Northern California

Goldenvoice Announces First City Festival in Monterey With Modest Mouse, Passion Pit, MGMT, Beach House, More

Every year seems to bring more entrants to the Northern California music festival scene. The latest is First City, a two-day festival this August at the Monterey fairgrounds that will bring out big, indie-leaning names like Modest Mouse, Passion Pit, MGMT, Beach House, Toro y Moi, and Neko Case for ... More >>

Padrecito: Mexican Cuisine Gets a Makeover in Cole Valley

Hi-Lo BBQ: San Francisco Gets Its Own Barbecue

Pilot of Tanker that Hit Bay Bridge Was Involved in Three Other Accidents Since 2009

The pilot operating the tanker that hit the Bay Bridge yesterday morning had been in three other accidents since 2009, the Associated Press reported. Guy Kleess, who has been licensed to handle big vessels in Northern California waters since 2005, was found responsible for two of those accidents. T ... More >>

Mendocino Beer, Wine & Mushroom Festival Starts Today

Mendocino Beer, Wine & Mushroom Festival Where: Locations throughout Mendocino County (check here for full festival schedule) When: Nov. 2-11 Cost: Varies, but many events are free The rundown: If you're considering a road trip up to Mendocino County, consider going in the next week and a half dur ... More >>

The Future Is an Ancient Heart

The Future Has an Ancient Heart

Lady Gaga Announces Bay Area Stop of Born This Way Tour

Gaga is coming! Gaga is coming! Okay, so it's not until early 2013. But today, the freak-queen of gloss-pop, meatsuits, and gender-bending award show appearances announced a new North American leg of her Born This Way Ball World Tour, and it includes a stop -- for just one night -- here in the Bay ... More >>

The Hard Data Indicates Laffs

Outside Lands Promoter Allen Scott on the Festival's Evolution and What to Expect This Year

Allen Scott is Executive Vice President of Another Planet Entertainment, the Berkeley-based production outfit that puts on S.F.'s Outside Lands music festival (with help from others). Many people work to put on the festival, but it's partially Scott's baby: He helps decide who plays, what changes fr ... More >>

Teamsters Claim Coors Beer Has No Taste

Local labor groups are disgusted by Coors, and not just because the watered-down adult beverage literally has no taste. The company that brews the beer enjoyed by many low-budget drinkers in the Bay Area has "tasteless anti-gay views" and labor practices. According to teamsters from local unions 150 ... More >>

Sizzle & Fizzle: Highs and Lows from the Last Week in S.F. Music

Radish Brunch Makes Friends in the Neighborhood

​Radish opened up in the Mission less than a year ago, pitching itself as a "neighborhood standby" committed to serving seasonal, locally sourced ingredients with a Southern twist. The tiny kitchen may have a few kinks to work out, but their tasty eats and fun, funky personality show they're on th ... More >>

Meet Heather Meader-McCausland, Whose Alaskan Photos Make SFO Less Depressing

Heather Meader-McCausland grew up in rural Alaska, 100 miles above the Arctic Circle, and in Sonoma County, Calif. She was born to Elaine and Fred Meader, the filmmakers who produced the Alaskan documentary "Year of the Caribou," so nobody was surprised when she picked up a camera. Her photo exhibit ... More >>

Cafe Gratitude Is Not Going Anywhere and A Sushi Robot at U-Sushi

The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene. Cafe Gratitude won't be closing all of their Northern California locations after all. The "series of aggressive lawsuits" they attributed to the cause of their impending closures, announced via Facebook i ... More >>

The Girl Scouts' New Locavore Badge: What You Have to Do to Earn It

The Girl Scouts' Locavore badge.​Last week, NPR reported that the Girl Scouts of the USA had just revised its badges for the first time in 20 years. The update included introducing a new "Locavore" badge for senior scouts ages 14-16. But what do the scouts have to do to earn it? A fair amount of ... More >>

One of the World's Most Sought Cult Beers Arrives Here Saturday

High/Low Food/DrinkEvery year's issue of Cantillon Zwanze is an event​Cantillon Zwanze Day When: Saturday, Sept. 17, 11 a.m. Where: Russian River Brewery Cost: "We won't know until they deliver it on Saturday," they told us on the phone. Attention PBR-swilling hipsters: sour beer is the cool ... More >>

Sir Kensington's Takes Ketchup Upscale

​ Everything goes upscale eventually. Mustard long ago moved from yellow and Dijon to an array of artisan flavors. Ketchup, however, has remained mostly moribund, with only the variety of a few brand names to distinguish between otherwise indistinguishable squeezable red pastes. Now some Bay ... More >>

Gavin Newsom to Woo Winter Olympics to Lake Tahoe

Newsom tests the latest aerodynamic hair style for speed skaters​Our ex-mayor Gavin Newsom proved that he could bring the prestigious America's Cup to San Francisco -- even in the face of vociferous opposition. Now, in his new capacity as lieutenant governor, Newsom is taking on the bigger task of ... More >>

Little-Known Outposts

Japantown's Tofu Festival includes Rolls, Raffles, and Rapping

​Northern California Soy and Tofu Festival Where: Japantown's Peace Plaza When: Sat., June 11, 11 a.m.-4 p.m. Cost: Free The rundown: Tofu takes over S.F.'s Japantown at the first annual Soy and Tofu Festival happening tomorrow. A staple in Asian cuisine, not many food products have the ve ... More >>

How to Be the Most Annoying Person at a Show

We know this is an odd thing to assist you with, but we're increasingly convinced that a certain section of the showgoing public is seriously trying to achieve this most shameful of goals. Why are we trying to help them? Well, we figure if these jackasses really knuckle down and go for it, the chanc ... More >>

Sci-Fi Fandom, the Prequel

E-40 Continues Revenue Retrievin, Revisits His Past Hits

The long wait is over; the next two installments in the Revenue Retrievin series from Vallejo's own E-40 -- the sequels to last year's Day Shift and Night Shift -- are finally out. Just in time for you to finish your tax returns! You know Uncle Sam's doing some serious-ass revenue retrievin' this mo ... More >>

Sion Milosky, Hawaiian Surfer, Drowns at Mavericks

A powerful wave​Top Maverick surfer Sion Milosky was killed yesterday evening after drowning while surfing the Mavericks off the coast of Half Moon Bay.Media outlets are reporting that the 35-year-old Hawaiian native died after falling in the face of a massive wave that engulfed him. He had caught ... More >>

Drink 2011: Brewers Join Forces -- Beer Ensues

Cupcakes for Choice, Drinks for Dogs, and Gumbo for Mardi Gras!

​SFoodie's roundup of tips, news, and rants from the week in animal-free eats. • Pissed about Congress-approved federal funding cuts for Planned Parenthood? I am because it's total bullshit. In response, we're doing some culinary activism in the form of a delicious bake sale at this Sunday' ... More >>

In Print: The Pomplamoose Revolution, A Guide to Noise Pop, and More

​ From the latest SF Weekly:The Pomplamoose Revolution: On an improbably sunny midwinter day, amid green pastures and meandering cows, two unassuming musicians are waging a revolution against the established order of the recording industry. Here, inside a dim shed formerly used as a dog kennel, J ... More >>

New Questions Raised About State's Imported Lethal Injection Drugs

​Newly released documents raise questions about the quality of drugs imported from abroad by state corrections officials to carry out lethal injections, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California.The documents, obtained by the ACLU through Freedom of Information Act (FO ... More >>

S.F. Fraudsters Fueled 2008 Financial Collapse

If only feds had listened back in 2006.​America's financial crisis had roots in fraudulent schemes to rope immigrants and other disadvantaged borrowers into loans they could never repay. And federal regulators knew of this problem as early as 2006, when abusive lending practices were the subject o ... More >>

We Win! L.A. Has More High Earthquake Risk Hospitals Than S.F.

The SoCal sickly are fare more likely to die in collapsing hospitals than San Franciscans​Red-staters may fantasize about San Franciscans perishing in The Big One. But a recent California Watch report identifying which hospital buildings have the highest known risk of collapse suggests we get to f ... More >>

Chips Ahoy, Cocktails Down the Hatch: This Week in Food Bloggery

J. BirdsallBehold: The majestic chocolate chip cookie.​1. You know how some people get a reputation for liking owls, and suddenly they're receiving owl earrings for Christmas, owl thank-you cards after dinner parties, and owl pencils? Well, John Birdsall put the word out that he was tasting chocol ... More >>

Eight Great Moments In Musical Punctuation History

Courtesy nationalpunctuationday.com​September 24 is National Punctuation Day, at least according to a guy with a cape in Northern California. (He's still probably cooler than Lynne Truss.) Today is the day that we brittle purists may with impunity box the ears of apostrophe abusers, comma splicers ... More >>

Great American Beer Festival Takes Over Denver, with Plenty of Bay Area Contenders

Brian YaegerS.F. beer geek Jason Henry volunteering at the Cascade Brewing booth at last year's GABF.​Thursday marks the beginning of the three-day, mind-blowing, liver-busting, gut-expanding extravaganza known as the Great American Beer Festival, now in its 29th year. Sponsored by the Brewers ... More >>

Hey, East Bay: The World's Largest Gummy Bear is Headed Your Way

Nicole Breskin/DNAinfo.comIt'Sugar's five-pound gummy bear.​Insulin at the ready! An inside source has confirmed to SFoodie that Bay Street Emeryville will soon get a branch of It'Sugar, a ginormous confectionery emporium whose CEO helped launch another notable ginormous confectionery emporium ... More >>

What Pavement Songs are You Hoping to Hear in Berkeley or Stockton?

​It's Pavement week here in Northern California: The (temporarily) reunited indie-rock band will bring its shady lanes and crooked rains to its hometown of Stockton for a show Thursday night at the Bob Hope Theatre, and to Berkeley's Greek Theatre on Friday. For the hometown show, Pavement's origi ... More >>

Reel Video Employees Have No Idea When Curtain Will Fall

View Larger MapSF Weekly reported earlier this month that Reel Video, Berkeley's beloved, offbeat trove of a movie rental joint, was slated to close. The store's parent chain, Hollywood Video, filed for bankruptcy protection in February and has announced it will close all of its American stores; thi ... More >>

Reinventing Jewish Street Food in San Francisco

pearlskitch.blogspot.comKosher brisket brewing from Pearl's Kitchen.​We enjoyed Emily Savage's cover story ("Takin' it to the streets: Jewish vendors add deli favorites to S.F. mobile food scene") of the new issue of J., the Jewish newsweekly of Northern California, if only for the imaginative ... More >>

Report: GOP Candidates Both Have Vaginas, But Different Styles

Who will be the face of the state's GOP?​That pretty much sums up the Chron's story today about Meg Whitman and Carly Fiorina. I gotta agree with Rep. Jackie Speier on this one -- there wouldn't be a story about the contrasting styles of two dudes running for public office. Some insiders followi ... More >>

Bay Area Beasts: Pterodactyls, Mystery Cats, and Sea Serpents

From Charles Gould's Mythical Monsters, via archive.org​This month saw two stories of mysterious monsters crop up in rapid succession. In Britain, the inhabitants of Buckshaw Village fear a creature that looks like a cross between a boar, a dog and large cat that upends trash bins and devours deer ... More >>

Il Cane Rosso: Proof that locally sourced eating hasn't gone too far

Hot Meal: Bar Tartine

J. BirdsallThe rib steak for two: Challenging.​Bar Tartine's been reborn. Well, reshaped. When the Valencia Street restaurant reopened two weeks ago, its menu had morphed from the meticulously etched cooking of former chef Jason Fox to the more low-slung, classic Northern California style of Chris ... More >>

The Outside Lands alternative: In the Pines

Crabby in Winter?

We prescribe fresh shellfish and other seasonal delights from the sea.

More Than Kitsch

Harry Belafonte, Patriot

Weird Science

Bouncer visits Catalyst Cocktails to see if she can cause a reaction in her housemates

Partly Sunny

Fog City Diner

Around the World in 1,000 Years

LuLu