Side Dish

This Space for Rent
Just thought I'd mention that -- restaurant boom be damned -- there are still any number of ready-to-wear dining spots sitting empty. Mail is piling up under the doors and dust is gathering atop the upturned chairs at Dame, Alta Plaza, Evita, Gramercy Grill ... write your favorite example in here. Is the San Francisco food rush over? On the other hand, if you're a dot-com company chockablock with Stanford M.B.A.s and flush with vc looking for space in multimedia heaven, look no farther than your local restaurant realtor. It worked for Entros and others (see "Don't Fear the Beeper," below). The private dining room in back is just the perfect spot for that pool table or air hockey setup.

And (koff, koff), excuse me for being so forward in my questioning, but, with the opening of five new places just this month, where is anyone going to find a decent waiter in this town? Every manager I speak to is looking for good help. And almost every place I've been out to recently is showing major holes in its service program.

Trellised
Since 1994, Deborah Chalsty has had her hand in all things Hayes and Vine. Well, Deborah has decided to move on to other challenges, and once-manager Tony Poer has taken over ownership of the cute 'ittle wine bar at the end of Hayes Street. He's joined by his friend Mark Dirsa in this venture. Not to worry, Hayes and Vine will continue its tradition of strange wines and cool times.

Detour
Plans to put a Zao noodle shop in the old Josie's Juice Joint space on 16th Street at Market have hit a little snag. Besides the caveat that the Tom for Mayor signs must come down, it seems all the existing dining permits ... don't exist. Fans of the postmodern noodle joint needn't worry, though -- this kind of delay is par for the course when a restaurant is changing hands.

Don't Fear the Beeper
The Transmission Theater has gone high tech: The Paradise's annex for larger shows and off-line wrestling events is the object of a one-year lease between Paradise owner Robin Reichert and an upstart dot-com (is there another kind?). Seems computer nerds are more profitable than Cosmopolitans. Also leased to the dot-commoners was the Luneta Body Shop, the false front for Reichert's storage space a few doors down from Paradise on Folsom. Looks like it's time for local musicians to face the silence ....

Know something Harry doesn't? E-mail Coverte@aol.com and sweep the dirt out from under the rug.