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Why San Francisco Birds Are So Fat

Scientist say birds in Northern California, including San Francisco, are getting bigger and fatter by the year. And since Global Warming tends to be the scapegoat for all our general state of deterioration, it made sense to place blame squarely on Climate Change. But after considering the science, ... More >>

Five Best Thai Restaurants in San Francisco

Kimberly SandieChabaa's gaeng som, or sour orange curry. ​Thai restaurants began popping up all over San Francisco in the 1980s, and within a decade, Thai food had become a staple for first dates and Thursday-night takeouts. San Franciscan children eat almost as much pad Thai as they do organic ba ... More >>

Inferno in the Lower Haight: Slideshow

Smoke billowed from the attic of a three-story apartment complex yesterday afternoon for more than 90 minutes as firefighters worked to extinguish the four-alarm blaze along Haight and Fillmore streets. No people or pets were injured that we know of, but the damage is extensive. Check out the scene: ... More >>

Submit Your Pickles, Jams, and Liqueurs to the Eat Real Fest Contest

syntheticaperture/FlickrBring us your pickles. And jams, jellys, krauts, beers, and liqueurs.​San Francisco is one of the few counties in California that doesn't have a county fair, and to our discredit. For all the dog-judging, carnie-haranguing, and deep-frying that we're spared, our urban count ... More >>

What To Do This Weekend, Feb. 4-5

Phil Y./YelpLatte art at Farm:Table, a stop on Saturday's Tenderloin Coffee Crawl.​Craving more? Scroll through additional listings here. Fri., Feb. 4: Whole Beast Supper Club Goat Dinner La Victoria, 2937 24th St. (at Alabama), 6 and 9 p.m. Chef Kevin Bunnell is hauling a whole goat to the t ... More >>

Ten 2010 Restaurant Closures That Hurt

joebeone/FlickrWas Le Cheval too big to fail? Apparently not, thanks to an adversarial landlord.​With the great scything-down of 2008 well past us, San Francisco's restaurant industry sent up hundreds of blooms, some of them quite brilliant. Yet competition, normal restaurant-world pressures, and ... More >>

Ferry Plaza's Thursday Food Market Turns 1 Today. Celebrate with Lindsay Lohan

niallkennedy/Flickr4505's Ryan Farr busting it out.​Ferry Plaza's Thursday farmers' market turns one today, and CUESA is celebrating with special giveaways and deals. The first 111 people to hit the info booth today will receive a coin worth a dollar off any purchase. As for the deals: Two pie ... More >>

What to Have for Lunch: Green Chile Kitchen's Christmas Burrito (in May)

Jonathan KauffmanIf you want a star on that, you'll have to bring your own.​ Weds., May 19, 2010nchoz/Flickr​No matter how ginormous, no matter how loosely wrapped, there is only one circumstance under which San Francisco etiquette permits a diner to eat her burrito with knife and fork: when it ... More >>

Flour Water Team Announces Plans for Central Kitchen, a Restaurant/Deli in SoEx Gallery Complex

Eli the Bearded/FlickrThe space adjacent to the gallery will also house what's being called a "culinary incubator."​After the rumor surfaced earlier this year that Flour Water was seeking ways to expand without simply knocking down the walls to add seats, it looks like owners David White and ... More >>

What to Have for Lunch Today: Steamed Buns from Out the Door

John BirdsallSteamed chicken bun and steamed vegetarian bun ($3 each).​Tues., April 13, 2010 m j c /Flickr​OTD's notably dense steamed bao are big as pumped-up sliders ― eat the pair pictured here, and you can forget about those mid-afternoon snickerdoodle cravings. The vegetarian ver ... More >>

What to Have for Lunch Today: 4505 Meats' Fried Mac and Cheese

Fiends Ain't Family/FlickrSeriously.​Thurs., April 1, 2010 Luis C./Yelp​Sure, it sounds like the butt of some bubba-cuisine joke, or a foodie's April Fool's. And yes, 4505's deep-fried mac is a panko-crusted calorie bomb, and it is shaped with the rectilinear precision of an industrial ... More >>

Last-Minute Easter: Waterbar's Seafood Prix Fixe

Silly Jilly/Flickr​What: Waterbar Easter Dinner Where: 399 Embarcadero (at Folsom) When: Sun., April 4 Time: 4 p.m.-8 p.m. The deal: Three-course prix-fixe choices include asparagus gratin, seared scallop with peas, Madeira and fennel, olive-oil poached halibut with baby leeks and caviar, oa ... More >>

At 18 Reasons Next Week, Butchery Gives Way to Plant-Based Eats

{Guerrilla Futures | Jason Tester}/Flickr​Hog butchery. Lamb sausage. Meatpaper parties. Sure, 18 Reasons might, as it promises on its Web site, "engage our community with the people who feed us," but the miniature nonprofit's focus has always leaned to the well-marbled side of the plate. Howe ... More >>

Our Advice for the ZAP Zinfandel Events Later This Month? Use the Spit Buckets

Wayde Carroll/FlickrA scene from on of last year's ZAP events: Things can get awfully foggy.​Memories of ZAP, the Zinfandel Advocates & Producers series of events can get foggy, unless you're religious about water breaks and using the allotted spit buckets. Stashing a baguette in your bag isn' ... More >>

Feasting Out: New Year's Eve Prix Fixe ― or Not ― at Orson

Michael Berch/Flickr​Where: Orson 508 Fourth St. (at Bryant), 777-1508 When: Thurs., Dec. 31 Time: 6 p.m.-11 p.m. for dinner; cocktails and champagne "into 2010!" The deal: Six-course prix fixe and à la carte menu both available; the prix fixe (with options) might include avocado-wrapped dash ... More >>

Need a Pear Tree to Go with That Partridge? We Found Some on Craigslist

talia the AMAZING/FlickrWatch out for axe-wielding Santas.​Somewhere on Craigslist there is a partridge for sale. If you'd like to find a pear tree to go with it, look no further than Wiersig Garden Plants in Los Altos. The nursery is currently offering numerous varieties of deciduous fruit tr ... More >>

San Francisco's Oyster-Studded Heart of Gold: Your SFoodie Lunch Planner

Jeff Poskanzer/FlickrHangtown Fry: It's a wonderful lunch.​Wednesday, Dec. 23, 2009 You know how in It's a Wonderful Life, during the hellish vision of Jimmy Stewart's midlife man-crisis, the town morphs into Potterville, a place where everyone's all mean and slutty and otherwise effed up? Al ... More >>

Next Month: Sorting Out the Economics of Street Food

Steve Rhodes/FlickrScene from the S.F. Street Food Festival last August.​Street food broke hard in 2009. While carts and stands have been around since convenience became a commodity, this year saw cupcakes, curries, and fancy-pants pizzas join tamales and hot dogs on San Francisco streets, and ... More >>

San Francisco Woman Sues -- Well, She Doesn't Know Who -- For Posting Her Nude Pics

​No need to dream of being Pamela Anderson or Paris Hilton or even former Miss California Carrie Prejean. You, too, can have your own internet sex scandal. Or nightmare.A private citizen of San Francisco has filed suit in Superior Court against some rotten anonymous internet trolls who posted phot ... More >>

Dosa v. Udupi Palace: The Epic Battle for South Indian Dominance on Valencia

Yan M./FlickrDosa's chennai chicken: Smuggle-worthy.​On the painful days following Thanksgiving, we like to recover by enjoying foods bearing little resemblance to those we spooned up on Thursday. Sometimes, with health or digestive relief in mind, we gravitate to raw salads or restorative sou ... More >>

Sick of Sandwiches Already? Turn Turkey Leftovers into A Refreshing Wild Rice Salad

Jess J/FlickrHow many turkey Sloppy Joes can you stuff your face with?​Something about that 12-pound turkey looked skimpy. Instead, you got a 20-pounder -- for the four of you. Naturally, you can only eat so many sandwiches, and while - sure - you could throw it all in a stock pot and make som ... More >>

Go All Cape Cod with Turkey Tomorrow -- Or Just Break Out the Bourbon

i | Wiltshire/FlickrBourbon goes with everything, especially family dysfunction.​Perusing the Internet in search of a cocktail suitable for Thanksgiving we come upon drinks composed of Bailey's, Kahlua, eggnog, vanilla vodka, cherry Sprite, ginger brandy, apple schnapps, crumbled ginger cookie ... More >>

Inoculating Yourself Against Turkey-Day Boredom: A SFoodie Lunch Planner

pengrin™/FlickrWith enough of this in ya, even Jell-O mold doesn't seem quite so scary.​Monday, November 23, 2009 Three days before you'll be packing your gullet with butter and gravy and rolls -- in other words, the whitest edibles ever devised by man. Fortunately, there's still plenty of ... More >>

Tomorrow's Indy Spirits Expo Offers a Giddy Trek through the World's Micro Spirits

Andrew St. Clair/FlickrBottle lineup at July's Indy Spirits Expo in New York City.​Like indy movies, indy booze has so infiltrated restaurant bar walls and home liquor cabinets that it might not fit the profile of obscure, exactly. Still, tomorrow's 2009 Indy Spirits Expo at Mighty (119 Utah a ... More >>

Eating Well, and Punctuating Even Better: A SFoodie Lunch Planner

Chris Hardie/FlickrNo bees were harmed in the making of this menu.​Wednesday, November 11, 2009 You don't have to be a vegan, a rawist, or a copyeditor to totally dig lunch here, though it certainly wouldn't hurt. Yeah, Alive! uses zero animal foods (including honey -- sorry for all the bowls ... More >>

Another 24 Hours: Craigslist Farm and Garden Classifieds

TheBigWRanch12/FlickrTasty as she looks, don't you dare think about eating her.​SFoodie's look at some urban essentials offered up on Craiglist this week. • This de-horned 1-year-old Nigerian Dwarf doe up in Santa Rosa sounds like a goat to be reckoned with. The owner writes: "she is skitti ... More >>

RIP, Vegan Burger. The Mission Won't Be the Same Without You!

Jared Zimmerman/FlickrStick a fork in it.​Mission Burger, our heart is broken, too! Ever since we tried the vegan burger served at Duc Loi Market (2200 Mission at 18th St.), we've talked it up as one of the best burgers around. Sad to read that the vegan burger is being canceled due to a deep- ... More >>

It's an Orgy of Harvest Stuff All Weekend at Ferry Plaza, Starting with Today's Booze Bash

Uncle Lynx/Flickr​This afternoon kicks off a weekend of harvest-related activities at the Ferry Building. Free events include an olive oil tasting, apple pressing and cider making, a Barnyard by the Bay petting zoo, and live music. Till 8 p.m. today, an organic spirits (boo!), wine, and beer t ... More >>

Axis Café is Just Like Your Living Room. Only a Hell of a Lot Nicer

Lawrence Sinclair/FlickrSee? Just like home, but without the thrift-store couch and murky bong.​Potrero Hill's Axis Café calls itself "the neighborhood living room," which is immediately evident when you walk in and see the roaring fireplace -- even in the middle of the afternoon. But unlike, ... More >>

Another 24 Hours: Craigslist Farm and Garden Classifieds

Irish Typepad/FlickrLooking for something like this? You might get more than you bargained for at Nature's Bounty.​SFoodie's weekly look at some urban essentials offered up on Craiglist. • Nature's Bounty, a family-owned, state-inspected farm facility in Vacaville -- aka Cow Town -- wants y ... More >>

Oakland Sandwich Maker REL's Shut Down for Selling Creepy Crawlies on Rye

Morton Fox/FlickrEw.​This may be the year of the sandwich in San Francisco, but if your budget has relegated your lunchtime grazing to the pre-pack options at the convenience store, you might've been ingesting more than just tuna salad recently. In a story on SFoodie's sister news blog The Sni ... More >>

Drink Therapy: Celebrating the Midnight Solstice, and on a School Night

Aaron Gustafson/FlickrLike a beacon of hope.​We know it doesn't make sense in a city where the sweltering starts with the autumnal equinox, more or less, but there's something about the slipping away of August that feels like the end of a summer that never was. (Poignant, right?) The last thin ... More >>

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, wh ... More >>

Champagne Punch: Chunky, Fruit-Filled Kool-Aid for Grownups

Kevin Littlefield/FlickrLight yet potent.​Before summertime comes to an end and the fruits of the season shrivel into luscious memory, satisfy your stone fruit desires one last time with a light yet potent champagne punch. Raid your local farmers' market for the juiciest plums, apricots, nec ... More >>

Five Ways to Celebrate Today's National Oyster Day for a Buck

mr570 via Flickr​Happy National Oyster Day! With the plethora of cheap, quality oysters that are available in town all the time, there's far more than one day devoted to the half-shell around here. But if you want to make a special to-do about the official day, here are five spots that will sell y ... More >>

Stuff It: 18 Reasons Hosts Food-in-Food Community Potluck

Phil Romans/FlickrYou just might snag a slice of turducken.Potlucking with the notion of stuffing one food with another might just be the balm these fragile economic times need, combining fun with a heady sense of community. Tomorrow, 18 Reasons (593 Guerrero at 18th St.) firmly puts tongue to chee ... More >>

Let's Get Lifted: The Week in SFoodie

Grundlepuck/FlickrChillax, brainiac, and enjoy the show.Yes, it was all about elevating this week. With Blue Bottle drips from Cento in our system, we shook our lingering hangover from Pride and turned our remaining brain cells to summer reading. Made us feel smarter, anyway. Contributor Tamara Pal ... More >>

Drop Everything: Iron Cupcake Challenge Announces Last-Minute Change

Tammy Green/FlickrVictory chicken dances are considered bad form.Quick: Get your ass to any nearby produce market and start scrambling like hell for pluots and huckleberries. Originally scheduled for next Monday, the monthly Iron Cupcake Challenge is going down tonight, 7 p.m., at Leland Tea Compan ... More >>

I Heart Street Art: Hood Ornament

Okay for weeks now we've been mired in controversy, looking at this vs. that and how do you reconcile zip and zap, etc. Today, we go back to just appreciating some art for what it is.Dogpatch, down by the docks, is the place to be, for reals. One wild sight after another, from decaying remnants of ... More >>

Help the Bay Area Represent in National Farmers' Market Contest

B. Gohacki via FlickrThe Alemany Saturday market: Rock the voteDo you schedule your Saturdays around your weekly walk-through of the Alemany farmers' market? Feeling territorial about Heart of the City? Cast your vote for them in a contest sponsored by American Farmland Trust (AFT) to select the bes ... More >>

Latest Mobile Street Food to Prowl the Mission: Bike Basket Pies

AriCee via FlickrConsider bringing a wetnapAdd pies to the list of underground street foods you can score form a cart in the Mission. Place? Dolores Park. Time? Just about 30 minutes from now. New vendor Bike Basket Pies is promising to hawk strawberry-rhubarb, blueberry-mango-coconut, and mixed ber ... More >>

Need Space for a Veggie Garden? Consider Reclaiming the Sidewalk

SFPT via FlickrAmerican idyll: A vision of sidewalk farming from PARK(ing) Day, 2007Perhaps you are feeling garden envy. Perhaps you are on the waiting list for a community garden, and are feeling like the local politbureau will never grant you your allotment. Perhaps you like to smash things. Tak ... More >>

Bar Bambino Wine and Cheese Tasting Promises to Go Beyond Beyond Mere Noshing

SanFranAnnie via FlickrA cheese plate at Bar BambinoWhile cheese and wine events are a dime a dozen in San Francisco, it's not every day there's a tasting with the added value of education. Assuming the average wine-addled brain can soak up some learning, you might just leave the May Cheese and Wine ... More >>

Golden Star Tea: Just Like Champagne, But Without All the Remorse

Victorcab via FlickrThis just might save you from going home with your exWe remember attending a party years ago at which a guest pulled us aside and muttered, "What do they have here for the alcoholics?" Inquiries were made. The answer was water. Not even the fizzy kind. And perhaps said guest woul ... More >>

With Luck, Dynamo Donut Will Soon Offer Both Indoor and Outdoor Seating

Niallkennedy via FlickrThey may soon be able to take a load offIf the zoning gods are kind, you soon won't have to devour that maple-glazed, bacon-topped apple doughnut from Dynamo Donut and Coffee while leaning against your Prius. Head Barista Sandy Parkinson told SFoodie that Dynamo -- which curre ... More >>

Local Flavor: Deep-Fried Pickles at Weird Fish

Zipfly via FlickrThis is how you tell if you have the right out-of-town guest as opposed to the wrong out-of-town guest: "There is a place," you say, "where they have deep-fried pickles. Would you like to go?" This can also be used as a gauge of a) who gets to be the father/mother of your child; b) ... More >>

Flickr The Night Away At 111 Minna Gallery

The Myriad Charms Of Food Porn: Sloppy, Bloody And Hilarious

The Myriad Charms Of Food Porn: Sloppy, Bloody And Hilarious

Security Guards Turn Financial District Over to Cat Burglars: "Meow."