News for Restaurants in San Francisco June 2011 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 High-end newcomer Bluestem Brasserie has opened at One Yerba Buena Lane, anchoring the tidy passageway between the Financial District area of Market Street and the arts and culture of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, Contemporary Jewish Museum and SFMOMA. The restaurant is notable for its prominent location and lofty structure---designed by Olle Lundberg, it features room for more than 200 diners and a rooftop patio overlooking Market Street---and its team, headed by owner Adam Jed, formerly of The PlumpJack Group. Chef Sean Canavan's (Left Bank in Larkspur, Kokkari, La Folie) rustic brasserie menu includes a strong focus on whole animal cooking, particularly grass-fed beef. Lunch & Dinner daily. Bluestem Brasserie, One Yerba Buena Lane, San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-547-1111.   Chambers Eat + Drink has opened inside The Phoenix Hotel, arguably the most rock-and-roll lodging within San Francisco's city limits, and Joie de Vivre founder Chip Conley's first boutique hotel. The restaurant abuts the hotel's famed outdoor pool and features a poolside patio, freestanding fire and two fully furnished cabanas along with two indoor bars. Chef Trevor Ogden (Mission Beach Café, Umami) has created a California menu of seasonal big and small bites---big, such as pork tenderloin with English peas, spring onion, apple and lardons, and small, such as salmon with roe and yuzu saké crème fraîche. Flavors from Japan, France and the Mediterranean will figure prominently in many dishes. The 3,000-square-foot space can seat 52 for dinner inside and accommodate up to 300 on the patio. Chambers owners Sean and Isabel Manchester are the husband-and-wife team behind Mighty and Wish, two of San Francisco's most sophisticated yet inclusive nightspots, and hope to strike the same mood with this new venture. Dinner Tues.-Sun. Chambers Eat + Drink, The Phoenix Hotel, 601 Eddy St., San Francisco, CA 94109, 415-829-2316.   South of Market has a new wine bar---or, more specifically, a wine tavern. Sidebar Wine Tavern, owned by the Good Hotel, serves only California wines, including eight on tap, as well as draft beers and a menu of shareable plates and comfort food. For the mostly international hotel visitors, the welcoming space and menu items such as roasted chicken, macaroni and cheese, pizzas and oven-roasted burgers should provide a warm introduction to American hospitality and fare. For locals and professionals in the Seventh and Market area, the tavern is a welcome new place to eat and drink. Dinner nightly. Sidebar Wine Tavern, Good Hotel, 112 Seventh St., San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-626-8381.   News Bytes Palio d'Asti Features "Head-to-Tailfin" Cooking of Tuna In answer to current trends in "nose-to-tail" whole animal cuisine, Palio d'Asti restaurant in the Financial District features traditional Sicilian "head-to-tailfin" cooking of local albacore tuna. Sicily's ancient ritual, warm-weather mattanza---or tuna hunt---culminates in cooking and sharing every part of the fish, including offal. Honoring that tradition, Palio d'Asti's prix-fixe or à la carte dishes include items such as albacore belly served cooked and as a crudo with eggplant relish; cured tuna roe in tomato sauce over couscous; and grilled backloin of the fish with heirloom summer squash. Lunch menus will feature additional special items with tuna as the star. Palio d'Asti allows two hours of free parking at both lunch and dinner. Palio d'Asti, 640 Sacramento St., San Francisco, CA 94111, 415-395-9800.   Changes at Coi A brief remodel has altered the landscape at Coi, Daniel Patterson's high-concept destination restaurant. The narrow, chic, former lounge area with separate menu has been absorbed into the main dining room, creating a unified focus throughout the restaurant. Tables are larger and the bar seating has been removed. Additionally, à la carte menu options are no longer available; all guests are presented with Patterson's eleven-course tasting menu that changes daily. The experience is $145 per person; wine pairings are an additional $95 per person, or wines are available by the glass. Coi, 373 Broadway St., San Francisco, CA 94133, 415-393-9000.   Sunday Suppers at Cotogna Italian standout Cotogna hosts rustic, four-course, family-style Sunday Suppers for between $40 and $50 per person, exclusive of tax, gratuity and beverage (the regular menu is not available). Menus change weekly and seasonally, and reservations are strongly suggested. Cotogna, 490 Pacific Ave., San Francisco, CA 94133, 415-775-8508.   Summer Specials at FIVE FIVE restaurant inside Berkeley's Hotel Shattuck Plaza is running several compelling summer specials, including a new Thursday night series featuring live blues and Texan chef Banks White's smoked brisket and other barbecue for $25 per person. Also on offer for the summer season, for bar diners only, is a complimentary pint of High Five Pale Ale with every order of the "five burger," which features chili, pimento cheese and Carolina slaw. FIVE, Hotel Shattuck Plaza, 2086 Allston Way, Berkeley, CA 94704, 510-845-7300.   Father's Day Dining Round-Up Dads can enjoy some extra special dining options with their families at a variety of Bay Area restaurants on Sunday, June 19, particularly if they're carnivores. Alexander's Steakhouse will feature its Sunday night prime rib special for $35 per person, and the Beach Chalet will feature a prime rib for both lunch and dinner. McCormick & Kuleto's Seafood Restaurant will offer a "mixed grill trio" of beef filet, salmon and crab cake, along with brunch bolstered by tribute cocktails such as the bourbon-based "Father Knows Best" and special "Clubhouse Lemonade." Speaking of bourbon, Urban Tavern will feature a bourbon-paired dinner menu of four courses with a veal entrée (and including five hours of free parking in Union Square). But the winner of the dad's dreams contest might be Picán restaurant in Oakland, where their second annual Cigar-B-Que will feature grilled steaks, chops, a burger topped with pulled pork, cigars and bourbon on the restaurant's porch and a can of Schlitz with every cut of meat.   Chef Shuffle Luce inside the InterContinental San Francisco has found a chef---Dominique Crenn departed in early 2011 to focus on her solo project Atelier Crenn. Replacing her is chef de cuisine Daniel Corey, who was Crenn's chef de partie at Luce shortly after the restaurant's opening. Further Bay Area stints include work at Campton Place Restaurant, Wente Vineyards, and the now closed Nua. In 2008, Corey traveled south to sous at Newport Beach's The Resort at Pelican Hill, and returned as Crenn's executive sous. Expect changes to the menu in mid July as Corey takes the reins. Luce, InterContinental San Francisco, 888 Howard St., San Francisco, CA 94103, 415-616-6566.   The Lark Creek group's Fish Story restaurant along the Napa River has announced changes in the kitchen. Chef Stephen Barber departed for Farmstead restaurant in St. Helena in early July. Taking his place is Clint Davies, former sous of One Market. A New Zealand native and world traveler, Davies has worked for Luke Mangan at White Restaurant in Auckland and Salt restaurant in Tokyo, with Daniel Humm at Campton Place Restaurant in San Francisco, and in stages in Italy, Spain and Scotland. Fish Story, 790 Main St., Napa, CA 94559, 707-251-5600.   Closings Some closings to report with the onset of summer. Ponzu in the Union Square area has shuttered, and will morph into a casual tavern called Jasper's in mid July. Up in Marin County's San Anselmo, Dream Farm closed in mid June. Owned by Charles Low, the restaurant was a former collaboration with Scott Howard called Fork. Low operated the restaurant space as Fork/Dream Farm for ten years.   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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