Matthew Stafford

Oh, Snap! The Best San Francisco Food Photos of 2010

San Francisco's culinary landscape is an ever-changing one, and this past year was no exception. Scores of restaurants opened and closed, events were thrown, and new chefs stepped into the spotlight. Here are some of the most arresting images SF Weekly and SFoodie captured in 2010. Lara Hata​ ... More >>

Tacolicious, Beretta Owners Bring Tequila to the Mission; Nombe's Chef to Depart

​ ​The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco restaurant scene.Inside Scoop says that Tacolicious is set to open a second branch at 741 Valencia, the former New College building. The pitch: Same fusion-taco menu as the Marina restaurant, as well as a ... More >>

French Dip: Cafe des Amis in Photos

Visiting SF Weekly critic Matthew Stafford drops in on Cafe des Amis, where ― for better or worse ― French culinary classics undergo an update. Photographer Lara Hata captured images of the food, from cocktails to dessert. Lara Hata​ Brandade de morue Basquise. Atlantic salt cod with r ... More >>

Sink Into Cheap Craft Brews, Decent Food at Bean Bag

Matthew StaffordNot your average gutter water.​The place: Bean Bag Café, 601 Divisadero (at Hayes), 563-3634 The hours: Daily, 3-10 p.m. The deals: Pints of craft brews for $1.75; house wines are $3 on Fridays The digs: Hip yet friendly neighborhood hangout complete with exposed brick, wor ... More >>

Introducing the 2010 Best Of San Francisco Issue

​SF Weekly's 2010 Best of San Francisco issue is now live online and filling street boxes around the city. The culmination of three months of research, dozens of extra meals, and one belt notch lost (and not yet regained, goddammit), these annual issues are always a lot of work ― good work. For ... More >>

D & A Café: Chinese Soul Food on the Cheap

David B./Yelp​The place: D & A Café, 407 Clement (at Fifth Ave.), 668-7882 The hours: Daily 8-11 a.m., 3-6 p.m., and 10 p.m.-1 a.m. The deals: Big platters of Chinese soul food at $2.75-$4.28 apiece The digs: Your typical bare-bones brightly lit Formica-limned dining hall. Inner Richmond r ... More >>

Happy Hour: It's What's for Dinner (and Your Cell Phone)

​Foodistas who aren't embarrassed by the word "mixologist" like to proclaim we've entered a new Golden Age of Cocktails. It's also the rebirth of the happy hour: Raise a chocolatini glass to Lehman Brothers and Countrywide Financial for helping bring the five o'clock drink deal back into fashion. ... More >>

Korea Attacks! Korean junk food has established a tasty foothold

Bruno’s: Decor gets a divorce

Early Bird Special: Jonathan Kauffman Takes a Look at Bruno's

Kat Zacher and Ryan Ostler​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. In the first single-venue review filed by SF Weekly food critic Jonathan Kauffman, the Southern roadhouse cooking of Ryan Ostler and Kat Zacher at Bruno's (2389 Mission at 20th St.), goes under the 'scope. Bet ... More >>

Early Bird Special: Queen's Louisiana Po-Boy Café

Tamara PalmerThe fried shrimp po'boy: A sandwich named desire.​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. Is Queen's Louisiana Po-Boy Café all that and a bag of Zapp's? The New Orleans outpost in the Portola District (3030 San Bruno at Dwight) knocks out up to a dozen fillings: ... More >>

Early Bird Special: Fish & Farm

Fish & Farm​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. Last spring, owner Frank Klein scrapped the locavore concept he'd forged for Fish & Farm, the TenderSquare eatery tucked into the Mark Twain Hotel (339 Taylor at O'Farrell). With chef Charlie Kleinman off to get smoky at We ... More >>

Early Bird Special: Saison

J. BirdsallHalibut in smoky seafood broth at a Saison prix fixe from July.​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. In any kind of normal economy -- you know, the one where the roast chicken at Zuni was a logical weeknight option when you didn't quite feel like pushing a cart ... More >>

Early Bird Special: Ironside

Jen SiskaIronside's cuban sandwich​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. Point your finger at the jobless rate or the housing bubble's bust: We're living through a moment of intense repurposing. And while we may not be at the point of sock darning, we're seriously digging ... More >>

Early Bird Special: Three Corner Markets

Tamara PalmerA pork shoulder sandwich from Pal's Takeaway in Tony's Market.​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. SF Weekly food critic Matthew Stafford haunts corner markets in the Mission this week, only not for the reasons you'd think. Instead of showing up to score Snu ... 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 >>

New Broken Record Chef Not So New

James Moisey/Twitter James Moisey (left) It's been three weeks since the Frito pie hit the fan at the Broken Record (1166 Geneva at Edinburgh): chefs Ryan Ostler and Katharine Zacher got the hell out, citing burnout in interviews. And even though Tablehopper reported that a new chef would b ... More >>

Early Bird Special: S.F.'s Street-Food Scene

Jen SiskaCreme Brulee Guy in Linda Street: Stafford likes his culinary showbiz.​We've hogged major bandwidth in blog posts about the city's underground, Twitter-stoked street-food scene, treating the phenomenon more as news than the subject of serious parsing from the POV of gastronomy. In tom ... More >>

Be the Change You Wish to Eat: The Week in SFoodie

shunafish/FlickrAppleman: armed with new challenges.• It was a week all about moving on, starting with Meredith Brody's Hot Meal report on Five, the luxe-y Berkeley hotel eatery that marks the re-appearance of beloved S.F. chef Scott Howard. She's dreaming about a return. • Mary Ladd tracked an ... More >>

Early Bird Special: Little Skillet

Jen SiskaAh, summer, when a young man's fancy turns to chicken 'n' waffles. What is it about the Harlem classic -- an inter-meal mashup of homely comforts -- that's poised for revival? In the Tenderloin, Gussie's Chicken and Waffles is due to drop any day now. And halfway between AT&T and South Park ... More >>

Summer Brewery Guide Goes Down Like a Coupla Cold Ones

Tambako the Jaguar/FlickrSlake your thirst -- for nerd-grade beer knowledge, that is. Today's SF Weekly comes bearing a nifty summer guide that includes a stein-by-stein breakdown of the city's breweries by SFoodie blogger and Weekly restaurant critic Matthew Stafford. Eager for a taste of Shock and ... More >>

It Isn't a Party Until Somebody Cries: The Week in SFoodie

• It was an unapologetic week of eating, with a tear or two thrown in for good measure. New SFoodie blogger Mary Ladd was busted gorging on the tasty but little-known savory foods at Mission Pie. Meanwhile, Matthew Stafford downed a mai tai (or two) in anticipation of summer. • We dropped our b ... More >>

Local Flavor: The Five Best Doughnuts in San Francisco

m.bibelot via FlickrDoughnuts from Dynamo: The maple-bacon is in the top row, centerThere may be no American food more enduring than the doughnut. Food snobs, vegans, cops -- who doesn't love a crusty sinker or a fat glazed dunker? In honor of National Doughnut Day, we thought we'd offer our guide ( ... More >>

Early Bird Special: The Broken Record

Jen SiskaHoodies and ball caps allowedIf you've ever wondered what the hell a gastropub is, get the ultimate schooling by reading SF Weekly food critic Matthew Stafford's review of the Broken Record (1166 Geneva at Edinburgh) in the Excelsior. Think bar food done by serious chefs who actually love t ... More >>

Early Bird Special: Contigo

Jen SiskaContigoAfter scarfing pork-belly bocaditos and octopus salad at Contigo in Noe Valley, SF Weekly food critic Matthew Stafford gets all dreamy thinking about the vacay he took in Barcelona. Stafford thinks chef-owner Brett Emerson gets all the details right in this local simulacrum of the Ca ... More >>

Mail Call: The Frosting Goes Where?

As previously reported, we receive a lot of stupid stuff in the mail. As the editorial assistant, and thus the mail maven, I feel it's my duty to bring you the absolute best of the worst. Yesterday, we received a letter bomb. A chocolate letter bomb.A note arrived for one of our esteemed food writer ... More >>

This New Year's Eve, Out with the Old

By Matthew Stafford New Year's Eve - known to legendary boozer Humphrey Bogart as "amateur night" - is a holiday fraught with potholes and land mines. On this wind-chilled evening of manufactured revelry, people from every walk of life take it upon themselves to have a great time or die trying. Thi ... More >>

The Fire Inside's Delightful

One of the finest aspects of the urban holiday experience is meeting friends for a hot toddy in an elegant and festively decorated saloon: a modern-day variation on those ancient winter festivals our forebears conjured up to distance the damp, cold darkness. My favorite rendezvous is the Big Four, a ... More >>

Lake Tahoe: From Alpine Anaheim to Temple of Cutting-Edge Cal Cuisine

By Matthew Stafford The first time I headed up to Lake Tahoe a decade or so ago, I figured the place would be lined with rustic, pine-timbered ski lodges where grizzled mountain men grilled trout fresh from the lake and served it on a plank with a few huckleberries and a mug of hard cider. Imagine ... More >>

Happy Hundredth, John's Grill

John's Grill celebrated its hundredth birthday a few weeks ago, and as a longtime fan of Old San Francisco and the works of Dashiell Hammett, I made sure to help observe the occasion. Hammett figures into the equation because at one point in his magnum opus, "The Maltese Falcon," gumshoe Sam Spade ... More >>

Caribbean Cuisine: San Rafael's Sol Food

Destination: Mission

Power Breakfast: Joe's Special

Filmed on the Body 2

Week 2 of the San Francisco International Film Festival

The Whole Truth

The rise and fall of a dot-com

Filmed on the Body

The 44th annual S.F. International Film Festival gets sexy, with women on top -- and just about everywhere else

Letters to the Editor

Letters from January 3, 2000

Letters to the Editor

Letters from November 1, 2000

Capsule Reviews

April; Beau Travail; But Forever in My Mind; Bye Bye Africa; Charisma; Darkness and Light; First Person Plural; Hamlet; Journey to the Sun; Kikujiro; The Letter; Missing Boy; Moloch; Set Me Free

Capsule reviews

At All Costs; Close-Up; Eeny Meeny; The Jazzman From the Gulag; Mask of Desire; Handsome Arno; Nowhere to Hide; Our Song; Return of the Idiot; Seduced and Abandoned; This Years Love; Trixie; Voyages; Wisconsin Death Trip

Cinema Paradiso

The 43rd San Francisco International Film Festival