October was one for the burger lovers. Umami Burger expanded with its first outpost north of the I-405, and brought with it a new S.F.-specific menu addition: the bacon-wrapped scallop burger. A few blocks away, Super Duper opened it's latest outpost on Chestnut after few false starts, and Pearl's Deluxe Burgers began flipping patties on mid-Market just before the end of the month.
Openings
• Umami Burger arrived in Northern California, and lucky for us it's in the City (2184 Union at Fillmore).
• Just in time for S.F.'s true Summer, the taps started flowing at the outdoor Biergarten (424 Octavia at Fell).
• A Chinese street-food inspired menu in a sleek setting: Wo Hing General Store (584 Valencia at 17th St.).
• Pearl's Deluxe Burgers (1001 Market at Sixth St.) opened its second City location across the street from sausage restaurant Show Dogs.
• A book club with drinks? Yes, please: Two Sisters Bar & Books (579 Hayes at Laguna).
• The third Super Duper opened in the Marina, with the classic burgers, fries, and shakes (2201 Chestnut at Pierce).
Additional openings and closures after the jump.
This weekend, SFoodie picked up golden pan de muerto ($1.60) coated in sesame seeds at Panaderia La Mexicana (2804 24th St.). We peered through the display glass at the giant holiday breads at La Reyna Bakery (3114 24th St.), which are covered in multicolored sugar sprinkles ($20 for a skeleton, $15 for a round), before walking out with a smaller round ($2) coated in a fine layer of frosting and caster sugar so that it takes on a glittering, ghostly cast.
La Victoria (2937 24th St.) also confirmed on the phone that it sells pan de muerto today and tomorrow, as does Royal Bakery (4773 Mission, at Russia) in the Excelsior. And on the west side of town, Arizmendi Inner Sunset makes denser, larger skeleton loaves ($5.50) flavored with aniseed and candied orange rind to sell today and tomorrow. (The Valencia street location will only offer pan de muerto on Nov. 2.)
has been producing thick-walled, golden "spinners" with thick walls and sandpaper-rough ridges and curled spelt ringlets that look as if they've been molded out of fresh clay. But sales have been limited to the Pop-Up General Store events in Bekeley, San Francisco's New Taste Marketplace, and Eat Real Festival. This month, however, owners Renato Sardo and Dario Barbone are finally going legit with a new Oakland production facility and a series of popup dinners at Coffee Bar.
Before moving to the United States six years ago, Sardo was executive director of Slow Food International in Bra, Italy, an organization committed to preserving artisanal foods. Now he's decided to make them. "Three years ago I noticed it was peculiar that among the whole local-food movement no one was making dried pasta artisanally," he says. "If you go to Whole Foods or a specialty grocer they have shelves filled with imported Italian pastas made with wheat from the United States or Canada."
Where:The Cheese School of San Francisco
When: Fri., November 11, 7-9 p.m.
Cost: $35
The rundown: Every year, the Cheese School in North Beach hosts a bunch of California's cheesemakers to raise funds for the California Artisan Cheese Guild. Hobnob with the head cheesemakers from Cowgirl Creamery, Bellwether Farms, Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese, Marin French, Cypress Grove Chevre, Laura Chenel, Nicasio Valley Cheese, Beehive Cheese, North Bay Curds and Whey, and more.
This year, you'll also get to eat grilled cheese champion (?) Michael Davidson's sandwiches and Maggie Ford's goat fudge, which is presumably more appetizing than it sounds. Artist Sita Bhaumik is creating a cheese-inspired piece for the event, and musician Larry Gallagher has composed an ode to fromage.
Tickets available on the Cheese School's website.
Thirteen bucks well spent: After taking just one bite out of a Medical Cannabis Turtle Bar Bliss, my nipples began to glow.
My first thought was "But wait, I'm a bear." No, not a Cal fan. Not Yogi. I'm a pleasantly roly poly, bearded bear. My second thought: Hold up -- I'm not a bear! I fuck bears, I'm just not so sure if I am counted among them, especially now that bears shapeshifted into big-titted muscle queens.
Allow me to say I know what you're thinking here: hunh? This is what Turtle Bar sets the mind to. Pecans, halved and toasted. Sweetened condensed milk, brown sugar, cannabis butter, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt, all mixed together on low heat until BOOM, vanilla caramel.
I'm imagining my young culinary chub dipping the nuts and medical-cannabis caramel into some warm milk chocolate, then letting it cool and feeding it to me slowly.
There's more to say about Bliss Edibles, and we'll get to all that in a minute, but my brain is preoccupied with bears, instead, and this idea: That, years ago, having dipped my toes into every shade of the LGBTQ spectrum, I used to feel much more at home in our little bear caves, but our subculture, which used to be so masculine-identified and all-inclusive, has become way too bitchy.
Seriously, when I go to Bearracuda, those fat bitches are looking at me like I'm Carrie at the prom.
Seeing as how you're now in possession of several half-bags of fun-sized candy bars, or trying to convince your children that you're confiscating their haul because Smarties are a "sometimes" food, today might be a good time to fortify your resolve with Felisa Rogers' Salon.com piece on the tragic side of candy.
Candy was a very, very sometimes food up until the 20th century, Rogers writes, and not a big part of Halloween until the 1950s. In fact, through the middle ages, it was as much medicine as treat, a luxury for nobility rather than a midmorning snack for the common worker. That's until, of course, Spain invaded the Caribbean and brought sugar cane -- and African slaves -- to the islands. The post-Civil War Industrial Revolution helped sugar prices drop even lower, leading to the proliferation of candy factories where low-wage workers toiled in appalling conditions.
"The less the public knows about candy making, the better," the manager of a large candy factory told a representative of the Consumers' League of New York. The results of the league's 1928 survey of candy factories backed this assertion: Temperature in factories hovered around 45 degrees, and 14-hour days were common. The investigator was appalled by the sanitary conditions in some factories.
See? Candy bad. Except when it isn't.
SFoodie is on a mission to sit down with the city's most intelligent, influential, and experienced coffee folk to pick their brain about what makes our city such a hot bed of coffee trends.Today we speak with Gabe Boscana of Ecco Coffee.
What is it about coffee that fascinates you?
The chase for perfection. It is a constantly moving target. If anyone ever tells you they have it all figured out, they are blatantly lying to you. Don't misunderstand though. We definitely know a thing or two about consistency and approach. The chase is intoxicating, the tinkering addictive and the fact that you get to consume that which you create...man, it's like poetry.
Plus, there is the social responsibility aspect. As roasters, we are responsible for making someone else's hard work and labors of love something really, really special. We make it possible for people to experience that love and hard work. Man, I have been in California too long.
Being in the North Bay can be challenging at times, so we are looking forward to being closer to the action. I think in regards to the Bay Area specifically, it will be interesting to see how we do in front of a live studio audience. We love what we do though, so it won't be very difficult to share that love.
