Subject: Eating Out

• Early Bird Special: Trademark

  K. Todd Storch/FlickrBelden Alley: S.F.'s urban Epcot now has an American place.​An early nibble of the Weekly's Wednesday food review. Like some urban, particularly fragrant Epcot Center, Belden Alley has long offered the city a taste of global cuisines. Well, recognizably Euro cuisines, what with Plouf and Café Bastille, Café Tiramisu, and the Barcelona copycat B44. But where the vodka bar Voda once offered a taste of, well, Vegas, stands Trademark (56 Belden at Pine), a restaurant d

  August 25, 2009

• In the Court of the Dumpling King

  Gary Soup/Flickr Sheng jian bao: Worthy of coronation. Old episodes of Check, Please! Bay Area aren't always the best barometer of local restaurant excellence, but in the case of Shanghai Dumpling King, one came through like the Earl of Warwick. Local Filipino-American writer and St. Mary's College English professor Lysley Tenorio, the 2008 recipient of a Whiting Award, appeared on the show back in March, and effectively made his case for the eatery's xiao long bao, or soup dumplings.&nbs

  August 25, 2009

• Restaurant Safety Certification Scandal Started with an Anonymous Tip

  The National Restaurant Association is one of a handful of private entities administering testing. City Occupational and Environmental Health Director Rajiv Bhatia told SFoodie that the City Attorney's investigation of DPH food inspectors who were involved with food safety certification fraud started as an anonymous tip to his office. This morning, City Attorney Dennis Herrera announced that his office was notifying 345 S.F. restaurants that their managers' safety certifications would no

  August 25, 2009

• City Attorney Releases List of Restaurant Workers with Tainted Safety Certificates

  jwrb/FlickrWorkers at Burger King will have to re-certify.​The San Francisco City Attorney's office has released a list of workers whose food safety certification are invalid as the result of a scandal involving questionable testing and certification procedures by two or three Department of Public Health inspectors. The list details hundreds of names, along with their restaurants and two companies that administered the food safety exams: the National Restaurant Association's ServSafe prog

  August 25, 2009

• Trademark invades a Eurocentric street with fresh American fare

  August 26, 2009

• Preeti Mistry of 'Top Chef' Season Six: The SFoodie Interview

  Bravo TV​We were worried when local girl Preeti Mistry turned to her three colleagues last week during the first Quickfire Challenge of Top Chef Las Vegas -- a mise-en-place battle for which she'd have to open 15 clams before others on her team could move on to other tasks, including trimming a rib eye. Mistry said, "It's the same as an oyster, right? Clams?" Virgin clam-shucker Mistry, an executive chef at Bon Appétit Management Company who runs Charlie's Café at Google in Mountain Vi

  August 26, 2009

• Limón's Re-Opening Party Offers a Glimpse of Nuevo Latino Deliciousness to Come

  Limon's new chef is Emmanuel Piqueras.​After a year of remodeling and renovations following a 2008 fire, Limón (524 Valencia at 16th St.) is finally set to open tonight. Last night's party for industry and media showed off the new space: a bar and open kitchen with a raw seafood bar, and an upstairs loft with another small bar and space for extra seating. The walls showcase local urban artwork, and there was even an artist painting live (the result will be on display in the restaurant).

  August 27, 2009

• Drink Therapy: Sazeracs and Drumettes with a Killer View

  Vintage Roadside​We know. Unless you decide to cash out what's left of your 401(k), chances are you won't be commandeering a table in the dining room anytime soon. Don't despair. The Holy Cow! happy hour at Epic Roasthouse damn near deserves the kind of hyperbole an exclamation point confers. Weekdays from 3 to 6:30 p.m. in Epic's Quiver Bar, score $5 Sazeracs, Dark and Stormys, and certain vodka cocktails, or $7 selected vodka martinis. Or, if you roll spiritless, $3 bottled beer and $5 w

  August 27, 2009

• Freaky S.F. 'Zine 'Food Sex' Explores the Drug-Enriched Taste of Desire

  Mark Andrew Gravel's new mag goes down like a psilocybin samwich.​The connection between drugs and food is rarely mined in mainstream food circles, which is a shame considering they're both ingested, and food, like drugs, can give pleasure, cause physical discomfort, satiate, and spark cravings -- even alter perception. Famously, at The Fat Duck, wd~50, and, of course, El Bulli, chefs concoct surreal conflations of science, art, and culture, playing off diners' memories and the broader exp

  August 31, 2009

• Delicious small plates from the Philippines, Vietnam, and China star at Poleng Lounge

  September 2, 2009

• Trek to the Sunset's Outerlands for inventive New American fare

  September 9, 2009

• New Restaurants

  September 9, 2009

• Across the Country, Over the River, and Through the Woods for Some Painfully Slow Food

  Raphael Brion/EatMeDaily.comLocal food shows up in big portions. Stuff from far away, not so much.​Unless you're going to New York this weekend, you won't actually see this. All the same, it looks like something you'd enjoy. As part of Pioneers of Change, this month's festival of Dutch design, architecture, and fashion taking place on Governor's Island, just a free seven-minute ferry haul from Manhattan, Droog, an Amsterdam-based design lab, along with a gang of independent designers, st

  September 14, 2009

• Hot Meal: Bocanova

  M. BrodyBeef tenderloin crudo with searing rocoto chiles.​Hotly anticipated Bocanova teased visitors to Eat Real by turning them away from its pre-opening meals. The pan-Latin eatery opened for real on September 1. At lunch on a muggy afternoon just 10 days in, we chose the lofty dining room over the extremely tempting patio with port view. There are lots of dishes on the menu, including raw bar offerings of halibut ceviche ($9), Dungeness crab deviled eggs with chipotle aioli ($9), black

  September 15, 2009

• Fish & Farm's Chad Newton: The SFoodie Interview

  C. NewtonChad Newton: Wants Gordon to keep yelling.​Growing up in Mountain View, Chad Newton got a taste of restaurant glory via family trips to Stars, Jeremiah Tower's watershed Cali brasserie. "I used to always gravitate toward the regular menu, not the kid's menu," Newton said. He graduated from the Restaurant Management program at S.F. State, and in 2001 scored a front of the house job as food runner at Postrio during the reign of Steven and Mitchell Rosenthal (now the forces behind To

  September 15, 2009

• Aicha serves flavorful Moroccan food at popular prices

  September 16, 2009

• New Restaurants

  September 16, 2009

• Creamery Owner Weeks Away from Launching Iron Cactus Taqueria

  J. BirdsallThe facade includes wooden doors reclaimed from an Argentinian hacienda.​SOMA café The Creamery (685 Fourth St. at Townsend) is nearing a launch date for its adjacent taqueria, The Iron Cactus (683 Fourth St.), which has been rumored since March. A restaurant spokesman cited Wednesday, October 14, as the target opening date. Today, workers moved through the soaring, concrete-walled space, a former dairy. The building's original wooden barrel ceiling (with huge skylight) will re

  September 18, 2009

• The Owners of Foreign Cinema Have Big Plans for the Warfield Building on Market

  The eatery will take up three floors of the historic building.​SF. Business Times reports today that the owners of Mission District eatery Foreign Cinema plan to open a huge, 255-seat restaurant in the vacant Warfield Building at 988 Market (at Taylor), near the Warfield Theater. The restaurant will reportedly sprawl over three stories -- including a speakeasy-style bar in the basement that'll connect to the theater -- and outdoor seating on what reporter J.K. Dineen describes as "a steel

  September 18, 2009

• Burmese Kitchen: From modest lunchtime deli to Burmese restaurant

  September 30, 2009

• Chicken Soup for the Soul

  September 23, 2009

• The Eight Best Places on Earth for Foodie Vacations

  San Francisco may be the food capital of the United States (at least in our minds), but that doesn't mean there aren't plenty of other destinations worthy of gastro-tourism this fall. Fasten your seat belt (and undo the top button of your jeans) as we take you to some of our global favorites.​1. Barcelona, SpainFrom tapas and vast food markets to flowing cava and even a burgeoning gastronomical deconstructionist movement (you know, at that restaurant outside the city you'll never, ever ge

  October 5, 2009

• Hidden in Plain Sight: 'Secret' Menus Make Everybody Feel Like an Insider

  joeywan/FlickrSooner or later, everybody's gonna know.​Last week, CNN picked up a Mental Floss story running down secret menu items at fast food restaurants, whispering of such sneaky exit-ramp pleasures as the grotesque four-patty Meat Cube at Wendy's, Taco Bell's unadvertised green chile sauce, and Fatburger's Hypocrite (a veggie burger crowned with bacon). A few days later, Eater hollered about Hidden Menu, a brand-new Bay Area Web site dedicated to uncovering and sharing off-menu del

  October 5, 2009

• Flour Water Pizza Chef Jon Darsky: The SFoodie Interview

  Before he was a pizzaiolo, Darsky scouted talent for the KC Royals.​Go ahead, call Jon Darsky a pizzaiolo, though the Flour Water pizza maker really prefers "dough guy" instead. Since opening last May in the Mission (2401 Harrison at 20th St.), the restaurant has stayed smoking hot, and Darsky's prowess with a peel has made it as far as the pages of the New York Times (a recent piece called him a "skilled operator"). Still, the 30-year-old dough guy has kept a profile practically on par

  October 5, 2009

• Early Bird Special: Starbelly

  An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. Jen Siska​It's merely the latest eatery to embody the übercasual, thin-crust pie, salumi sandwich, and beer ethos of the moment, the way Beretta, its restaurant sib, embodied the artisanal cocktail spirit of mid-2008. Crown the ownership duo geniuses, then, and not just for getting Starbelly's menu right. They're also gastro pioneers in a neighborhood better known for restaurants that lay down post-party calorie bombs or gently tw

  October 6, 2009

• Castro's Starbelly dishes out a truly memorable meal

  October 7, 2009

• Curried Favors

  October 7, 2009

• Michelin Unveils Its Latest Budget Dining List, Forgets to Put 'Budget' in Quotes

  *christopher*/FlickrFlour Water: Cheap eats?​When researching its 2010 restaurant guide for San Francisco (it goes on sale Oct. 20), Michelin found that San Franciscans are eating out as frequently as ever, despite the economy -- but "are more conscious of value when choosing a dining destination." To suit that discerning, value-hungry audience, Michelin put together a list of its famously anonymous inspectors' favorites for good value under the rubric of Bib Gourmand. This year's gui

  October 12, 2009

• Il Cane Rosso's Lauren Kiino: The SFoodie Interview

  Kiino, working the Cane Rosso lunch line.​We confess: We have no clue what the hell environmental geologists do. But if studying to be one means you walk away with an acute understanding of stuff like terroir, and how foods grow, then it was the perfect education for Lauren Kiino. The 37-year-old chef is partner with Daniel Patterson in Cane Rosso in the Ferry Building and Bracina, slated to launch this winter in Jack London Square. Along with Patterson -- a kind of mentor -- Kiino is beco

  October 12, 2009

• Panam, a Parisian Bistro and Lounge, is Opening in the Castro Next Week

  The restaurant occupies the space downstairs from The Café.​The luxe bar trend that swept through the Castro earlier this year just might be finding its equivalent in eateries. The restaurant space on the ground floor below recently refurbished The Café (2369 Market at 17th St.) is slated to open next week as Panam, a stylish French bistro with an affordable menu that'll dally with global influences. The name is Parisian slang for the French capital, according to owners Mickael Azoulay a

  October 13, 2009

• Early Bird Special: Beijing Restaurant

  foodnut.com/FlickrThe Tower: Addictive fried potatoes.​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. What would Yao eat? That's Yao Ming, the hella lanky Houston Rockets center, who dribbles chili oil and black vinegar on northern Chinese dishes like fennel dumplings and meat pancakes at a Mission Terrace hole in the wall -- or so we like to think. According to Yelp legend, the Shanghai native is so crazy about tiny Beijing Restaurant (1801 Alemany at Ocean) that his limo make

  October 13, 2009

• Friday's Weekly Beast Menu at One Market Was All About the Duroc Pig

  M. LaddOink-oink: Maple-pecan crêpes with caramelized bacon ice cream.​One Market Restaurant (One Market at the Embarcadero) started an intriguing meaty menu option earlier this month called The Weekly Beast. The prix fixe meals -- the restaurant calls them Head to Hoof dinners -- drop Fridays and Saturdays, side by side with chef Mark Dommen's regular menu. First week up, the beast was goat. Last weekend, it was all about pork -- specifically, Duroc pig from Beeler Pork in Iowa (Duroc i

  October 13, 2009

• Waterbar's OysterFest Experiences a Bit of Shrinkage

  ​So maybe it's not the best time to expect diners to shell out for fancy prix-fixe evenings. Sluggish ticket sales caused Waterbar's OysterFest to shrink from a three-day event to a single three-hour session this Saturday, noon-3 p.m. Original plans called for an expanded oyster selection on Waterbar's regular menu, and oyster-themed dinners in the restaurant's private dining room Thursday and Friday. Saturday's event at Waterbar (399 The Embarcadero S. at Folsom) is still on. Expect a s

  October 13, 2009

• Beijing Restaurant, Yao Ming's favorite S.F. spot, offers unusual delights

  October 14, 2009

• Pastry Chef Luis Villavelazquez Wants to Do More Than Sell You a Cupcake. He Wants to Blow Your Mind

  7x7Can Villavelazquez spark a bakery revival from a stall at Ferry Plaza?​At 7x7's Bits Bites yesterday, Jessica Battilana broke the news that, as of next week, Absinthe and Arlequin To Go pastry chef Luis Villavelazquez will start selling pastries at the Thursday Ferry Plaza farmers' market. Today SFoodie asked Villavelazquez to say more -- like, what's a brilliant fine-dining pastry chef doing hawking cupcakes at a sidewalk stand? Villavelazquez told us he sees it as just another way t

  October 14, 2009

• Doggy Bag: She Said, She Said

  ​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Double in the bubble: Unbeknownst to the other, 7x7's Sara Deseran and Jessica Battilana made separate rezzies at SPQR. They went, they ate, they wrote. Only instead of merging both reviews or scrapping one, they opted to publish side by side at Bits Bites. It's a "Don't You Want Me" double-take on the Pac Heights osteria that, judging from both descriptions, might no longer be eligible for the term. Instead of dishes with Appleman's muscle, new chef

  October 16, 2009

• Should S.F. Be Taking to the Barricades to Demand RN74's Super-Posh Burger?

  Paul TrapaniRN74: Sworn enemy of democracy?​Tom Robbins once wrote: "Columbus discovered America, Jefferson invented it, Lincoln unified it, Goldwyn mythologized it, and Kroc Big Mac'd it. It could have been an omniscient computer that provided this land with its prevailing ambiance, it might have been an irresistible new weapons system, a political revolution, an art movement, or some gene-altering drug. Isn't it just a little bit wonderful that it was a hamburger?" In September's burger-

  October 19, 2009

• Flooding on Folsom Knocks out Batter Bakery, Stable Cafe

  amendz/FlickrKnee-deep water knocked out Stable Cafe and the Mission Creek Kitchen it houses.​One sweet casualty of yesterday's downpour: Batter Bakery, which bakes for its downtown kiosk at Mission Creek Kitchen behind Stable Café on Folsom between 17th and 18th Streets. Yesterday afternoon, knee-deep water flooded the building. "Within half an hour after the rains, we noticed that the streets started to flood a little bit," said Batter owner Jen Musty. "We ran downstairs -- we didn't r

  October 20, 2009

• Hot Meal: Good Morning Breakfast at Bar Tartine

  J. BirdsallThe breakfast sandwich: Quietly deft.​Used to be only prep cooks and cleaning crews who showed up early mornings at restaurants. But eateries are trying to get you in the doors -- whenever they can get you, frankly -- and if that means staffing up with a short-order a.m. line cook and server, so be it. This morning, Bar Tartine joined Pizzaiolo and Salt House as members of the Bay Area's Breakfast Club, dinner-focused restaurants with casual morning service. Tartine's Good Morn

  October 21, 2009

• Teatro ZinZanni's Every-Other-Saturday Brunch: Tiaras Optional

  everydaydude/FlickrThe Saturday brunch show is in abbreviated form.​Last month, Teatro ZinZanni -- the city's swirling, dinner-theater mix of drinks, food, music, divas, and trapeze flights at Pier 29 on the Embarcadero -- launched an every-other-Saturday brunch called Brevé. ZinZanni bills is as "the perfect excuse to wear your tiara at noon." The three-course brunch unfolds in the midst of ZinZanni's typical mashup of hula hoops and gypsy story lines, though in abbreviated form. It can

  October 22, 2009

• Cane Rosso is Expanding Its Family-Style Sunday Suppers to Every Night

  muirwood/FlickrThe three-course menus will change nightly.​Starting next month, Il Cane Rosso (One Ferry Building #41 at the Embarcadero) is expanding its two-month-old Sunday Supper concept to seven nights. The evening meals will take Cane Rosso's signature spit-roasted pastured meats out of the sandwich and pile them onto platters, Ad Hoc-like, in three-course menus that change nightly. Cost: $25 ($12.50 for kids 10 and under), with wine, beer, and other drinks extra. As at Sunday Supper

  October 23, 2009

• Muguboka offers homey Korean fare that goes beyond meat

  October 28, 2009

• Maverick's Halloween Mystery Night: No, Smartass, 'Mystery Meat' Is Not on the Menu

  AC:MP/FlickrThis is what you won't be getting -- a menu.​Searching for a mystery thriller for your Halloween dinner? Maverick (3316 17th St. at Mission) is organizing another Mystery Night this Saturday, a dining adventure designed to seriously test your food and wine game. You won't get a menu. Instead, you'll receive a three-course prix-fixe for $40; mystery wine pairings cost an extra $15. You'll get a treat and scorecard, and it'll be up to you to suss out what's on the plate (or in yo

  October 28, 2009

• David Chang: S.F. Reaction to Fig-Gate 'Retardedly Stupid'

  timeoutnewyork/FlickrChang: A bad case of produce envy.​The day after publication of his book, the wonderful Momofuku (Clarkson Potter, $40), SFoodie spoke wiith New York chef David Chang. You know, the guy who stirred up a shit storm earlier this month with the comment that "fuckin' every restaurant in San Francisco is just serving figs on a plate." In the aftermath, the NorCal Asia Society canceled an event with Chang scheduled for early November, when the chef will be in town to promote

  October 28, 2009

• Melissa Perello of the Castro's Long-Awaited Frances: The SFoodie Interview

  Melissa Perello was born in Nutley, N.J., lived in Houston, and went to cooking school in upstate New York, but San Francisco is where the 32-year-old chef formed her restaurant bones. She arrived here fresh from the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., to gig with mentor Michael Mina at Aqua. She later moved to Aqua's sister eatery, Charles Nob Hill, to work alongside Ron Siegel, eventually moving up to executive chef. Perello: Not feeling S.F.'s raging pig cult.​It was at

  October 29, 2009

• Ex-Top Chef Player (and Circa Chef) Erik Hopfinger Resurfaces at Brunch

  Mary LaddThen-Circa chef Hopfinger at the SF Chefs. Food. Wine. opening party in August.​What happens to former Top Chef contestants when the memory of their last elimination challenge has faded into some bitter barstool tale of judges' prejudice and shitty luck? In the case of ex-Circa chef Erik Hopfinger, they eventually hunker down making Benedicts. For the past month or so, the Top Chef Season Four contestant has been masterminding weekend brunch at the AT&T-proximate Nova Bar and Rest

  November 2, 2009

• Mission Eateries (and You) Can Help Support Local Kids at Next Week's Food for Thought Fundraiser

  ​Dine out at one of the participating spots in the Mission next Wednesday, Nov. 11, and the restaurant will donate between 25 and 100 percent of the proceeds to Mission Graduates, a nonprofit focused on fostering college preparedness in K-12 students in the Mission District. It's all in honor of MG's annual Food for Thought campaign.Peep the full list of of the 25 restaurants participating in Food for Thought after the jump.

  November 3, 2009

• Early-Bird Special: Yu-Zen

  cygnoir/FlickrYu-Zen's futo maki.​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. We all know the taste of mid-grade sushi-joint food like we know the taste of a McDonald's burger: starchy tempura, elaborately gooshy fantasy rolls, watery miso soup. Get something better, and it seems like revelation. That's the case at Yu-Zen (4036 Balboa at 42nd Ave.), a no-frills Outer Richmond sushi bar where the sprawling menu offers up modest delights in the form of chirashi sushi, izakaya

  November 3, 2009

• Yu-Zen and the art of sushi

  November 4, 2009

• Daniel Patterson: S.F. is Killing the Upscale Neighborhood Restaurant

  fOtOdOjO/Flickr​We started out seeking to challenge the current meme that Oakland is the new locus of Bay Area chef talent. (In the East Bay Express, Carolyn Jung even called it America's next great dining destination.) We thought, sure, a handful of chefs are opening second restaurants in O-Town. And despite Commis, could the East Bay city we love for taco trucks and Lao food ever really challenge San Francisco's fine-dining dominance? We turned to Daniel Patterson, Coi chef and owner, Ca

  November 6, 2009