Parasol begins dinner service in the Castro, Saltwater Bakehop opens its first brick-and-mortar in SoMa, and The DeLuxe prepares for an opening in the Upper Haight very soon, all in This Week in Food.
Over in the Castro neighborhood, Parasol at Flore, the new spot that has replaced Fisch & Flore in the former Cafe Flore space at Noe and Market, has fully opened for dinner, after we noted its soft opening for breakfast service last month. The bar offers cocktails, with a full selection of spirits and a few riffs on classics on the menu, as well a wine list curated by new owner Jacob Paronyan, who also owns Roaming Goat in Cow Hollow, focusing on Armenian and Georgian wines. Unlike Fisch & Flore, which never quite found its footing, Parasol offers a casual menu that allows for having just fries (they're excellent and well seasoned) and a drink at the bar, or a burger, as well as a few larger Mediterranean plates. And there's a very reasonably priced happy hour menu, available from 3 pm to 5 pm Wednesday to Sunday, with $7 and $9 glasses of wine, $9 cocktails, and appetizers starting at $5.
Club Deluxe replacement The DeLuxe in the Upper Haight is aiming for a June opening, we learned this week, with an exact date still TBA (and might come a little later). As we reported in September, the place won approval for live music to be played seven nights a week from 9 pm to 2 am, and the new owners are former Deluxe bartender Christian Beaulieu and Mr. Tipple's Recording Studio founder Jay Bordeleau, who have plans to keep the spirit of the place well intact.
Saltwater Bakeshop has opened its first brick-and-mortar location in SoMa, at 1309 Howard Street. The operation run by baker Brittany Dunn Holden, formerly of Mr. Holmes Bakehouse, already has a following from its presence at the Ferry Plaza and Fort Mason farmers' markets, and products at various cafes, and now it has a permanent home. As the Chronicle reports, there are plans to expand the food menu and add espresso drinks as of May 30.
Tablehopper brought word this week about the closing of Ristobar at 2300 Chestnut Street, which for many years until 2020 had been owner Gary Rulli's Emporio Rulli Gran Caffè. It's not clear what comes next for the space, but it's apparently being taken over by this Marin-based event and hospitality company, so we'll have to wait and see.
We got the word on the food and beverage lineup at at Outside Lands (August 7-9), and the full Taste of the Bay Area lineup can be seen here. It includes a couple of notable additions in longtime SF stalwarts Original Joe's, Perry's, and Balboa Cafe, who will all have booths at the fest.
A new sports-themed bar and restaurant called SoMa Social has taken over the restaurant space at the SoMa House hotel at 121 Seventh Street, near Minna (formerly known as the Americania Hotel). As the Chronicle reports, the opening comes just in time for World Cup tourists to arrive, and the sports bar has a back room called The Huddle with a shuffle-board table and a large TV.
Tablehopper also had news of the soft opening of Hardware Coffee Co., in West Portal — in the former Papenhausen Hardware store at 32 West Portal Avenue, with its lovely historic mezzanine. This is the second cafe for Hardware Coffee, which opened a kiosk in Ghirardelli Square last summer, and they serve their own blends that are roasted at Grand Coffee in Oakland, as well as pastries from — guess who! — Saltwater Bakeshop.
Fans of the erstwhile Cafe Jacqueline (RIP), about 50 of them, reportedly lined up this morning for a unique tag sale in which longtime chef-owner Jacqueline Margulis was selling off all the bits and pieces of the North Beach restaurant after failing to find a buyer for the business. The wares included escargot shells, dining chairs, vintage cookbooks, and, of course, soufflé dishes.
Chronicle associate critic Cesar Hernandez brings us a review of TBD, the new Japanese izakaya concept that grew out of a partnership between yakitori expert Tommy Cleary (who trained at Ippuku in Berkeley), and sushi chef Ray Lee of Akiko's fame, which opened in March in the former Akiko's space on Bush Street after Lee moved that restaurant to larger digs in SoMa. Hernandez raves about dishes like the Nashville hot chicken-inspired hot karaage, and the tuna Wellington, saying that "TBD offers a fresh take on the modern izakaya, and it doesn’t look or taste much like its contemporaries."
