Bar Tartine
Six years after it opened, Bar Tartine, the restaurant offshoot of Tartine Bakery, has become Hungarian at dinner and Scandinavian at lunch. Both meals are fantastic–original and luscious. The lunchtime Danish sandwich bar was created when Bar Tartine expanded into a space next door and installed bread ovens. There, Chad Robertson bakes whole grain northern [...]
Read More →Ken Ken Ramen
During the recession, the idea of opening a successful restaurant changed. Instead of raising seven figure capital from investors, passionate cooks with a dish or two they loved to make figured out new ways to get them to the public–pop ups, restaurant sharing, food stands at farmers’ markets, food trucks, community kitchens. They invoked the [...]
Read More →Wise Sons Deli
Lord knows we need a Jewish deli in San Francisco and the Wise Sons have made it their mission to bring us one, first as a pop up, then in a booth at the Tuesday Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, and now as a brick and mortar self serve restaurant in the Mission. On the booth’s [...]
Read More →Bar Bambino
Bar Bambino’s off the radar location on 16th Street, just one block east of Mission but seeming miles away from Valencia street action, happens to be a blessing for those of us who frequent the restaurant. We can drop in, even on weekends, and usually find a seat at the communal table in the front [...]
Read More →Tartine Bakery
Asked the ridiculous “last meal” question that every famous, and not so famous, food person must endure, Jacques Pepin came up with a good answer: “the best bread with the best butter.” The 80-something Pepin, a true cultural hero, has made a career out of teaching French technique on public television and publishing companion books [...]
Read More →Bi-Rite Creamery soft serve window
Here’s my dirty little secret: I go for ice cream after eating Asian, or, as happened last night, vegetarian. The most convenient spot always turns out to be the Bi-Rite Creamery soft serve window because there is never a line. I park on the corner illegally, turn on the hazard lights, and run to the [...]
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 →La Palma
La Palma Molino y Tortilleria, 2884 24th Street (at Florida) San Francisco 415 647-1500 The difference between hand made tortillas hot off the griddle, and even freshly made packaged ones is like night and day. You don’t realize this until you eat a fresh tortilla–at Nopalito for example, where they taste like fresh corn. When [...]
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