Fairmont

San Francisco Gingerbread Architecture 101

Are you looking for something festive to do with relatives this holiday season? Or do you simply need a distraction or excuse to remove yourself from the company of your weird and annoying family? We suggest taking an afternoon to peruse the impressive edible masterpieces created by the talented pas ... More >>

Therapist Seduced Mentally "Compromised" Man, Lawsuit Claims

A bizarre lawsuit by a mentally "compromised" East Bay man alleges that, while in an outpatient mental program he attended in lieu of serving out a prison term for petty theft, therapist Maria Santos Arriola had sex with him on multiple occasions. His suit, filed yesterday in Oakland, names Santos a ... More >>

Trends in Beer: The House Brew Comes to Bar Tartine, Public House, and More

​Remember those Virginia Slims ads where women frolicked beneath the proclamation, "You've Come a Long Way, Baby!"? That's pretty much how beer geeks feel these days. Once the sovereign domain of wine, the city's finest restaurants now carry fine craft beers, and many SF chefs and beverage progra ... More >>

ZAP: New Location and a New Food and Wine Pairing Event

​ We go to a lot of wine tastings: trade, consumer, best-of, pre-auction, single-appellation super-regional. They can be a great way to train the palate, but over time they're tiring to foot and tongue. So, we've resolved to focus only on the ones that have shined over time, the ones where your ... More >>

Bouncer Goes Apiary at the Fairmont

Taste Honey Harvested from the Fairmont

Carina OstThe smallest rooms at the Fairmont are for the hard-working honeybees​What delivers the highest buzz in San Francisco? Rooftop beehives. The Chronicle and Bi-Rite have their own colonies, but the bees with the best zip code in town are at The Fairmont hotel: Nob Hill views, access ... More >>

Dominic Venegas Aces SF Weekly Cocktail Competition

Gil Riego Jr.Dominic Venegas of 83 Proof straining his Chandelier, the award-winning cocktail at Saturday's Drink event.​Hundreds of the thirsty showed up at the Fairmont Saturday for SF Weekly's first-ever Drink, a tipplers' tour through dozens of spirits, beer, wine, and cocktails. The night ... More >>

Saturday: Cocktail Gladiators Do Battle at Drink

Lou BustamanteRachel Ford.​Tomorrow night at SF Weekly's Drink party at the Fairmont, there'll be an epic battle between bartenders, live on stage, with Combier liqueur as the main ingredient. Tastes of the competitors' cocktails will be provided to attendees, along with all the spirits being ... More >>

Tonga Room Execution Stayed. Does Anyone Care?

​Like smoking at work, camel hair coats and a budget surplus, tiki bars are relics of a bygone era, of when Cesar Chavez Street was called Army, when nobody in San Francisco knew what a bike lane was, and organ meat was nothing more than fodder for the cows that we turned into delicious 15-cent ha ... More >>

Butchery Fundraiser in Vacaville: Half a Steer Feeds a Lot of People

​On October 30, an impressive roster of artisan butchers and chefs is convening at Vacaville's Soul Food Farm for a butchery demo and dinner. Inspired by farm founder Alexis Koefoed, the event will be a fundraiser for the newly created U.S. Butchers Guild and a handful of small, local farms. The ... More >>

Perbacco's Staffan Terje Won Cochon 555 Yesterday. Our Shirt Lost

Andrew SimmonsThe Fairmont's Gold Room was packed tight as a factory feedlot.​It was around the time we snared our first assortment of plates ― small, compostable tan ones decked out with roasted smoked pork loin and dark, blood-red bologna tucked between orange mostarda-smeared bread slice ... More >>

Obama in San Francisco -- Will it Ruin Your Commute?

San Francisco voted overwhelmingly for Barack Obama. And now it's changing around its bus routes for him, too.​President Barack Obama will today return to the city where he made reference about small-town folks "clinging to their guns and religion." When he leaves San Francisco, he hopes to be cli ... More >>

Your Tonga Room News Roundup: What Does It All Mean?

Doug Letterman/Flickr​It seems odd that the Fairmont wants to close the Tonga Room just as neo-neo-tiki is blowing up in artisan-cocktail circles. (Today, for instance, the New York Times reported on the opening of yet another rum bar.) Though it has been a while since we've been to a birthday par ... More >>

The Happiest Hours

We do the legwork to find you 30 of the most satisfying places to sip and snack.

5 Things To Do This Weekend for Under $10

AJ FarkasMatmos, at SFMOMA on Saturday​Our apologies for the shorter list this week. We came down with the N-Flu (you know how it goes, sick folks ride the N to work and infect the whole Muni line). So there's only 5 Things on our list for cheap weekend entertainment. But they're good things. To m ... More >>

A Nice Ride

Hotel Bars Are the Perfect Places to Take a Load Off and Hoist a Few

Emily S./YelpCheer station: The Grand Café at Hotel Monaco​There are a few things you need to know as you elbow your way through the shoppers, buskers, hawkers, and carolers of Union Square this week. The best gingerbread house is up the hill at the Fairmont. The best shop windows are the sil ... More >>

Offal Talented: Poggio Chef Named Winner of Sunday's Cochon 555

Laiko BahrsTrotter Tots with pea-brain aioli, one of Peter McNee's winning dishes.Call him the dark horse: Poggio's Peter McNee was named Prince of Porc at the Fairmont last night, nosing out four chefs to take the crown (well, funky pig trophy) in the latest Cochon 555 challenge. McNee had been con ... More >>

San Francisco Named the Priciest City for Business Travelers to Get Three Squares

endless beauty via FlickrEating this twice a day could ruin your expense accountMatt Smith of SFoodie's sister blog The Snitch reported today that New Jersey-based Institute of Management and Administration reckoned San Francisco the priciest city in the nation for business travelers to eat in, ecli ... More >>

North African Modern

The music and spices remain the same, but the dishes are up-to-date.

Obama is Coming! Obama is Coming!

The Man Who Would Be Feinstein

So you've never heard of Christopher Dahl. He'd still like to be your U.S. Senator.

Hill Street Blues

The doldrums are no match for geezers at Top of the Mark followed by choralists in Grace Cathedral

Bouncer

You've got thirsty houseguests, we've got answers: Skip the Tonga Room.

Luxury Gift Box

Holiday Events

Maid in San Francisco

Secretly, don't you hope the hospitality multinationals crush those loud, annoying, striking hotel workers? Find out. Take the quiz.

Boogie Nights

For a band that isn't "commercial-sounding," scoring a movie is a boon

Stormy Weather

Tonga Room

Grub Flubs

Grub bites the dust, but three other restaurants offer new beginnings

Best Bar for an Illicit Rendezvous

Big Four Restaurant at the Huntington Hotel

Five Best Ways to Impress Your Date

In the House

Jasmine House

Check Your Head

If it's loud, lewd, or crude, it's bound to be on Reality Check

Laugh Tracks

You can learn a lot about the city's history with a comedian as your tour guide

Best Four-Block Stretch of Movie Locations

Sacramento and Mason to Jackson and Taylor

Best Unapologetic Gluttony

Brunch at the Crown Room

Spy vs Spite

The Clinton administration has praised the Anti-Defamation League for helping shield kids from Internet hate. But should a group that spied on thousands of Californians be allowed to police the Web?

Home for the Holidays

Schroeder's

Dinner (or Not) and a Show

Tender Box

Inflamed by crime, drugs, and rising rents, Tenderloin residents are now launching lawsuits to clean up the city's dumping ground

Noisemakers

Downtown's Fairy Godmother

Doris Ward, San Francisco's assessor, is tossing around commercial tax breaks as if they were fairy dust. It's costing the city at least $100 million a year.

Slap Shots

Night+Day

Night+Day

Here We Come a Carol-ing

Noh Christmas Carol stands up well; Barbara Cook still brings crowds to their feet with her songs

One World, Under Gorby

Gorbachev Foundation prez Jim Garrison has something special in mind for San Francisco in September, an international palaver at the Fairmont Hotel. After that, a seat for himself in the U.S. Senate. And then, who knows? Chancellor of the world?

The Absolutely True, Somewhat Spurious and Totally Impossible

CONSPIRACIES BY THE BAY!!!

Dish