Category: The Latest

Hidden Whimsical-Molecular Restaurant (Formerly A Beloved Pop-Up) Opens On A Sleepy Residential Block: Anomaly SF

by  on  in The Latest

The speakeasy trend peaked in the mid-aughts in New York and San Francisco cocktails bars where it first launched in the years prior, just as it was taking off around the country. But the clamor for “secret,” hidden spaces in restaurants and bars has not abated. There remains a thrill in finding a gem behind nondescript doors, a hidden room, a cozy hideaway.

Brand new Anomaly SF, opening January 19, 2023, from chef/owner (and former competitive cyclist) Mike Lanham, feels like just such a space. Read more →

Latin Vibes, Tunes, Cocktails & Food with Stunning SF Views at New Rooftop Bar, Cavaña

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Rooftop bars are proliferating in San Francisco these days… brand new Cavaña just opened late January 2023 on the 17th floor of the LUMA Hotel San Francisco. A stones’ throw from the SF Giants’ Oracle Park, you can hear the ballpark (and at times, concerts) din buzzing nearby as you take in stunning city views of blazing sunsets behind Twin Peaks and the Sutro Tower from the south patio with outdoor bar, to the more chill, fireside glow of downtown SF and the Bay Bridge on Cavaña’s north and east sides. Read more →

Boundary-Pushing Asian Food at Two Newcomers: Taiwanese-Inspired Piglet & Co. & Chinese-Venezuelan Cantoo

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This week, I share experiences at two newcomers playing with the boundaries of Asian cuisine. One is a pop-up turned hip, new Mission district restaurant hidden behind a graffitied wall, Bruce Lee films on two TVs above the bar, striking paintings of birds. The other is a fluorescent-lit, Tenderloin spot, half underground, roomy but utilitarian in design. The former just opened early January 2023, the other two days before Christmas 2022. They are dissimilar in most ways but for their surprising interplay of Asian cuisines. Read more →

Former Laundromat Turned Idyllic Neighborhood Hang for Detroit Pizza, Sips & Bagels

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Opened November 2022 in San Francisco’s Outer Richmond neighborhood, The Laundromat SF is, yes, housed in a former Laundromat. It’s also a block away from one of our historic theater gems worth supporting year-round: Balboa Theater. In fact, owners Jaimi Holker and Adam Bergeron are behind CinemaSF and run the Balboa Theater, so the connection holds synergy. The Laundromat makes an ideal pre- or post-film spot for a bite and drinks… Read more →

Chic New Italian Cocktail & Food Haven Hidden in the FiDi: Bar Sprezzatura

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The new Bar Sprezzatura — opening November 2022 — is in an easy parking post-6pm area, quiet at night. In fact, the restaurant is only open lunch and dinner, Monday through Friday, so it’s ideal for workday meetings, European-esque long lunches and evening gatherings, from bites and drinks to a full meal. Visiting twice now, once for lunch, once for dinner, I had to name it one of the top 14 new restaurant openings of 2022. Read more →

December Eats Checklist: 7 Standouts of the Month

by  on  in The Latest, Top Tastes

These newcomers or new menus cover the gamut, from Sebastopol (Sonoma County) treasures in Thai and pizza to SF gems in Creole/Cajun, Japanese and elevated bar food. Alongside this month’s full restaurant reviews of these exceptional spots, these seven are also worth visiting, with last month’s standouts here (as always, I’ve vetted, visited or ordered from each place reviewed): Read more →

Lyon & Swan: New Live Entertainment Supper Club with Quality Food & Drink

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Lyon & Swan is a unique North Beach supper club. Hidden downstairs from the new Sonoma-based Eco Terreno Urban Tasting Room on Columbus Avenue, there’s a small wine production facility and aging tank upstairs and wine tasting room and bites on the main floor. L&S is much smaller than the grand supperclubs of the 1940s, but its intimacy is more like sleek jazz bars of the 1950s-60s, albeit way roomier than cramped legends like the NYC’s Village Vanguard. They offer live entertainment, heavy on musicians but also including drag queens, cabaret singers and comedians. Read more →