SF awaits the openings of Maria Isabel and JouJou, We Be Sushi closes, and the Chronicle's Top 100 is getting its annual update very soon, all in This Week In Food.

We're coming up on a significant week in terms of restaurant openings as we emerge from the depths of winter — and as we're getting some seriously spring-like weather again. First, on Tuesday, March 3, Maria Isabel opens in Presidio Heights, at 500 Presidio Avenue, from the couple behind Dalida in the Presidio. As we reported this week, the restaurant is a celebration of chef Laura Ozyilmaz's Mexican heritage, both her mother's side from Guerrero and her father's from Sinaloa, with plenty of modern California style thrown in. Reservations can be found here, but things are looking pretty booked up already through March.

Next Friday (March 6) comes the debut of JouJou, the new French brasserie concept from the Lazy Bear team of chef David Barzelay and Colleen Booth. As previously reported, it's set to be a stylish affair with prenty of old-school and new-school French touches, and a bar area that hopes to become a bustling evening scene. Those reservations are now live here.

Tablehopper had an update last week on the coming reopening of The Slanted Door in its long-ago original digs at 584 Valencia Street. Over a year out, as we are now, from the untimely death of chef-founder Charles Phan, The Slanted Door Group says the project is still in the works, but we are likely about another year from seeing it open. So that means early 2027.

A few doors over, the ever-popular, 30-year-old We Be Sushi (538 Valencia) has closed as of earlier this month. Mission Local brought the sad news, with 76-year-old chef-owner Andy Tonozuka saying, "I felt so much relief once I decided to retire."

The eagerly anticipated opening of Café Bolita, the first brick-and-mortar venture for chef Emmanuel Galvan of Bolita Masa fame, softly opened this week in the former Standard Fare space at Eighth and Carleton streets in West Berkeley. As the Chronicle reports, the restaurant is open with a limited takeout menu and limited hours, but service will become more full by late March. For now, fans can stop by for mushroom quesadillas with heirloom blue masa tortillas, and braised chard tamales with carrot-flavored masa.

In East Bay chain restaurant news, North Italia, the Italian restaurant chain owned by The Cheesecake Factory, is opening a new location on March 25 in Walnut Creek. The restaurant allegedly "doesn't feel like a chain restaurant" according to one SoCal critic, and features an open kitchen and pasta made daily in-house. And, at lunch, there are sliders made with garlic knots as the bread, so that's fun.

In celebrity dining news, Sam Smith has launched a food account on Instagram called @SamServed, and the Grammy winner, in the midst of a Castro Theatre residency, has been eating their way across town — including stops at the Castro's Eiji, stalwart Noe Valley spot Firefly for fried chicken, and Molinari Delicatessen in North Beach. Somebody tell Smith to read SFist for some newer recs!

Olympic superstar Alysa Liu had a welcome-home dinner Tuesday night in Alameda, at Italian restaurant Trabocco, as the Chronicle reports. And NBA superstar Steph Curry stopped in for a bite at KoJa Kitchen's food truck at SPARK Social earlier this week.

And, despite critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan being on maternity leave, we now know that the Chronicle will be updating the Top 100 nonetheless, with the big reveal coming on April 6. Like last year, they're having a party for the honored restaurants, and tickets are available to purchase, with Chronicle subscribers getting a discount.

Top image: Photo via We Be Sushi