The Chatterbox

There are plenty of new service updates for you around town, starting with the debut of lunch service at ~THE MORRIS~ in Potrero Flats. Yup, you can get that insane off-menu hamburger, and there’s also a Muscovy duck noodle soup with burnt orange and habanero broth ($16). Lunch is…

RITUAL COFFEE is taking over the former and tiny Wildcraft Espresso Bar space at Market and Noe in the Castro, just by the vintage streetcar turnaround. It will be Ritual’s sixth café, and co-founder Eileen Hassi Rinaldi is well aware of the density of cafés in the area, but…

And just like that, whoosh, Matt Semmelhack’s last remaining SF restaurant in the Mercer Restaurant Group, FÉNIX, has closed. (AQ and Bon Marché closed previously.) Hard times out there. Enjoy some quality time with your daughter, chef Mark Liberman (and we’ll see where he lands next). 1077 Mission…

Some big news coming out of Jack London Square: COFFEE MANUFACTORY (as in Tartine’s coffee roasting arm) will be locating their 5,000-square-foot headquarters there, and in the fall, BELCAMPO MEAT COMPANY will be opening one of their sustainable butcher shops and restaurants there too. Coffee Manufactory will also…

Last Friday, I can’t believe I got to host my dream throwback dinner: a tablehopper vintage Blue Fox dinner at Alfred’s (click for pics)! It was truly a wonderful evening, with guests arriving in all their finery, and the scene at the ALFRED’S bar felt like a…

Well, chefs Nick Balla and Cortney Burns are morphing and changing things up again. It ends up they will be serving their last bowl of chanko nabe (sniff sniff) as ~MOTZE~ on Saturday May 27th, and after a quick refresh (expect a field- and forest-inspired look) will be reopening in…

From slinging pizzas in 2009 at Proxy to launching SF’s first pizza truck in 2012, CASEY’S PIZZA is now getting close to opening its first brick-and-mortar location in Mission Bay, just two blocks from AT&T Park. It’s going to be a hip pizzeria, with a…

Dumpling alert! Opening this Friday May 19th in SoMa is DUMPLING TIME, and I hope they are prepared for the crush of people who are going to want to explore their menu of unique dumplings that span Chinese, Japanese, and “choose your own” fusion options. I mentioned this project a…

Last August, executive chef Anthony Strong departed the Delfina Restaurant Group after 11 years—he was first at Delfina, then opened Locanda, as well as expanding Pizzeria Delfina to its four current locations. Instead of moving on to another restaurant gig, Strong has created his own business model: SF’s…

After closing on February 17th due to water damage in their kitchen—which required immediate repairs—~SOCIALE~ now has a new kitchen (along with some other upgrades) and plans to reopen on Tuesday May 23rd. Chef Tia Harrison has reportedly made some tweaks to the menu as well. Welcome back!…