Where to take Mom
Next to Christmas, Mother’s Day is the biggest retail bonanza of the year, a $14 billion industry according to the National Retail Federation, a group that has done its research on the consuming preferences of moms. Guess again if you thought mom wants a day at home with the family. 73% of moms like to [...]
Read More →903
Econ 101: fill a need and they will come. Matsumi Takehara, mother of two, elite pastry chef and owner of the Sandbox Bakery in Bernal Heights, wanted a place in her neighborhood where parents and kids could have a good time eating together. Her bakery started that mission two years ago, but 903, her restaurant [...]
Read More →Gilberth’s
A newcomer to Dogpatch, Gilberth’s quietly started serving a unique menu of pan-Latin American fusion last month. Without a sign, beer and wine, or press releases, its opening was so soft, hardly anyone noticed. But once you eat there, you won’t forget it. My road to discovery started around the block from the Workshop Residence [...]
Read More →Roostertail
Roostertail, a new, family run chicken rotisserie a block from the Kabuki movie theater, captures what ingredient-crazed, vegetable gorging, farmers’ market addicted San Franciscans truly like: vibrant home-style cooking. While nothing can beat a chicken roasted at home, torn apart hot from the oven, the golden skinned birds at Roostertail ( $6.50/ quarter; $18.50/whole) come [...]
Read More →Tacolicious and Bar Mosto
Are these people crazy? Why bring another taqueria to the Mission where, thank goodness, $3.50 still buys a soulful taco piled high with meat, and $6.50 a burrito that satisfies all day? Because the Mission doesn’t have anything like Tacolicious, a full service operation with a Mexico City-style menu, an adjoining tequila bar, a tailored [...]
Read More →Original Joe’s
Eaters in this town wondered if Original Joe’s would ever reopen after a fire destroyed it four years ago. This beloved institution, started in 1937, drew devoted customers from all walks of life to one of the funkiest blocks of the Tenderloin. I am ecstatic to report that the new Original Joe’s, in the former [...]
Read More →State Bird Provisions
The ideal culinary couple, chef Stuart Brioza and pastry chef Nicole Krasinski, last cooked for the public at Rubicon, until Francis Ford Coppola sold it in 2008. But their luminous dinners made such an impression, their patrons swept them up for private events. When I ran into Brioza at the farmers market over the years, [...]
Read More →Acquerello
Luxury has lost some luster in San Francisco. Natives now wait in line at itinerant food trucks to eat standing up from cardboard cartons. A mania for street food has swept the City. But the high end restaurant is fighting back. Recently, Acquerello, the distinguished, 21 year old bastion of refined northern Italian food and [...]
Read More →Plow
The baby sitting next to me at Plow had impeccable manners. She delicately ate her chocolate spiced donut hole ($1.75) without spraying crumbs, unlike me. And then she sat patiently until the rest of breakfast arrived, which took awhile since the dining room in this sun-lit, converted architect’s studio on a Potrero Hill corner, was [...]
Read More →Golden Gate Dim Sum Seafood Restaurant
Golden Gate Dim Sum Seafood Restaurant 1829 Clement Street (at 19th Street), San Francisco Contact: 415 666-3883; www.goldengatedimsumsf.com Recommended dishes: pork neck with fermented black beans, red wine oxtail, turnip cake with Chinese sausage, herb chicken feet, claypot with gingko nuts; dessert soup of jasmine tea, soy milk and tofu skin My elegant Shanghai friends, [...]
Read More →Subscribe to the Newsletter
After 11 volumes of Unterman on Food, I am suspending printed publication. Thanks to all of you who have supported the newsletter for so many years. We have shared many delicious experiences.
If you have any issues left on your subscription, I can mail you a refund check for the remaining issues or donate the credit to Gambia Rising, a nonprofit started by a friend who was in the Peace Corps that pays for school for Gambian girls, 100% of the donation goes directly to the girls' education. Please email me to let me know what you prefer.
You can continue to visit this website, for posts about food, restaurants and travel.