Al Pastor Papi debuts in Union Square, WesBurger & More says farewell, and San Francisco gets snubbed entirely at the James Beard Awards again, all in This Week In Food.
Al Pastor Papi, the popular food truck purveyor of al pastor tacos and burritos, is now open in its first-ever brick-and-mortar storefront in Union Square — at 232 O'Farrell Street. As Tablehopper tells us, chef-owner Miguel Escobedo's Mexico City-influenced menu includes standard tacos al pastor, as well as "vampiro" tacos with melted cheese, and other options including grilled chicken, prawns, and nopales. The meats can also be ordered in bowl or burrito form, or there's there Alpastorta, a torta. Do note that opening hours are Tuesday to Saturday, 11 am to 3 pm only.
We mentioned a couple weeks back that SPQR was launching a raw bar. Here are the details: It's called The Bar by Accarrino's, and it features both indoor and outdoor seating, but on weekends only from 11 am to 3 pm, at SPQR (1911 Fillmore Street). No reservations are required, and it will feature spritzes and wine by the glass, as well as wines by the bottle, as well as oysters, shrimp cocktails, crudos, and seafood doughnuts/beignets. And for those who were fans of Accarrino's Coffee & Donuts, you can head around the corner for those now at Mattina (2232 Bush).
There was some sad news out of the Mission this week with the announcement that WesBurger & More is shutting its doors. Proprietor Wes Rowe, who started out as a photographer, began doing WesBurger as a pop-up in 2013, and its popularity led to his opening the Mission Street storefront in 2016, where he was among the city's first to celebrate the joys of a good smashburger. In an Instagram announcement, Rowe said the shop would be closing July 15, adding, "Unfortunately, some things, even the ones with queso, need to come to an end." Mission Street has been in a fairly chaotic state this year, with some of the Tenderloin drug trade having shifted there, but Rowe declined to give any succinct reason for the closure, only saying that he expected to bring WesBurger back in some shape or form at a later date. "I love the city a lot," he tells the Chronicle. "I don't really want to harp on too many negative things about closure and kind of pile along the same way that I feel like a lot of people do when they close."
We had some hints of this a while back, but ever-popular, 28-year-old sushi spot Sushi Zone, at Market and Guerrero, is calling it quits next month. But the new owner as of last year says he is looking for a new location.
A new bagel and coffee spot has opened in Noe Valley, Bones Bagels (741 Diamond Street) that's already proved popular, and grew out of a pandemic business that involved owner and baker Noah Orloff milling his own flour with a stationary bike contraption, and delivering many of his bagels by bicycle himself. As the Chronicle first reported, the new shop will feature a limited menu and a changing assortment of Orloff's favorite flavors, including sesame, everything, asiago-black pepper, and salted rosemary. There are also bagel dogs and breakfast sandwiches. Hours are Thursday to Sunday, 8 am to 2 pm, or until sellout.
The James Beard Awards were handed out earlier this week, and guess what! San Francisco didn't win any of the chef and restaurant prizes, with even Best Chef: California going to LA's Jon Yao. But the Chronicle's critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan did take home a prize for Emerging Voice in Journalism, and former Oakland chef, now Sebastopol-based chef Preeti Mistry won a prize for their podcast Loading Dock Talks.
Top image: The Alpastorta at Al Pastor Papi, via Instagram