Michael Mina

All Tomorrow's Portions: Top 7 Food Trends for 2013

Drink of the Week: Best Winter Cocktails

With the rain last week, the cold snap this one, and the holiday visitors streaming in, chances are, you're going to need some liquid cheer at sooner or later. This week, I'm rounding up a few of the best drinks to enjoy this winter around town, whether you need a post-shopping nerve-soother, or war ... More >>

Drink of the Week: The Port Au Prince at Smuggler's Cove

There I was, a full hour into my drive from the North-East Bay to San Francisco, and I wasn't even on the Bay Bridge yet. I was sitting in traffic purgatory for having forgotten that 49ers were playing at Candlestick for Monday Night Football, and for the serious miscalculation of the number of earl ... More >>

Nombe: Now Serving Perfect Fried Pig's Ears

Rich Table: Refined Comfort with California Bistro Food

Pop-Up Planner: The Best Temporary Restaurant Events, September 4-16

We love pop-ups and temporary chef nights, but we hate keeping track of them. Every few weeks we'll bring you a list of the best upcoming events -- all you have to do is mark your calendar. Tango & Stache Pop-Up Where: Asiento, 2730 21st St. (at Bryant), 829-3375 When: Sun., Sept. 9, 5-11 p.m. Cos ... More >>

Drink of the Week: Golden Gate 75th Celebration in Cocktails

With the official 75th Anniversary of the opening of the Golden Gate Bridge this weekend, the festivities will also come in cocktail form.* At Aurea inside the Stanford Court Hotel on Nob Hill, they're serving the St. Charles Punch ($12, Pierre Ferrand Ambre Cognac, Fonsecca Terra Bella Organic Rub ... More >>

James Beard Awards Announce Semifinalists: Bay Area's Well Represented, Obviously

​The day has come for the James Beard Foundation to announce the semifinalists for the 2012 Restaurant Awards. As SFoodie has written before, the finals can resemble the Oscars in that they're often career awards rather than a measure of how the nominees are performing at this very moment. Tha ... More >>

Parallel 37 Opens, Trident Will Return, and Citizen Cake Set to Shutter

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. Ron Siegel's new restaurant Parallel 37 opens today as a sleeker, more modern replacement to its predecessor (600 Stockton at Pine). Earlier we mentioned bar manager Camber Lay would oversee the cocktail ... More >>

Umami Burger and the Melt: Science Meets Fast Food with Muddled Results

Jupiter Olympus: Cocktails from the Crypt

Lou BustamanteA selection of drinks from the last Jupiter Olympus​Where: Acme Bar, 2115 San Pablo (at Addison), Berkeley, (510) 644-2226 When: Sun., Oct. 30, 8 p.m.-2 a.m. Cost: $10 per cocktail; 21 and over The rundown: Jupiter Olympus, the innovative cocktail pop-up project by barmen Mor ... More >>

Cocktail Week Events for Tuesday, Sept. 20

Lou BustamanteKicking off Cocktail Week inside Anchor Brewery and Distillery​After a kickoff night Monday with perfect weather, and more people wanting to attend than there were tickets to be had, San Francisco Cocktail Week continues today with a much broader schedule. Tonight's festivities ... More >>

Fifth Floor: Keeping the Hotel Restaurant Fresh

 Kimberly SandieFifth Floor's pork shoulder (left) and pork belly with peaches, bourbon foam, and, well, a whole lot of stuff.​Most of the news about hotel restaurants in San Francisco these days isn't gushy. The Ritz-Carlton is reformulating its high-end restaurant, Michael Mina moved his fl ... More >>

Fresh Eats: Deciphering the Wine List at Bar Tartine

Two New Gins to Shake Your Thirst

​Gin can seem like a simple, juniper-focused spirit, but two new gins illustrate how it can be more sweet or savory, and that it doesn't always have to taste like a hangover -- er, pine. Just delicious. The No. 3 London Dry Gin ($39.99/750ml) by Anchor Brewers and Distillers, in conjunction ... More >>

Cochon 555 Brings Porcine Pleasures to San Francisco

Jason HenryRavi Kapur's Game Plan includes chocolate blood cake.​On Sunday, June 5, a sold out crowd of pig enthusiasts descended upon Cochon 555 to enjoy upwards of 50 different dead pig preparations and crown S.F.'s Prince of Pork. Pig-shaped balloons led the way into the Julia Morgan Ballro ... More >>

Jeremy Fox Collaborates, Commis and Locavore See Chef Changes, Marin Food Trucks, More!

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. More news on chef changes, collaborations, and owner switch ups. Earlier we mentioned, via Grub Street, that Jeremy Fox would take over Saison for a week. Now Grub Street reports he'll be collaborating wi ... More >>

Farmers' Market Cocktail Night: Pacific Coast Produce Meets Pacific Rim

Steven LilesMartin Cate summons up the tiki gods with his volcano bowl.​Where: Ferry Building Marketplace, 1 Ferry Building (at Embarcadero) When: Weds., May 25, 5:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m. Cost: $40 online, tickets via Eventbrite; 21 and over The Rundown: Spring is in full bloom, and CUESA and th ... More >>

Jonathan Kauffman Speaks! (on KQED's Forum)

Our favorite morsel from the Web. If you missed it yesterday ― SF Weekly food critic Jonathan Kauffman's vocal turn on KQED's Forum with Michael Krasny ― we embed for your pleasure: Kauffman shared air with San Francisco food editor Jan Newberry, Stett Holbrook (ditto for Metro Silicon Valley) ... More >>

Prospect updates Boulevard's aesthetic, but edgy it isn't

Charles Chocolate Scales Up, Burger Joint Scales Down (for the Moment)

​ ​The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco restaurant scene.Paolo L. of Inside Scoop reports that Charles Chocolates just signed a deal with the Westfield shopping center to open a 5,000-square-foot production facility and retail store on its fou ... More >>

T.G.I. Frisco: San Francisco's Dearth of Chain Restaurants

Kevin Y./YelpOkay, so we do have an Olive Garden out near S.F. State.​Our favorite morsel from the blogs. Yesterday at LA Weekly's Squid Ink, SFoodie's sister food blog with the WTF name, editor Amy Scattergood passed along a list from Nation's Restaurant News of America's 15 favorite casual- ... More >>

Lers Ros' Fried Rabbit: Buffalo By Way of Bangkok

Andrew SimmonsLers Ros' rabbit, a satanic take on the hot wing.​It wasn't until after we raked up the last morsels that we realized our dinner at Lers Ros had consisted almost entirely of fried dishes. With the exception of succulent pork belly cubes, everything we'd ordered had come encased i ... More >>

Unwind Prepares to Sun-Bake Its Customers, Brasserie Lille's Balthazar Ambitions

​The last 24 hours in rumor, innuendo, and straight-out facts about restaurant openings and closings in San Francisco.Yesterday, SFoodie forgot to mention the opening of Unwind on Union (1875 Union, 999-7283, unwindonunion.com), whose opening day UrbanDaddy trumpeted on Tuesday. The owners, Eate ... More >>

Q & A with Kevin Diedrich, the Man Behind the Burritt Room

Lou BustamanteKevin Diedrich.​With the recent addition to the city's cocktail armada of Comstock Saloon and upcoming openings of Bar Agricole and Prospect, San Francisco bartenders are making it increasingly difficult to go out and have a bad drink. A project flying lower on the radar but just ... More >>

James Beard Semifinalists Announced

​The semifinalists for the 2010 James Beard Restaurant Awards were announced today, and not surprisingly, the Bay Area has shown well. Also not surprising are many of the people on the list. Of the 35 Bay Area semifinalists named, 14 are repeats from the semifinals last year (marked with an asteri ... More >>

Whast To Do? Tuesday's Pick: The State of Pastry in SF

​The State of Pastry in SF @ Commonwealth Club We all owe an apology to restaurant pastry chefs: Once their turn arrives, too many of us have already spent our appetites, or saved just enough to accept a spoonful of poached pear from a four-way-shared brown butter panna cotta. It's sad -- these ... More >>

Commonwealth Club's Inforum Division Investigates 'The State of Pastry in SF'

sadsnaps/FlickrCitizen Cake's cookie plate.​Inforum, the division of the Commonwealth Club "by and for people in their 20s and 30s," is presenting a program that (adult) children of all ages can appreciate. Moderated by Jessica Battilana of 7x7, "The State of Pastry in SF" will bring together mave ... More >>

Saison: Haute cuisine in the country

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 >>

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 a ... More >>

S.F.'s Laurine Wickett Got Canned from Top Chef Last Night. Now She's Cooking Up an Homage to Balls

Bravo TVWickett: Not totally bummed about getting axed.​Laurine Wickett of San Francisco's Left Coast Catering made it all the way to Episode Nine on Top Chef, last night's infamous Restaurant Wars competition, by pretty much flying below the radar. Things looked tense in Episode Three, when t ... More >>

The 2010 S.F. Michelin Guide Dropped Today -- If You Care

Today saw the official release of Michelin's San Francisco Bay Area & Wine Country Restaurants Guide 2010, the fourth edition of the local star search. Michelin director Jean-Luc Naret told SFoodie 10 inspectors did the field work for this year's Nor Cal guide -- the same inspectors who do table res ... More >>

Early Bird Special: Outerlands

M. BrodySexy, right?​An early nibble from the Weekly's Wednesday food review. When this year's food obit is filed (something tells us we'll be the ones writing it), expect some ponderous post-mort on 2009 having been the Year of the Sandwich. Foams and 12-course degustations may seems as qua ... More >>

Google's Favorite Places Awards: Strange-Looking and Subject to Graffiti

The Google award at Humphry Slocombe.On Wednesday, SFoodie's Meredith Brody reported on Google mapping out Alice Waters' favorite places in the Bay Area. That same day, the tech company dropped off exclamation point-looking statues in front of the chosen places of Waters as well as the selections fr ... More >>

Businesses feel trapped by costs of Union Square's Business Improvement District

City of Burgers: The Sliders at Pickles

Janine Kahn Pickles 42 Columbus (at Jackson), 421-2540. Sliders (miniature burgers) are in fashion right now. Their origin might be the small, limp, onion-topped burgers you order by the bagful at White Castle, the East Coast chain known as Home of the Slider. These days you can find them ... More >>

New hotel brasserie Midi offers updated versions of French classics

Forget the Pricing Kerfuffle, RN74's Wines are Worth Singing--Or Even Tweeting--About

Foodnut.com via FlickerThe Last Bottle Board: Any high rollers in the house?RN74 is a restaurant that makes you feel like starting from the wine list and working backwards to the menu. The food -- though not remotely Burgundian as the name (a highway that runs through the region) would imply -- is l ... More >>

How To Talk To Socialists About Four Star Dining

Michael Bauer Defends His (And Michael Mina's) Honor

Seconds, Please!

Small plates of complex ambition at a new restaurant and bar in the Tenderloin

Attachment Cooking

When a chef just can't let a certain dish go

The Raw and the Cooked

Curious George, of Aqua and Fifth Floor, opens his quirky new jewel box

Deco Dreams

An art show's lingering effects take us on a tour of deco restaurants

Noblesse Oblige

Charles Nob Hill

Winners and Losers

How an S.F. food critic sent a chill through the room at a national awards ceremony

Seedling

Redwood Park

Walking on Water

Aqua