San Francisco Chronicle Food & Home - Spoken Edition — Overcast

Overcast FAQ Ads Log In

San Francisco Chronicle Food & Home - Spoken Edition

San Francisco Chronicle Food & Home - Spoken Edition

www.spokenedition.com

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

Eagles-inspired Hotel California opens in the Financial District

Apr 20 • 2 min

Hotel San Francisco, the new Financial District restaurant and bar named after the Eagles’ 1976 song, opens today in the former Mercedes Restaurant (653 Commercial St.). The menu cover features the words “such a lovely place” on it. The restaurant and bar…

Ayesha Curry is releasing her own wine: Domaine Curry

Apr 19 • 2 min

It’s officially safe to say 2018 might once again be the year of Ayesha Curry . Just like 2017 . And 2016. Actually, her 2015 was pretty solid, too. It seems like any goal that the culinary superstar, burgeoning restaurateur, walking lifestyle brand and…

Berkeley’s Comal spins off a taqueria: Comal Next Door

Apr 18 • 2 min

Almost a year after the former Phil’s Sliders space was scooped up by the Comal team in Berkeley, the popular East Bay Cal-Mexican outfit opens its fast-casual spinoff today … called Comal Next Door. With a compact menu of burritos, tacos and tortas,…

With market, bakery and cafe, Oakland Chow bites off more than it can chew

Apr 17 • 7 min

Inside and out, the new Chow in Oakland is impressive, with its high-beamed ceiling, concrete floors, wood railings and dozens of what resemble picnic tables. It feels something like a Tahoe lodge. Under this one roof there’s an impressive produce market,…

What makes the ultimate grilled cheese sandwich?

Apr 16 • 9 min

Tuck some cheese between two slices of bread, cook until the bread is crisp and the cheese is melted, and voila! — you’ve got yourself a grilled cheese sandwich. There may be no such thing as bad grilled cheese, but like so many seemingly simple dishes,…

Hog & Rocks closes as the Mission continues to change around it

Apr 13 • 3 min

Hog & Rocks’ Scott Youkilis is still adjusting to the idea of not owning a restaurant in the Mission. The role is the only thing he’s known for more than a decade, going back to his Maverick days. Since 2010, when he and partner Dave Esler remodeled a…

Bay Area restaurant industry on high alert for potential ICE raids

Apr 12 • 5 min

As U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers swept across Northern California earlier this year, arresting more than 150 undocumented immigrants, the Bay Area restaurant industry watched closely. “Everyone is fearing a day that ICE could show up…

Finger limes the ‘caviar’ of citrus for your garden

Apr 11 • 4 min

It isn’t often gardeners get to hear the word “caviar” used in the context of a plant in their garden, but that is a valid association when one is talking about the unique citrus tree called finger lime. Right away, throw out everything you know about…

Verve, the hit New York wine shop from master sommelier Dustin Wilson, coming to S.F.

Apr 10 • 4 min

Verve, the hit New York wine shop from master sommelier Dustin Wilson, coming to S.F. Lucky us: San Francisco is getting an outpost of Verve Wine, the New York shop owned by master sommelier (and “Somm” star) Dustin Wilson and partner Derrick Mize. The…

San Francisco bar has liquor license revoked due to drug sales

Apr 9 • 2 min

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control indefinitely suspended the license of La Oficina after department agents discovered a number of violations at the Mission Street bar, including the purchase and sale of illegal narcotics.

San Francisco Brewing Co. headed to Ghirardelli Square with massive new project

Apr 6 • 2 min

San Francisco Brewing Co. is roughly one month away from opening the doors to its sprawling 12,000-square-foot project at Ghirardelli Square, a mammoth venture meant to revitalize an iconic tourist destination in need of new life.The project’s tap room…

Fillmore trattoria has a zabaglione to remember

Apr 5 • 4 min

This is Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer’s Between Meals column, an update of the restaurants he visits as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews, which include a ratings box, are written only after three or more…

Salt & Straw asked local kids to invent new ice cream flavors. Here’s what they created.

Apr 4 • 3 min

Salt & Straw asked local kids to invent new ice cream flavors. Here’s what they created. Would you eat an ice cream flavor invented by kids? What if it was made with cheddar cheese? Portland-based ice cream shop Salt & Straw, which opened outposts in San…

Behind the scenes at Ocho’s Oakland candy factory

Apr 3 • 5 min

Behind the scenes at Ocho’s Oakland candy factory When Ocho founder Denis Ring first started experimenting with chocolate candy bars a decade ago, he thought it would just be a small hobby business. He quickly realized that his candies had more upside…

Oakland restaurant devises system to combat customers’ harassment of workers

Apr 2 • 7 min

It’s often the subtle but creepy stuff: a lingering stare, an intrusive question, even an unwanted touch on the arm. Women get that every day on the street, and the servers at Homeroom, a busy mac-and-cheese restaurant in Oakland, were tired of getting it…

With the idea of regionalism, will more Bay Area bars champion local spirits?

Mar 30 • 8 min

Do you know what’s really in your cocktail?That’s the question that Thad Vogler, barman and owner of Bar Agricole, Trou Normand and the upcoming Obispo, has been asking himself for the past 18 years.When Vogler was bar manager of the Slanted Door in the…

Floating restaurant Forbes Island finds a new home — in the East Bay

Mar 29 • 5 min

Towering above relatively placid waters along the San Joaquin River, casting a cylindrical shadow on pontoons, jet skis and speedboats stands a 55-step lighthouse. Next to that are noticeably out-of-place palm trees. Resting idly below the surface, a…

Double flowers twice as nice in pink ‘Victorian Lady’ abutilon

Mar 28 • 3 min

Abutilons (flowering maple) are such a common sight in Bay Area gardens, and there are so many colors now available, that one would be hard pressed to call another entry “new.” But abutilon lovers will have to revise that thought in considering the truly…

‘You died’: The resurrection of a cook in the heart of SF’s demanding culinary scene

Mar 27 • 18 min

‘You died’: The resurrection of a cook in the heart of SF’s demanding culinary scene On New Year’s Eve, a young cook named Eric Ehler died. And then he came back. Now he and the restaurant community are grappling with what comes next for the city’s…

Grubstake owners break their silence on diner’s murky future

Mar 26 • 3 min

Though Grubstake’s days are numbered, the diner’s owners Nick Pigott and Jimmy Consos are saying it’s premature for folks to starting saying goodbye to it.At the same time, they also acknowledge that changes are in store for the beloved greasy spoon, and…

Remembering Robert Haas, one of the most influential figures in American wine

Mar 23 • 8 min

Remembering Robert Haas, one of the most influential figures in American wine Robert Haas, one of the most influential figures in American wine of his generation, died on Sunday at his home in Templeton, Calif., from pneumonia. He was 90. As an importer,…

For Aisan Hoss, Persian food and dance are traditions worth sharing

Mar 22 • 9 min

The base for Aisan Hoss’ kuku sabzi, like most any good Iranian dish, is a pound of fresh herbs, and possibly more. For this frittata-like dish, she had patiently minced her way through vibrant green bunches of dill, parsley, cilantro and chives long…

A Brown Kitchen: Savory Lamb Swirl Buns

Mar 21 • 6 min

As a schoolkid, I ate one almost every day. Though they were called “hot dogs” in Mumbai, they were closer to sloppy joes: a roll of bread, sliced in the center to form a deep crevice that would then be stuffed with a mixture of ground beef or lamb that…

Dazzling poppy and calendula brighten the winter garden

Mar 20 • 4 min

It’s always a joy to come across a new and colorful winter bloomer. Here are two to add to the list: Papaver rhoeas ‘Pandora’ and Calendula officinalis ‘Bronzed Beauty.’Poppies and calendulas are well known to gardeners, but these varieties might open a…

The Girl & the Fig, one of the best places to dine in Sonoma

Mar 19 • 4 min

The Girl & the Fig, one of the best places to dine in Sonoma In his Between Meals column, Chronicle restaurant critic Michael Bauer writes about the restaurants he visits each week as he searches for the next Top 100 Restaurants. His main dining reviews,…

Among top San Francisco destination restaurants, the Progress is better than ever

Mar 16 • 6 min

When they opened State Bird Provisions in 2011, Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski were in fact working to open their dream project, the Progress, in a large space on Fillmore Street. But there was also a small space next door, so into it State Bird…

Steve Edmunds is the unsung hero of California wine

Mar 15 • 10 min

Steve Edmunds is the unsung hero of California wine “I’ve been hearing voices, somebody breaking out inside of me, can you tell me who it is?” —“Rocks and Gravel,” from the album “Singing to the Ghosts” by Steve Edmunds If you know about Edmunds St. John,…

Best views of San Francisco? Head to MerSea, a new Treasure Island restaurant

Mar 14 • 7 min

Best views of San Francisco? Head to MerSea, a new Treasure Island restaurant One of the joys of living in San Francisco is that we can be walking along the ocean in minutes, hiking on bucolic trails in a half hour, then skiing in the mountains a few…

The ultimate Ferry Building food tour: 16 things to eat and drink inside the Ferry Building

Mar 13 • 5 min

An eating tour starting at the building’s north end and heading south: 1. Steamed chicken bun at Out the Door At $3.50, the fist-size steamed buns at Out the Door may be the most inexpensive meal you can pick up at the Ferry Building. — Jonathan Kauffman…

Yelp’s food-safety alerts steer diners away from dirty restaurants, but also spark controversy

Mar 12 • 6 min

Yelp’s food-safety alerts steer diners away from dirty restaurants, but also spark controversy Check out Yelp’s listing for New Woey Loy Goey in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and below its rating (3.