The arrival of Via Aurelia, a new bottle shop comes to NoPa, North America's 50 Best list honors seven Bay Area spots, and Wilkommen says auf wiedersehen in the Castro, all in This Week In Food.

This week we had news of the opening of Via Aurelia, the new fine-dining offshoot of Che Fico, coming next week to the Mission Rock development. The restaurant takes Tuscany as its inspiration, and you can expect plenty of pomp in the service, with the goal of making the dining experience a bit more theatrical, like it was in olden times.

And there was the sad news of the passing of Joe Betz, the owner of House of Prime Rib for its latter 40 years. He was 86, and his son Steven continues to run the restaurant.

A new liquor store/bottle shop is opening in the same complex as Faletti Foods grocery store in NoPa, and it's called Bitters & Bottles. It's a second location for the South San Francisco-based business, opening at the corner of Fell and Broderick, and it will bring the neighborhood its first, upscale bottle shop when it opens — hopefully this fall? We'll update you when we know more.

Hoodline brought the sad news this week that Wilkommen, the indoor/outdoor beer garden in the Castro from the Black Hammer Brewing team, is shutting its doors as of October 3. Owners say they will be "focus[ing] our efforts and resources on the brewing side of the business," and this leaves a prominent restaurant space at Sanchez and Market up for grabs.

And as Hoodline reports, the popular Starbucks location on 18th Street in the Castro is set to close this weekend, as part of a nationwide wave of 120 closures by the company.

There's a special event dinner coming up at Burdell in Oakland on October 12. The Grandma Series x Meet the Winemaker Dinner that night will feature Darryl Bell of the acclaimed Stateline Road Smokehouse in Napa, who will be "cooking from his memories growing up in Kansas City" alongside Burdell's Geoff Davis, with Matthiasson winemaker Steve Matthiasson pouring from his portfolio. Find more info and get a seat here.

And speaking of special events, Foreign Cinema last night hosted the great, one and only Jeremiah Tower, who curated a Stars tribute menu — a crazily extensive a la carte selection that was the length of Foreign Cinema's regular menu, in place of that regular menu. Highlights included a smoked trout brandade and a lavender-brined porch chop served with sage butter, muscat spiced peaches and tellicherry pepper roasted figs. This was part of Foreign Cinema's guest chef series, and next up on the calendar are Sue Conley and Peggy Smith, the cofounders of Cowgirl Creamery, on October 30. Find a table here.

The North America's 50 Best list ceremony happened last night in Las Vegas, and the highly corporate, splashy affair honored even Bay Area restaurants that made the cut. Those are Healdsburg's SingleThread (#8); SF's Benu (#13), Californios (#14), Saison (#21), Lazy Bear (#25), Atelier Crenn (#46), and Quince (#48). Only SingleThread and Atelier Crenn cracked the bottom of 50 of the World's Best list this year, coming in at #80 and #96 respectively.

And Eater this week published an "All-Time Eater 38," which is meant to honor the "most essential" and "most influential" restaurants across the country of the last 20 years. San Francisco is somewhat well represented, with Atelier Crenn, Mission Chinese Food, and Reem's California all making the cut.

Chronicle Associate Critic Cesar Hernandez has a rave review of Tai Er Sichuan Cuisine, which is a chain in China and just opened its first Bay Area location in San Mateo. He's in love with the signature dish, sauerkraut fish soup, and the "wonderfully jiggly" ma po tofu, and he says the brand new restaurant is already "one of this year’s best new openings."

And MacKenzie Chung Fegan files a new review of Mister Jiu's, noting that amid all the buzz about modern Chinese spots Four Kings and Happy Crane, "It may not be the fresh face of the season, but Mister Jiu’s is standing the test of time." She returned to the restaurant on the occasion of its return to a la carte and banquet-style dining, noting that its brief tasting-menu era of the last couple years was kind of "a bummer."  She's a big fan of the comically large shrimp chips, the signature Peking duck, and the deep-fried rice dumplings known as ham sui gok, as well as vegetable dishes like green beans with XO butter, and wok-smoked eggplant.

Photo: Sausages at Wilkommen via Yelp