This week’s tablehopper: light reading. (free)

what’s cookin’

Hello, dear readers. I hope you’re hanging in there. Man, these are some heavy, serious, consequential times. It’s hard to focus—I have rewritten this intro more times than I care to count. I want my column to offer you a momentary escape, bringing you a dose of pleasure, positivity, discovery, a sense of community, or just a much-needed pause. But, I also feel impelled to signal boost action items and resources you can act on right now. When the hospitality industry needs our help, I am here to share why your help and voice matters, which has always been my ethos over here. 

What will get us through this moment is our collective strength as a community, and we’re seeing this in its full-throated, lion-hearted power right now in Minnesota. Show support by visiting Stand with Minnesota, which has an ever-growing directory of on-the-ground organizations offering many forms of mutual aid, including how to help impacted families pay their rent and access food, since many haven’t been able to safely leave their homes in weeks. You can also click over to this page from the Independent Restaurant Coalition with resources and ways to support the nationwide hospitality industry. Resisting oppression takes each and every one of us to show up in many ways and however we can.

There’s a nationwide general strike (no work, no school, no shopping) in solidarity with the Minnesota general strike this Friday January 30th, with an ICE OUT! rally in Dolores Park at 1pm (see you there!). If a local business is closing for the shutdown, please try to support them today or this weekend or soon. Rent is due and the slow January struggle is real. (You will see many featured in my I🧊E OUT highlight on IG.)

I’m also seeing posts from small, independent restaurants that can’t afford to shut down, but still want to be in solidarity by making donations, holding space for the community, and staying open for their employees. These are not easy decisions, and there are many hardships attached. Please have respect for all the ways people and independent businesses are trying to show up, to do what they need to do for their teams, and how they serve the community best, whether that’s staying open or closed.

Dacha Kitchen & Bar on Sutter posted: “This Friday, we stand in solidarity with the ICE OUT movement and the call for dignity, safety, and justice for immigrant communities. As a small, queer- and immigrant-owned business, closing our doors would directly impact our team, community and business. Instead, we’re choosing action through a fundraiser in solidarity. A portion of this Friday’s proceeds will be donated to the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, supporting vital legal services and advocacy for immigrants in our region. Showing up for our neighbors, protecting workers, and supporting local businesses are all part of the same fight. Thank you for standing with us ❤️ Think global. Act local.”

And from @joodooboo in Oakland: “While we’re not able to stop our operations, we will stand in solidarity. As an alternative form of support, we will be donating all proceeds from the crabby add on special this week towards supporting restaurants in Minnesota and workers in need of assistance with rent and living expenses.”

Activism comes in many forms, and they are all integral to keeping hope alive. Continue to support local businesses and independent restaurants, be in community, and do what you can. I will keep on posting restaurant updates and resources in my I🧊E OUT highlight on IG, feel free to tag or forward any to me at @tablehopper.

So, let’s get into this week’s issue. Real talk: I was home sick all weekend (lame), so I’m moving a little slowly over here, but this maximum-strength decongestant is doing its best to cut through the mental fog. Speaking of FOG, I was bummed to miss the art fair this past weekend—I really needed some art lift. At least I was able to attend the lit party at Saint Joseph’s Art Society on Thursday evening, and I even got to meet some tablehopper subscribers (thanks for the drink, Kim!).

Something else that gave me another kind of lift was this tomato-ginger chicken and rice soup recipe from NYT Cooking—I was so happy I could smell the extraordinary combination of ginger, butter, and tomato paste browning in my Le Creuset pot, wow, what a delicious scent. If you’re sick right now (who isn’t?), this gingery soup recipe is built to restore you.

Another lift? All of you precious readers sharing your excitement for tablehopper’s upcoming 20th anniversary when renewing your subscription. (Right now is a big renewal period for many of you who subscribed when I first launched this new model three years ago—thanks for being with me!)

Some of the best money I spend all year! I love my Tablehopper subscription ~ I also can hardly believe it’s been 20 years because I think I’ve been a subscriber for nearly the whole time.

I love it when I see tablehopper in my mailbox. Looking forward to all your great articles and suggestions for 2026! Thanks Marcia!

Thank YOU for keeping tablehopper going, it is so much fun. I think I've been with you almost (if not all) 20 years! Here’s to 20 more.

I meannnnnn, shucks. Thanks for sending such supportive notes, especially during this bleak past week. Cheers 🥂 to all of you who are keeping my column chugging toward this landmark anniversary (and get ready to celebrate, because fun things are coming).

I just have to share one more especially colorful reader note that made me crack up, which has a heartfelt message for all of us who love to dine out (and crab):

So glad I’m on the inside with TABLEHOPPER and not stuck just in the parklet tables. Worth every dime to be part of your delicious world. Happy Happy New Year my little taste bud-dy.

All the things good this year for you, The Bay Area at large, and most of all please everybody support our restaurants at least once a week so we can all enjoy and indulge in some of the most exclusive creative tastes, textures, and flavors in the ENTIRE world.

And keep it coming
So we never stop eating 
They way we like to
Especially during 
The Dungeness Days of Delectables

Thank you, Bob R., your enthusiastic poetry gave me life! And, whaddya know, I have even more crab updates for you this week; I should call this series The Dungeness Days of Delectables!

Keep on keepin’ on, everybody.

With love,
~Marcia

the chatterbox

The Smell of Smoky Meats Returns to the Lower Haight: A Treasured Neighborhood Barbecue Joint Is Back (Thanks to Its Longtime Cook)

A tablehopper tipster (thanks, Kevin G.!) let me know that Memphis Minnie’s is back open in the Lower Haight (it was a Christmas miracle!)—it sadly closed in September 2025, after 25 years of feeding the community. Barbecue aficionado Bob Kantor opened the red-and-white-checkered-tablecloth BBQ joint in the former Spaghetti Western in 2000, and gained quite a following for the wide range of barbecue he offered, and his creative dishes, too. Kantor tragically passed away in 2013, and after trying to keep her husband’s passion project going (with GM Tom Campbell), his widow Gail Wilson eventually sold the business in 2018. Things started going downhill with the next owner, and Eater SF reported on Memphis Minnie’s closure in October 2025. 

But, here’s a great comeback story! Three months after closing, the neighborhood barbecue joint is now in the hands of a former cook who worked there for 16 years, Angel Pech. He tells me he started at Memphis Minnie’s as a dishwasher, and made his way to the kitchen line three years later, working with Kantor and learning his techniques and recipes. Pech left Memphis Minnie’s three years ago, so that explains why things weren’t up to par there at the end. After Memphis Minnie’s closed, Pech said the former owner reached out to him about taking over the business, and three months later, Pech got the place back open with his wife.

Pech says, “I want to bring Bob’s story back,” and that includes all the different meats they’d smoke over white oak in their pit, from smoked fried chicken (yup), to Santa Maria tri-tip steak, to pork rib tips, along with classics like their slow-smoked Texas beef brisket, Memphis sweet smoked pork, and St. Louis–style smoked pork ribs, available by the pound, or in combo plates; and you can order some of the meats in affordable sandwiches as well, with the original sauces, too. Sides include pit-smoked beans, potlikker greens, potato salad, sweet potatoes, tangy cole slaw, and mac and cheese.

The specials have also returned, like the pastrami sandwich (and Reuben) on Wednesdays (which paid homage to Kantor’s Brooklyn roots), the fried chicken sandwich on Thursdays, and the famed Friday house-ground Maxi burger with pimento cheese, house bacon, and fried onion strings is now on the menu full-time. For dessert, there’s banana pudding, fried peach pie, sweet potato pie, and scratch pecan pie. My mouth is watering. I’m gonna head over soon and will report back after I sit down with a combo plate! (Or, the burger? I’m gonna need backup.) I look forward to chatting more with Angel about how it’s going.

It was so rewarding to look up Memphis Minnie’s in my phone and have the number work (I still have all my restaurant numbers in my contacts, dating back to before we had Google, ha!)—Pech said they managed to get the number back. Way to go, let’s support the comeback of this iconic Lower Haight business. They’re offering catering, too—put in your order for your Super Bowl party now. Open Tue–Sat 11am–9:30pm, Sun 11am–8:30pm. 576 Haight St. at Steiner, 415-864-7675.

Some Closures (and New Tenants), and Another Comeback, Too

After being a go-to sushi spot for folks who worked and lived in Lower Nob Hill (and tourists staying in Union Square), Sakana Sushi & Grill has closed after 30-plus years—friendly owner Masato Ogawa opened the sushi restaurant in 1994, the same year I moved to the City. 

According to an ABC license transfer, the couple—Hein Soe and Thuzar Thein—who took over Sushi Zone from original owners (Hideko and Yoshi) a few years ago will be reopening Sushi Zone in Sakana’s space. Sushi Zone (previously at 1815 Market St.) closed last July 2025, to make way for the upcoming Dante’s Inferno project (more on that soon). The couple said they were hoping to reopen somewhere, maybe in the East Bay, but it looks like they found an SF spot instead! According to a Facebook post, they’re targeting to open “in Q1 2026, along with many new delicious dishes for you to enjoy.” 605–7 Post St. at Taylor.

Some tough news out of Dogpatch: Gilberth Cab and his wife Julia Rivera are closing Gilberth’s Latin Fusion on 3rd Street (I wrote about the opening back in 2011). The husband-and-wife team have been in the neighborhood since 2005 (they were also behind The New Spot and Oralia Cafe). Thank you for 21 years of feeding us hearty dishes and delicious pupusas—you can read their farewell letter here, which mentions a forthcoming venture (good!), and to stay tuned. 2427–2429 3rd St. at 20th St.

tablehopper reader Kenji K. dropped me a note: “I was sad to see that one of my favorite weekday lunch spots closed unexpectedly — Tastebuds in the Inner Richmond.” Owners Melvin and Helen Simmons opened the family-run, corner eatery in 2018, bringing a soul food–inspired brunch and lunch menu, with chicken and waffles, omelets, and shrimp and grits to the neighborhood. 600 5th Ave. at Balboa.

Damn, Thee Parkside has sadly announced the writing is on the wall, and the indie Potrero Hill bar, kitchen, event, punk clubhouse, and music venue is due to be demolished for condos. Ugh. The club will end live music shows at the end of March, but will continue operating as a bar for a couple months after that. Read a reaction here and more info in this SFGATE story. Along with the upcoming closure of Bottom of the Hill, the neighborhood is really taking a hard hit lately. 1600 17th St.

Awwwww Yeah, Even More Local Dungeness Crab Specials

Sadly, getting knocked out with this cold meant I couldn’t hunt down more crab dishes in person for you this past weekend, but here’s what caught my eye while I was scrolling Instagram and catching up on emails.

Tasty Things Made With Local Love

Over the holidays, I visited The Nosh Box in SoMa for a fun breakfast sandwich pop-up, and owners Stephen and Edwin kindly sent me home with a trio of their fabulous jams and jellies and marmalades. If you subscribe to The Nosh Box’s newsletter, you already know what absolute freaks they are for peak-season produce from small farms they love (actually, obsessed), which is what they use for all their preserves. They also have a passion for pepper jelly, which showed up last summer in one of their “victuals” plates, smothering a thick slice of cream cheese served with wheat thins, yes!

Their yuzu marmalade was so good that I had to share my jar with my dear culinary fairy godmother Roberta, which ended up being amazing dolloped on a morning bun we had on the table at our holiday lunch—I also loved it on my panettone French toast the other day. It’s an incredible addition to a cheese plate (pair it with something super triple creamy). I’m gonna need to jam over and get another jar, its bittersweet flavor profile is magical.

The current lineup includes:

Each jam is $15; three for $40. Get one for you, one for a friend, and another one for you. Don’t miss their scones, cookies, their new roasted beet sandwich, and selection of wines while you’re there. Queer Soup Night will be back on February 19th! Open Mon–Sat 8am–3pm. 1116 Folsom St. at 7th St.

I enjoy the creative creations that come out of the local chef collaborations with Bi-Rite Creamery Ice Cream, and the latest flavor, Moroccan caramel swirl with ras el hanout, is from Foreign Cinema (a semifinalist for a James Beard Award for Outstanding Restaurant, holla!). 

Chefs-owners Gayle Pirie and John Clark have featured the North African spice blend in many of their dishes over their past 25 years of business, and they developed a custom blend with Bi-Rite’s Kris Hoogerhyde for this ice cream flavor. It has 11 spices (cardamom, star anise, cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, allspice, lavender, sumac, turmeric) infused inside a golden caramel swirl that ripples through the creamiest, fluffiest vanilla. 

After I took a taste, I cut up some...

Available by the pint ($12) at all three Bi-Rite locations (Mission, NoPa, Russian Hill) for the next two months (or while supplies last).

Okay, gang, I hoped to write more today, but my sick brain is tired and your hopper needs to rest. See you next week! Take care!