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Jun 20, 2016 11 min read

June 21, 2016 - This week's tablehopper: late lunch club.

June 21, 2016 - This week's tablehopper: late lunch club.
Table of Contents

This week's tablehopper: late lunch club.                    

Kingfish and osetra caviar tartare with smoked crème fraîche emulsion and roe at Le Bernardin. Photo: © tablehopper.com.

I swear, I keep having to pinch myself, and it’s not because I added a new waistline roll from all the pizza, bagels, and cacio e pepe I’m eating out here… I just got home from a spectacular four-and-a-half-hour lunch (whoops) at Le Bernardin (finally got to go!), thanks to the generous invitation from my visiting friend, Foodie Chap Liam Mayclem (or as I affectionately call him, Mayhem). Yeah, it was a deadline day, but when Le Bernardin is a 10-minute walk from your place you’re moving out of in 10 days, you gotta do it.

This past weekend was also a dream: my friend of 25 years invited me out to his summer place in Amagansett. Tooling around in his tomato red ‘66 Duetto brought back all of my summertime Alfa Romeo love, and waking up from a nap on the beach to a snack of potato chips, lobster salad, and Pied à Terre sauvignon blanc is a fricking ridiculous thing. The evening beach snack to end all beach snacks. I guess it’s how they roll in the Hamptons—or at least my friend Aaron (nice work, friend!).

I made it back into the city on time on Sunday to meet my dear literary agent (a former New Yorker) for dinner at Minetta Tavern—I had to finally try that Black Label burger. It was cooked perfectly, and the flavor was on point, but I think we enjoyed the Belgian chocolate soufflé the most. I prefer juicier burgers—always like a couple of drips over my fries, you know?

Last night was another checklist item handled: seeing the Mingus Big Band perform at the Jazz Standard. Goddamn, such screaming talent in that crew. Caught the early show so I still had time to burn the midnight oil and finish writing this column. All in a day’s work, I tell ya.

This weekend will be my first Pride in New York after celebrating it for 22 years in San Francisco. Am thinking of all my gay friends in San Francisco and around the world—it’s especially a poignant one this year. But like everything else I have experienced in New York, I look forward to the adventure and warm welcome this weekend, and honoring the path and fight and journey everyone in the LGBTQ community has taken. Shine on.

With love, support, gratitude, and pride, Marcia Gagliardi


the chatterbox

Gossip & News (the word on the street)

Openings Include Dum, Little Giant Ice Cream, and Tacolicious Marina Location Moving

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Communal table at the new Dum in the Mission. Yelp photo by Albertino M.

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Enjoy a scoop at the new Little Giant location in SF Yelp photo by C.H.

Some openings around town for you, starting with the opening of DUM in the former Local Mission Eatery. Owner Rupam Bhagat is behind the popular Indian food truck, Dum, and you’ll find some of its menu repeated on the restaurant menu, with dum chicken or lamb biryani, plus kati rolls and dahi puri, and daily specials, one meat and one vegetarian. Hours are Tue-Sat 11am-10pm, Sun 11am-9pm. 3111 24th St. at Folsom, 415-874-9045.

Newly open in the Financial District is the SF location of LITTLE GIANT ICE CREAM, an import from Oakland. They are known for their unusual flavors (asparagus or Mexican rocky road, anyone?) and robots! They are flanking Claude Lane, and you can perch on colorful stools in the alley. Since their Oakland factory HQ has an in-house, state-certified milk plant, they can make their own flavors with limited-production vat pasteurization equipment. Everything is made from scratch, including their awesome waffle cones! Hours are 12-9pm daily. 214 Sutter St. at Claude Lane.

Just a heads-up that TACOLICIOUS Marina is having its last service on Sunday June 26th, and will be closing in order for the team to do-si-do over to their new place just down Chestnut Street, which is due to open on Thursday June 30th. We’ll share some pics and details next week.

In the meantime, Tacolicious is launching its 7th Annual Summer Guest Chef Series benefiting CUESA. Come by the Tacolicious stand at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market on Thursdays for lunch from 10am-2pm, June 23rd-August 11th. Proceeds from the chefs’ tacos go directly to CUESA (they have raised $20,000 so far!). Any guest who purchases one of their guest chef tacos four times or more over the course of the series is eligible to enter to win a grand prize, so get a card stamped!

Here is the lineup:

6/23 Sarah and Evan Rich (Rich Table) 6/30 Jason Fox (Commonwealth, Oro) 7/7 Ryan Farr (4505 Meats) 7/14 Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski (State Bird Provisions, Progress) 7/21 Michael Tusk (Quince, Cotogna) 7/28 Telmo Faria (Uma Casa) 8/4 Special guest chef Donnie Masterton who’s flying up from San Miguel de Allende, Mexico! 8/11 Adam Rosenblum (Popsons)

Looking Forward to...More Jane in the Fillmore and Yank Sing Expanding?

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Jane’s egg white sandwich with spinach, avocado, Sriracha, and provolone on house-baked bread. Photo via Facebook by Crystal Millan.

This is definitely something in the “I didn’t see that coming” camp: adored and stylish local baker and café JANE will be opening a third location in the previous Taco Bell/KFC combo space smack-dab in the middle of the Fillmore. Hoodline reports it will be used for bakery production, in addition to being a café space for the public (coffee, smoothies, sandwiches, and more). Owner Amanda Michael likes the strip mall location, one of the last in SF, and there’s that convenient parking lot! Look for a September opening. 1881 Geary Blvd at Steiner.

There are some rumors percolating on Chowhound that YANK SING is looking to take over the huge, 16,000-square-foot Crystal Jade location, and a post insinuates Yank Sing’s lease at Rincon Center is up soon. We reached out to Yank Sing, but they can’t comment at this time, so let’s just keep an eye on things.

In the meantime, if you swing by Crystal Jade this month (June), they are offering their xiao long bao soup dumplings for 25 cents apiece from 5pm-7pm. Orders are served in Crystal Jade’s bar area and on the outdoor patio, and the deal is limited to 2 orders (total of 8 pieces) per table. Regular price: $9 per order. Four Embarcadero Center, Drumm St. at Sacramento, 415-399-1200.

Cadence Closes, Owner of Sam's Leaves Us, Balompié Temporarily Closed

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Booth seating at Cadence. Photo by Tory Putnam.

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The classic late-night burger at Sam’s. Photo: © tablehopper.com.

After six months of business, CADENCE in Mid-Market is closing. Eater reports the last night of service will be Saturday July 2nd. (FYI, they are trying to clear their wine cellar and are selling bottles at 50 percent off.) You can read more in this note from owner Jay Bordeleau, who will continue to operate the adjoining jazz club and bar, Mr. Tipple’s Recording Studio (and Maven in the Lower Haight). No word on where chef Joey Elenterio is off to next. 1446 Market St. at Polk, 415-851-8561.

Was sorry to read Mike Shawa, the mustachioed owner of North Beach late-night burger church, SAM’S, has passed away at the age of 70. Hoodline reports Shawa’s uncle Sam opened the burger joint in 1966. He will be missed by his many patrons, who he treated as kindly as family—because his customers were family! Condolences to his family and many friends.

Fans of the pupusas at the 18th Street location of BALOMPIÉ in the Mission should know the place is temporarily closed for a minimum of six months (possibly a year) for a retrofit. Look for a reopening in 2017—owner Amadeo Gonzalez has run Balompié for 28 years. The other Balompié at 3801 Mission Street remains open.

Balompié            - 3349 18th St. San Francisco - 415-648-9199

New Service Includes Brunch at Volta, Weekday Lunch at Myriad

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Brunch is now served at Volta. Photo via Facebook.

The next time you’d like to do some brunch followed by downtown shopping, take note that VOLTA is now serving brunch Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30am-2:30pm. There are poached eggs with smoked salmon, sautéed spinach, pain de mie, and dill hollandaise, or a tartine with toasted levain, wild mushroom ragout, jambon de Paris, egg yolk, and red wine reduction, plus items that lean more to the lunchy side. The full brunch menu can be viewed here. (There’s also a new happy hour and bar snacks menu, Mon-Fri 3pm-6pm.)

If you’re looking for a substantial lunch in the Mission, MYRIAD GASTROPUB is celebrating turning one by offering lunch service. The menu has dishes like BLT soup, a roasted chicken salad, and roasted lamb sandwich with Moroccan tomato jam, feta, cilantro aioli, and arugula salad. Lunch is Mon-Fri 11am-3pm. There’s also a late day/happy hour menu every day from 3pm-5pm. 2491 Mission St. at 21st St., 415-525-4335.

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the new yawker

Dispatches from NYC (you talkin’ to me?)

Where the World's 50 Best Chefs Eat When They're in New York

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Lara Gilmore and Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards. Photo: © tablehopper.com.

As you know, last week I had quite the time attending the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards and after-party. I interviewed a number of top chefs about where they were eating (or like to eat) when they’re in New York; you can read my post on Time Out New York.

I enjoyed speaking with Lara Gilmore, Massimo Bottura’s wife and curator at Osteria Francescana, which won as the number one restaurant. This portion was cut from my article, so I thought I’d run it here since she covered a lot of places they were eating while in town:

“When we come to New York, it’s really about seeing friends—chef friends, colleagues, people who work in New York restaurants who have done a stagiaire in our restaurant. Late Friday night, we went to Cosme, of course to see Daniela—she is an amazing chef. The next night we went to Momofuku Ko. Massimo cooked last July for Gelinaz at Ko, so we formed a bit of a family bond there, lovely meal. Then we saw Mario Batali who has been a supporter and friend for many many years, went to say hello at his new place, La Sirena.

“We have a table at Babu Ji—we can’t wait to go there, we tried to get there in January but we couldn’t get a table. We’re at EMP tomorrow night, which is always a place that we stop by.

“We got a burger at Shake Shack because that’s a must in New York for us. Massimo made a burger in 2014 on Columbus Day, an Emilia burger, so ever since then, he’s become a real fan of the whole Shake Shack tradition.

“We had a pizza at Eataly at Rossopomodoro; Eataly is like our second family when we are in New York. Breakfast was at The NoMad, where we are staying—their breakfasts are beautiful. We love Estela as well, when we can we get a table there. And we went to a little party at Aska in Williamsburg, which is reopening. Very talented chef, Swedish, New York will be very excited when that opens up.

“We were at a party at Contra with the Norwegian Seafood Council. What we love about New York is there is always something to look forward to, something new, something old, something that is in your heart forever. Our saddest moment right now is the fact that the Four Seasons is closing, it has so many memories for us, especially eating at the bar, and [Julian] Niccolini who was the maître d’ there for so long, but we are big fans of [Mario Carbone and Rich] Torrisi, so who knows what they’ll do!”

You can read my entire post on Time Out New York.

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the lush

Bar News & Reviews (put it on my tab)

Brews News: Barebottle Brew Co. Opens, Plus Ferment.Drink.Repeat.

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Ferment.Drink.Repeat. is now open in Portola. Photo via FDR.

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Barebottle in Bernal (check out the groovy hop pendant lights!). Photo via Facebook.

Do you smell something brewing in Bernal? That would be BAREBOTTLE BREW CO., newly opened on Cortland. The taproom features test beers on tap that were voted the best in homebrew competitions that the brewery hosts (like what would a Russian Hill imperial stout or Muir Woods-inspired IPA taste like?), and there are production beers available as well. Eater mentions there is a rotating number of food trucks visiting the brewery, plus homebrewing classes, lectures, and more. Open Wed-Fri 3pm-9pm, Sat 12pm-9pm, Sun 12pm-7pm. 1525 Cortland Ave. at Bradford, 415-926-8617.

We broke the news back in 2014 about FERMENT.DRINK.REPEAT, a nano-brewery, homebrew supply shop, taproom, and brewery incubator that was coming to the Portola neighborhood from Kevin and Shae Inglin (a husband-and-wife team). After two years of getting things permitted and built out and squared away, their grand opening is this Saturday June 25th. They will be brewing all beers on-site, with a seven-barrel brew system. The grand opening is 10am-10pm, and they will have food for sale, music, a brewery tour, and more. Moving forward, visitors can bring their own food, as well as well-behaved kids and dogs. It’s a party. Follow their Facebook page for updates. Hours are Tue-Wed 3pm-9pm, Thu 3pm-10pm, Fri 1pm-10pm, Sat 10am-10pm, Sun noon to TBD; the homebrew shop closes at 7pm on most days. 2636 San Bruno Ave. at Burrows.

Wine Down Opens, and a Taste of Mendocino in SF This Saturday

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What’s on tap at Wine Down. Yelp photo by Kasey M.

Remember when I told you about WINE DOWN, the laid-back wine bar coming to SoMa? Well, Sarah Garand and Jaime Hiraishi got the place open and are ready to greet you after work with an affordable but quality glass of local wine (think $10 and thereabouts), craft beer, and bites too. Look for eight whites and reds each on tap, two sparkling wines, and four beers. Hours are Mon-Wed 4pm-10 pm, Thu-Sat 4pm-11pm. There are also “happiest hours” from 4pm-6:30pm daily, with $1 off glasses/$5 off carafes and pitchers. 685 Folsom St. at 3rd St., 415-829-7005.

If you haven’t been able to head up to Mendocino to explore their many wineries, check out Taste of Mendocino 2016, coming to the Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture on Saturday June 25th. There will be more than 30 wineries, plus artisanal food producers, from Mendocino County serving samples. Gallery 308, 1pm-5pm. Tickets are $60.

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