This week we brought you pics from the new downtown watering hole Tequila Mockingbird, and news of the city's first EDM bubble tea shop. Local chef Dominique Crenn continues to put sexist haters in their place, and a certain Sunset sushi chef who remains nameless has recanted his Trump support after alienating a number of customers, because he himself was an immigrant. We also had an update on the Lazy Bear cocktail spinoff, Flowershop, and checked out the new inflatable slide at Woods Island Club. Here's the other items you may have missed.
It's time for the city to get its first Salt & Straw ice cream shop, the first of two, which Inside Scoop reports will be debuting Friday, April 14, at 2201 Fillmore Street (at Sacramento). The Portland-based creamery known for some unique flavor combinations has done a few pop-ups here in anticipation, and they've already expanded with a couple of locations in Los Angeles. Next up will be their Hayes Valley location at 580 Hayes, which is set to open in early summer.
Remember the news of a year and a half ago that the historic Harding Theater on Divisadero was becoming an arcade bar called Emporium SF? Chicago-based proprietor Danny Marks, who already operates an Emporium there, says that renovations continue in the space, and he's now aiming for a mid- to late summer opening.
As Eater and the Chronicle report, five locally owned food vendors have been selected to anchor the offerings at the Warriors' Arena, and they are: Bakesale Betty, with its famous fried-chicken sandwich; Tacolicious; Sam’s Chowder House of Half Moon Bay; Hot Dog Bill’s, the long-time family-run stand at The Olympic Club that sells burger dogs, a.k.a. the "trick dogs" that inspired the name of Trick Dog the bar; and a new incarnation of Big Nate’s BBQ, the now-closed Folsom Street spot where CatHead's is now that was owned by late Basketball Hall of Famer Nate Thurmond.
In a bit of a surprise, acclaimed Fillmore spot Mosu, which earned a Michelin star out of the gate last year, is closing at the end of this month. As chef-owner Sung Anh tells Eater, the reason isn't financial, but rather he relocating the restaurant to Seoul, South Korea, in order to be with his wife and children, who live there.
We now have a first clue as to what's happening with the former Mamacita space in the Marina: Hoodline catches a liquor license transfer bearing the name Wiki Wiki Fish Co., and as you can see it bears the names of the two Mamacita partners, Samuel Josi and Stryker Scales, who say they plan to open a new concept in the space. They announced last month that their other partner, Nate Valentine, was moving on to other ventures, like the reopening of Ruby Skye as August Hall.
Elsewhere in the neighborhood, we learn that MatrixFillmore doesn’t want to be a nightclub any more, and will pivot into a cocktail bar instead. The place has been closed for renovations since Valentine's Day, and Hoodline now speaks to a manager, Tosca alum Christian Clark, who confirms the change of focus.
Eater brings word that popular FiDi pita bar Sababa, a venture by chef-partner Guy Eshel and former AQ guy Matt Semmelhack, is expanding with a second location on Commercial Street. They're aiming for a May opening, and the new spot will allow them to do more fresh pita production in the basement, as well as offer 28 seats for eat-in dining.
And in the FiDi/SoMa, 22-year-old Ristorante Umbria is shutting down, opening up an opportunity for someone at the prime corner of Second and Howard. As Inside Scoop reports, the reason is that owner Giulio Tempesta is losing his lease.
Over in the Castro, Le Marais Bakery is set to open its third location at the corner of Sanchez and 18th, in the former Samovar Tea Lounge space, within a few weeks according to Hoodline. And the new location will have an expanded bistro menu similar to the ones at the Chestnut Street and Ghirardelli Square locations, but with more rotisserie meat plates including prime rib and lamb, in addition to Mary's chicken. Initial hours will be 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., but that may skew later if there's demand in the neighborhood for dinner.
Chronicle nostalgist Carl Nolte talks about the history of the Beach Chalet, which is now a popular and lively eating and drinking spot, but was a pretty rough and tumble biker bar back in the 70s, and once upon a time was a VFW hall just after WWII. It was revived in its current form by Gar and Lara Truppelli in 1997, and they've gone on to open Park Chalet in back of it, and Lake Chalet in Oakland.
Following some significant delays, including the discovery that the building sits atop Mission Creek and there was running water just barely below the surface of the basement, Health Spirits is set to open its fourth location by summer in the former T&M Market at 14th and Valencia, as Hoodline tells us. The bourbon and beer specialist is already known to some Castro and Richmond residents, but owner Rami Barqawi hopes to bring his brown-liquor prowess to a new clientele in the Mission.
It's been two years since a fire shut down The Palace, and now chef Manny Torres Gimenez is readying a new concept in the space, which like his work at The Palace and previously at Mr. Pollo, will feature a likely-to-be reasonably priced prix fixe of 10 courses at the counter, with an a la carte menu available in the rest of the restaurant. The name is Francisca's, and he tells Inside Scoop that the menu will be seasonal-California in theme, with some inspiration taken from a trip last year through Aruba, Italy, France, and Spain.
Over in Oakland, Duende chef Paul Canales is doing a new lunch pop-up in the restaurant's bodega space (which has its own entrance), called Kured. Daily offerings include Canales's house-made sausages, as Inside Scoop explains, as well as a "pork-betta" sandwich made with cured pork belly and shoulder, and a chicken sandwich.
And in international restaurant news, the somewhat controversial but still buzzed about World's 50 Best list came out this week, and sliding into the #1 position is New York's Eleven Madison Park, the first American restaurant to top the list since The French Laundry held the title in 2003 and 2004. These days the French Laundry has slipped off the Top 50, and the only Bay Area restaurant to make the cut is Saison, which slipped from #27 last year to #37 this year, and nonetheless beats out local heavy hitters like The Restaurant at Meadowood and Manresa. See the full list here.
This Week In Reviews
The Chron's cocktail gal Esther Mobley gives her take on the new bar-within-a-bar experience on the mezzanine at ABV, called Over Proof. She describes the rum-heavy 1.0 tasting-menu experience as "intense" but also "enormously fun," and notes that it includes a reference to It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia's rum ham from the cast-away episode a few seasons back.
Michael Bauer returns to longtime Top 100 mainstay Rivoli in Berkeley, where he's excited to report that founding chef Wendy Brucker is back in the kitchen. The 23-year-old California spot lost some patrons in recent years when a new chef moved in and removed one of the menu staples, Brucker's beloved mushroom fritters, but Brucker has brought them back, and Bauer raves about the generosity and quality of all the other dishes, which he likens to "something you might get in the home of a generous and truly excellent cook." The return visit gets the place three stars, and likely means it will return to Top 100 glory when the new list arrives next month.
For his Sunday review, Bauer brings his thoughts on The Wolf, the much anticipated replacement for the long beloved Bay Wolf on Piedmont Avenue in Oakland. And the news isn't good. "It’s the type of place that restaurant critics dread. It’s fun to write a review when you’re excited whether good or bad but it’s a chore when everything is OK, but nothing stands out." He said after his three visits the place, which was taken over by the Wood Tavern team of Rich and Rebekah Wood, he had the feeling that "it could be just about any restaurant in any city in the United States." He likes the presentation of a dish of olive oil-poached tuna with butter beans, but has very little else positive to say about chef Yang Peng's food, except to say that the soups are generally good. The Woods themselves, he says, are consummate hosts, and he hopes to see the place become a neighborhood destination. It needs to "find a point of view," however, and he gives it only two stars.
But for a second opinion, we have San Francisco Magazine's Josh Sens, who has a bit of a more positive take on Peng's food. "To say that the food won’t knock your socks off isn’t a knock," he writes. "The Wolf isn’t out to strip you of your comforts; it wants to wrap you in its embrace." He notes that her menu includes "classic brasserie dishes, some gently updated, others left pretty much as they were." And he's not as disappointed in the beef tartare or pommes dauphine as Bauer was. He likens the new bar set-up in the main dining room "the world’s most polite sports bar, awash in baby boomers sipping wine, slurping oysters, and nibbling duck liver pâté toasts." And his final verdict is a bit more generous too: two and a half stars.
Over at the Weekly, Pete Kane checks in on Rooh (333 Brannan Street), the third and fanciest of the city's new, modern Indian restaurants after August 1 Five and Babu Ji, and he says "the most wildly inventive" of the three. He's a huge fan of the tuna bhel with avocado, tamarind gel, and puffed rice, a riff on the popular street food that he says "combines the traits of excellent poke and the freshness of a high-end guacamole." He's less impressed with a dish of burrata with heirloom tomato kut and cilantro-and-walnut chutney, and he says that "caveman-ish" lamb shank was sort of a flop, with a "humdrum gravy." The very best thing on the menu, he says, is the Chicken 65, "a plate of deep-fried, chili-slathered morsels piled with just enough vegetables to feel elegant and a few dabs of yogurt to cool it all down."
