Tablehopper reports on the debut of Mathilde, the replacement for Le Charm that we mentioned was coming a couple months back. Only there was some misinformation it turns out that new owner Mathilde Gravel is not the chef, but she was a longtime staff member, and the chef will be the husband of original Le Charm owner Linda Yew, Thierry Clement, who is also the chef at L'Ardoise. Also, Yew remains a partner. The new menu is not wildly different than the Le Charm menu, and features updated bistro fare.
And the aforementioned new project from Commonwealth chef Jason Fox, Oro, is set to open next week on Mint Plaza in the former Thermidor space. Eater has the menu and some details, including about Fox's plan for a "blind" tasting menu that he hopes will be like the way chefs cook for other chefs when they come into each others' restaurants. It will debut Wednesday, September 9.
The team behind Corner Store and San Francisco Athletic Club just opened Lord George (555 2nd Street) last night in old Nova space. It's a cocktail bar with oysters and a full menu, as Eater reports, featuring tartines and meat and cheese boards. And the place is named for George Gordon, the British-born entrepreneur who founded and designed South Park to look like a London neighborhood, as Inside Scoop tells us.
We finally have word on the nightclub coming from the Plumpjack Group in the former Sloane space on Mission and 11th, next door to their already open cocktail spot Forgery. It's called Verso, and as the Scoop reports, and the 14,000-square-foot space will boast a new sound system, and private tables with (of course) bottle service.
Also in SoMa, 1601 Bar & Kitchen has launched a new, 15-course omakase tasting menu, per Inside Scoop, highlighting chef Brian Fernando's take on Sri Lankan cuisine. It's $95 per person, with $62 for optional wine pairings.
Mission-dwelling lovers of Sunflower can rejoice that it has reopened half of it anyway. The 16th Street side is now open after the place was shuttered for a year (possibly due to an ADA issue), but as Mission Local reports, the Valencia Street side remains closed.
Divisadero marches ever Valencia-ward as news arrives that a former auto body shop at 838 Divis is becoming an Italian restaurant, perhaps by next spring, called Che Fico. The name is a slang term in Italian meaning "oh that’s cool,” as Inside Scoop reports, and it's literal translation is "what a fig." The guys behind it are a pair of high-powered restaurateurs from elsewhere in the country, David Nayfeld (Nobu, Eleven Madison Park) and Matt Brewer (L20 in Chicago), and the focus of the 115-seat spot will be "handmade pastas, in-house charcuterie, seasonal dishes, and, of course, pizza" as Eater tells us.
Beloved West Portal greasy spoon, the Manor Coffee Shop is on the market, as the Scoop reports, which is sad for the neighborhood. It's been owned by the Jeung family since it opened in 1967.
And over in the Castro, it looks like the owners of Sliderbar are (probably wisely) changing things up after a couple run-ins with the Health Department in the last year. There's no new name yet, but a tipster tells Hoodline that it's becoming an "organic salad and sandwich shop."
Week In Reviews
Michael Bauer continues to downgrade Farallon in his update review this week, noting that it's "nowhere near" as good as it was in 2010 when he last gave it three and a half stars. The late-90s "it" restaurant with its jellyfish light fixtures loses points for its escalating prices (appetizers now clock in around $20), and for missteps like an over-salted fillet of petrale sole, a mucky chowder accompanying the halibut, and a dessert that "tasted as if it came from a catered event." All told: two stars.
And in his Sunday review, he's even more disappointed in Berkeley's Zut Tavern, the new brasserie concept from Iyasare chef Sho Kamio. He invokes the word "Velveeta" when describing the cheese sauce on a crab mac and cheese dish, and he finds nothing but complaints in a dry burger, a braise lamb shoulder with a "sludgy" sauce, and a roast chicken with polenta that was "so springy that it seemed infused with silicone." The final verdict: one and a half stars.
Over at the Weekly, Pete Kane headed to Oakland to try out Calavera Mexican Kitchen and Agave Bar, where he has some "magical" lamb sweetbreads tacos, and a great whole grilled snapper. All told, he's impressed.