News for Restaurants in San Francisco September 2014 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 Joshua Skenes (Saison) and Los Angeles-based restaurant owner Adam Fleischman (Umami Burger) will open a fast, casual Chinese restaurant in downtown San Francisco called Fat Noodle in 2015. Hand-pulled noodle dishes (along with rice and egg noodle base options) will be served in a production-line fashion as guests choose various broth, meat, vegetable and sauce toppings. Skenes is aiming for a focus on Sichuan and Shaanxi ingredients and flavors, all crafted in-house, and hopes to provide lunch and dinner service daily through 2 a.m. Fat Noodle, 92 Second St., San Francisco, CA 94105, no phone.   Les Clos brings new wine bar-café blood to San Francisco's SOMA district. The all-day enclave for food, wine and gourmet retail is the latest venture from Mark Bright, Saison's owner-sommelier who also owns Local Kitchen and Wine Merchant and Vinyl Wine Bar, both in San Francisco. With Les Clos, Bright hopes to bring a French wine cave feel to the experience --- the grey walls are decorated with original fifteenth-century maps of Burgundy, and chocolate leather couches, a dramatic natural wood bar and communal area, as well as 10 tables for dining, lend rustic intimacy to the 1,200-foot space. Chef is Shawn Gawle, former pastry chef of Saison, also trained in savory French technique, who planned a rich, French-style menu for Les Clos' café: escargots, cheeses, caviar service, moules Provencale, croques monsieur and broiled oysters. The 5,000-bottle wine list, including 40 by the glass, is exclusively French with a focus on Burgundy, Bright's preferred region. Partner Cara Patricia Higgins, also a Saison veteran, oversees the wine and drink program as well as operations. Les Clos, 234 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, 415-795-1422.   Sachin Chopra, chef of Peninsula favorite All Spice, will bring his cuisine to San Francisco with Game in the former Masa's space inside the Executive Hotel Vintage Court. On board as executive chef is Zack Freitas, current chef de cuisine at All Spice, and Chopra's wife and business partner Shoshana Wolff is co-owner and wine curator. Chopra is known for his California-Indian cooking but this first San Francisco venture will feature food dubbed "new American exotic" --- namely game animals such as bison, Guinea hen, pheasant and venison alongside more conventional cuts of grass-fed beef and wild fish, blended with innovative ingredients and spices. Game, 650 Bush St., San Francisco, CA 94108, 415-392-4666, 888-388-3932.   Located in tony Hayes Valley, helmed by chef Corey Lee (Benu, The French Laundry) and focused on modern French bistro cuisine, Monsieur Benjamin is one of San Francisco's most noted new restaurants of the summer. Lee has created an appealing menu of bistro classics --- escargots, mussels, steak tartare appetizers, and mains such as blanquette de veau, steak frites, and grilled fish amandine --- plied with his famed technique. Environs are sleek, urbane, sexy and approachable, with glass-heavy décor offset by old-school French design touches, such as the heft of true bistro tableware. The restaurant is also making waves for being open until 1 a.m. nightly, a rarity in San Francisco. Look for lunch in the coming weeks. Dinner nightly. Monsieur Benjamin, 451 Gough St., San Francisco, CA 94102, 415-403-2233.   News Bytes New Cookbook from Tacolicious Tacolicious has a new cookbook called Tacolicious: Festive Recipes for Tacos, Snacks, Cocktails and More. It delivers easy instructions on how to make all-time favorites like classic guacamole, delicious margaritas, homemade horchata and a variety of tacos. Read more on GAYOT's Tumblr. Tacolicious, 2031 Chestnut St., San Francisco, CA 94123, 415-346-1966.   Chef Shuffle Restaurant Michael Mina has a new lead sommelier. Evan Hufford comes to the restaurant from a year at Saison, where he was head sommelier and then restaurant director. Before that he was with L'Atelier de Joël Robuchon and Joël Robuchon Restaurant in Las Vegas, and sommelier at Arizona's Kai restaurant at Wild Horse Pass Resort for five years. Michael Mina, 252 California St., San Francisco, CA 94111, 415-397-9222.   Closings Chris Yeo, known locally for his stylish enclaves that serve Singaporean and Southeast Asian cuisine, has closed his Straits Restaurant on the fourth floor of the Westfield San Francisco Centre. Yeo's original Straits Cafe was in San Francisco on Geary Street, and was open for nearly 20 years before he moved into the Westfield in 2006. His Straits properties in Burlingame, Houston and San Jose's Santana Row remain open, as does his Sino restaurant, also on Santana Row. Straits Restaurant, Westfield San Francisco Centre, 845 Market St., 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA 94103, no phone.   Fans of diminutive South of Market favorite Marlowe should note that the restaurant has left its digs at 330 Townsend St. to prepare for a reopening two blocks north in Coco500's former space at 500 Brannan St. Look for the launch in the new, roomier location in early October. Marlowe, 330 Townsend St., San Francisco, CA 94107, 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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