It's been a week, hasn't it!? In the food and drink realm, we said goodbye (for now?) to Lefty O'Doul's, we learned of Salt & Straw's upcoming address in Hayes Valley, we recommended some hot toddies to seek out in cold weather, we learned about James Syhabout's new brewery project in West Oakland, and we heard that The Wolf is set to open within weeks in the former Bay Wolf digs. Here's some other stuff to catch you up on.
Foreign Cinema is opening a new wine bar next door to the restaurant, as Eater tells us. It's moving into a space at 2540 Mission Street that the restaurant has leased for a while, for storage, and it will now become a high-ceilinged space with its own kitchen, and an extensive list of wines by the glass and bottle coming from a 15,000-bottle cellar.
Eater also brings word that Motze, following a fairly shitty review the other week from Michael Bauer, is going fast-casual now and changing up the menu format, though co-chef Nick Balla says it's not because of Bauer's review and this type of experimentation was in the cards all along. Balla and partner Cortney Burns recently shut down Bar Tartine, and they are at work on a new restaurant called Crescent, location TBA, while intending to operate Motze for about another year.
Among the remaining new year's closures is La Nebbia, the three-year-old pizzeria offshoot of La Ciccia in Noe Valley. Inside Scoop reports that owners Massimiliano Conti and Lorella Degan want some more time to themselves and time to focus on La Ciccia, and they've already found a taker for the space who's apparently someone well known on the local restaurant scene. La Nebbia remains open tonight and tomorrow only.
Sadly, Lower Nob Hill bakery Flour & Co. has closed, with owner Emily Day explaining in a note on the door that she wants to spend more time with her kids. As Hoodline reports, this comes six months after the bakery shuttered its Berkeley outpost, and Day is now launching an online store for those who still want to buy her granola.
Also closed is Starboard, the one-and-a-half-year-old 16th Street spot, which Capp Street Crap tells us has been shuttered for a couple weeks now. It's currently occupied by an Asian fusion pop-up called Cross Hatch Eatery.
And over in Oakland, Encuentro closed this week, as Eater reports. The place began as a wine bar in Jack London Square in 2009, and moved down the street to become a vegan and vegetarian spot in 2014. Owners Linda Braz and Lacey Sher say that the rising cost of doing business, including Oakland's new minimum wage, are to blame.
As has been expected, the temporary food hall called The Hall on Market Street is likely in its final months now, though no closing date has been announced. As Hoodline notes, the developer who owns the building has secured approvals for the high-rise residential building that will be replacing it, and demolition time is approaching.
Meanwhile up the street at The Market, the pivot continues from grocery store to food hall and there are a couple of new vendors in place. We already knew about Doughnut Dolly, but now the Chronicle brings word of the openings of The Organic Coup and Poke Bar.
And speaking of doughnuts, the aforementioned expansion of San Rafael's Johnny Doughnuts to Hayes Valley is now on track for an April or May opening, as Hoodline reports. That's coming to 388 Fulton Street, at Gough.
In the Lower Haight, 30-year-old Café International has just won Legacy Business status. As Hoodline notes, this is the second business in the neighborhood to get legacy status after Two Jacks Nik's Place.
In the Outer Sunset, as we warned you a couple weeks ago, Outbound is open, the new beer bar from the Woods Beer folks. As Eater reports, this is Woods' fifth location now, and it's on the same block as Outerlands and Trouble Coffee.
And if you're in the mood for Cambodian street food, former pop-up Nyum Bai now has a permanent location at the Emeryville Public Market, as Inside Scoop reports, serving several delicious sounding noodle soups.
This Week In Reviews
The Weekly's Pete Kane files his review of Flores, the new upscale Mexican spot in Cow Hollow from prolific restaurateur Adriano Paganini. He says the res con chile colorado is "genuinely outstanding" and he loves the pok chuc entree as well. He also says the cocktails are "generally excellent," and the menu "usually makes its mark, simultaneously rewarding the adventurous with novelties and reassuring more conservative patrons."
SF Mag's Josh Sens went to check out Healdsburg's Single Thread, the ambitious new fine dining spot from husband and wife team Kyle and Katina Connaughton. He writes that "An atmosphere of Zen calm radiates from the open kitchen," and he's most impressed with Kyle Connaughton's extreme attention to detail. It sounds like the experience may not be for everyone, though, with a few Portlandia-esque details. "Satire certainly wasn’t far from my mind just before the meat course, when a server appeared with a wooden box. Inside were six bespoke steak knives, their blades made of recycled steel from a 1968 Volkswagen, a detail our server recited with a straight face. 'Choose one that speaks to you,' she added." All told, though, Sens isn't joking around when he bestows three and a half big stars on the place noting that it was based only on one visit, because his expense account couldn't handle more.
Meanwhile over in Napa, Michael Bauer gives us an update on Mustard's Grill, Cindy Pawlcyn's longtime mainstay with a flair for the international, now 34 years old. He loves little touches like "the watercress dip that goes with the crisp fries, or in the Espelette aioli with the Dungeness crab cakes," and likes a dish of Hunan-spiced chicken with Asian slaw and peanut noodles, but he finds that there are some misses in the execution these days, like "inexact plating" and some overcooked pork. The verdict: two and a half stars.
And for his Sunday review Bauer sticks with Napa, giving us his take on Kenzo, a new kaiseki restaurant in downtown Napa. He's most impressed with the spot-on service and the perfect lighting, "where everyone looks as if they just had a day at the spa and a skin-smoothing facial." And he's pretty impressed with the food, though he did not see it change much over three visits and he wonders if it's worth the $225 fixed price (for either a kaiseki menu, or a kaiseki sushi menu with twice as much nigiri, minus some other dishes). All told, he gives the place three stars, but only two and a half for food, saying, "while sometimes brilliantly conceived, [it] fails to capture that subtle quality that separates the very good from the great."
