Consumer Non-Cyclicals

New Law Could Let Distillers Charge For Booze Tastings

New Bill Would Allow Distillers to Charge For On-Site Tastings

St. George Spirits used to sell glassware -- and offer a complimentary taste of their spirits with a glass purchase. The reason? It's against the law for distillers to charge for tastings and sell bottles at their distilleries, like brewers and vintners can. Although the Alcohol and Control Board r ... More >>

Beer Industry Reveals SF's Relationship With the Delicious Alcoholic Beverage

California legislators are considering pushing last call back by two hours, to 4 a.m. So what better time for the beer industry to release a study announcing its economic impact on the state? Fourteen states allow residents to buy alcohol past 2 a.m. But despite the Golden State's competitive disad ... More >>

Budweiser, Corona Sued in San Francisco

This suit's for youFriday is a good day for beer and, today, it's a great one for lawsuits regarding beer. Attorney Joe Alioto tells SF Weekly that, this afternoon, he'll make a federal case out of a proposed multi-billion dollar deal to merge two of the world's yellowest beers, Budweiser and Corona ... More >>

Drink 2013: Small Batch is the Second Coming of Local Wine

Beer of the Week: Alesmith My Bloody Valentine

Listen, we like high-concept beer as much as anybody. If a brewer makes a beer that resurrects an ancient Mesopotamian yeast, then ages it at the bottom of the Caspian Sea for three years in a barrel with curry spices and snozzberries ... well, our ears would perk up. But sometimes it's nice to ackn ... More >>

Why American Craft Beer is Better Than Ever: A Brewer's Manifesto

When someone says "I don't like beer" my reaction is almost always the same: "Challenge accepted!" It's not that the so-called beer-hater doesn't like beer -- it's that they don't like any of the beers they've had up until now. Chances are, it's been a pretty narrow selection of what's out there. ... More >>

Monk's Kettle Turns Five and Throws a Party (Today!)

We remember when Monk's Kettle was knee-high to a grasshopper. Five years into their run as one of SF's first beer-centric restaurants, and they've never been more on top of their game. In half a decade, the menu at Monk's has taken on a refined yet rustic personality, and the vintage beer list cont ... More >>

Dandelion Chocolate: Now Open!

Chocoholics and Cathy cartoons rejoice! As of today, The Dandelion Chocolate factory and cafe is officially open for business! Now you can finally watch your chocolate being made and eat it too. The Valencia street location is Dandelion's new, fully functioning chocolate factory complete with a bean ... More >>

Three Things I Learned When I Forced Myself to Learn About Proposition 37

By now you've probably heard that a major food fight is going down on the state ballot on Tuesday. If passed, Proposition 37 would require a label on any genetically engineered foods and food products sold in California -- an unprecedented move that could end up shaping food policy on a national lev ... More >>

Ben & Jerry's Releases Special-Edition "SuperPack" Ice Cream

Ben & Jerry's has released a special edition version of their Stephen Colbert-endorsed flavor, Americone Dream, just in time for election season. The new packaging is part of the ice cream company's "Take the Dough Out of Politics" campaign, which aims to reduce the amount of money spent on politic ... More >>

Bottles Up

Wine and Dine

Wine and Dine

Court Orders Herbal Company to Destroy Food Contaminated With Mice Poop

Finish your breakfast before you read this:The United States Attorney has filed the official paperwork ordering the destruction of all mice-invested food products at the now shuttered San Francisco Herb & Natural Foods Co.As readers probably would like to forget but haven't, state health officia ... More >>

Martuni's: The Last S.F. Piano Bar in a Karaoke World

If you've ever been inside Martuni's, that dark-walled bar on the corner of Valencia and Market, you know it's a special place: As SF Weekly staff writer Joe Eskenazi describes in this week's cover story, Martuni's is a piano bar thriving in a karaoke world. It's the last remaining example of what u ... More >>

Sylvester: Show Preview

Changing Keys: Martuni's Piano Bar Thrives in a Karaoke World

Feve Artisan Chocolatier's Hits and Misses

Shawn Williams, the chocolatier who formerly owned Au Coer des Chocolats, threw an open kitchen tasting for the launch of his new San Francisco-based chocolate company Feve a few weeks ago. We got a preview of some of the goodies and wanted to share our impressions. Overall, the presentation and a ... More >>

Sweethearts

Hayes Valley Bakeworks: Baking for Good

Hilarious Campaign Video Bluntly Explains Why California Should Smoke Tobacco

Generally, we think it's safe to say that Big Tobacco has given people more reasons to cry than laugh.But we found ourselves chuckling a lot after watching this sorta depressing campaign video which uses gallows humor (our favorite!) to make voters -- and smokers -- smile and then think about all th ... More >>

Mixed Milk Cheeses: The Tasty Joys of Combining Goat and Cow

Often, cheese makers blend milk from different animals to create flavors a single milk can't provide. La Tur, a three milk cheese (sheep, cow and goat) from Caseficio dell'Alta Langa in Italy, is an exceptional example.  But sheep- and goat-milk cheese producers blend milk for a functional re ... More >>

Wine of the Week: Shake Ridge Red

​In Champagne, most big-name "houses" buy their grapes from multiple growers and blend them to achieve consistency -- Veuve is Veuve whenever you drink it. But if you talk to Somms in the city, you'll most likely find that they favor grower-producers, those wine makers who grow their grapes. Latel ... More >>

Meet Our Masterminds: Eric Cohen and Eliane Lima

The economy sucks, but we don't care -- the Bay Area is home to artists so talented they deserve to take over the world. That's why the Masterminds grants are given to three local and emerging artists who need that little push to become even more awesome. SF Weekly has narrowed down the potential w ... More >>

Carl's Jr.'s New Pitchman: 482-Pound Man

Michael Moore pictured with President Obama, who, incidentally also likes meat ​Contrary to what Supervisor Eric Mar might tell you, fast food needn't be awful for you. Bay Area man Michael Moore swears by his Carl's Jr.-only diet, which he says is largely responsible for helping him to shed almos ... More >>

482 Pound Man Endorses the Carl's Jr. Weight-Loss Plan

Michael Moore and the president, for some reason.​ A 482 pound Antioch resident credits Carl's Jr. with helping him slim down. A man named Michael Moore claims that eating Carl's Jr. every day last year helped him to lose weight -- around 100 pounds. As Erin Sherbert writes on our sister blog ... More >>

J Rosé's New Clear Bottle Helps Holidays Sparkle

Holiday party e-vites are filling our inboxs, and the calendar is already looking like a mostly completed crossword puzzle with lots of full boxes and only inconvenient white space. All those parties means hostess gifts, or, if you are the host or hostess, the gift of expectation -- the expectation ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Cameron Hughes' Lot 300 Cabernet Sauvignon Is a Delicious Bargain

America's Cup: Booze and Boating Unite!

Wine and yachts -- an American traditionWine and yachts go together like PBR and fixies. So you knew this was coming. The organizers of the forthcoming America's Cup and Napa Valley Vintners today announced that Napa will be the "Official Wine Region of the 34th America's Cup." Those toting in forei ... More >>

U.S. Supreme Court Hearing Challenge to California's Pig Protection Law

​Two years ago, President Obama signed a federal law that that would keep "downed" cows -- animals brought to the slaughterhouse too sick or weak to stand -- out of the human food chain. Other animals -- well, the humans who eat them, really -- haven't had the same kind of federal protections, wh ... More >>

Joanna Karlinsky and Popups Take Over Food at the Winemakers' Speakeasy

Joanna Karlinsky/FacebookJoanna Karlinsky, in her Meetinghouse days.​Joanna Karlinsky, former chef-owner of Pacific Heights' much-loved Meetinghouse, has been looking for a permanent venue since closing up Sweet Jo's, her cafe in the Presidio JCC, last year. For the past two months, she's been ser ... More >>

Tolosa Shows What Chardonnay Smells Like Without Oak

​Earlier this year I attended a fascinating seminar, led by a perfumer, at Tolosa Winery in San Luis Obispo County. Over the course of several mentally exhausting hours, we learned by blind-whiffing essential oils exactly what many of the descriptors we use all the time smell like. For examp ... More >>

San Francisco's Top 25 Burgers

Albert LawJust one of our Top 25 Burgers. Where's it from? Check out the slideshow.​When we were kids, burgers were junk food. The separation of haute cuisine from street eats was complete. If you walked into a fine restaurant and asked for a burger, they were likely to direct you to the golde ... More >>

Sugar Sues Corn Syrup for False Advertising. No Joke.

Sugar: going on the offensive. Yesterday the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles began hearing arguments over an odd lawsuit filed by a group of sugar producers against a group of producers and marketers of high-fructose corn syrup. The charge? False advertising. Big Sugar is mad that Big HFCS -- u ... More >>

Family Winemakers Show Offers More Wine Than You Can Handle

Foodgal.com​Family Winemakers of California Tasting Where: Fort Mason Center When: Sunday, Aug. 21, 3-6 p.m. Cost: $65 advance, $75 at the door We can drink a lot of wine, but we find the Family Winemakers of California annual tasting overwhelming, in a good way. There's always about 50 times ... More >>

Drink Oakland Wine at the Urban Wine Xperience

Michelle Locke/Palate PressUrban Legend Cellars is one of more than 20 wineries that make wine in Oakland​East Bay Vintners' Alliance 6th Annual Urban Wine Xperience Where: Jack London Pavilion, 1 Broadway, Oakland When: Saturday, Aug. 6, 2-5 p.m. Cost: $40 A lot of wine is consumed in San Fr ... More >>

New California Law Gives Brewery Tasting Rooms a Break

Jason HenryDrake's Barrel House in San Leandro was built expensively under the old law​You walk into a brewery tasting room and order a sample. The beer is delicious, but you can't help noticing that the brewery doesn't have washable tile flooring and the cashier isn't far from the dishwasher. ... More >>

Napa Winemaker Came from Sports Illustrated for Kids

This is another little extra for this week's review of Bar Tartine in the print edition: an interview with the man who made one of the most impressive wines on the restaurant's very interesting wine list. Liza GershmanDan Petroski​When I called Dan Petroski to ask him how he managed to make M ... More >>

Dogpatch WineWorks Replaces Crushpad

​Since Crushpad left San Francisco last year for Wine Country, folks wanting to make their own wine in town have had to go it alone -- which, in most cases, meant not making wine. And ripe smells in the Dogpatch neighborhood unfortunately haven't been coming from fermenting grapes. But now, t ... More >>

A Field Guide to Sustainable and Delicious Dry Farmed Wines

Whole lotta irrigation goin' on in Napa.​Irrigation is plainly a function of the modern world. Though the ancient Romans built spectacular gravity-driven aqueducts, drip irrigation for agriculture was not invented until the late 1960s in Israel, and only in the 1970s did water-bearing pipes a ... More >>

California Culinary Academy: SF Weekly Exposé Spawns $40 Million Settlement

Some students are getting their money back.​In 2007, SF Weekly investigative reporter Eliza Strickland ran a blockbuster story, demonstrating how the California Culinary Academy urged students to take on tens of thousands of dollars in government loans to pay for what many graduates considered sub ... More >>

Drink 2011: In Craft Brewing, the Meek Inherit the Earth

Clean Cheese, Ginger Ale, and the Mighty Subway

Madame Fromage/FlickrSally Jackson's amazing cheese, now lost to the world after an FDA crackdown.​A new daily column: Notes on national stories, local trends, random tastes, and other miscellanea dredged up from the food media.1. Cheese makers under attack? San Francisco diners haven't felt the i ... More >>

Heartswork Winery WELL REaD 2009 California Red

At $5.99, this is one bottle that defies the common wisdom that no-sulfites-added wines justify a higher price.​A molecule called sulfur dioxide ― aka sulfites, a common preservative ― has become the crux of an ongoing disagreement between two schools of winemakers. Those who vouch for the ... More >>

Anything That Moves

The New Cheese Lady

Old Oak Becomes Almanac Beer Co., Plans February Release

Almanac Beer Co.​When Brian Yaeger introduced SFoodie readers to Old Oak Beer Co. a couple months back, the much-anticipated "farm-to-barrel" ale was waiting patiently in oak wine barrels, mingling with fresh Sonoma County blackberries. While nothing has changed about the beer company's vision ... More >>

How We Slice It