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San Francisco Chronicle Food & Home – Spoken Edition

Focused on trends in style, food, wine/spirits, design and travel, the San Francisco Chronicle publishes fresh storytelling and service journalism that resonates with our unique Northern Californian culture. Our coverage ranges from rich entertainment and insight, along with access to the region’s influential and creative people and institutions. It’s high-end fashion, society events, Michael Bauer’s restaurant reviews, wine recommendations, and great trend reporting on food and drink. A SpokenEdition transforms written content into human-read audio you can listen to anywhere. It’s perfect for times when you can’t read – while driving, at the gym, doing chores, etc. Find more at www.spokenedition.com

Latest Episodes:

Are San Francisco restaurants too loud? A new app helps diners navigate the noise Dec 20, 2018

Thanks to a weeklong survey, an app that measures the noise level in bars and restaurants can now prove what some diners have complained about for years: Bay Area restaurants are too darn loud. In fact, they’re right up there, decibel-wise, with Midtown Manhattan’s. SoundPrint, an iPhone app founded by Oakland native Gregory Scott, incorporates a calibrated decibel meter as well as an interactive, searchable map of businesses with ratings (www.soundprint.co).

Ultimate Guide: The best restaurants around Union Square Dec 19, 2018

As the holiday shopping frenzy approaches peak levels, here are our dining picks if you’re planning to brave the crowds in and around Union Square. Akiko’s Whether you go with the chef’s omakase menu or order by the piece, there’s no better sushi in neighborhood. Try the deep-fried soft shell crab and yellowtail collar. 431 Bush St., 415-397-3218 or www.akikosrestaurant.com.

Repertoire: Cabbage panade won’t win a beauty contest so it seduces with caramelized onions and gooey cheese Dec 18, 2018

Brutti ma buoni — ugly but good — is a favorite Italian expression, and a pretty fair summation of my life as of late. But in spite of how messy my days look and feel, the season of beauty has arrived. It’s time for decking the halls, for cookies dressed in sparkling sugar, for beef Wellingtons crowned with golden caps of puff pastry. And in contrarian fashion I’ve concluded it’s time to tell you about one of the very ugliest recipes in my repertoire.

Marshawn Lynch’s new restaurant and lounge, Rob Ben’s, opens this week in Emeryville Dec 17, 2018

Christmas stockings hang on the wall near the entrance of Rob Ben’s, Marshawn Lynch’s new restaurant in Emeryville. Across from the stockings is a newly-built black bar surrounded by sleek wood and glass shelving. Above it all are new lights and a framed No. 24 Oakland Raiders jersey, giving the space a chic, sports lounge feel. In the parking lot is a barbecue smoker, so large it has to be carried on a trailer.

Shake Shack’s first Bay Area restaurant opens Dec. 15 in Palo Alto Dec 14, 2018

Less than a year after announcing its West Coast expansion plans, Shake Shack will open in Palo Alto on Dec. 15. It’s the first outpost of the famed New York burger chain to open in the Bay Area. Tucked away inside the Stanford Shopping Center, the restaurant will feature ingredients from local purveyors (read our original Shake Shack menu story here) in its straightforward menu of burgers, fries and shakes.

Life after Blue Bottle? Family’s cup runneth over with new San Francisco home Dec 13, 2018

“It really feels like the lottery,” says Caitlin Williams Freeman, pastry chef and founder of feminist children’s clothing company Girls Up Front, when asked about the life circumstances that led to her current focuses of home and family. Last fall, her husband, James Freeman, sold a majority stake in Blue Bottle Coffee, the company he founded in 2002, to Nestle for a reported $425 million.

Shed in Healdsburg to close at the end of the year Dec 12, 2018

Shed in Healdsburg will shut its doors at the end of 2018, closing the book on a charmed five-year run for Sonoma County’s most ambitious combination restaurant, marketplace, event space and fermentation bar. Co-owners and founders Doug Lipton and Cindy Daniel plan to close the brick-and-mortar location on Dec. 31 and turn it into an online-only entity. It was a business decision for the owners.

Tacos Oscar’s unlikely road to success in Oakland? Follow the T-shirt Dec 11, 2018

If you follow Tacos Oscar’s Instagram feed (@tacososcar), which is how most of its fans would find its tacos before the pop-up opened a permanent spot in Oakland last week, you’ve grown accustomed to seeing smiling, often ridiculously attractive, people wearing TACOS OSCAR TACO STALKER T-shirts.

Soleil Ho named the San Francisco Chronicle’s new restaurant critic Dec 10, 2018

The San Francisco Chronicle has named Soleil Ho, a nationally recognized food journalist and trained chef, to be the company’s next restaurant critic. “We are thrilled to welcome Soleil to the team. She was a clear choice: she has a fresh and modern approach to food journalism,” said Audrey Cooper, editor in chief of The Chronicle. Ho is known for her insightful, thought-provoking commentary and deep culinary knowledge.

The real story behind the NBA’s love of Napa Valley and Bordeaux Dec 07, 2018

When you’re a wine writer, you don’t expect opportunities to watch NBA players like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson practice shooting after a day of training camp, especially while sitting on the sidelines to interview Draymond Green. But after months of trying to chase a story about why professional basketball players like Green have become enamored of fine wine — and having little luck during the offseason — that’s where I found myself.

Che Fico spinoff Theorita to close on Divisadero Dec 06, 2018

Less than six months after opening on Divisadero as the city’s most talked-about pastry shop and dinette, Theorita is closing its doors. The passion project came from lauded pastry chef Angela Pinkerton who, along business partners chef David Nayfeld and Matt Brewer, also run Che Fico next door. After bringing Theorita to life in late August, the shop will have its final dinner service on Dec. 15 before shuttering in late-December.

Kendejah is Bay Area’s first Liberian restaurant, and it’s just the first step Dec 05, 2018

Before you order at Kendejah — before you even ask questions about the dishes on the menu, in fact — Dougie Uso will distribute a laminated card to you and your fellow diners and ask you to read it. “A short history of Liberia & Kendejah,” it is titled: four paragraphs describing how free black Americans emigrated to West Africa starting in 1821 and, in 1847, created a political state.

While sommeliers feud, a deeper wine debate looms Dec 04, 2018

Judging from my Instagram feed over the last 72 hours, the most thought-provoking wine article on the Internet right now is a conversation between sommeliers Jordan Salcito and Bobby Stuckey in the Daily Beast.

A mini Filipino food tour in Daly City with a pro Dec 03, 2018

This is A Million Plates, The Chronicle's regular column about immigrant food in the Bay Area, centered around the theory that there are a million different plates of food eaten every day in this region.

In a tiny bar kitchen in Oakland, Mikey Yoon creates his version of diner fare Nov 30, 2018

Mikey Yoon has a thing for American cheese. It’s not just that the melted texture makes for the perfect gooey complement to the squishy, ultra-comforting burgers (although it does) that Yoon, 37, serves out of the postage-size kitchen inside the Lodge bar on Piedmont Avenue. His connection to this processed, by-the-slice product runs much deeper, back to his upbringing in the capital beltway of Maryland and to his first-generation Korean American parents.

Mac’d, San Francisco’s mac and cheese chain, is turning to Eatsa’s automated technology Nov 29, 2018

If it’s good enough for quinoa bowls, surely it’s good enough for mac and cheese. That seems to be the thinking for Mac’d, San Francisco’s burgeoning mac and cheese chain, which has announced that its shops will soon begin rolling out fully automated restaurant technology created by fellow S.F. compan, Eatsa.

North Beach’s Albona Ristorante Istriano to close after 30 years Nov 28, 2018

San Francisco’s Albona Ristorante Istriano will close at the end of 2018, following 30 years in North Beach. Owner Samuel Hernandez announced the news on Facebook, calling his time operating the business a “wonderful dream.” The final service will be Dec. 31. While the post thanked its customer base for the support over the years, it didn’t actually provide a reason for the closure. Inside Scoop has reached out to Hernandez for more details.

Omnivore Books’ Celia Sack shares her favorite Bay Area cookbooks of the past decade Nov 27, 2018

Whether you’re looking for the latest Ottolenghi title or a vintage copy of Madame De Lyon’s “The Art of Cooking Omelettes,” Bay Area culinary professionals and home cooking fanatics know there’s one person to call: Celia Sack of Omnivore Books. Earlier this month, Sack’s beloved Noe Valley bookstore (3885 Cesar Chavez St.) celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Namu Gaji quietly veers toward vegan. Will its customers notice? Nov 26, 2018

You may not notice much of Namu Gaji’s menu is now vegan unless you’re counting up the tiny signs that follow each item description: a plus for dishes that are or can be made vegan; a milk carton for vegetarian dishes with dairy; an egg for, well, eggs. It’s easy to ignore the creeping veganism when ordering, too, unless you’re the kind of diner who examines a menu with meat blinders on.

San Jose’s neediest families shun food banks and rely on a church’s Mexican pastor Nov 23, 2018

In the subterranean hallway of a San Jose apartment building, pastor Gerardo Vazquez knocks on a door decorated with a Feliz Navidad sign from a Christmas long ago. Eva Martinez, a small, grandmotherly woman with red dye covering the tips of her white hair, welcomes him into a space no larger than a college dorm room that she shares with her daughter and several grandchildren.

Pumpkin fritters, barrigas de vieja, warm autumn’s chill Nov 22, 2018

The smell of autumn is a smell that seems to appear overnight when you least expect it. You wake up one morning to a chill and the smell of loamy earth, and you pull your oversize blanket from the closet’s clutches and put it in its rightful place upon your bed. The air’s cryogenic tinge starts to seep through your windows when you let the soft pink light in.

Where to buy Dungeness crab around the Bay Area Nov 21, 2018

Dungeness crab season has arrived. The commercial season for most of the state began on Thursday, and as of Friday, the crabs are landing in Bay Area stores. According to industry-wide predictions, this is expected to be a good year for the beloved crustaceans. You can check out more details on how the 2018 season is shaping up, check out Tara Duggan’s coverage here. As such, expect grocers to pack their seafood displays and tanks starting this weekend.

How to get help and how to give help Nov 20, 2018

How to get food Food banks. Each Bay Area county (or in some cases, a pair of counties) has a central food bank that works with community agencies — churches, schools, nonprofits — to supply food to smaller pantries. Contact your local food bank to find out how and where to get food. You may have to supply your name and ZIP code. Alameda County Community Food Bank. https://www.accfb.org/get-food. 510-635-3663. Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano. www.foodbankccs.org. 855-309-3663.

Tacos Oscar in Temescal represents Oakland’s love of all things local Nov 19, 2018

After Oscar Michel and Jake Weiss passed the final health inspection for their new Oakland restaurant on 40th Street in Temescal, they walked up the block and bought some beer. It was their way of celebrating a monumental moment. Getting the green light to was the final hurdle in opening Tacos Oscar, the permanent version of their taco pop-up. The roaming East Bay outfit is most known for its handmade tortillas.

Bring holiday cheer with forced indoor bulbs Nov 16, 2018

As the holidays approach, one way to add a touch of beauty to the household is by bringing in plants or flowers. A wonderful way to add both color and fragrance is by “forcing” paperwhite narcissus to bloom in a bowl of stones. The idea is both simple and foolproof: Fill a bowl with small stones, fill with water to the top, then place the paperwhite bulbs packed closely together on top of the stones, just so their budding roots alone touch the liquid.

David Kinch has a reason for pursuing more casual projects Nov 15, 2018

At this point of his decorated career, David Kinch doesn’t plan on opening any more fine dining restaurants. His Michelin 3-star Manresa, which Kinch opened nearly two decades ago in Los Gatos and where he still spends a majority of his time, is an institution in the fine dining world. And while the chef enjoys being in the kitchen, crafting critically-acclaimed tasting menus priced at $275 per person, he has no intention of expanding his fine dining footprint.

FOB Kitchen opens in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood Nov 14, 2018

Janice Dulce’s wife, Brandi, had to convince her they needed to set a grand opening date for FOB Kitchen, the duo’s new restaurant in Oakland’s Temescal neighborhood. The recent friends and family nights had gone off without a hitch. A brunch menu was in place. The cocktails were ready to go. It was time to make a decision for when everyone could start showing up, Brandi said. “I was nervous,” Janice said Wednesday night while sitting outside of the restaurant.

Bob Lindquist explains the sale of his legendary Santa Barbara winery, Qupe Nov 13, 2018

I caught up yesterday with Qupe founder Bob Lindquist, who recently announced that his 36-year-old Santa Barbara County winery had been sold to Vintage Wine Estates. “It’s all real new, but obviously the situation with Terroir was pretty well documented,” he said. “It was not going anywhere positive.” Lindquist was referring, of course, to Qupe’s previous sale. In 2014 he sold a stake to winery investment firm Terroir Life.

13 crucial tips for perfect holiday pies from baking expert Rose Levy Beranbaum Nov 12, 2018

Rose Levy Beranbaum’s 11th book, “Rose’s Baking Basics” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; $35), shares 100 recipes that every home baker should know. With pie season upon us, Levy Beranbaum, dropped by The Chronicle to share more crucial tips for foolproof holiday pies. 1. Weigh your ingredients for baking. Not only is it faster, easier and more accurate, you also don’t have to dirty as many dishes after measuring out your ingredients.

Alfred’s Steakhouse readies return, with old owners involved again Nov 09, 2018

San Francisco’s 90-year-old Alfred’s Steakhouse is back in familiar hands. After being sold to Michelin-starred chef Daniel Patterson three years ago, the Financial District restaurant is again being operated by the Petri family, the same folks who ran the business from 1973 to 2015. “We’re going to return some normalcy there,” said Al Petri, the 75-year-old patriarch who retired from the restaurant business eight years ago.

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