The Chatterbox

You all fired up on home canning and kombucha? I know I am. In case you have caught some DIY fever, CUESA (the Center for Urban Education about Sustainable Agriculture) is offering a ~SERIES OF DIY CLASSES~ as part of their Preservation Celebration. CUESA is offering classes on fermentation and…

Whoa, some local restaurants have been taken down with fires this past week, damn. Last Friday, ~CHOW~ in the Castro suffered a fire in the flue in the morning, and will now be closed for a few weeks for repairs. Will let you know when the reopening is in sight,…

This just in: the Bacchus Management Group (Spruce, Village Pub, Mayfield Bakery & Cafe, Pizza Antica) has strapped on their Superman cape, and will be working to help sort out the financial mess that is ~AQUA~. From the release: "Bacchus Management Group, in request of the court, has been…

Over at ~THE ALEMBIC~ in the Haight, co-chef Jordan Grosser has departed—co-chef Ted Fleury will now be running the kitchen solo. In an email, Grosser mentioned making some fresh goat or sheep cheeses (perhaps turning up on restaurant menus around town soon?) and is looking to take part in…

~THE CORNER~, the newer sister restaurant to Weird Fish in the Mission is going through some significant changes: there's a new chef, Alex Jackson. Jackson's background includes Gramercy Tavern (he staged there for six months), a year at Fergus Henderson's St. John, plus Joel…

Some of the biggest news in the last couple of weeks was about chef Nate Appleman's sudden departure from the ~A16/SPQR~ restaurants and group. He is currently in New York, so I am sure we'll hear soon enough where he is turning up next in…

For me, the biggest bummer last week was the news that Katharine Zacher and Ryan Ostler are no longer running their kitchen in the back of ~BROKEN RECORD~ in the Excelsior. I had a chat with them and learned it was just too much of a grind for them to…

The opening for ~TRADEMARK~ in the former Voda space in Belden Alley is looking like this Friday, or next Monday. To recap, this 85-seater is from Peter Snyderman of Elite Café and the Café Bastille/Plouf/B44 crew of Olivier Azancot and Eric Klein. The deets: it's a…

What is touted to be the City's greenest café, ~THE PLANT CAFE ORGANIC~ will open this Thursday June 25th in Pier 3 on the city's waterfront, just north of the Ferry Building. It's a spacious one: 4,600 square feet, and 112 seats. CCS…

A little birdie tells me Erica Holland-Toll (most recently the chef at the former Lark Creek Inn) is the new executive chef of ~DUCCA~ and the Westin (she just started yesterday). The current menu is going to be intact for a few months, and she will start making changes then.…