Posts for September 13, 2012 -- Grub Street San Francisco -- Restaurant News, Openings, Chefs

Posts for September 13, 2012

9/13/12 at 4:54 PM
Neighborhood Watch
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Porkapalooza at Bloodhound; A Crab Shack Opens in Half Moon Bay

SoMa: On Saturday afternoon, Bloodhound (1145 Folsom) is hosting a Porkapalooza starring Citizen's Band chef Chris Beerman at which there will be butchery performed on the pool table. $60 gets you a bunch of food, and two drinks. Tickets here. [SFist]
Hayes Valley: Two Sisters Bar and Books gets the Bar Bite treatment. [Chron]
Half Moon Bay: Poppy's Crab Shack, a trailer selling really fresh crab items, just opened. [Eater]

9/13/12 at 3:52 PM
Awards
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Oakland Healthy Food Advocate Honored By the Obamas

By Jay Barmann

Dana Harvey, the founder and executive director of Mandela MarketPlace in West Oakland, was honored by the Obama Administration for her work to make healthy foods and fresh produce accessible in Oakland. "Strengthening food security" is a topic that is close to the Obamas' hearts, particularly with Michelle's efforts to combat childhood obesity, and Harvey was one of eleven people invited to the White House last week to be honored as a Champion of Change. Because it was the week of the DNC, Harvey didn't get to meet the Obamas, but she said she nevertheless "cried" during the panel discussion, "because it’s very emotional." Harvey helped found Mandela Marketplace six years ago to raise funds to open the Mandela Foods Cooperative, a full-service grocery store and nutrition education center in West Oakland that also does wholesale distribution of fresh produce to local convenience stores that wouldn't otherwise carry it. [Oakland North]

9/13/12 at 2:10 PM
Culinary Twitterings
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Michelin Inspectors Call Wood Tavern ‘Delish’ and Bouche ‘Uneven’

By Jay Barmann

Shhh. We still have no clue who the inspector are.

It's time again to check in on our anonymous local Michelin inspectors, of whom there are three (we do not know their genders) and who collectively tweet at @MichelinGuideSF. The past couple weeks have found them all over the Bay, but below we have a couple highlights from their dining. The new 2013 guide, by the way, comes out next month, and all their star decisions have likely been made by now.

9/13/12 at 1:40 PM
Previews
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Borgo Italia Due to Open Tuesday in Old Oakland

By Jay Barmann

The former B Restaurant space.

We have an update for you on the new restaurant project called Borgo Italia from Paul Ferrari, the owner of the A.G. Ferrari chain. It's debuting on Tuesday, September 18 in the former B Restaurant space at Ninth and Washington Streets in Old Oakland, and the chef will be Franco Camboli. The menu focuses on the cuisines of Emilia-Romagna, Liguria, and Tuscany, with such Northern specialties as torta fritta Emiliana (puffy fried dough with salumi), tagliatelle di castagne (chestnut flour tagliatelle, Speck, pine nuts and Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese), and spezzatino (veal stew with white wine and tomato).

9/13/12 at 12:05 PM
Front of House
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Marina Dude Bribes Tacolicious Hostess With Two Dollars, His Digits

Bribery fail! A guy at the Chestnut Street location of Tacolicious, according to manager/marketing guy Kory Codgill, recently tried to bribe one of the hostesses with two bucks and his phone number. Nice try, jackass! "I told her never to call that guy," Codgill says. "He's probably not going to take her on a good date." P.S. Everyone has to wait, and they don't take bribes. [Eater]

9/13/12 at 10:55 AM
Empire Building
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Blue Fog Market Opening New Branch on Upper Polk

By Jay Barmann

Blue Fog Market (2567 Gough Street), the Cow Hollow gourmet deli and café which for a few years had a second location in Pacific Heights (now closed), is now going to try opening another location in Polk Gulch at the corner of Polk and Sacramento. They're taking over the former market known as Nob Hill Beverages, next door to Kozy Kar (link NSFW) and the timeline according to an employee at the Gough Street store is looking like late fall, maybe as late as December. As at the other location, the focus will be fancy sandwiches, coffee, and grab-and-go meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. And they'll be competing with the upcoming expansion of Blue Barn Gourmet at Polk and Green, which remains delayed. [Grub Street]

9/13/12 at 10:25 AM
Mikey Doesn't Like It
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Bauer Slams Credo With One Star, Calls the Food ‘Bizarre’ and ‘Outré’

By Jay Barmann

He's baffled, basically.Photo: Courtesy of Credo

Michael Bauer hasn't been much of a fan of Credo from the outset, and a new chef hasn't helped things. He says the popular FiDi restaurant, which is owned by Democratic Party big-wig Clint Reilly and lives at the base of the Merchants Exchange Building, has topped his list of "bizarre meals" in the last two years when he's paid them revisits. During one recent meal, he watched the chef disappear from the kitchen for an hour, received several "inexpertly prepared" dishes like an "outré" octopus carpaccio, and had a pasta dish totally forgotten by the server, only to arrive late but with "a sheet of melting, crinkled plastic wrap" mixed in with it. The manager tried to comp the meal, but Bauer insisted on paying for his wine, and they sent out free desserts, which were terrible.

9/13/12 at 9:50 AM on Grub Street Boston
Video Feed
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Watch San Francisco Offal King Chris Cosentino Hit the Town and Talk Porn, "BTs" With Coppa's Jamie Bissonnette

By Kara Baskin

Sorry, San Franciscans: Cosentino proudly calls himself an East Coaster in this video with his offal Boston counterpart, Jamie Bissonnette. Watch as Jamie and Chris enjoy beef heart crostini at JM Curley, sing the praises of Barbara Lynch ("Barbara from the Block!"), and devour buffalo heart at Toro (which will soon open in New York). Enjoy the meaty, ball-tappin' (you'll see) video straight ahead. Then watch him consume even more meat at New York's Takashi!

9/13/12 at 9:21 AM
Burgers
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Benders Gets on the Doughnut Burger Bandwagon

By Jay Barmann

You know how Straw has that doughnut burger that is both marvelous and disgusting all at once? Well, now Benders, the dive bar at 19th and South Van Ness with the small kitchen and burger-centric menu, is doing a Doughnut Bacon Cheeseburger with a side of tater tots. It's for a limited time only, says Uptown Almanac, and apparently kind of tasty, so you'd better hurry if this is your idea of a good time. [Uptown Almanac]

9/13/12 at 8:30 AM on Grub Street NY
Money Money Money
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Paula Deen’s Newest Moneymaker: ‘Anti-Fatigue’ Kitchen Mats

By Alan Sytsma

She's too rich to care what we think.Illustration: Andrei Kallaur, Jen Cotton

There's little doubt that Paula Deen is a name-licensing legend: After all, this is the woman who sells butter-flavord lip balm and parlayed a type 2 diabetes diagnosis into a prescription-medicine spokesperson deal. But her deals go much deeper than that. The latest example: a press release that calls our attention to a line of Paula Deen–branded Anti-Fatigue Kitchen Mats.

9/13/12 at 7:00 AM on Grub Street NY
The Feeding Tube
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Thomas Keller and Phil Rosenthal Teaming Up for New Food Pilot

By Alan Sytsma

The talent.Photo: Getty Images

It sounds like Thomas Keller is finally getting serious about food TV: While the chef appears here and there on television (and famously consulted on the movie Ratatouille), he's never had his own show. But this might be a start. Grub Street learns he's headed to London with producer Phil Rosenthal to start production on the pilot for a still-unnamed series.

9/13/12 at 6:25 AM on Grub Street NY
Overnights
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Top Chef Masters Recap: An Unforgivable Elimination

By Michael Alan Connelly

Making all the wrong choices.Photo: Isabella Vosmikova/Bravo

Last night, the unthinkable occurred on Top Chef Masters — well, not the unthinkable, which of course would be Art popping out of a cake in a diaper and proposing to Curtis, but it was something pretty bad. I’d like to think I’ll never forgive the judges for what they’ve done, but it’s fine if they want to ruin the show’s credibility and, frankly, I’ll be moving on to happier thoughts after this kitchen closes. But before that happens, let’s revisit the grim details of last night’s competition and again place bets on who’s going to win, shall we?

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