The big food-and-drink news in town this week was the purchase of SF's signature brewery Anchor Brewing by Japan's Sapporo Holdings, which follows a trend of such deals but still feels kind of, I dunno, weird. We also learned that the 500 Club is on the market, and nearby in the Mission the Elbo Room has gotten another reprieve, with a lease through 2019. Also, the former Wo Hing/Urchin Bistrot space on Valencia is being taken over by the Trick Dog team, details still TBA. And now for all the rest of the notable news.
One prominent item this week is the coming arrival of Wagyumafia in SoMa. The Tokyo-based sandwich shop specializes in simple, fried beef cutlet sandwiches that range in price from $8 to $180, the latter being made with Kobe shabu, as Business Insider shows us. The sandwiches look delicious, if not worth $180, but look for this to open early next year in One Henry Adams Street, in the design district.
The next concept to rotate through the Mina Test Kitchen will be Mi Almita, from Houston-based chef and James Beard Award winner Hugo Ortega. As Inside Scoop learns, the restaurant will be "a journey throughout Mexico," and it marks a new partnership between Ortega and Michael Mina, who recently toured and ate at all of Ortega's restaurants in Houston, and became "infatuated' with the chef. Look for Mi Almita to debut August 23, as the previous concept, Adam Sobel and Mina's collaboration Postcards from La Costeria serves its last dinner tonight.
Over in Ghirardelli Square, one-year-old Waxman's from celeb chef Jonathan Waxman has closed for "renovations," and I had already heard a rumor that it was not long for this world given its mostly empty dining room. Eater tells us it is nonetheless slated to reopen in September, as something, and meanwhile Waxman has opened a fast-casual spot next door all centered on his famed roast chicken. It's called J Bird, and it'll be selling $19.50 whole chickens with salsa verde, and $10.50 half chickens. Fried thighs are $3. Also, Ken Fulk was involved in the design, and there's a "rosé garden" patio.
There's been a change of the guard in the kitchen at Tartine Manufactory, where opening chef Sam Goinsalvos has moved on to other Tartine projects and co-executive chefs Bill Niles and Christa Chase have taken the helm. As Eater reports, they're also switching to more of a full-service format at lunch, with a few first-come-first-served tables, but reservations available as well. And in other news, they're finalizing a full liquor license for the place, which means Tartine will be serving cocktails for the first time in the very near future.
Over at the edge of the Castro, the former Rub-a-Dub-Dub laundromat at the corner of Church and 17th Street is transitioning to become an unnamed German bistro under new owner Salome Buelow. Buelow sounds ambitious, if naive, in talking to Hoodline about opening early next year, despite a soft-story retrofit that still has to happen in the building, and a change-of-use permit she needs to get from Planning, not to mention a full restaurant build-out. But best of luck!
Salad-centric lunch spot Mixt is expanding with its eighth and ninth locations in SF soon, opening a spot in Cow Hollow at 3130 Fillmore this fall, and another at an as-yet unknown location in the Mission. The Cow Hollow spot will also serve dinner, with "market plates" that feature a grilled protein with two sides, as Eater tells us.
Finally, over in Oakland, the much loved Beauty's Bagels in the Temescal neighborhood is in expansion mode. As Eater reports, the Montreal-style wood-fired bagel operation is opening a second location in the Uptown neighborhood at 1700 Franklin Street by next spring, despite some controversy over the eviction of the previous tenants in the space.
This Week In Reviews
Michael Bauer circled back this week to a 30-year-old Japanese spot that once stood fairly lonely in a desolate, industrial area of Dogpatch. Moshi Moshi is still going strong under 83-year-old owner Mitsura “Mits” Akashi, Bauer writes, and it's become a "spiritual anchor" for the neighborhood that has grown up around it over the last three decades. He says the menu is "impossibly long" especially by today's standards, but he's nonetheless impressed with some chewy udon noodles and perfect tempura mushrooms. The sushi is "fine," he says, adding, "I’ve had worse at other sushi restaurants that charge more." All told: two and a half stars, and a lot of heart.
For the Sunday review, Bauer has some praise for RT Rotisserie though never one to go for the full-on superlative, he employs his signature phrase in saying it's "one of the best rotisserie chickens I’ve had." He says it's "so good that I kept forgetting to use one of the four sauces provided," and he says the rotisserie cauliflower is "outstanding" as well. He raves about the RT salad, too, and says "you see the influence of a fine dining sensibility" in everything from the service to the decor. The rave concludes with three big stars kind of a rarity for the fast-casual realm, but clearly he's impressed.
The New York Times' Joshua David Stein did a write-up on Aina, which he calls "a modern Hawaiian restaurant whose brunch has spawned a citywide mania." He notes that chef Jordan Keao flies in Hawaiian hardwood for smoking meat and fish, and that he eschews all use of pineapple, with a menu that's "both international and uniquely Hawaiian." Apparently a tasting menu is on the way for dinner later this summer.
Eater's Rachel Levin checks in on Alta MSP, the new location of Daniel Patterson's Alta in Dogpatch, at the Minnesota Street Project. She's charmed by the brunch, and notes that the place is mostly alive during daylight hours in general and that dinner is fairly expensive for what it is, much like at the Market Street location. She's a fan of the fried chicken sandwich and the deviled eggs topped with furikake, as well as the "Mimosa lab" at brunch, in which a bottomless beaker of sparkling wine is served along with beakers of various mixers and syrups. In the end, though, she gives it two stars.
And last but not least, the Weekly's Pete Kane checks out Francisca's, the newest venture from chef Manny Torres Gimenez in the former Palace Steak House space at Mission and Cesar Chavez. Gone are the days of Gimenez's $20 four-courser at Mr. Pollo, and now he does a $65 family-style prix fixe, with an international menu that leans toward his native Venezuela, and features some Italian pastas. Kane likes a few of the dishes, in particular a foie gras on brioche with duck-orange marmalade, but the experience sounds mostly marred by some poor service and a very green staff, not to mention a kitchen hood that may not be functioning properly, leading to a smoked-out dining room. "There's work to be done," he concludes.
