The Chatterbox

Last December, before the holiday season kicked in, I co-hosted The Family Meal, a chefs-only after-hours spaghettata with Sosh at Locanda, which was a blurry night of Negronis, caviar and SKYY vodka shots, foie gras on gingerbread, mountains of spaghetti, and a showstopping croquembouche for dessert. Yup, the Turtle Tower…

The former Video Cafe space on Geary has a new taker, and this time it’s the Ng family, who also owns the Koi Palace restaurants in Daly City and Dublin. This new project is called DRAGON BEAUX and is rather ambitious. Scoop reports that co-owner Willy Ng wants the…

The Bacchus Management Group (of Spruce and The Village Pub) is opening a restaurant in the Saratoga Hotel building, Scoop reports. The neighborhood, in the Tenderloin/Lower Nob Hill, is unusual for the group—they’ve typically opened shop in places like Pacific Heights, the Marina, and Woodside. We have…

The FROG HOLLOW café in the Ferry Building has made some exciting changes, launching Tuesday March 10th. To start, they now have a beer and wine license and will be serving two beers (Jagged Edge IPA and Hefeweizen Bavarian Wheat), along with two white wines (Bloomfield chardonnay and viognier) and…

Dustin “Dusty” Stewart and his wife, Kristin, who own local food trucks and a Fresno restaurant, are opening their first San Francisco brick-and-mortar, DUSTY BUNS BISTRO, in the former Source space. Eater caught the news that they are now open. The specialty is sandwiches on freshly baked, soft buns, with…

You can now get weekend brunch (and delicious cocktails, of course) at ~TROU NORMAND~. They’re serving it on Saturdays and Sundays from 11am to 2pm, with dishes like coppa, soft-boiled egg, asparagus, and mizuna ($12) and brown rice porridge with duck confit and poached egg ($15). The full charcuterie…

SINBAD’S, the old-school and kind of scruffy seafood place on the water behind the Ferry Building, is closing. I know, fans of the bar (that view!) will be bummed to lose it. According to Scoop, they are in a bit of a dispute with their landlord (the Port of…

Over at ~ONE MARKET~, chef Mark Dommen is getting ready to start his popular Weekly Beast series again, and the first one on Friday March 6th will launch with a whole new beast: water buffalo. The series will also include lamb, duck, goat, and more from local farmers, running until…

Fruitvale restaurant THE HALF ORANGE will now be open seven days a week, as of Sunday March 8th. Their new hours are Mon-Sat 11:30am-9pm and Sun 12pm-8pm. They’re also adding a breakfast sandwich to the weekend menu, and given owner Jay Porter’s skill with housemade sausage and…

Michael Bilger and Evin Gelleri of the former Georges restaurant in the Financial District have a new project in the works. It’s opening in the former Dixie space in the Presidio and will be called SESSIONS. According to a press release, they’ll be offering “craft beer, craft cuisine,…