It seems one of the hottest cuisines in San Francisco for 2011 is Eastern European, what with Bar Bambino going in that direction (the root cuisines of Italian being Hungarian, Slovenian, etc.); the opening of Leopold’s this week; and now with the news that chef Nick Balla, most recently of Nombe, announcing that he’ll be taking Bar Tartine in that direction too when he takes over from Chris Kronner in March. The Scoop got the early dirt from Balla, whose own heritage is Hungarian, and who’ll be headed on a research trip soon through Eastern and Central Europe with owner Chad Robertson. [Scoop, Earlier]
