The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene.
Bird is the word: Earlier Jonathan Kauffman mentioned, via SFist, that S.F.'s Hooters is about to fly the coop. Goodbye chicken wings and waitresses in bright orange short-shorts. See you in the suburbs.
While up in Mill Valley, Eater SF reports Tyler Florence's latest restaurant, Hawk's Tavern, opens today; expect pub favorites, small plates, and salads -- interesting (507 Miller at Camino).
It's taken nearly four years, but Manzoni is finally -- almost -- open. Inside Scoop discovers that the Italian restaurant from owner Manhal Jweinat (Higher Grounds Coffee House) will feature the scope of the county's familiar fare. But why was the wait so long? Jweinat did most of the construction himself. Also, oddly enough, this is the second restaurant in recent weeks where the moniker has been inspired by a play on the owner's name, as Jweinat's nickname at school in Italy was Manzoni.
Maven, the gastropub from Jay Bordeleau and David Kurtz, has its sight on opening next week. Grub Street reveals the Lower Haight restaurant is just waiting on a couple details - hopefully they're small ones.
For those looking forward to strapping on some clown shoes for bowling, Tamara Palmer tipped us off on next year's pending Mission Bowling Club and its food program from Anthony Myint (Mission Street Food) and cocktail menu from co-owner Molly Bradshaw.
Each week we take a quick, cautious look at what's going on with televised cooking. This week: Food Jammers, a half-hour show about our Canadian overlords, Thursdays at 10:30 p.m. on the Cooking Channel.
When you first heard the MythBusters cannonball went errant last week, wasn't your life, in that moment, complete? Didn't you get a tiny glimpse of God? It was so beautiful, the way it bounded 700 cinematic yards through a bedroom community in Dublin, over roads and through houses, before smashing through the window of a Toyota minivan and coming to rest in the passenger's side like it was ready to go play miniature golf -- let's go, Dad! When Adam Savage and Jamie Hyneman are old, hacking together telepathy machines from old crock pots and spent uranium, they'll still be giggling about it.
It was in this spirit that I watched Food Jammers, which was the wrong thing to do. I was swayed by the premise: Food Jammers is about three kids who make very forward-thinking DIY food contraptions, like a taco vending machine and a turkey dehydrator. Of course it's like MythBusters. Ballistics beef or whatever. But something happened along the way. Canada happened.
Calling Massimiliano Conti a spirited, rambling, wine enthusiast and cook is somewhat of an understatement. Max, as he's called for short, is an tireless ambassador for all things Sardinian. As chef-owner of Noe Valley's La Ciccia, which he runs with his wife, Lorella, Max strives to reveal a lesser-known Italian cuisine and culture from the minute you walk through the restaurant's front door. Part 2 of SFoodie's interview with Conti will appear tomorrow, and the chef will share the recipe for his famous octopus stew in part 3.
SFoodie: Where did you grow up in Sardinia?
Conti: I am from the Campinado area, between the capitol and the western part of Sardinia. Campo means fields, and it is an area with a lot of farmland and grain. My grandfather was a farmer and a shepherd, and my grandmother used to have a bakery. I had the best of both worlds.
I imagine this influenced your interest in cooking?
Oh most definitely. I lost my real father when I was one, so I spent most of my time with my grandparents, my aunt, and my mother. At home, I was always around women and around a lot of cooking. Any free time when I wasn't in school I was at the farm. I learned how to make sausage and prosciutto with my grandfather as well as how to make blood sausage, pancetta, and how to butcher an animal. Food and cooking was something that was part of my life.
What: Liège Waffle Party!
Where: Duboce Park Cafe
When: Fri., December 16, 2-6 p.m.
Cost: $5.50
The rundown: Liège waffles, named after the place of origination, a town in Eastern Belgium, are a richer, denser, and sweeter than the average waffle. Invented by the chef of an 18th century prince-bishop of Liège, they are supposed to taste as if brioche bread dough were coated with chunks of pearl sugar, and then baked in a waffle iron. It is the most common type of waffle available in Belgium, and the one you'll get from most street vendors.
Here in San Francisco, the wholesale bakery Suite Foods specializes in them, making their products from scratch daily. They're normally served up at Duboce Park Cafe, but the actual team from Suite Foods will be on hand this Friday, to freshly prepare them to order with a myriad of authentic toppings. The waffles will be $5.50, topped with fresh whipped cream, fresh fruit, and shaved, dark, and real Belgian chocolate. Ooh la la!
Sad-ish news: Hooters, and its shorty-short-wearing waitresses, is leaving San Francisco, SFist reported yesterday. The national chain will be closing up its only location in the city -- at Jefferson and Leavenworth in the Fisherman's Wharf -- on December 21.
It's fair to mull over the reasons why Hooters might leave a high-traffic tourist spot in San Francisco. Do we have too many gays? (We do like to check out Hooters, but rarely become regulars.) Too much class? (Have you been to the Wharf recently?)
Maybe the girls are just retreating to comfort of the outer 'burbs, where Hooters has three other locations. There's only one Hooters in Manhattan, for instance -- the rest of the locations are out in New Jersey and Westchester. Central Los Angeles, Chicago, and Miami all have a couple, ringed by many more branches in the periphery, and Bostonites, Philadelphians, and Seattleites all have to travel out of the city to order wings.
We've been to Executive Chef Kory Stewart's classes for grown-ups, and they're great. Chefs will teach how to make and decorate holiday cookies, and how to build and decorate gingerbread house.
The "I ate at El Bulli" essay named the food-writer's cliché of the past decade has been supplanted by the endlessly repeated "I foraged with Rene Redzepi" article. The media has annointed Redzepi, the chef of Noma in Copenhagen, this decade's iconic chef for his poetic, intellectual pursuit of the flavors that can be eked out of the landscape around him.
But in its January issue, Food & Wine has turned the table on the cliché, accompanying Redzepi as he travels to the Bay Area to forage and cook with Coi's chef, Daniel Patterson. Patterson and Redzepi have a similar cast of mind, and they cook together at the California chef's home for the magazine in order to talk about the process of creating a dish.
