Asia Live is debuting next week in Santa Clara, Jules gets a boost from the New York Times, Saluhall loses its last original vendor, and Oakland gets a new queer bar, all in This Week in Food.
Asia Live, the grand an ambitious food hall in the mode of Eataly from George Chen of China Live fame, is getting set to open at the Westfield Valley Fair model in Santa Clara next week, on June 5. Chen tells the Chronicle that Asia Live harkens back to his first SF restaurant, Betelnut, in that it connects foods from across Asia and celebrates street food especially.
Saluhall, the IKEA-adjacent food hall on mid-Market, has slowly added a couple new tenants in recent months, but the last of its original vendors, Curry Up Now, has left the building. As the Chronicle reports, the only two food vendors now operating as Ingka Centres seeks new management are Smish Smash and Filipino sandwich counter Izzy & Wooks — but we've recently learned that the central counter space downstairs will soon become a branch of Oklava Café, and a new beverage services company has been hired to take over the three bars in the space.
The latest update of the North America's 50 Best Restaurants list is out, and Saison clocks in at 22, Benu at 33, Atelier Crenn at 44, and Sons & Daughters at 45. And Healdsburg's SingleThread comes in at number 16.
Jules, the hit pizza spot in the Lower Haight, just landed on the New York Times' "25 Best Restaurants In San Francisco Right Now," in the latest update of that list. Owner and pizzaiolo Max Blachman-Gentile and his staff are celebrating, obviously, as Jules just celebrated its one-year anniversary this week, and as the new NYT listing puts it in the good company of Liholiho Yacht Club, Flour + Water, Four Kings, and Zuni. (And it will also mean that tables will remain hard to get, with a tourist factor added.)
International Smoke, the barbecue restaurant opened nine years ago by Ayesha Curry and Michael Mina, has quietly closed. As Eater reports, the restaurant space in the base of Millennium Tower is undergoing a renovation and will reopen as Neighborhood Test Kitchen, a revival of Mina Test Kitchen, the revolving pop-up venue that Michael Mina launched a decade ago. And Mina says the closure comes in part because of the impacts of the construction around the building to fix the tower's sinking problem.
A new queer bar is opening tonight in Oakland, in the former Friends and Family space at 468 25th Street. It's called There There, and as the Chronicle reports via new oener Alli Li, there are some new bleacher seats in the "cruising corner" on the back patio, and drinks are priced in the range of $12 to $17.
Top image via Instagram
