News for Restaurants in San Francisco February 2016 Archive Search / Openings / Closings / Chef Shuffle / News Bytes / Sign up for our free, monthly newsletter / News Archive Want to know who's doing what in your city? Gayot has the restaurant news you want to read on openings, closings, special events, and more. Learn everything you need to know about the restaurants in San Francisco here. RESTAURANT NEWS Openings Volta is a French-Scandinavian brasserie at the Westfield San Francisco Centre. The popular köttbullar (Swedish meatballs of beef, pork and veal) are certainly pleasing, but the menu holds greater reward for the adventurous. A thoughtful --- if not approachable --- cocktail program features a first-rate Manhattan-like Vieux Copain. Twenty beers by the bottle and tap, and a well-planned selection of wines by the glass, round out the experience. Volta, Westfield San Francisco Centre, 868 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103, 628-400-6200.   Purists will find VeganBurg’s svelte lineup of 100-percent plant-based burgers as close to the real thing as they’re going to find anywhere. Served on wholemeal buns and loaded with thick cuts of locally-sourced organic vegetables, the GMO-free soy and mushroom patties are shipped from the chain’s Singapore flagship. Add-ons of “cheese” and “bacon” are surprisingly convincing. Sides of savory, steamed broccoli and seaweed-dusted fries are worth the spend, but are best consumed hot. VeganBurg, 1466 Haight St., San Francisco, CA 94117, 415-548-8000.   Urbano Latino is an inviting neighborhood restaurant and bar serving up generously portioned Latin-influenced food in Oakland. Seafood paella is loaded with mussels, chicken, sausage, peas and saffron rice, and crowned with giant Gulf prawns. Also on the menu are Kobe-pork belly tacos, brick-pressed boneless half-chicken with mole sauce, appetizers, salads and sides. Urbano Latino, 4307 Telegraph Ave., Oakland, CA 94609, 510-922-1726.   Pacific Catch has opened a branch in Dublin at Persimmon Place. In a sprawling room with comfortable booths under large, square, simulated rice paper lights, peruse an extensive menu of Pacific Rim seafood dishes: sushi rolls, rice bowls, fish tacos or a generous crab salad with avocado, chunky vegetables, ginger, shredded nori and a soy-wasabi vinaigrette. Pacific Catch, Persimmon Place, 5251 Martinelli Way, Dublin, CA 94568, 925-999-8053.   Little Gem is a welcoming, fast-casual retreat in Hayes Valley. Practicality and function seem to rule, as dishes from the simple, gluten-free menu are promptly delivered to guests as they gaze out a wall of windows onto the chaos of the Gough Street corridor. Sun seekers will find two dozen seats on the sidewalk adjacent to the entrance. Little Gem, 400 Grove St., San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-914-0501.   Casa Cubana serves up Cuban-inspired cuisine in Oakland. An art gallery of Cuban prints and paintings surround patrons seated in twosomes or larger boisterous groups. The smart, compact menu offers something just right for everyone: meat, fish, fowl, soup, salads, wine and beer, and cocktails evoking 1940s Cuba. Casa Cubana, 59 Grand Ave., Oakland, CA 94612, 510-452-2822.   Chef/restaurateur Michael Mina will open a Mediterranean-inspired restaurant at 350 Mission Street. A name for the project has not yet been announced.   A casual Italian restaurant has opened in the Outer Richmond. Called Fiorella and headed up by owner Boris Nemchenok (Uva Enoteca, and New York's Otto Enoteca e Pizzeria), who grew up in that neighborhood, and chef-partner Brandon Gillis (Brooklyn's Franny's), the 40-seat restaurant offers fresh pastas, pizza, crostini and antipasti, as well as Italian wine varietals from boutique Italian and domestic producers. Fiorella, 2339 Clement St., San Francisco, CA 94121, 415-340-3049.   News Bytes Remembering Chef Eric Lanvert News is circulating that chef Eric Lanvert passed away from a heart attack. He had been the longtime chef/owner of Rue Saint Jacques in San Francisco until the restaurant's closing in 2013.   Top Fromage: Gary Danko's Cheese Program Helmed by Certified Best Congratulations to Cole Mathers of restaurant Gary Danko, who is a newly-named American Cheese Society's Certified Cheese Professional. Mathers is one of only 606 people in America, Canada and Europe to have passed the fifth level of testing required to receive the credential. Gary Danko, 800 North Point St., San Francisco, CA 94109, 415-749-2060.   Chef Shuffle Ron Siegel has departed restaurant Michael Mina to join the kitchen of the rustic roadhouse Rancho Nicasio in Marin County as head chef. Meanwhile, Mina group vet Raj Dixit, formerly of Dana Point's contemporary Stonehill Tavern, has taken the reins at 252 California Street. San Francisco welcomes the SoCal native to the Bay Area, and wishes Siegel the best up north. Michael Mina, 252 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111, 415-397-9222.   Closings High-end Japanese-Californian restaurant Ame closed after dinner service on February 29, 2016. Owners Lissa Doumani and Hiro Sone decided not to renew their lease inside The St. Regis San Francisco, choosing instead to focus on their wine country restaurant Terra, opened by the couple in 1992. (Ame was opened in 2005.) Meanwhile, the San Francisco restaurant space left by Ame will play immediate host to a pop-up restaurant helmed by The St. Regis called The Grill. Ame, St. Regis Hotel, San Francisco , 689 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94105, no phone.   CULINARY EVENTS Want to learn to cook? Try new dishes? Meet a foodie friend for fun? Check out our compilation of culinary events in your area. View our calendar of Wine Dinners & Tastings in San Francisco Discover the top restaurants in the San Francisco/Bay Area for various cuisines and categories like sushi, steakhouses, happy hours, romantic dining and even gourmet food trucks. Find the best restaurants in SF here!

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