State Bird Provisions, Another Look
I reviewed State Bird Provisions for the Examiner shortly after it opened in February, 2012, jumping the gun because I was so excited about it. Chef/owner Stuart Brioza and his two partners were still tinkering with the concept, an unusual food delivery system of dim sum carts and trays that stopped at each table. Essentially [...]
Read More →Salumeria
Almost every neighborhood in San Francisco has its beloved corner grocery/deli, where the hungry can get thick, made to order subs, chips, a beer. For fourteen years I lived in North Beach a block away from Freddy’s, an old timer on the corner of Francisco and Grant. I still have fond memories of the prosciutto [...]
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 →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 [...]
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