Last month, Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement came home to the Fillmore. It had been more than a decade coming. Ever since the restaurant’s chef and owner Fernay McPherson first launched her business through the incubator program at La Cocina, she’s wanted to open a storefront in the neighborhood that’s been home to her family for three generations. “We searched high and low in the Fillmore for so long,” says McPherson. “It was either too expensive, or I didn’t have access to enough capital, or the landlords didn’t believe in my vision.” She opened up a food truck, instead; followed by catering an ..read more

It’s no secret that San Francisco doesn’t exactly make opening, running, and actually staying afloat in the restaurant industry easy. In just the last two months, some of the city’s most illustrious chefs—Michael Mina, Dominique Crenn, Anya El-Wattar—have announced the closure of restaurants with Michelin and James Beard cred. But even as so many celebrated spots are succumbing to the carnage of the culinary battlefield, one beloved Bay Area brand isn’t just hanging on for dear life, it's thriving. With the arrival of Little Original Joe’s in the Marina next month, and a slated 2025 opening ..read more

When I fell in love with a man and moved from San Francisco to San Jose, the city’s restaurants were high on the list of the things I was heartbroken to leave behind. But San Jose, it turns out, holds its own in the food department. They just do things a little differently here. For starters, most restaurants in San Jose are low-key family-owned operations. There are very few show-stoppingly stylish restaurants and, the majority that try, don’t exactly hit the mark. Almost every restaurant, from upscale spots to holes-in-the-wall have televisions, and both downtown and on Santana Row, the sp ..read more

A new food and wine festival debuts in the Bay Area this May, and it's unlike just about anything else out there. Over four days of uniquely curated food and drink experiences, the POC Food & Wine Festival will celebrate those chefs, vintners, brewers, distillers, and other makers of color who are often overlooked in the spaces devoted to their crafts. “We’ve been seeing creative movements happening in cultural communities and I wanted to create a space for a more multicultural community, one to which we could bring in the East Asian community, the Filipino community, the Black community ..read more

Lately, it seems, the city can’t get enough of a good time. From swanky new lounges to street fairs and festivals, this stage of San Francisco’s post-pandemic recovery is all about gathering together over communal meals and out-of-the-ordinary experiences. Of all the styles of celebration going off in the city right now, one of the most fun is rooted in Filipino tradition: the Kamayan dinner. “Kamayan is a communal style of dining which translates to using only your hands to eat,” explains Francis Ang, executive chef and owner of celebrated Filipino restaurant, Abacá. It’s “a feast served ov ..read more

North Beach was smack in the middle of its rough-and-tumble Barbary Coast days when Fior D’Italia opened its doors. In 1886, Italian cuisine didn’t yet exist and restaurants in the working-class immigrant neighborhood catered towards provincial specialties. At Fior, that meant Northern Italian dishes that nodded to its founders’ Ligurian and Tuscan origins: veal scaloppine, risotto with clams, tortellini Bologna, each sold for less than 15 cents a pop. Fior D’Italia was one of several regional Italian restaurants that cropped up in North Beach at the end of the 19th century. For Genoese food ..read more

We all love a comeback story: After a four-year hiatus, the famed Pebble Beach Food & Wine is back this April and in refreshed form. Presented by the Pebble Beach Company Foundation and the Florida-based a21 (which operates the popular Whiskeys of the World tour), the year's culinary festival marks a stronger-than-ever emphasis on its charitable component—the event benefits local nonprofits in youth and education sectors—alongside all the star power foodies have come to expect of the gastronomic weekend held at one of the world's most iconic golf courses. A spoonful of caviar Marc Fiorit ..read more

As the complex machinery of the San Francisco economy continues to hollow out downtown in new and frightening ways (say it isn’t so, Macy’s), there’s a growing backlash to the doom and gloom. When the sun descends and the lights of the city flicker to life, so too does a vision of prosperity and celebration long forgotten. Swank is back—and just in time. Over the last six months or so, SF has welcomed multiple new venues with glamorous vibes, luxe cocktails and food, and entertainment magnetic enough to pull the city out of its work-from-home haze. These are places special enough for a dress ..read more

Sonoma’s send-up to all things cheese is back for its 18th year of ooey gooey celebration. At the California Artisan Cheese Festival, you don’t just get to eat all the cheese (and you do!), you get a look behind the curtain with tours at local farms and creameries, at seminars and workshops with storied experts, and at tastings manned by makers like Wm. Cofield, Laura Chenel, Marin French, and Point Reyes Farmstead Cheese Co. “There is nothing like getting the chance to meet your favorite cheesemaker at the Cheese Crawl or cuddle with a baby goat on one of the farm tours,” says Sarah Simms ..read more

The most important meal of the day just got a permanent upgrade. For years, chef Andrew McCormack’s Early to Rise was a fleeting pop-up affair—a family-style food orgy before the pandemic, a gourmet counter-served meal after. Now, the beloved brunchery has found a place to call home. McCormack, who’s toiled in the kitchens at Michelin-approved Spruce and Quince, has the skills to make Early to Rise a splashy destination anchored by unusual flavors and techniques. Instead, he’s chosen a different path. McCormack’s first brick-and-mortar carries on the pop-up’s tradition as a light-hearted, we ..read more