• Oakland will begin issuing speed-camera citations to speeding drivers Monday, as the 60-day grace period for the cameras has ended. Since the cameras were installed on January 15 — at 18 high-injury hotspots, 140,000 warnings were sent to about 74,000 unique license plates. [KTVU]
• A San Francisco tech worker named Alysa Liu recently had her Instagram account suspended for being an imposter the day after the figure skater warned fans about fake accounts. The SF-based Liu said she does frequently receive messages from fans meant for the figure skater, and she has 180 days to appeal the decision. [KGO]

• Around 3,600 addresses in the Richmond/Sea Cliff neighborhood were without power Sunday morning due to an unplanned PG&E outage starting around 8:54 am, which was fully restored by 12:30 pm. [Chronicle]
• Santa Clara County has begun providing people exiting jail with a 30-day supply of medication, along with extended case management and a treatment plan through Medicaid. [Hoodline]
• The city of San Francisco will be setting up dumpsters in Bayview-Hunters Point on Fridays and issuing steep fines to curb illegal dumping in the neighborhood, which is most frequent on Friday nights, littering the neighborhood with trash and hazardous materials. [KPIX]

• Oakland Restaurant Week is in full swing through March 22, featuring a variety of delectable gourmet dishes, prix-fixe menus, and lunch deals from over 135 restaurants — remember to tip your wait staff well! [KQED]
• The Brides of March took over San Francisco Saturday, along with a plethora of St. Patrick’s Day festivities. [Stories in SF/Instagram]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

This week: Michelle Tea’s Valencia turns 25, and California turns 175; Boozie Brunch boosts local restaurants while Culinary Cinema pairs films with three-course meals; a state park thrives post-wildfire and Point Molate is opening to the public; plus, puppy yoga, cat Pilates, and Bay Area makers.

Boozie effect

Local influencer Novi Mitchell, who’s Oakland born and raised, has built a 169,000-strong Instagram following with her Boozie Brunch account by spotlighting Bay Area restaurants big and small.

Between a full-time job at Microsoft and weekend filming, she turns casual food adventures into a platform that boosts mom-and-pop spots. One rave review can transform business overnight — Samara’s Southern Creations says reservations haven’t slowed since she posted their deep-fried waffles with peach cobbler butter. — KGO

Dinner and a movie, elevated

At Pruneyard Cinemas in Campbell, classic movies come with a side of chef-crafted flair. The Culinary Cinema series pairs films with three-course dinners inspired by the story, characters, or setting.

Think pink-hued appetizers for Legally Blonde, or a cannoli nod for The Godfather. Mixologist Jacqueline Aguirre tops it off with specialty cocktails echoing the films’ moods, providing a full sensory experience. — Bay Area News Group

New shoots, old giants

Five years after the CZU Lightning Complex fires, much of Big Basin Redwoods State Park’s forest floor is exposed to full sunlight where old-growth redwoods once formed a dense canopy. The trees are tapping into decades of stored energy, sprouting green shoots in a “bottlebrush” effect that hints at their resilience.

Down below, tiger lilies, California lilacs, huckleberry, blackberry, Pacific madrone and tanoak seedlings fill the gaps, stretching toward the sun. Birds, pollinators, and other small critters have moved in to stake their claim. As the canopy slowly rebuilds, the forest’s plant and animal communities continually respond and adapt. — Santa Cruz Sentinal

Michelle Tea’s Valencia, 25 years later

In her 2000 novel, Valencia, Michelle Tea captured San Francisco’s 1990s butch-dyke lesbian scene with a raw, immediate voice, gaining her widespread acclaim. The 25th-anniversary edition revisits the book’s impact, highlighting its cast of real-life characters and its portrait of a generation.

Valencia was later adapted into a feature film, which premiered at Frameline Film Festival in 2013, per SFist. Fast, chaotic, and unflinching, Valencia captures the streets, bars, and poetry readings of an iconic era in San Francisco. The book remains a touchstone of lesbian history, art, and rebellion. — Autostraddle

Point Molate preserved

After decades of plans, proposals, and lawsuits, 82 acres of Richmond shoreline at Point Molate have officially become open to the public. The East Bay Regional Park District bought the land from the Guidiville Rancheria for $40 million, securing space for trails, open access, and environmental preservation.

The site includes Ohlone shellmounds, the Winehaven castle, and former Navy warehouses. A 2.5-mile trail is in the works, connecting the area to the Richmond–San Rafael Bridge. Once complete, visitors will be able to explore a new stretch of Bay front open space. — SFGate

Sixteen artists in SOMA

September at Arc Gallery in SOMA blends small-scale art, music, and conversation. The FourSquared exhibition features sixteen Bay Area artists, each showing sixteen works under $800.

Events include Art & Sound with the Berkelium String Quartet on September 10, a SOMA West CBD Happy Hour on the 18th, and an Artists Talk and Reception on the 20th, all in the heart of Arc’s multi-gallery, studio, anyone d arts hub.

The show continues through October 4, alongside Arc’s supportive artist community, Kearny Street Workshop, and Café Suspiro. — Arc Studios, Cafe Suspiro

Berkeley vendor who gives

If you’ve ever bought an African hat or basket on a Berkeley corner, there’s a good chance it came from veteran street vendor Viveca Jones, who's been part of the community for nearly four decades. Jones tells Berkeleyside she was the first to use a cash register at the Berkeley Flea Market back in the ‘70s. These days, she can be found at Shattuck & Vine, Monterey Market, and the downtown farmers’ market.

Jones spends her earnings feeding people twice a day, setting out food boxes and fruit she’s picked from neighbors’ trees: “Helping others keeps me going.” — Berkeleyside

Puppy planks & cat pilates

Move, stretch, and find your balance—sometimes with a paw in the mix. The Bay Area’s animal-assisted fitness scene includes puppy yoga at The Puppy Sphere and Puppies & Yoga, cat-centered Pilates at KitTea Café, goat yoga at Lemos Farm in Half Moon Bay, and even early-morning sessions among zebras at the San Francisco Zoo.

Mats, cuddles, and unexpected companions included — just be ready for a little animal-assisted improvisation. — 7x7

Presses, prints, and local makers

The Box SF’s historic 1920s building opens September 6–7 for its monthly fair, where local artists and makers fill two floors with handmade goods, crafts, and vintage finds. The ground-floor Pressroom and Mercantile, a museum-like antique letterpress shop, adds another layer of curiosity with restored printing presses and millions of pieces of printed history.

Free and open to the public, the fair turns the space into a hands-on, browse-and-shop experience celebrating Bay Area creativity. — The BoxSF, teresa.sw

California turns 175

California celebrates 175 years of statehood on Tuesday, September 9, at the State Capitol in Sacramento, featuring family-friendly activities, food trucks, birthday cake, and California-grown treats. A laser display follows 30 minutes after sunset. The State Library marks its own 175th birthday that same day with tours and cake.

Additionally, the California Museum will host a Statehood Celebration on September 6 with historic artifacts — including the original 1850 California Constitution — live music, dance, crafts, and a film screening.

The anniversary is part of a broader slate of in-person and virtual events throughout the month across the state. — CA.gov

Top Image: Lily Moon/Flickr

Previously: Field Notes: Muttville's New HQ, Tactile Maps, Pavement Plants, ‘Fairyland’ Flick, and a Hidden Mansion

Bay Area staple, Hog Island Oyster Co., is set to be featured during tomorrow’s Super Bowl, representing California in Google’s 50 States, 50 Stories commercial. The campaign highlights small businesses across the country and how they utilize AI to support sustainability and growth.

Founded over 40 years ago by marine biologist John Finger, Hog Island has grown from a modest oyster farm in Tomales Bay to managing 250 acres of intertidal land and harvesting over 5 million oysters and Manila clams annually. The company has built its reputation on high-quality, sustainably farmed shellfish, using methods like tipping bags and the “rack and bag” system, which harness natural tidal movements to enhance oyster growth while reducing manual labor.

While committed to traditional farming techniques, Hog Island has embraced AI as a tool to streamline operations. With Google Gemini, Hog Island now analyzes decades of data on inventory, weather patterns, and oyster growth cycles—tasks that were once time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Finger sees AI not as a replacement for hands-on expertise but as a way to enhance decision-making, ensuring Hog Island remains at the forefront of sustainable aquaculture while allowing his team to focus on what they do best: growing world-class oysters and connecting with their community.

Image: Oyster Bar Mix, Hog Island Oyster Co., Ferry Building Marketplace, San Francisco; Yuichi Sakuraba/Flickr

Even restaurants far from the Moscone Center and the “security zone” say they're losing a ton of business because of APEC, with all of its unexpected parking-space removals, worsened traffic, and customers just not wanting to deal with the APEC disruptions.

The traffic-jam and political-protest generator known as APEC was billed as an event that would bring $50 million into the local economy. But $50 million for who, exactly? Luxury hotels like the Fairmont and St. Regis are likely having a gangbusters week, as are hotel bars in the area. But several local media outlets have run stories in the last three days detailing how the arrival of APEC has decimated their revenue for the week.

On Monday, KGO spoke with a restaurant inside the Metreon, Bonchon Korean Fried Chicken, and the Metreon is of course inside the security zone. "Where are the people? I mean that's basically what the businesses are asking," Bonchon owner Manuel Ramirez told the station."We ended up closing the worst day as a business owner in SoMa. We've been there for 12 years, we know what the ups and downs of the area are like, and this was just complete disruption."

Again, that’s in an area where foot and auto traffic are restricted, so you’d figure they would see a loss in business. But some businesses nowhere near Moscone or the security zone are also seeing their week of business wiped out.

A separate piece in the Chronicle notes that several businesses have just shut down through Thursday, several of them nowhere near Moscone Center. Among them is b. Patisserie, which is all the way over in Pacific Heights. But the city put a bunch of “No Parking” signs up along Pine and California Streets near that businesses, causing serious disruption for that bakery and sandwich shop.

“My staff nor customers can park around here at all,” B. Patisserie co-owner Belinda Leong told the Chronicle.

And even over in Fisherman’s Wharf, where they put the Ferris wheel for pete’s sake, SFGate reports that Filipino restaurant Abacá also decided to close Wednesday and Thursday because their reservations have cratered. “We went into single-digit reservations when typically we’d have 100,” Abacá chef Francis Ang told SFGate. “We called everybody and told the staff to stay home.”

Adjacent to the security zone, Novela, the cocktail spot at 662 Mission Street, hasn't seen much business so far either. Novela partner Arash G. tells KRON4, "There’s almost no foot traffic in our area... And also the companies, that are typically the companies and the workers in our area that would typically come here for happy hour, they are also working from home."

The only bright spot for these restaurants, presumably, is that Thursday is the last major day of APEC, which has a very limited schedule of events Friday, and ends outright on Saturday.

Related: Traffic Grinds to Standstill In SoMa as APEC Protesters Block Fifth and Mission Streets [SFist]

Image: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA - NOVEMBER 12: Police man the entrance to the Moscone Center where protesters of the ongoing Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) global trade summit were headed on November, 12, 2023 in San Francisco, California. APEC, which pulls together dozens of world leaders and hundreds of CEOs from 21 member economies in the Pacific Rim, runs through November 17. U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping are scheduled to meet. (Photo by Kent Nishimura/Getty Images)

SF restaurant owners are freaking out over a new state law banning service fees for many hospitality businesses, saying that it could drive prices up and keep consumers away.

Those service fees that you’re used probably used to seeing on your restaurant checks might not be there for much longer, and Bay Area restaurant owners aren’t happy about it.

It isn’t clear if California's recently enacted Senate Bill 478, aimed at prohibiting hidden fees commonly associated with hotel bookings, car rentals, and ticket sales, will also apply to dining out when it takes effect on July 1, 2024, as Eater SF reported.

This legal ambiguity caught the local restaurant sector off-guard. Service fees, typically calculated as a percentage of the total bill, have been a common practice in the restaurant industry. They've been employed to cover various expenses beyond ingredients and labor, including workers' compensation, healthcare costs, and even carbon offset fees. They have also provided an alternative to traditional tipping methods, like some places’ flat-service-charge models. (The law reportedly includes an exception for third-party delivery apps like Uber Eats and DoorDash, allowing them to include service fees.)

Restaurateurs are divided in their views on the potential change. Some are open to eliminating these fees, while others worry about the impact of the increased costs being shifted back to them. The prospect of raising menu prices, they fear, might deter customers. Additionally, some fear the end of service fees could result in reduced income for restaurant workers due to lower tips.

For instance, Chef Anya El-Wattar, owner of Birch & Rye, told Eater SF that they use a 4% fee to offset employee health insurance costs (after removing a policy mandating 20 percent gratuity after some negative reviews a few months ago). If this practice becomes restricted, she said the company might have to absorb these expenses and raise prices, making it challenging to keep her restaurant affordable. She’s reportedly afraid that higher prices may alienate customers.

Industry experts continue to await clarification, as the California Attorney General's office hasn’t issued any clarifications of the law yet.

Image via Unsplash/Nathan Dumlao.

Local tourism industry officials are crowing over the most lucrative week they’ve had in a couple years, and while every weekend won’t have this many events, there is optimism for a booming holiday season.

Admittedly, in a normal year, the 2022 Dreamforce conference drawing 40,000 attendees would be considered a down year for a trade show that normally draws 150,000. But will there ever be a “normal year” again? Downtown businesses were happy to see those corporate expense accounts return, even if in smaller numbers than many a previous Dreamforce. And the conference was followed up by an “Everything’s happening this weekend” weekend of Folsom Street Fair, Portola Music Festival, and more.

This harmonic convergence of events did beget the giant influx of tourism dollars that the local hospitality industry had hoped for, according to KRON4. We don’t have a ton of hard numbers yet, but at least two huge hotels, the Park 55 and Hilton were reportedly fully booked over the weekend, and the lately beleaguered hospitality scene feels they did very well for themselves last week.  

“That was a good shot in the arm for us and it’s not just the concert promoters or event producers, it’s all the other jobs that come along with it,” SF Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Rodney Fong told KRON4. “Whether they’re florists, or linen companies, or rental equipment companies.”

Obviously, fancy downtown spots enjoyed the spoils of Dreamforce returning. “We actually had a lot of restaurant buyouts at Epic [Steak restaurant] early in the week where the Salesforce group just took over the whole place,” Pete Sittnick, managing partner of Water Bar and Epic Steak told KRON4.

Of course, weeks packed with so many events are not a regular occurrence. But let’s zoom out and look at the bigger picture. The chart above only shows hotel occupancy rates, it’s only  updated through July 2022, and again, we don’t have numbers from the past seven days. But you see that those hotel occupancy rates are creeping back up into the 70% range, from a pre-pandemic normal of an 80% range.

And there should be more good weekends on the near-term horizon. This coming weekend you have the Castro Street Fair and Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, which may not pack hotels, but certainly get locals spending hospitality dollars. The following week is Fleet Week, which very likely will pack hotels and draw the tourist element.

Beyond that, Epic Steak’s Sittnick adds that he’s “Looking forward to a holiday season this year that we think is going to be quite busy.” That could be shaping up!

The wild card is whether we have another COVID-19 surge, and there are signs in the U.K. that may looming. And COVID waves do have a way of blowing through PR campaigns to force people back downtown like they were tissue paper.

Related: Gigantic Weekend of Events Is Upon Us, With Street Closures Galore [SFist]

Image: ​​@Benioff via Twitter

38-year-old 12th Street Mexican restaurant Don Ramon's is facing possible foreclosure following a three-year ordeal involving upstairs tenants, major damage to the building, and a $5 million loan that the owners are now having trouble making payments on.

Don Ramon's holds a special place in the hearts of many people in the Bay Area community, and as Hoodline reports today, it's been known for decades as an especially welcoming place for families of color over the years. SFist included Don Ramon's famous chile colorado on our list of the city's 18 must-have classic dishes, and it is worth a takeout order if you've never had it. (Don Ramon's is also currently doing food service for Oasis's outdoor dining with drag shows down the block.)

But the sisters who own the building and the restaurant, Lee, Nati, and Lucy Ramirez — their parents opened Don Ramon's in 1982 and have since passed away — ran into serious financial straits this year, much like many other restaurant owners around the city. But their situation was complicated by an incident three years ago in which a supposed nonprofit to whom they'd leased an upstairs unit above the restaurant turned out to be a communal living outfit that had illegally built out the space for residential tenants. And they only found out when a plumbing problem caused the ceiling to cave in over the restaurant's men's restroom.

(A commenter on Hoodline suggests that the upstairs tenants were wrongfully evicted during the pandemic, but the Ramirezes say they did not know people were living upstairs and the lease was for commercial space only and all of the construction in the unit was both a code and lease violation.)

That led to a $5 million loan for major repairs that they stopped making payments on when the pandemic hit. The Florida-based lender is threatening foreclosure, but the city is pushing back on these aggressive measures, and a GoFundMe campaign was launched last month to raise the $300,000 in loan payments that are owed.

Being longtime SF residents and well connected with the community, the Ramirezes have friends in high places. Thus Assemblymember David Chiu, Mayor London Breed, and Supervisors Matt Haney and Aaron Peskin have all been lending support, and advocating on the family's behalf. Mayor Breed said in a statement, "[The pandemic] has meant that many in the small business community are at risk of being taken advantage of, especially our minority-owned businesses. We must stand up to these unethical practices, and I have directed our Office of Economic and Workforce Development to identify and exhaust all options available to protect Don Ramon's from foreclosure."

Stay tuned.

A recently released study by researchers in China, examining an outbreak of COVID-19 that occurred among some related and unrelated diners in a restaurant in Guangzhou in January, suggests that air conditioning in an enclosed space can help spread the coronavirus — but not to everyone in a room.

The field study, the first of its kind in this pandemic, was conducted by the Guangzhou Yuexiu District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, and is set to be published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in July. It describes how lunch guests on an entire floor of a five-story restaurant were all quarantined for 14 days after one restaurant patron and several family members became sick. The study has thus been able to assert with some degree of certainty that the infection in one family was able to spread to people dining at two adjacent tables in the restaurant, likely due to airflow, but not to 73 other people who were eating in the same room that day, or to any of the eight servers working that floor.

The diagram below shows the table at one side of the dining room where Family A, as they are called in the paper, were eating on January 24. Family A had recently left Wuhan, which is 520 miles to the north of Guangzhou, and no one was showing any symptoms of illness when they sat down to lunch. Later that day, however, a 63-year-old woman in the family — identified as A1 in the diagram — came down with a fever and a cough and was taken to a hospital where she tested positive for the virus. Within several days, by January 29, two other family members became ill, and by February 2, an additional two had tested positive.

Also in that same timeframe, two people eating at Table C contracted the virus, and by February 5, three people at Table B had as well. The diagram shows how an air conditioning unit next to Table C likely blew air — and the virus — across Table A and onto Table B, and likely bounced off the walls back to Table C.

The upper diagram shows how airflow was emanating from a different AC unit across the other part of the dining room, where no one became ill.

"We conclude that in this outbreak, droplet transmission was prompted by air-conditioned ventilation," the authors write. "The key factor for infection was the direction of the airflow."

As the New York Times suggests, this study "illustrates some of the challenges that restaurants will face when they try to reopen." Concerns about airflow, spacing of tables, and screening for infected patrons are likely going to be major factors in making the public comfortable to dine out again.

The study also confirms what the CDC has acknowledged in recent weeks, namely that airborne spread of the virus is possible without coughs or sneezes, and just from talking or exhaling — though we can not be certain that anyone in Family A did not sneeze or cough once at this meal.

It's also not certain whether the first patient in this study, the 63-year-old woman who was the first to show symptoms, was in fact the first person infected in her family — one or several of the other four family members could have been asymptomatic spreaders at the time of the lunch.

And the hopeful detail to come out of this study is that tiny, aerosolized particles were not likely hanging in the air of this dining room for a lengthy period, since the servers and the 73 other restaurant patrons, all of whom were later tested, were not infected.

But the fact that unrelated people at nearby tables were infected is a cause for concern as restaurants and other businesses where people linger for extended periods, like gyms, are going to feel like potential hazards until this pandemic fully recedes, or until a vaccine is made and widely distributed.

"To prevent the spread of the virus in restaurants, we recommend increasing the distance between tables and improving ventilation," the researchers write.

But, psychologically, will that be enough?

Harvey V. Fineberg, head of the Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats at the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, tells the Times that the study is "illuminating for the kind of thing we need to keep learning about as we try to configure safe work spaces." And he suggests that germicidal ultraviolet lights may be something that restaurants, bars, and other workplaces will need to consider.

Another consideration may be a newly developed device out of Switzerland that purportedly can detect the novel coronavirus in the air — though that could lead to panicked stampeding when it goes off.

This study will at least set at ease those like myself who have been made nervous by the anecdotal case of the choir in Washington State where potentially a single infected person spread the virus to 44 out 60 other people in an enclosed room in March. Singing may be a better spreader than talking over a meal, this should tell us, and also as an infectious disease expert said of that case, certain people are simply super-spreaders when it comes to the capacity of their lungs to expel tiny particles — some capable of exhaling 1,000 times more fine material than the average person.

Related: Super-Spreading Event In Washington Suggests Coronavirus Is Airborne Without Coughs or Sneezes

Bay Area restaurants Bar Agricole, Trou Normand, Comal, Camino, as well as New York restaurant groups and chefs including David Chang and the Momofuku group, Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park, and famed restaurateur Danny Meyer are all among those named in a new proposed class action lawsuit being brought over the relatively new practice of including a service charge on restaurant bills in lieu of gratuities. The complaint, as Eater reports, was filed in federal court in San Francisco on October 6, and alleges that the no-tipping practice is part "sophisticated unlawful conspiracy to put that money into [restaurant owners'] own pockets."

The practice has been controversial over the last several years, but it's been pushed by restaurateurs who say that it's the only economically feasible way to share the wealth of the gratuity pool with the least paid workers on staff, typically the cooks and dishwashers who work in the back of the house and are often paid minimum wage — especially as minimum wages have risen in San Francisco and New York.

Servers, who have always been some of the highest paid workers in the industry, have not all been thrilled with the policy, for obvious reason, though in San Francisco those same servers have seen their wages rise in step with their unpaid counterparts in the back of house, without any corresponding change in how much they're being tipped.

You can see the full text of the suit here, but legal experts are already suggesting that it probably doesn't have legs. Restaurants are within their legal rights to either force servers to earn a salary instead of hourly wages and tips, or to accept wages without gratuity, as Michael Whiteman of NYC-based restaurant consultancy group Baum & Whiteman tells Eater. Also, he says, "there are so few restaurants that have gone no-tipping that I doubt one could make the case for collusion."

The suit alleges that people like Meyer and Chang have held "secret meetings" to collude on the practice, and they are doing so at the expense of employees and customers.

Most of the restaurateurs have so far declined to comment.

Restaurants have always been a low-profit-margin enterprise, and restaurant owners have been seeking new ways to make wages more equitable for kitchen staff without impacting their own bottom lines, often saying that these "hospitality charges" are key to them staying in business.

It remains to be seen if this complaint will go anywhere, or whether a judge will certify a class in the case.

Nevertheless, customers have not always taken kindly to the practice, and some local restaurants have instituted no tipping only to reverse themselves a few months later.

Given the ongoing wildfire emergency gripping large swaths of the Bay Area's wine country — which is certain to deeply impact the winemaking industry, for years to come in the case of some wineries — the Michelin Guide has decided to postpone their announcement of this year's star recipients and the new guidebook for the Bay Area, which was planned for Thursday. In a statement, Michelin's executive vice president of brands Claire Dorland-Clauzel says, "We have followed the crisis unfolding in Napa, Sonoma and other counties near San Francisco with grave concern and heavy hearts. Recognizing the turmoil and tragedy of the fires that are still burning, we understand this is a time for grief and recovery, not celebration. We extend our condolences to all who have been affected." They say they will now reschedule the announcement to "a future date, yet to be determined."

Michelin had also planned for a Sunday afternoon celebration in St. Helena at The Charter Oak restaurant, for chefs and star recipients, and St. Helena is now potentially facing evacuation as the Nuns Fire spreads north and east into Napa County.

Tablehopper has a roundup of local bars and restaurants which are currently collecting donations of needed items like toiletries, medical supplies, non-perishable goods, underwear, blankets, diapers, baby food, clothing, pet food, etc. Liholiho Yacht Club will be accepting donations until 11 a.m. Friday when they will be hand-delivering them to contacts in wine country. Fort Point Beer's brewery at Fort Mason (644 Old Mason Street) will be taking donations through Monday morning when they will be taking their trucks up north to deliver the goods. The Stud also is taking donations, including large pieces of luggage bound for Puerto Rico, and that is ongoing (after 5 p.m. daily) until further notice. Mauna Loa at Fillmore and Union is putting out bins today for donations, and finally The Alembic in the Upper Haight, where Chef Rachel Aronow's family farm was directly impacted in Santa Rosa, is collecting donations at least through Friday night.

French Laundry chef Thomas Keller posted the message below to Instagram, saying that the Laundry would remain closed for the time being, but Bouchon Bakery is open and Ad Hoc would resume normal service on Thursday — despite Yountville still being blanketed with smoke and extremely close to the still burning Atlas Fire, which is only 3% contained. "We are currently safe in the town of Yountville and are sending thoughts and prayers for all those greatly affected by the fires in Napa, Sonoma and all areas of northern California," Keller writes. "Our restaurants in Yountville have limited resources, yet are here to support and provide sustenance and comfort to those in the area whether visitors or locals."

To all of our customers and clients, neighbors, partners and restaurant staff. We are currently safe in the town of Yountville and are sending thoughts and prayers for all those greatly affected by the fires in Napa, Sonoma and all areas of northern California. Our restaurants in Yountville have limited resources, yet are here to support and provide sustenance and comfort to those in the area whether visitors or locals. Bouchon Bakery is opened today as long as we need to be, and Bouchon Bistro will open at 5:00pm with a limited menu and local staff. Please visit us there. The French Laundry will be closed this evening and Ad Hoc will resume for service as normally scheduled on Thursday evening. We will closely evaluate the situation as the surrounding areas become more stable and send updates frequently. If you are looking for a way to help, please see: http://sacb.ee/beV4 Please stay safe!

A post shared by Chef Thomas Keller (@chefthomaskeller) on Oct 10, 2017 at 1:27pm PDT

Of the restaurants confirmed destroyed by fire, we know only of some chain restaurants like Applebee's in Santa Rosa, and Willi's Wine Bar, however the final tally remains to be seen. Multiple major vineyards in the area of Atlas Peak, Mt. Vedeer, and the Silverado Trail, as well as several in Glen Ellen, have been either destroyed or seriously impacted.

As we mentioned yesterday, there are multiple other ways for the public to donate and volunteer, including donations of cash via crowdfunding campaigns, or to the Red Cross.

Many of those individual fundraising drives, as well as a catchall fund for California fire relief, can be found here on GoFundMe.

All previous coverage of the North Bay wildfires on SFist.

As Bon Appétit prepares to release their annual list of the ten best new restaurants in the country, which they call the "Hot 10," they've released a list of 50 finalists for the list as they have in the past few years — and let's be honest, it gets a little arbitrary whittling down a list covering every new restaurant opening in all 50 states. Being the rad food destination that we are, San Francisco usually has at least one name on every year's top 10, and in 2015 critic Andrew Knowlton declared SF the best food city in the country and named two SF spots to the list that year, AL's Place and Rintaro, no doubt boosting their business ever since. This year, could their be two Bay Area names in the final tally? Very possibly, yes.

On the top 50 this year we have three local restaurants, one of which opened well over a year ago: Mister Jiu's, Tartine Manufactory, and Healdsburg's SingleThread

SingleThread has the distinction of being the first ever to get four stars from the Chronicle's Michael Bauer immediately upon opening, and that includes the likes of the French Laundry, Saison, Benu, and Manresa. He called the experience "flawless," and one can guess that when the Michelin Guide gets updated this year, the Michelin folks will reward it kindly (maybe with two stars?). Bon App raves that it's a "one-of-a-kind tasting menu" experience, but they also say, acknowledging that it will likely get Michelin attention, "Well, let’s be honest, who would spend a cool grand per couple to go here?"

But because it's not in SF proper, I'm going to wager that Knowlton and his colleague Julia Kramer might be able to get away with naming another San Francisco restaurant to this year's Hot 10 — but who'll get the honor?

It's interesting to note that Knowlton bypassed Mister Jiu's, which opened in April of last year, for last year's list, likely on account of his travel schedule and the burdens of a magazine's publication schedule. So he went out of the way to include it this year, which could say something — Brandon Jew's fine work at this polished Chinatown spot also earned him a Michelin star in his first year, which probably also caught Bon App's attention. They rave, "step into the next era of Chinese cooking in America."

And then there's Tartine Manufactory, which already got an accolade from Food & Wine and seemed like a shoe-in for this list from the get-go — and given the pedigree of the team, and the generally outstanding reception the place has gotten, it would seem almost weird if it got left off this list. But Knowlton and Kramer always have their hands full trying to show some geographical diversity on this list, and thus come the arbitrary cuts. They call the place "dreamy," but indicating that they might think the restaurant doesn't need any more raves, they write, "Whom are we kidding? You don’t need to be told to go here. If you love bread, sweets, or crispy, salty, herb-stuffed meats and you live anywhere in the vicinity of the Bay Area, chances are you’ve already been."

Peruse the full list here, for now, which includes other much buzzed over spots like New York City's Le Coucou and Olmstead, and LA's P.Y.T.

We'll find out who makes the cut on August 15.

Previously: Arsicault Bakery Predictably Has Lines Down The Block After Bon Appétit Honor

San Francisco is well known for its fantastic restaurants, but also for its relative hostility to chains. Nonetheless, a number of homegrown chain restaurants and mini-empires have proliferated here, especially in the last decade — and did you know that famed nonagenarian SF restaurateur Cecilia Chiang's son is one of the main people behind the P.F. Chang's empire? While we might not look too kindly on Fuddruckers or TGIFridays taking over our quaint neighborhoods, locals nonetheless chow down on Patxi's Pizza and Super Duper Burger without a second thought, despite both now being legit Bay Area chains, with Super Duper now nearing a dozen locations — maybe because we just like it when things are born here. Below, SFist's picks for the best homegrown, Bay Area food chains, some of which have just arrived in the last few years, and one of which doesn't even boast a San Francisco location. — Jay Barmann

Taqueria Cancun
Though it didn't triumph in that headline-making burrito bracket of 2014, it came in a close second, and Cancun's super burrito is, if we had to pick, the one people seem to talk about the most when they're mooning over the iconic Mission burrito... and with three locations in SF, there's plenty of opportunities to talk. Their al pastor is "everything," with just the right touch of pineapple sweetness. (Their carne asada and grilled chicken get raves, too.) This is where you take guests who say they want to eat like a local. — Eve Batey
2288 Mission (at 19th Street); 1003 Market Street (at 6th Street); 3211 Mission (at Valencia)

Dosa
With two locations in SF and a third planned for Oakland in the fall of 2017, the fancier-than-your-typical-Indian-takeout Dosa is definitely edging into "chain" territory. Owned and operated by Anjan and Emily Mitra, their Valencia Street location opened in 2005, and was followed in 2008 with the larger Fillmore location in what was once a Goodwill (and before that, a bank). Focusing on South Indian cuisine, both are known for upscale presentation and Indian-inspired cocktails...and the third one, expected to open at 2310 Broadway, promises to be more of the same. — Eve Batey
995 Valencia Street (at 21st Street); 1700 Fillmore Street (at Post)

gotts.com

Gott's Roadside
San Franciscans might best know Gott's from its anchor spot at the Ferry Building (at one time known as Taylor's Refresher) along the Embarcadero, but the now-chain began as a roadside stand in wine country. Now the burger and beyond purveyor is rapidly expanding to spots throughout the Bay Area and even into SFO. Niman Ranch burgers on toasted egg buns and bountiful salads like the Citrus & Avocado Chop make this a go-to spot that'll please everyone. Gott's make for a great growing chain because the food is big, fresh, delicious, and not crazy expensive. Plus, they have a cute 50s-style vibe going on. It's like a more subtle, sun-kissed Mel's Diner with kale and rosé. Multiple locations. - Beth Spotswood

Andrew Y. via Yelp

Henry’s Hunan
It is with heavy hearts that Henry’s Hunan gets acknowledged here, following the April death of founder Henry Chung at the age of 99. Chung’s legacy cannot be overstated. A 1976 New Yorker review of the then-sole Kearny Street location declared Henry’s Hunan “the best Chinese restaurant in the world" and set off a nationwide craze for the spicy Hunan cuisine (and imitators using the word “Hunan” in their restaurant names). That Henry’s Hunan on Kearny moved to a larger Sansome Street location which has since closed, but there are six other Henry’s Hunans remaining in the city. Their quality and consistency is frankly all over the place, you should come in expecting poor service, and none of the locations are considered legendary anymore. But Henry’s Hunan still merits legacy consideration, thanks to its signature Diana’s Meat Pie (named for Chung’s late wife) and continued elite status in the spicy Chinese food vertical.
— Joe Kukura
Multiple Locations

Shrimp paste fried rice with Thai eggplant and a salted egg. Photo: Derek S./Yelp

Lers Ros
Serving up some of the more authentic — I'm not going to say most authentic because that is always up for argument — Thai food in the Bay Area, and the most authentically spicy, is Lers Ros. The burgeoning chain had humble beginnings in a nondescript hole in the wall on Larkin in the last decade that played Michael Bolton and Backstreet Boys on the stereo while you ate, as Tablehopper noted in 2009. Since then, they've expanded with fancier digs in Hayes Valley and the Mission, serving mostly similar food at each just at a bigger scale now. They get high marks for specialties of founding chef Tom Silargorn like frog's legs with young peppercorn, larb moo (pork), and stir-fried pork belly, but their curries and fried rolls hit the spot too. (A few years back, critic Jonathan Kauffman recommended simply sticking with the section of the menu titled "Original Thai Style," at least if you're adventurous.) By the way, if you want to sound in the know, it's pronounced without either of those s's, like "lairh roh." — Jay Barmann
730 Larkin Street bet. Ellis & O'Farrell
307 Hayes Street at Franklin
3189 16th Street at Guerrero

LIttle Star's offering. (Photo: John)

Little Star / The Star
In my opinion, Little Star and sister East Bay operation The Star make the best Chicago-style pizza in the Bay Area, though you're going to have devotees of Zachary's, Capo's, and Patxi's arguing this point. Little Star, which began with a Divisadero Street location over a decade ago, expanding to 15th and Valencia Street and later to Albany, uses a buttery cornmeal crust that is at least half of the secret to their success — they also tend to make solid salads and spicy wings, and their chunky tomato sauce is always well seasoned. Original partners John Guhl and Brian Sadigursky parted ways a few years ago, with Sadigursky maintaining the Divisadero location and Guhl the Valencia one, along with the East Bay expansions — which now include both Grand Street in Oakland and an upcoming Alameda spot. This is why you won't find the Goddess Salad at the Divis location, and other odd differences in the menus, and why the Divisadero location isn't listed on The Star's website, as if it didn't exist. Anyway, all the pizza is similarly great, and the Oakland location boasts a more expanded starter selection, newfangled combos, and a fun cocktail menu. — Jay Barmann
400 Valencia Street at 15th; 846 Divisadero Street near McAllister; 3425 Grand Avenue, Oakland; 1181 Solano Avenue, Albany; Coming soon to 1400 Park Street, Alameda

Vintage photo of founder Mary Fazio, who died in 1999 at age 85. Photo: Facebook

Mary's Pizza Shack
I'm not going to try to tell you that Mary's Pizza Shack, which was born out of a literal shack opened in Boyes Hot Springs by Mary Fazio in 1959, serves the finest pizza in the Bay Area. The pizza's alright, with the added pleasure of homemade dough and sauce that are theoretically similar to what Fazio used to make 60 years ago. But this place is a veritable heaven for carb-lovers and fans of Italian-American comfort food, with things like Mary's Fresco Pesto Breadsticks, which are twists of cheesy pizza dough that you can dip in ranch dressing; or the delicious giant meatballs, served singly because they are so giant, over a plate of a spaghetti. If you're on a road trip in the North Bay or out near Walnut Creek and at a loss for a food pit stop that isn't Taco Bell, you could do a lot worse than this family-run enterprise, now in its sixth decade. — Jay Barmann
17 Bay Area locations, but none in SF

Original Joe's Westlake. Photo: Jay Barmann/SFist

Original Joe's
To be clear, Original Joe's in North Beach is not the original Original Joe's, and the oldest of the bunch, Original Joe's in San Jose, has actually been under different ownership and management than the flagship since the 1980s. The recently, gorgeously renovated Westlake location and the SF flagship (which relocated from its original Taylor Street digs) are both owned by John and Elena Duggan, the children of original owners John and Marie Duggan, and they've done their best to polish up and revive this SF traditional image of an Italian-American steakhouse, heavy on the red sauce, with extra-large martinis. Nobody's winning any awards here for culinary innovation, or even consistency of execution, but the place wins big-time when it comes to old-school flair and comfort. — Jay Barmann
601 Union Street at Stockton
11 Glenwood Avenue, Daly City
301 S. 1st Street, San Jose (technically unaffiliated)

patxispizza.com

Patxi's
Impossible to pronounce, delicious to eat. Patxi's deep dish pizza situation is rather spectacular. With five locations in San Francisco, four in the South Bay and three in the East Bay - plus outposts as far away as Seattle - Patxi's is definitely a chain. Like many, many internet companies, the first Patxi's opened in Palo Alto in 2004. Now there pizza is all over my face the place, although one of its best selling point is that Patxi's deep dish delivers beautifully. That cornmeal crust and layer upon layer of sauce and cheese and juicy round sausage (!) is the perfect classy comfort food. Other items appear on the menu but this is a deep dish pizza spot, folks. Don't be weird and order the mixed greens. - Beth Spotswood
Multiple locations.

Pizzaria Delfina (image: Instagram)

Pizzeria Delfina
You've seen the lines, now try the pizza. Pizzeria Delfina comes to us from the gods and also from famed Delfina duo Annie and Craig Stoll. Far more casual than the Mission District restaurant that started it all, Pizzeria Delfina is home to simple, rustic, gas-fired pizzas with blistered crusts and explosively perfect sauce. With four locations, two in San Francisco and one each in Palo Alto and Burlingame, Pizzeria Delfina is worth the wait in line. Look no further than a simple Margherita pie for a perfect experience, although the menu offers creations such as a clam pie and a vegan option, along with an array of salads, sides, and entrees. Plus, they deliver! — Beth Spotswood
Multiple locations

Image: Lizzie G. via Yelp

Super Duper Burgers
Many of you readers will have beef with the fact that we’ve excluded Burger Joint from this list, but Super Duper Burgers has six locations within the city of San Francisco whereas Burger Joint is down to just one (the SFO location, obviously, is in Millbrae), and it's not that good! And Super Duper Burgers brings the old slow-food ethic to their burgers and fries with beef from humanely raised cows, organic cream in the ice cream, and fries cooked in canola oil. More importantly, Super Duper will put an egg on your burger, garlic on your fries, or booze in your milkshake.
— Joe Kukura
Multiple Locations

Photo: Facebook

Sushirrito
The fine folks at popular downtown lunch destination Sushirrito claim to have invented the mashup sushi burrito concept, and it is being imitated at some poke places around town. Starting with one FiDi location a few years back, enormous lines led them now to have four downtown, with two more in the South Bay. And what this place has going for it, apart from novelty, is their brash fearlessness in mixing up things like ginger guacamole and tempura shrimp, or "sake-asada" beef with "kimichurri" sauce, in big fat burritos that feel the perfect San Francisco fusion food — this being a city that was built on the backs of Asian- and Mexican-Americans. — Jay Barmann
Multiple locations

Image: Tacolicious via Yelp

Tacolicious
Upscale taqueria chain Tacolicious technically has three San Francisco locations, but you could also throw in their Mission District spin-offs like the tequila bar Mosto and sports bar Bar San Pancho. Tacolicious is often packed (particularly the original the Valencia Street location) but it’s for good reason. The cuisine is very creative and pretty healthy on the Mexican food spectrum, the salsa is minty, and your guacamole is made to order. Heck yes Tacolicious does Taco Tuesdays and now also offers rotisserie chicken via delivery.
— Joe Kukura
741 Valencia between 18th Street and 19th Street
2250 Chestnut Street between Scott Street and Pierce Street
1548 Stockton Street between Union Street and Green Street

Related: The 18 Must-Have Classic San Francisco Dishes

After 22 years in the kitchen at Berkeley's landmark of California cuisine, Chez Panisse, chef Cal Peternell is leaving his post in the downstairs restaurant kitchen effective July 5. Peternell tells Inside Scoop that he "wanted to go while I was still loving it," and that he's looking forward to "do[ing] my own thing a little bit. And really just find out what that thing is."

It's unclear if he'll be returning to any restaurant kitchen in the near or distant future — right now his projects include a cookbook, his third, and the launch of a podcast called "Cooking By Ear," in which he wants to teach people how to "cook with pleasure." He also mentions a "pie-in-the-sky" idea to open a cooking school where young cooks could be paired with industry veterans in the Bay Area and work under a scholarship, hopefully alleviating the issue of finding talented young cooks and being able to pay them a wage that lets them live here comfortably.

The downstairs restaurant at Chez Panisse has for many years operated with a co-chef arrangement, with two chefs at one point handing off the kitchen every six months — this was under the leadership of David Tanis and Jean-Pierre Moullé, the latter of whom spent half his year in Bordeaux, France. Both chefs departed the kitchen about five years ago, with Peternell taking the reigns first alongside Jerome Waag, both of whom came up in what Alice Waters calls "the Chez Panisse teaching kitchen," and more recently Amy Dencler.

Peternell first came to work at the restaurant in 1995, ultimately getting promoted to head chef at the upstairs Café in 2009, and head co-chef downstairs in 2012. As the Scoop notes, he now joins the distinguished list of Chez Panisse alumni that includes Bay Area chefs Russell Moore, Charlie Hallowell, and Bakesale Betty's Alison Barakat, as well as other nationally known notables like Tanis, Jonathan Waxman, Suzanne Goin, April Bloomfield, Mark Peel, Jeremiah Tower, and Dan Barber.

In his last six weeks at Chez Panisse, Peternell promises a series of menus inspired by former chefs at the restaurants, including one this Wednesday inspired by the work of his mentor, Jean-Pierre Moullé.

A new debate is being sparked this week following a piece in the Chronicle about a perennial problem for small restaurants that is an especially acute one right now as the local restaurant industry as a whole is suffering from some of its thinnest profit margins ever: no-shows. Given the ease of making reservations in the internet age — and the much lower shame factor of canceling last minute via an app versus having to cancel over the phone — too many diners take for granted that restaurants exist to serve them and their whims. But the era of being able to make reservations without putting down a credit card and committing to a 24- or 48-hour cancellation window to avoid a charge could be coming to an end. San Francisco may be seeing a new epidemic of inconsiderate diners who don't realize that one empty table can mean the difference of breaking even or not for a small restaurant on any given weeknight, and everyone who enjoys the privilege of making free reservations versus waiting an hour for a table should take note.

Back in 2014, Coi became the first SF restaurant to begin using a ticket-based system called Tock, first employed in Chicago, in which diners purchase "tickets" for the meals, essentially paying for them up front. Coi soon abandoned that system in favor of a return to OpenTable — though they still take credit card numbers and charge $250 per guest for cancellations of less than 48 hours in advance — but other SF restaurants have stuck to the ticketing model including Lazy Bear, Atelier Crenn, and the new SingleThread in Healdsburg. The French Laundry also just announced this week that it would move to tickets, which may make reservations there easier to get. It's a model that makes sense especially for high-end dining experiences with fixed prices where no-shows can cost the restaurant too much revenue in a given night.

But as critic Michael Bauer argues in a separate article, "If you go to a baseball game or concert, you buy tickets in advance. If you can't go, it's your bad luck." He adds, "We expect restaurant owners to be sympathetic to sickness or transportation woes, but have you tried arguing with the theater about returning your money because you couldn't go?"

More casual restaurants that have more a la carte options and less of a high-end expectation have a harder time, though, toeing the line between making things convenient for the customer and keeping their tables filled. Many diners over the age of 30 don't like knowing that there's going to be a 45-minute wait no matter when they show up at, say, Tacolicious or Pizzeria Delfina, and so they choose to go places that are either less popular or that allow them to reserve tables.

But if you're someone who casually makes reservations on OpenTable or another app and sometimes forgets to cancel them — or worse, starts multiple accounts so you can book multiple tables and then decide where to go last-minute — you may find yourself soon blacklisted by the app, or the restaurant.

OpenTable currently has a four-strike rule you may not be aware of: If you fail to show up for a reservation four times in one year, your account is terminated. But even that is pretty lenient from a restaurateur's perspective. As the Chronicle notes, Australian booking site Dimmi made waves last month when it blacklisted about 40,000 diners for being no-shows. Since the drastic move, they say no-shows across the country have dropped 25 percent.

So, please, everybody, if you're someone who goes out to eat a lot, which is pretty much 80 percent of San Franciscans, be considerate in how you book and cancel reservations. Cancel promptly, and preferably a day in advance, if you know you won't be showing up. And Bauer adds that you should also call ahead if you're going to be 15 or 20 minutes late for your table, especially when you know you're going to a busy restaurant, so that they can reshuffle tables as necessary and perhaps seat someone else who is waiting. Most of the time restaurants will hold your table anyway — and, given all of the above circumstances, don't be surprised when you show up places with a reservation and still have to wait a bit to sit down, because restaurants are necessarily making the reservations windows for each table briefer to maximize their revenues and make up for no-shows and late cancelers. As Tock founder Nick Kokonas tells the Chronicle, "Overbook and have a bar to wait in. That’s the business model now.” (But restaurants that make you wait too long should probably give you a glass of wine on the house, as Bauer also notes.)

Related: Etiquette Week: How To Dine Out Without Being A Jerk

The owners of hit New York City Indian restaurant Babu Ji, which expanded in November to San Francisco, are closing their East Coast location amid a wage theft lawsuit, the second being faced by owners Jessi and Jennifer Singh, as Eater's New York branch reports. The first was settled for $95,000 after two employees alleged last July that the owners were pocketing tips and denying overtime pay to them. The owners did not admit wrongdoing according to Eater's coverage of that settlement, which occurred in October.

However, a second suit against the couple was filed in September, which claims the two took credit card and cash tips from employees from May through December 2015 and didn't pay overtime for that period. Instead, plaintiffs say they were given a a flat, $600 weekly fee for up to 60-hour work weeks. Most non-managerial employees are required by federal law to get time-and-a-half pay for work weeks of more than 40 hours.

Eater uploaded the lawsuit here, which is brought by Maimon Kirschenbaum, a well-known restaurant labor lawyer in New York. It's due to be tried by jury. Where the allegations get more explosive is in an amended brief, filed in February 2017, which alleges co-owner and chef Jessi Singh approached one of the plaintiffs in the second wage lawsuit, a server, and threatened him over the suit.

“You know that in India a man paid $100,000 rupees to have someone’s family killed," Singh allegedly told the plaintiff n Hindi. “If you’re fucking my family I’m going to fuck you up. I’m going to fuck your family," Singh allegedly said. "I have a lot of money, I can legally fight with you. You already screwed me up by suing, so why are you coming to work? You come into work and then take my money.” Singh allegedly called the other plaintiff, another served, a "sisterfucker." Threatening retaliation for filing a lawsuit would be in violation of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act and local New York labor laws.

Now Babu Ji's Mission location, on Valencia Street, will be its only one: According to Eater, its two-year-old East Village location, on Avenue B, will "close for an indefinite period."

In January, Chronicle food critic Michale Bauer favorably compared San Francisco's Babu Ji to New York's version in a positive review. Before that New York restaurant, Jessi and Jennifer Singh, who met in San Francisco, began operations in Australia, with three now-closed restaurants that were heralded as among the best Indian offerings in the country.

Related: Lawsuit Naming The French Laundry And Thomas Keller Alleges Discrimination Against Pregnant Employee