December is a season of celebration for most restaurants, and 'tis the season of lists, like our roundup of the best new restaurants of the year. But it's also a season when we learn which restaurants might not be making it into the new year like Nombe and Chez Papa, which we heard about yesterday.
In better news we have the coming of Loco'l, the fast-food collaboration between SF's own Daniel Patterson (Coi, Alta CA), and LA's Roy Choi (Kogi BBQ). As we discussed a couple months ago, the two chefs are aiming to provide an inexpensive, healthy, locally derived fast-food option for low-income communities, and with that in mind they've chosen the Tenderloin for their first location. They've inked a deal for a 3200-square-foot space at 57 Taylor Street, as the Chronicle reports, and they're aiming for an early summer opening, followed by a second location in LA and possibly a third in Oakland. At the center of the menu will be tacos and Patterson's burger that is 70 percent beef and 30 percent tofu and grain, with prices all between $2 and $6.
Coming even sooner, maybe right after Christmas, is the long-awaited Mission location of Burma Superstar at 211 Valencia Street (at Duboce) something that was first reported two and a half years ago. The popular Burmese franchise will be using the same menu as at their other locations, but this one will have a full bar and cocktail menu, as Tablehopper reports.
Also coming is a New Jersey-style pizzeria from the Salt House/Anchor & Hope/Town Hall crew Mitchell and Steven Rosenthal. It'll be called, simply, Jersey Pizza (145 Second Street), and as Eater notes it'll be a full service restaurant with a few non-pizza items from Salt House alum Ramona Rillo, and they're aiming for a February opening.
Meanwhile, Sightglass Coffee is going to give Four Barrell a run for their money on Divisadero, opening a new 2,000-square-foot cafe in the former KJ Produce Market at Divis and Page, as Tablehopper reports. Look for that to open by late summer.
And over in Oakland, as Inside Scoop reports, there will be a fifth location of the Chow franchise at Piedmont and MacArthur, which will also have a large grocery component kind of like the Lafayette branch of Chow, only bigger. It's on the way at 3770 Piedmont Avenue, and will include "a full-fledged bakery and a café" as well as the all-day restaurant. This opening is way out though: spring 2016, best case.
The Week In Reviews
Michael Bauer enjoys pretty much everything at Arguello, Traci Des Jardins' new Mexican spot in the Presidio, and says the space has "a rustic elegance." He loves the guacamole, the albondigas soup, and the pollo chile verde, which he says he'd go back for. Still, he gives it two and a half stars, and knocks some poor service.
He also offers a three-star update of The Farmhouse Inn in Forestville, saying that the place "has matured nicely" since 2001, when current chef Steve Litke came on board. And he says it's become more refined in the last couple of years, now with a prix fixe and delicious sounding things like an elk tenderloin with chestnut spaetzle.
And Anna Roth checks out the recently added dinner service at Wise Sons Jewish Deli, where she loves the pastrami cheese fries ("like a Jewish spin on In-N-Out's Animal-style fries"), the braised brisket, and says the hearty latkes "are worth the trip alone."
