Hey, you! Go get a free grilled cheese and soup combo today at The Melt. As FunCheap reminds us, "come by the brand new location in SoMa at 115 New Montgomery from noon to 4pm" and "mention the secret code word 'GOUDA'" to score a free lunch. Mmm. Head over now before it gets mobbed. more ›

Ike's Place, the Castro sandwich shop that editors couldn't stop talking about in 2010, will re-open next year. According to SFGate, "San Francisco's Planning Commission gave owner Ike Shehadeh unanimous approval Thursday to open a larger shop near Church and 16th Streets -- just a block from the old one that closed in September." more ›

Yes, we know, some of you think Ike's is overrated and others of you think Ike's is the bomb. Feel free to continue fighting this out. In the meantime, please be advised that Ike's current arrangement in which they're making sandwiches during the day out of the kitchen at Lime may be coming to an end in the new year if they gets approved to move over to the former Joseph Schmidt's Chocolates space at 3489 16th Street. Yes, that would be right up the street from their former digs. more ›

Let the stampede begin anew! Ike Shehadeh just announced that, as of 10 a.m., Ike's Place will begin accepting phone orders again for their new Castro location: at Lime restaurant (2247 Market Street). The deal is they'll be sharing space with Lime, serving their uber-popular gut-bombs from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Saturday, but only by phone. If you show up without ordering ahead, you'll be asked to leave and call in and go walk around for a while, because there's to be no lining up or lolling about in the restaurant. more ›

Nabbing the coveted cover story slot, food treasure Jan Newberry of San Francisco Magazine developed a near-definitive guide to the best sandwiches in the Bay Area. Her "opinionated" guide proves that nothing beats a good sandwich. A few of her favorites? The cubano at Ironside, the fried-rockfish sandwich at The Alembic, the sardine and seared squid sandwich at Barbacco (which, agreed, is all kinds of savory splendor to behold), the BBQ pork banh mi at Cam Huong Cafe, and the warm egg-salad sandwich at Daniel Patterson's Ferry Building outpost, just to name a few. (Read the entire rundown here.) Alas, Newberry fails to tip her hat to the Christ-like phenomenon known as HRD's Mongolian beef cheesesteak sandwich. We can only hope she'll allow us to buy her one so that she may add it to her impressive roster. more ›

Your Black Muslim Bakery -- the prominent and notorious Oakland setting featured in many a Chauncey Bailey story -- will probably be sold today to Vital Life Services, a nondenominational "nonprofit serving people living with HIV/AIDS and other critical illnesses," founded in 1987. The high bidder NCK LLC, a limited liability corporation, plans on buying the space, then turning it over to VLS. (Aw.) The property was also sought after by several other interested... more ›

-- Bridge? Closed. (They're gone! Quick, put away the bongs, and bust out the vodka, straws, and mirrors!) [Examiner] more ›

-- John officially wants SF throne. So does Josh. [Laughing Squid, JW] more ›

You are all heroes in our book, and we will forever call May 19th “KubSvalCha Day” and celebrate it every year with an egg sandwich. more ›

We at the Gothamist network would like to express our heartfelt wishes to the people of Minnesota in the days after their tragic bridge collapse. We're not trying to discount the severity of the accident by making note of it in opposition to our usual -Ist lightheartedness - we just wanted to take a moment and recognize those affected last week. more ›

As already mentioned in Blotter's comments and in our tips section, Your Black Muslim Bakery on San Pablo Avenue (hot fish sandwiches -- mmm) was raided this morning, resulting in the arrests of over a dozen people. Police, bomb units, and SWAT teams came down on the bakery and several other "related locations" in North Oakland and Emeryville at 5 a.m. (Read Chron's article about it here, Examiner's here.) more ›

More setbacks for those of you wanting souvenirs or a grilled cheese sandwich by the Golden Gate Bridge -- the Warming Hut's reopening after its devastating January 2007 fire has been delayed. more ›

"She loves 'plebeian American food' like peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but doesn’t allow herself even a nibble, fearing an insidious slide into the next dress size." - San Francisco Magazine, on Dede Wilsey. more ›

Valentine's Day is only a few days away, and we here across the Gothamist network wanted to express would like to tell you, in the spirit of the holiday, just how much we love you, our readers. Don't let it get to your heads, though. There are plenty of things we love, you included. Just be glad you're not amongst the things we hate. more ›

Oh, who cares about news when the title of the NEXT HARRY POTTER BOOK HAS BEEN ANNOUNCED. OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD! WE'RE SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! All right, enough of that. more ›

We had our excuses (Hangar One Thai Boxer cocktails, delectable nibbles, interesting gossip opps, and supreme people watching) for staying for the entire CHOW launch party at Bix. It was fascinating and delish, which is always a wonderful combo! more ›

As fall settles in and another calendar page gets turned, thoughts turn from bbq's and vacations to holidays and the realization that '06 is coming to an end. With all that going on, with change in the air, we wonder what is it that made that makes the -ists ponder? more ›

SFist runs a repeat interview with Bing Ji Ling who is performing at Cafe du Nord as part of noisepop. more ›

Having worked in SoMa for seven years, we consider ourselves at least slightly informed as to what's doing in that neighborhood. So we read the New York Times' "36 Hours: SoMa, San Francisco," with some interest, hoping to see some of our favorite drop-in spots in print. more ›

Good morning, class! Today's the first day of the school year for the San Francisco public schools. Mmmm, smell the chalk in the air! Test scores are up, Ackerman's raise was approved by a trial court, things are good over at the SFUSD. One problem, though -- some union workers are staging a one-day sickout over their labor negotiations for raises. The school district wouldn't say how many people were out today, but volunteers will be staffing the principal's office at Malcolm X Elementary and there may not be hot lunches today if enough people are out (though the schools will give out sandwiches). This is not an officially union-sanctioned action, though the union is taking the position that if people are sick, they're sick. Also in honor of today, the Chron's got an article that follows three kids who went to the same preschool, didn't do so well in the school lottery system, and are now at three different elementary schools -- a public school teacher who's sending her child to an expensive private school, the Protestant family who's enrolled at a Catholic school after they decided the public school wasn't working for their child, and one who's thrilled with their public school despite its middling-level test scores. The article's fascinating -- we hope the Chron keeps following these kids throughout the year. How'd you take the first day of school as a kid? What's your thoughts about the SFUSD? Share with the class! more ›

It's the better safe than sorry edition! So an SF mother frantically alerted the media that her daughter was missing after her finals in Atlanta, only to find out that her daughter had been arrested. The daughter had refused to give her name to the Atlanta police, so when the mother called to ask if her daughter was in jail, they didn't have her name in the database. Another woman alerted the SFPD that her elderly parents had been missing since Tuesday. Last she'd heard, they were going to the doctor's for a routine appointment, and when she managed to get into their house, they didn't have any of their medication with them. They turned up two days later, reporting that they'd gotten a little lost. Numerous people reported seeing their car in various places in Oakland and San Francisco. And finally, Wendy's reported that its second quarter earnings were down 4 percent, all because of finger-in-the-chili Anna Ayala. However, sales of chicken club sandwiches, iced cappuccinos, and yogurt are up, up, up! more ›

First of all we thought it would be really, really funny to review Hooters for our restaurant beginning with an H. The idea amused our friends, male acquaintances started heckling for an invitation and we quietly congratulated ourselves on the brilliance of our own imagination. But when we checked the Hooters web page for directions and stumbled across a photographic depiction of their menu, our sense of humour took an abrupt and irretrievable nosedive. The images of enormous plates stacked with hefty sandwiches and buckets brimming with unpalatable-looking food was more than we could handle. At that point we knew funny-ha-ha just wouldn't be good enough for our food-loving public and so we resolved to highlight an H restaurant we were confident would serve up decent food, instead. more ›

If you're not going to HorrorFest, checking out the bands recommended by SFist Krissy like you should be or have tickets for Sleater-Kinney at the Warfield or Fischerspooner at the Fillmore, then here are some ideas: more ›

One of our SFist editors, unfortunately the ill-gendered one, promised to kiss us if we ever wrote a post in French. We have postponed such post thus far, but with the opening of Café du Soleil, we have to put up or shut up: the place is as French as a fry. You will have to excuse our French, which we hid behind some link after the jump, in the hope said editor won't see it. more ›

Pass the basket, please! The San Francisco-based US Bread Baking Guild competitive team won this year's Coupe du Monde de la Boulangerie, described as "the World Cup of bread baking." The team coach and one of the bakers are from the San Francisco Baking Institute (in South City), and the Baking Institute also offered training space for the team. The team beat out perennial powerhouse France and third-place winner Japan in all three categories: baguettes, viennoiserie (pastries and sandwiches), and artistic design. Team America's artistic design was a bread sculpture featuring Mt. Rushmore and the Statue of Liberty with a flaming torch of wheat and -- Marin ups! -- a Golden Gate Bridge painted with paprika and little savory rolls for cars. (No mention if a suicide barrier made out of breadsticks was featured.) Rad! SFist loves baking competitions. more ›

A while back, we had interviewee Michele Alaniz question the San Francisco obsession with the burrito. We know, we know -- worshipping burritos is such a gringo thing to do. But SFist is all about what's really going on down in Mexico, and you'd honestly be surprised at how similar it is to what's going on up here. We're talking pie, fresh squeezed juice and sandwiches. We admit that our column has been south-of-the-border-centric, and we promise we'll add more variety to the range of ethnic cuisines we cover -- but really, why? more ›

SFist is going to take a stand and say that Lucca Foods makes the best sandwiches on the West Side. We're not going to say that theirs are the best in the whole city, because we feel that title belongs to San Jose Avenue's Roxie Food Center, but Lucca brings you the best sandwiches our side of the avenues. more ›

It's January, which means it's time for the long awaited Macworld SF. Nothing like gadgets and booth babes to get the geek blood flowing. If you haven't had your fee paid by your publisher or employer, or don't have the money to spend for yourself, then you can at least join Jason Shellen, Biz Stone and Eric Case for lunch at Yerba Buena Gardens. The invite from shellen dot com: more ›

SFist interviews bing ji ling aka quinn luke more ›

Congratulations to our Westside Organics contest winner Niall K., who managed to score himself three deliveries of fresh produce by getting back to us within, oh, thirty minutes or so of the post going up. We should have made the questions harder! Live and learn. Thanks to everyone who entered -- we're sure you'll get some free stuff from us eventually. more ›