The newest restaurant in the restaurant ghetto of Valencia Street is West of Pecos, and it's a southwestern affair from the family that owns Woodhouse Fish Co., the MacNivens — including Tyler MacNiven, who's best known to Amazing Race fans for showing up as one of the winning "hippie" team in Season 9. The bar is doing a small selection of tequila and mezcal concoctions, including today's drink of the week, the Mezcal Mule. more ›

Billed as the oldest Italian restaurant in the country, North Beach staple Fior d'Italia closed its doors for good, reports the Chronicle. The restaurant survived several disasters, including the Great Quake of 1906 and a fire in 2005, but the economic climate (not to mention locals' increasingly finicky tastes) prompted the owners to shut operations down for good. Sad. more ›

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 ›

On a very tardy edition of Eat Here Tonight, we suggest that you head over to the Castro for Dining Out For Life at Bisou Bistro. Hosted by Bill Hemenger and Rebecca Prozan, the annual dining fundraising event will grab as much money as possible for AIDS service organizations. If delightful and light French food in the Castro isn't your bag -- and shame on you if that's the case -- here is a list of other participating restaurants. If you only go out one night a year to eat... make it SFChefs. Because that is one goddamn awesome, drunken party. But if you only go out TWO nights a year to eat, make it tonight and make it at Bisou Bistro. OK? OK. more ›

Following Benu's ascension into the four-star sphere of Michael Bauer's gastronomic Paradiso, Pacific Venue's Quince also rose to heavenly heights over the weekend, joining the small list of four-star restaurants in the Bay Area as decided by SF Chronicle's revered food critic. And San Francisco is all abuzz! Well, not really; but inside-baseball foodie circles are, and that's good enough for us. We also live for the instances when Bauer thoughtfully champions or annihilates a place. And his updated review of Quince is nothing short of breathtaking. more ›

Behold, SFist's newest feature, One Night Stand, ready to help Bay Area locals plan a getaway inside San Francisco or within a 71-mile circumference thereof. How did this come about? Well, being SFist, we are blessed to have associates and colleagues with enough money who get to say such insane things as "I just had a fight with my girlfriend, so I crashed in a suite at Hotel Vitale last night" or "My roommate is a jealous nightmare of a human being, so my new boyfriend and I screw around at The Fairmont" or best of all, "We were bored [with our palatial estate in Woodside] so we checked into the Ritz-Carlton for a few days." While your editor does not have the funds to toss off such casual statements, some of you do. Many of you do, in fact; especially all of you new IPO types. This feature, where your SFist editor dirties up a San Francisco hotel room for one weekend, is for you. And for hotel porn junkies. You and all the locals. First up? Campton Place in Union Square. more ›

After scores of entries poured in for our query asking for the worst named restaurant in the Bay Area, we have arrived at a cringe-worthy group for you to pore over. One commenter mentioned King Dong in Berkeley. "King Dong...Mostly because when I tell anyone I'm going, it's sophomore year of high school revisited," they quipped. Peter Hartikka gave us Curry Boyzz, saying, "Punjabi cuisine for circuit partiers, apparently." And RickRescue gave us the brilliantly named (but possibly fake) Nachos de los Muertos, which we not only find brilliant but we plan on using to name our firstborn. You think we're kidding. Anyway, many of you entered the Clam House, Nopa, and Tacolicious -- all of which serve astounding food, but bear curious names. more ›

A former employee at a Pac Heights restaurant stands accused today of filming patrons using the bathroom. SF Examiner reports: "Between Feb. 12 and 20, according to court documents, [David] Talavera is alleged to have planted a hidden camera that was pointed at a toilet. Authorities have not named the restaurant, saying only that it is located in the area of Fillmore and California street." more ›

While the Bay Area is home to some of the finest gastronomic houses of swell repute, we are also home to some of the silliest and most pretentious restaurant names. Take, for example, A16. What does that even mean? (Do not answer that.) Or SPQR. (That would be like an American-themed restaurant in Italy called EPU.) Or Tacolicious. (The only acceptable case for using the -licious suffix is here or here.) We should point out that the aforementioned restaurants are exemplary and downright tasty. However, the names of newfangled restaurants are starting to grate. Our eye-rolling muscles can only take so much. And when you have to read about them over and over again on local food blogs, they grown even more tiresome. (What the hell does State Bird Provisions mean? Again, don't answer that.) This is where you come in, readers. more ›

Typically a trendy albeit tasty place to grab buckwheat galettes or sweet crepes during the lunch hour, Galette 88 opens its door tonight to chef Lauren Kiino and her team at Il Cane Rosso for a rare treat. This evening's four-course, spring-infused dinner will start with "an amuse of goat cheese and black pepper gougère, followed by a starter of salt cod and soft egg fritter with a Zuckerman Farm asparagus and walnut salad with green garlic aioli," notes Tablehopper. more ›

Starting tonight and every following Tuesday, all bottles of wine on Luella's wine list will be 1/2 price all night. Hardly a hipster haven (thank god), Luella's stands as a decent neighborhood restaurant in which to grab a bite (think modern California cuisine) and get toasty. They even offer $35 for prie fixe menu and $4 for a glass of wine. Not bad. And while some loopy Yelpers complain of timely yet frosty service — personally, we don't mind cold and indifferent so long as our service is prompt and kiss-ass-free, which is why we love Sightglass Coffee in SoMa — half off a bottle of wine is reason enough to trek up Russian Hill. more ›

From now until March 18th, St. Regis' Michelin-starred food joint Ame honors the one-year anniversary of the tsunami and earthquake in Miyagi, Japan, with a special prix fixe dinner option. Dishes inspired by the region, such as their Miyagi Oysters in Ponzu Sauce with Momiji Oroshi and Grilled Scallop on Hitomebore Risotto with Abalone) are part of a five-course menu "that celebrates the culinary sprit of Miyagi, while paying homage to the devastations suffered by its people." more ›

Although his gastronomic reputation has, let's fact it, been marred due to his frozen food and canned soup lines, Spago founder and chef Wolfgang Puck still has some pull. So, he penned an open letter to California restaurants still serving foie gras. And the letter, sent by Puck in February, was intended to sooth the frayed nerves of chefs who don't like being told what they can and cannot serve at their spoons. (As you know, foie gras will be banned at the start of July this year.) Vegansaurus' wonderful Laura Beck (by way of SF Weekly) got her hot hands on the letter. Check it: more ›

(By D. Hanousek) The other night, while my husband and I were enjoying a long overdue romantic dinner at Delfina (to which my husband dutifully and accurately remarked that we could have done on Valentine's Day), our leisurely meal and conversation was interrupted by the cries and screams of a wee babe around 3 months or so at the next table. While other diners around us were rolling their eyes and tweeting their dismay, my husband and I would look at each other and simply laugh. I have a confession to make: babies in restaurants don't bug me. 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 ›

Challah! Whether hard or soft opening (ew), Wise Sons is sorta, but pretty much open for business starting today. We're being told it's a "soft" opening, so you might want to give them a call beforehand to make certain-certain that they're open before heading over to quell your bialy fix this weekend, but, whatever, they're totally open. While the grand opening will be on the 22nd, but you can absolutely still get some grub in the meantime. more ›

GQ recently named Danny Bowien's Mission Chinese Food one of the top ten best new restaurants in America — and rightfully so. Bowien's food, which initially began as a pop-up joint within the Mission Street Food scene, has taken ahold of both the city and country with its casual-yet-complicated menu. (Bowien recently appeared on The Martha Stewart Show recently showing off his hand-pulled biang biang noodle technique.) What makes Mission Chinese Food so brilliant? For starters, Bowien never really cooked Chinese food until MCF opened. GQ's resident ass grabber/kiddie critic pimper Alan Richman writes: more ›

Fresh off of yesterday's announcement that plans are finally in the works to fix up the New Mission Theater, Mission Street tycoon Gus Murad's other holding over at Medjool announced they will be closing their massive dining room for renovations starting next Monday. The ground floor dining area (and the nightclub's dance floor, we imagine) will remain closed indefinitely, but the controversial roof deck will stay open for food and beverage service while the renovations are underway. more ›

Benu, Corey Lee's "breathtaking" restaurant in the old Hawthorne Lane spot, is the eighth Bay Area joint to crack The Chronicle's solemn four-star ceiling. And rightfully so. Lee's place is, for lack of a better descriptive, rad. In fact, radical might be the best word to use because, as Michael Bauer points out, Lee "is not afraid to mix cultures, always with rousing success." He's also not afraid to use fish sperm. So there's that. more ›

The Bay Area's continuing sanctification of chefs (what in heaven's name do you think Violet Crawley, Dowager Countess of Grantham would say regarding this trend of placing cooks on such high pedestals?) goes further with the Commonwealth Club's upcoming "Meet 'n Eat with SF's Hottest Young Chef" at Bar Agricole. more ›

After a couple of years of everyone bemoaning "the economy," we get some more encouraging news today, including the employment numbers, and this bit from the Chron about how well Bay Area restaurants did in the fourth quarter of 2011. Rob Black, executive director of San Francisco's Golden Gate Restaurant, says that local restaurateurs say it was the best quarter they've had in years. more ›

Benu, San Francisco's Michelin two-star restaurant run by artist/chef Cory Lee, garnered raves from critics and diners alike since it opened in 2010. Rightfully so. The sparsely-decorated joint and Lee's avant-garde molecular gastronomy, with Asian and European touches, are unparalleled. We were fortunate enough to have our birthday dinner there over the weekend thanks to friends with fat wallets and even fatter hearts. (Per person? 12 courses for $180, add $120 more for wine pairings.) And while we typically loathe diners who snap shots of their food with their phones, we couldn't resist taking footage of Benu's whimsical birthday box and cake that arrived at our table. more ›

Well, they're good. No, they're great. That's for certain. Tastiness abounded in 2011. But the selection, it seems, wasn't as nearly as difficult to choose from compared to 2010. Not that 2011 sucked, but... well, you know: A lot of shit opened in 2010, acclaimed and divine shit that made foodies take to Twitter and never shut up about it. That, in a gastronomic nutshell, was 2010. more ›

PBR-drinking chef Ron Eyester of Rosebud restaurant and Family Dog bar in Atlanta isn't keen on certain types so customers—namely, those who aren't well-versed in the delicate ways of consuming his artisan down-home food. Or something like that. Enter his recent article on dining manners over on Eatocracy. "I am very proud of the relationships that my staff and I have developed with many of our regular guests," Eyester notes, adding. "but there is also another 'special demographic of folks' that are worth mentioning." And that demographic could be you. All of these poor diners (sometimes literally, since many cannot afford to eat overpriced onion rings these days) share a "common thread of ignorance that makes them easily identifiable by both restaurant employees and the everyday diner alike." more ›

Hayes Valley's chicken-on-a-stick-themed Nojo (pronounced "No, Joe!") stands as one of the best restaurants of 2011. Although tucked inside an aesthetically-blah apartment complex, chef Greg Dunmore's fare is anything but. The delicate Japanese grub, served in small-plate portions, is as shocking (fried chicken skin on a stick, "spam" rice balls) as it is comfy (duck breast teppenyaki, bacon-wrapped scallions). Which is why you should snap up a reservation at this searingly-hot spot for dinner come New Year's Eve. more ›

Two Department of Public Health employees tasked with making sure restaurant employees know how to properly handle your food have been accused of soliciting bribes in exchange for faking documents that ensure every restaurant has a certified Food Safety Manager on staff. A city investigation in to the fake certifications discovered hundreds of falsely certified restaurant managers. more ›

In food and mammary news, the Hooters in Fishermen's Wharf will close its doors for good this month. They're slated to put away the boobage on December 21, the store manager explained to SFist. For a taste as to what Hooters has/had to offer, local writer Beth Spotswood visited the chain restaurant earlier this year. In part, she writes: "What I don’t understand is why you’d ever want to go to Hooters in the first place. Are boobs really that much of a novelty for the patrons of Hooters? Is proximity to hot chicks and gross food that much of a rarity? The sweet girls working there, lovely as they are, walk around in an incredibly unappealing uniform, like a sexed up version of the Hot Dog on a Stick ensemble. Of all the places on Fisherman’s Wharf to dine, why would anyone go to Hooters?" more ›