Food + Drink

The concept behind San Francisco's Deck The Halls is a bit cringe — but it's a frivolously festive staple that offers a warm hug., time after time. ‘Tis the season for all things upbeat and jovial. (Well… it’s almost that season; let’s get through Thanksgiving first before we start looping in Mariah Carey.) And there’s something inextricably esoteric when the December holiday season descends on San Francisco. Drag queens skate on ice. Massive gingerbread houses pop up inside swanky hotel lobbies. The temperature chills, requiring us to all wear slightly thicker outerwear. Among the other seasonal tickets that unwrap this time of year are holiday-themed pop-up bars — perhaps the only iteration of the “Instagram-worthy” ploy worth praise. Of the dozen that temporarily open in SF a...

The San Francisco Bay Area has given birth to an uncountable amount of food trends. And, now, it's home to a carnivorous resurgence. As an Ashkenazi Jew, eating good deli food is a spiritual experience for me. For years, the Bay Area’s relative lack of good delis was a sore spot. I love our region’s bizarre, intense food culture. But sometimes, a Jew just needs a decent pastrami sandwich. Thankfully, the Bay Area can finally deliver that. In fact, our region is currently in the midst of a pastrami renaissance. It’s almost as thrilling as when Emily Winston, a self-described queer Berkeley Jew, beat those loud-mouthed New Yorkers as their own bagel game. Here are three places in the Bay Area that are leading our pastrami renaissance. Pyro's pastrami at Delirama When the pre...

When the thought of rotating a sheet pan seems too much inside your San Francisco domicile, off-load the cooking tasks, besties.  We’re all busy. We’re all exhausted. We’re all overstimulated. But we, too, are enough… regardless if we make a Thanksgiving dinner this year. If you’re like us and are not planning on lifting a finger for Turkey Day this year, he’s a quick rundown on some hyperlocal offerings/ideas to take the stress out of making (most of or all of) the feast at home. Maybeck’s Thanksgiving takeout dinner when you want to treat yourself, but don’t want to dirty a plate. The resto’s multi-course offering serves up to four dishes that include brussels sprouts, a fall salad, cranberry sauce, sausage and sage stuffing, turkey breast, and much more. More info. Get...

San Francisco is filled with maple treats, pumpkin muffins, and so many more fall delights worth seeing your ketone levels drop. Pumpkin spice gets all the spotlight this time of year — or at least it feels that way in crescent years. And this isn’t a bash against the autumnal spice; we’ll drink PSLs until we’re orange in the face.   This considered, there are so many other flavors to tickle your tastebuds with this time of year. Maples and toasted nuts afford a specific coziness; ginger warms both the belly and brain; cinnamon is at the forefront of our minds. Fortunately for us in San Francisco, there’s no shortage of places to indulge in all the aforenoted tastes. Here are our favorite fall treats in SF for 2022 that are absolutely worth breaking ketosis for. T...

Since opening its dedicated pop-up space in February, The French Spot has grown into a neighborhood darling that makes keto-breaking-worthy croissants. Between 2020 and 2021, over 860 restaurants closed in SF; during that same time, just 535 eateries opened. But, despite downtown’s struggles and locally headquartered tech companies conducting mass layoffs, San Francisco is rebounding — especially in regard to the city’s gastronomic scene. 2022 has seen a slew of new restaurant and bar ventures open inside spaces vacated by the pandemic. The French Spot, an artisanal bakery that puts its own modern twists and flavor profiles on traditional French pastries, has amassed a cult-like following since debuting its San Francisco bakery at 1042 Larkin Street in February of this year, taking ove...

Frankly, no one writes a more captivating, novel-like cookbook than Nigella Lawson — and the celebrity chef, as well as two other famous cooks, will be coming to SF soon. For as long as we can remember, we’ve been infatuated with cooking and baking, particularly in the realm of cookbook writing. (As an ex-boyfriend of mine, who was a nutritionist by day and private chef by night, once said to me over dinner: Writing and cooking exist in the same canon of creativity... you start with nothing and, hopefully, make something that gives someone joy.) During the pandemic, we craved those moments of pleasure more than perhaps anytime in our lives. It’s why bread making had a moment; wine-and-cheese tastings over zoom became things; 70% of Americans began making the majority of their meals at ...

After accounts of toxic workplace culture at Boba Guys rose to the surface last week, amid claims of union busting, now’s a good time as any to edit your go-to list of SF tea shops. Boba Guys is, at long last, in its “that’s not true, Ellen" era. Frankly? We’re here for it. For years, accounts of toxic workplace culture, which included episodes of outright verbal abuse, were commonly reported from behind the scenes. On Friday, we published a bombshell report of employees, past and present, who have experienced less-than-ideal working conditions at the hands of the tea shop (that’s quite rapidly falling from any semblance of grace it had prior to last week). Your spending power matters. And it counts just as much in its absence as it does in its presence. So, with the accusations agains...

Causwells knows how to put proteins in between complex carbohydrates. Admittedly, we’re not the biggest fans of the Marina; it’s, basically, home to San Francisco's proverbial frat and sorority houses that culminate into a conservative, Republican-leaning slice of the city. But we are massive stans of the neighborhood's food and drink scene. Causwells fits nicely into that fandom. Having just reopened this week on September 27th, the Chestnut Street-addressed eatery now features a completely revamped interior. The redesigned space now draws inspo from the art deco era — a popular styling in San Francisco that’s synonymous with much of the city’s historical-significance architecture. The refreshed dining and drinking spaces now include deep, rich colors, detailed wall pieces, and...