The new Westfield will host the city's first Bloomingdale's (which will be the largest on the West Coast), a fancy Burke-Williams day spa, will connect to the current San Francisco Centre mall (with the Nordstrom's in it), and will feature an upscale food court (called the Food Emporium) and fancy restaurants. The food court will include a Beard Papa (yes, that'll be two Beards Papa within three blocks of one another), a Slanted Door to go, the relocated Straits Cafe, and -- the one we're most excited for -- Tom Colicchio's 'wichCraft sandwich bar. That's because we'll finally get to try Top Chef winner Harold's mortadello dandelion quickfire-challenge winning sandwich!
The Chronicle had an explosion of articles about the new mall, including an interesting look at the history of the Emporium mall, how the remodeling worked to preserve the architecture of its famous dome, and exhaustive profiles of the spa and food options and Bloomie's -- they're probably mostly excited since it's so close to their offices. But do check out their photos, they're very cool.
And it wouldn't be San Francisco if there weren't some local political angle too -- one store, the Bristol Farms Market, has been denied a liquor license by the Board of Supes, because they're a non-union shop. We hope the spa's unionized!