Out in the Richmond, a new shabu shabu restaurant is readying to open. Grub Street reports that the fourth Bay Area outpost (and first in S.F.) of the DIY hot-pot-and-grill restaurant Shabuway will open at 5120 Geary. No word yet on an opening date.
Gilberth's Rotisserie & Grill has soft opened, according to Tablehopper. The Latin-fusion restaurant is serving a limited menu of their dishes inspired by Cuban, Puerto Rican, and Central American cuisine (2427-2429 Third St. at 20th St.).
Quick switch: Tablehopper reveals that the 18-year-old Rex Cafe will close at the end of the month and transform into the Spanish restaurant Marbella. The new place will feature a few family-style dishes and will unveil a cocktail program. Olé!
Cafe Gratitude: One stays, one goes. Vegansaurus reports, via Berkeleyside, that the raw, self-edifying Cafe Gratitude has an update on the closing-opening-closing front. The North Berkeley location of the restaurant will remain, while the cafe in the Oakland Whole Foods will shutter before the end of the month.
Also, Tablehopper discovers Cafe Altano in Hayes Valley has shuttered. We guess the owners will be focusing on their other eatery: SOMA Restaurant & Bar.
High-end, "third wave" coffee is currently coasting on a trend of precise measurements and the consistency that such precision affords.
For years, SFoodie has found it impossible to visit the Alemany Farmers' Market without gawking at Rosa de Santis's citrus stand. Her cara caras and oro blanco grapefruit are positively mundane -- there are boxes of sweet limes and nobbly Seville oranges to paw through and smell, and up on the cash register table De Santis keeps even rarer fruits like Buddha's hand citrons and calamansi limes. We've brought home fresh bergamots to zest into a fruit crisp, and pink limes to make into a cooler. This may be the best place in the city to hit up for cocktail experimentation.
De Santis, who moved to California with her family from Italy decades ago -- somewhere between Rome and Naples, she says -- has been selling citrus at San Francisco farmers' markets for 30 years; she's at both the Alemany and Civic Center markets. The De Santises didn't set out to grow Filipino limes or or strangely shaped Chinese citrons. They just wanted to grow blood oranges, like the kind they ate back in Italy. "Where we come from, that 's the only orange we know," she says. "But over here, when we started selling it, people would get upset. 'What'd you put in my orange?' they'd ask. We had to do a lot of education. Now they love it."
5. Nicko's Kitchen
Nicko is a lovely large-and-in-charge Aussie and he's teaching us how to create food, down under-style. He's basically a male version of Guy Fieri -- lots of fast, loud talking and catchy theme songs. He's easy to follow, has adorable kids, and that accent. We like! We're telling you, Bruce, this guy could take off.
4. Depression Era Cooking
The original slow cook, 96 year old Clara, tells tales of surviving the great depression on nothing but a tomato plant and a can of beans. She's adorable, sassy, and LIVED THROUGH THE GREAT DEPRESSION. Have some respect! Clara's show is part History Channel, part Food Network, and 100-percent awesome. She even talks about how, during the depression, bootleggers came door to door to convince people to store whiskey in their backyard. Screw Boardwalk Empire, we've got Clara.
What: Temporary food-truck pod
Where: Levi's Plaza 1155 Battery St.
When: Thursday, Feb. 2, 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m.
The rundown: Although most food trucks are being chased out of the Financial District, blue- and white-collar workers won't have to leave the gastronomic ghost town near Levi's Plaza in order to eat lunch. Levi's Plaza has arranged a "Food Truck Frenzy," bringing in Casey's Pizza, Kara's Cupcakes, Kasa Indian, Southern Sandwich Co. and Toasty Melts Grilled Cheese to park on the plaza, brightening up the end of the week. This is the second Thursday in a row that food trucks have gathered on the square, but the property managers wouldn't tell SFoodie whether it's going to become a regular weekly event.
For the past decade or so, there's been a big push to identify "food deserts" -- low-income neighborhoods and even cities that don't have ready access to fresh fruits and vegetables. Plant markets in those deserts, the thinking has gone, and you'll improve nutrition and reduce obesity and diabetes rates. The solution seems to make sense.
But maybe we're misdirecting our efforts. According to a new survey Share Our Strength conducted with low-income families, having access to fresh fruits and vegetables may not be as much of a problem as having enough time and money to cook them.
