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Scheduled to open a couple weeks ago was Sake San (626 Clement Street at 7th), a new yakitori and sushi (and possibly ramen) spot morphing out of what was Volar Karaoke. The story is that there will still be three karaoke rooms, but they're adding a 25-seat bar and will now serve food along with sake and soju. Eater had a rendering and a few details last month, and we've so far been unable to reach the owners, though the liquor license (under the name "Volar Ramen Lounge") just came through this week, so the opening is likely imminent. Please tip us off if you're in the Richmond and you see that new sign up. [Eater]

As the Scoop is reporting, via a sign posted outside, Shanghai has shuttered after four and a half months in the former Mecca space at 2029 Market. Restaurateur Francis Tsai, some might say stubbornly, tried for a third time to make a go of it with a Chinese restaurant in the ground floor space of the building, after both attempts in 2011 and 2012, Pudong and Gingerfruit, failed to draw crowds and each closed just months after opening. Shanghai was the biggest bet Tsai placed so far, having partially remodeled the dining room and reconfigured the bar, but as we observed after it opened, it still didn't feel markedly different enough from the original bones of Mecca, which many in the neighborhood still identify with the location four years after it closed. Tsai had said earlier that he struggled to find a good tenant for the space, and decided he was his own best tenant. [Scoop]

The fate of Hostess is still in limbo, but one artist is bringing attention to the nationwide outcry for more Twinkies. Nancy Peppin makes Twinkie-inspired art, using mediums such as watercolor, mixed media, and creative writing to express her love for the "ultimate American food icon." It gets stranger; her "Twinkies in history series" shows how she thinks Charles Darwin and Leonardo da Vinci would have portrayed Twinkies in journals and books. One of her pieces includes the prolific passage, "Twinkies radiate out from the spring St. Louis breeding area to the summer nesting habitats throughout the world. Populations are heaviest in the North American 7-11 meridian." So is her beloved, possibly extinct Twinkie now just a cultural artifact?

For food products to be billed as halal, they have to be prepared according to strict Islamic dietary laws. The criteria specifies which foods are allowed (pork, for example, is forbidden) as well as how the food must be prepared. If God's name isn't invoked before an animal is slaughtered, no dice. McDonald's has two franchises in the country that sell halal products, and both are in Dearborn, Michigan, home to one of the nation's largest Arab and Muslim communities. But Ahmed Ahmed, a special McChicken sandwich detective, discovered that one of the Dearborn locations wasn't complying with Islamic dietary laws.