, very much! We totally deserve it.) Other winners making the cut? Caliber SF (Best Eyes on the City), Crème Brulee Cart (Best Food Cart), Calitics (Best Political Shit-Sifters), Monistat (Best Drag Queen), Pop Up Magazine (Best Gazette Refresh), 222 Hyde (Best Bass-ment), Nopa (Best Overall Restaurant), and Cafe Prague (Best Czechvars With a Twist of Bohemia). Check out all the winners at SFBG. The issue features different (and possibly controversial) "local heroes" on the cover, so swipe a copy this week before they vanish. more ›

The medicinal, confounding, self-righteous, and needlessly macho world of ardent pot smoking had some sort of award ceremony this past weekend. The High Times San Francisco Medical Cannabis Cup held their first-ever competition on getting high, or whatnot, as Bay Area weed dispensaries competed for best product. more ›

Tomorrow evening, October 15, SF Weekly will hold their annual music award bash, honoring local artists for their aural talent in 10 distinct categories -- rap/hip hop, dance/electronic, international, soul/R&B/funk, indie rock/pop, metal/psych funk, jazz/blues, experimental, alt-country/folk, and club night. more ›

Oliver Williamson, a professor at UC Berkeley, won the Nobel economics prize on today. Along with Elinor Ostrom, Williamson nabbed the award "for their analyses of economic governance - the way authority is exercised in companies and economic systems." more ›

FILM: The International Council of Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, which consists of women from all four corners of the world who joined together out of concern for the planet, will be honored tonight with The Courage Of Conscience Award And Film Screening of For the Next 7 Generations. The documentary about this unique alliance took four years to make and was shot on location in the Amazon rain forest, the mountains of Mexico, and at a private meeting with the Dalai Lama in India. There will be a reception preceding the film screening and award ceremony. more ›

Thee people from the Bay Area, two from Berkeley and one from San Francisco, were named MacArthur fellows last night. The "genius award," one that allows its members to work on their craft full-time, comes with heaps prestige and a whopping $500,000 booty. San Francisco artist Camille Utterback, Berkeley computer nerd Maneesh Agrawala, and Berkeley molecular biologist Lin He were among this year's 24 recipients. more ›

The GayVN nominations we announced today. What are the GayVN Awards, you ask? They are the Oscars of male homosexual pornography. Up for Best Picture kudos are Ass Cruisin', Best Men Parts 1 & 2, Betrayed, Breakers, Endgame, Grind - Volume 1, Italians and Other Strangers, Paradise Found, The Porne Ultimatum, Return to Fire Island, Rio, Sex Hiker, Skin Deep, To the Last Man, and (our favorite title) Verboten 1 & 2.\ more ›

The San Francisco Film Critics Circle awarded Gus Van Sant's Harvey Milk biopic ). more ›

The James Beard Foundation Awards committee, which just announced an open call-for-entries for the 2009 James Beard Foundation Awards (i..e., foodie awards), has a brand spanking new medallion to hand out next year, an award for blogs "focusing on food, restaurants, beverage, or nutrition." Wonderful! Any site you want to see win the first-ever JB Best Blog award? Yeah? Then, go here to vote. We're praying The Food in my Beard walks away with the prize. Fingers crossed. (Eater) more ›