Posts for July 12, 2012

Actually Pretty Awesome: Lobster Bread Pudding and Smoked Cod at Maverick

By Jay Barmann

The new lobster-cod-mussel "chowder" at Maverick.Photo: Brian Smeets/Grub Street

Friday the 13th marks the seventh anniversary of the opening of Maverick, which debuted on 17th Street at a time when the Mission was not synonymous with New American and Italian dining hot spots. Range and Delfina were around back then, but they're closer to the quieter Guerrero and Valencia corridors, while Maverick paved the way for places like Commonwealth and Saison to brave the grittier parts of the Inner Mission. Today we'd like to wish them happy birthday, and give a shout-out to one of the excellent new dishes on chef Emmanuel Eng's new menu, which is just about a month old.

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JapaCurry Will Open Brick-and-Mortar Spot Next Door to Sushi Zone

By Jay Barmann

JapaCurry, the very same truck that got embroiled in that little kerfuffle with a brick-and-mortar cafe downtown last year, is going brick and mortar! Eater reports that operator Jay Hamada is planning to open Roku in the Hunan Garden space at 1819 Market Street between Octavia and Guerrero, next door to Sushi Zone. It's going to be an izakaya-style dinner spot, with curries, ramen, small dishes, and yakitori, as well as chicken nanban, a fried-chicken specialty of Hamada's hometown of Kyushu that he says is huge in Tokyo right now. He's aiming for early October. [Eater]

Chefs Shuffle at La Folie, Vin Antico

By Jay Barmann

Former Bushi-tei chef and Jardinière sous chef Michael Hung has landed at a new gig, and it's a plum one: He's the new chef de cuisine at La Folie, the French restaurant helmed by Roland Passot that holds four stars from the Chronicle. As Eater reports, he had a sort of "baptism by foie" in the last couple weeks as La Folie went through about 150 pounds of the stuff a week for their Farewell to Foie Gras menu. Now, things are calming down a little. [Eater]

Also, up north in San Rafael, well regarded Italian spot Vin Antico is losing its chef of two years, Ed Vigil. Vigil took over the kitchen in 2010, but he is now out, and new chef Gesser de Leon has taken over. Vigil may reappear elsewhere, the Scoop hints, in west Marin, so stay tuned. [Scoop]

Cyrus in Healdsburg Closing This Fall; Hotel Landlords Win

By Jay Barmann

Cyrus and the hotel share a building in downtown Healdsburg.

Well, this is a curious turn of events. Cyrus, the seven-year-old Michelin two-star restaurant owned by chef Douglas Keane and partner/manager Nick Peyton, is shuttering on October 31 and coming under the ownership of the Hotel Les Mars after a protracted eviction fight that began in November of 2010. Keane and Peyton appear to have agreed to sell the assets of the Healdsburg restaurant to an affiliate of the hotel and owners Bill Foley and David Fink, Crossroads Winery. The official word is that they're wishing the new owners well, but as of two months ago this is not where we, or they, saw this going.

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The 50 Best Burgers in San Francisco

By Jay Barmann
View Slideshow

There was a time not that long ago when having a burger on your menu was déclassé unless you were a diner. Jeremiah Tower led the trend to change that, at least in San Francisco, offering a burger at Stars, and now, almost thirty years later, we live in a city chock full of fancy burgers. We still have our share of great cheap burgers, too, most of which get held up against the standard bearer: In-N-Out. So, when it came to compiling a list of the 50 best in San Francisco (with a couple nods in the direction of Oakland and Berkeley), we actually found ourselves having to trim off some perfectly excellent hunks of ground beef — even a classic or two — in order to make room for the plethora of high-quality burgers you can now find across the city.

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What Would Velma and Daphne Think?

A Wendy's drive-thru worker in Texas has been sentenced to 22 years in prison for giving customers way more than just fries with their burgers. Thirty-six-year-old Juan Antonio Rosa pleaded guilty to distributing child porn to customers who used the secret code word "Scooby Doo" when placing orders. Scooby snacks, indeed. [Brownsville Herald]

First Look at Rich Table, Opening Next Week

By Jay Barmann
View Slideshow

Rich Table (199 Gough Street), the new restaurant from married co-chefs Evan and Sarah Rich, is ready to step into the light next week — on or around July 19 if all goes according to plan. Today we bring you the first glimpse inside the space, which has been transformed since its Paul K days with some reclaimed and raw wood, muted tones, and a more cozy urban feel.

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Patxi’s Expands to Livermore, San Jose

By Jay Barmann

As of last year we knew that Patxi's Pizza was in expansion mode, and now Diablo Dish is reporting that they'll be opening their seventh Bay Area outpost in Livermore early next year. They've snagged a 3,300-square-foot space next to the Bankhead Theater at 2470 First Street, and it will have an outdoor patio as well as a full bar. Their other locations currently are in the Marina, Hayes Valley, Sunset, and Noe Valley, as well as a new one in Lafayette and their original location in Palo Alto. But that's not all. Owner William Freeman is also expanding to San Jose, and opening two locations in Denver. Sidenote: The Marina location at 3318 Fillmore will be getting a full bar soon, thanks to the pending transfer of Trigger's liquor license. [Diablo Dish]

Stock in Trade Coming to Former La Barca Space in the Marina

By Jay Barmann

We finally have a name and a bit more about the concept moving into the La Barca space at 2036 Lombard, dark since April and undergoing a total revamp. The Chron reports that the team of Tod Alsman and Chris Fogarty (both of R Bar), Cass Fegan and Vance Bernard, the son of longtime owner Jimmy Bernard, are transforming the old margarita palace into Stock in Trade. And following on the trend of the last couple years, it will be a "San Francisco tavern," aiming for an "old-school" vibe — probably not unlike Wayfare Tavern and Burritt Tavern. They've even hired former Wood Tavern chef Max diMare as consulting chef. So yes: Tavern. Look for it to open in the fall. [Chron, Earlier]

Uber Gets Into the Ice Cream Truck Market

By Jay Barmann

Well, this is weird. On Friday, Uber, the San Francisco–based on-demand car-service app, will launch a one-day test of a new service that summons ice cream trucks on demand. They'll be testing it out in seven cities, including New York, Boston, San Francisco, and Chicago — the trucks will be available to customers who request them. How does this make sense? We don't know. But Michael Pao, a general manager at Uber, seems to think that the app has other uses in the vehicle-summoning realm. "Tapping a button and having something show up is magical when it comes to transportation," he tells the Times. "We feel it will be magical for other things too." What other things? On-demand notaries? Also, didn't Kozmo.com try something like this over a decade ago? We know how that turned out. [NYT, Earlier, Earlier]

Mourning Joe: Funeral Home Installs a Starbucks

By Jenny Miller

Well, here's probably the worst barista gig we've heard of: The Robinson Funeral Home in Easley, South Carolina, is installing a Starbucks. No more need for relatives to be distracted during services by a caffeine craving when they can slurp their way through a grief-uccino or sip on some coffin coffee! Starbucks is not allowing the funeral home to put up signage outside, purportedly because this isn't a full-size store (yeah, we bet that's why), but owner Chris Robinson assures local reporters the joint is open to the public as well. Hmmm, something about this smacks of poor taste, and it's not just Starbucks' signature over-roasted beans. [News 7]

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