This Week In Food: Buzzy Coffee and Pizza In the Avenues

Sutro Hall comes to downtown, a new pizza spot comes via Oakland to the Inner Sunset, and Hog Island Oyster Co. gets ready to open its first East Bay location, all in This Week in Food.

The Chronicle had the big news this week about Sutro Hall, the new venture from former Town Hall and Anchor & Hope partner Doug Washington that is taking over the former Mourad space at 149 New Montgomery. Washington allegedly took one look at the space in February and told the broker "We'll take it," noting the 16-foot-high windows and Art Deco detailing. The plan is for a vegetable-forward Cal-Med brasserie type thing, inspired by Gjelina in Venice Beach, with Executive Chef Michael Magallanes (who formerly worked at Mourad) at the helm. Scott Baird, founding partner of Trick Dog and former owner of 15 Romolo, will be overseeing the beverage side. They are aiming for a November opening.

After we heard this week that Yank Sing is getting ready to close its largest location at Rincon Center, celebrity couple Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis were spotted dining there on Tuesday. Restaurant manager Liana Blanco posted selfies with Kutcher and Kunis to Instagram — and it's likely they were in town for Dreamforce, though Kutcher was not listed among the speakers this year. The last day for the location will be September 20, but Yank Sing's smaller Stevenson Street location remains open.

Popular coffee pop-up Hi NRG has morphed into a full-time cafe and wine bar in the central Richmond, as the Chronicle reports. The new brick-and-mortar at 5801 Geary Boulevard serves biscuits, cookies, cakes, seasonal galettes, and sandwiches, in addition to their usual light-roasted coffees, and now wine until 10 pm. The small space has just 25 indoor seats and no wi-fi, and the team hopes that will encourage conversation between customers.

Another buzzy pizza spot is headed to the city, this one from Oakland: Mama's Boy. Per the Chronicle, the popular NY-style shop in Oakland's Uptown will take over the former Reliable Rexall pharmacy space at 801 Irving Street in the Inner Sunset, with a goal to open by mid-2027. Mama's Boy specializes in classic, 20-inch pies topped with the basics like pepperoni or mushrooms, but they do some new-school pies as well, like one with whipped burrata and hot honey, and one with pesto, fennel sausage, and ricotta.

In an expansion in the opposite direction, SF-based smashburger purveyor Smish Smash is expanding with a second location in Berkeley. The former pop-up opened a kiosk at the front of Saluhall on Market Street last year, and the Berkeley location, as the Chronicle reports, will be at 1823 Solano Avenue, which is aiming to open in January. Co-owner Amy Han says she and partner Vic Donado are happy to be "coming home" to the East Bay, which is where they started doing pop-ups in 2020 at Cookiebar Creamery in Oakland and Neptune's in Alameda.

Also, Hog Island Oyster Co. is opening its first East Bay location, in Lafayette, early next year, according to a press release. It will be opening at 3596 Mt. Diablo Boulevard, the former location of Peruvian restaurant Barranco — which "closed for maintenance" last week.