Akikos restaurant sushi bar san francisco

More than two years after Bar Agricole temporarily closed its doors, owner Thad Vogler is finally ready to debut his celebrated San Francisco bar at its new home in the Mission District. Bar Agricole, now at 1540 Mission St., opens on Wednesday, Aug. 3, as a tasting room with a drink menu focused on single-origin spirits. A selection of single-origin whiskeys, gins, vermouths and agave spirits, among others, will highlight Bar Agricole’s new spirit line that’s expected to launch nationally later this year. “We are happy to be a part of the city again,” Vogler told SFGATE via email. “It’s scary but it feels like a privilege not to be taken for granted.” Tucked inside Bar Agricole’s new digs are light-colored wooden booths, wooden floors and a ceiling decorated with wooden panels, with blue light fixtures providing contrast. At the focal point of the tasting room is an aqua-tiled bar where bartenders will work with massive ice blocks for its roster of craft mixed cocktails, from … [Read more...] about San Francisco’s Bar Agricole finally reopens after a two-year closure

It’s been a frustrating couple of months for Jaynry Mak. She's spent thousands of dollars repairing damages made to Dim Sum Corner after back-to-back vandalism and theft this summer. The latest break-in happened on Thursday morning after surveillance footage showed a man smashing the glass entrance and stealing two cash registers. KPIX first reported the story. “Mentally and emotionally, we’re over it,” Mak, managing partner at Dim Sum Corner, told SFGATE. “We don’t look like a business that’s open, and it's had a significant impact on us.” The incident occurred around 2 a.m. on Thursday when a man loitering outside Dim Sum Corner, at 601 Grant Ave., hurled an unidentified item at the door, according to Mak. Mak said when she saw surveillance footage later that morning, she saw that the man paced outside the restaurant for a few minutes before he entered the shop and ran out with two cash registers. Dim Sum Corner, located at 601 Grant Ave., was burgalrized on … [Read more...] about San Francisco Chinatown restaurant Dim Sum Corner vandalized a third time this year: ‘We’re over it.’

Azalina’s, a Malaysian restaurant beloved by food critics, is set to make its comeback on Sept. 1 in San Francisco's Tenderloin, according to KQED . It will be located inside the Aviary development at 499 Ellis St. The reincarnation of Azalina’s, owned and operated by Azalina Eusope, is a love letter to Malaysian culture and her family’s five generation-history of being street-food vendors. “My goal has always been the same — to honor every single aspect of my experience growing up,” Eusope told KQED. “Food is very emotional, right? I feel it whenever someone’s eating something, even the smell of it. It somehow triggers some kind of thing in our soul.” The project has been in the works since 2019, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. But the pandemic put a wrench in development plans. The first incarnation of Azalina’s opened in 2015 out of La Cocina, a food entrepreneur incubator program located in the Mission. By early 2019, Eusope was able to join a slew of … [Read more...] about Popular Malaysian eatery to reopen in San Francisco with a prix fixe menu

Somehow, the Cat Club has stuck around long enough to become as timeless as the music it plays. The raised dancing cage and Whore Alley. The two divided dance floors that work in unison like the brain’s hemispheres. The 1980s and kink nights. The same staff, DJs and colorful regulars who have been doing this for almost 30 years — they’ve become mainstays in an ephemeral San Francisco nightlife culture. But that eclectic consistency only took root after a series of random events. Had it not been for a local chef’s post-jail bar conversation, a forced shutdown, a scrapped grill service, the promotion of a barback to club manager, and a surprise visit from a world-famous new wave band, who knows what alternate timeline would have unwound at 1190 Folsom St. It definitely wouldn’t have been as weird, or bold, or inviting. What began as Cat’s Grill and Alley in 1993, when the South of Market District was dominated by house and techno clubs, dared to be different as it packed hundreds of … [Read more...] about ‘We are the Cheers bar’: The stories behind San Francisco’s beloved Cat Club

This is a carousel. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate 9 The first time Kevin Sessums walked into a gay bar, he knew he had found his people. Merely a teenager in Jackson, Miss., in the early 1970s, he had used a razor blade to meticulously rearrange the numbers on his driver’s license to gain entry to Mae’s Cabaret. Bars and nightclubs have long served as safe spaces for gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and other marginalized people, and for the former Vanity Fair writer who chronicled his childhood growing up in the South in his memoir “Mississippi Sissy,” no amount of effort to get inside was too much. “I experienced a new kind of joy,” says the now 60-year-old Sessums. “I found my tribe. I found redemption. It wasn’t just that I found a place where gay people could be together, but it was a camaraderie that went across socioeconomic levels, gender and racial lines. It was something I didn’t … [Read more...] about After Orlando, focus is to rally around San Francisco’s gay club scene

What do San Franciscans care about? How has residents’ focus on issues such as homelessness, inflation and income inequality changed over time? One way to answer these questions is by analyzing Google searches. The Chronicle obtained Google Trends data measuring the relative volume of searches made by S.F. residents in each year, going back to 2004. For each topic in a given year, Google calculates a score that represents search interest, relative to that in other years. Scores are indexed to 100, where 100 is the maximum value. This means each topic’s 100-scoring year is the year in which search interest for that topic was at its highest. One of the biggest issues that the city faces is its housing crisis, and the data show residents increasingly turning to Google to search for terms related to housing and homelessness. Searches related to affordable housing have jumped by over 50% since the mid 2000s, and interest peaked this year. Search interest in homelessness was at its … [Read more...] about What do San Franciscans want to know? Here’s what Google search data reveals

Chicken strips chain opens in Oakland, and more restaurant openings around the East Bay The East Bay’s food scene saw no shortage of restaurant openings in July, giving area diners new options for their next meal out. Chicken fingers franchise Raising Cane’s saw lines of fanatics at its Oakland opening . Sushi bars and an Asian fusion kitchen came into the East Bay’s outer reaches, as Berkeley welcomed a cold-pressed juice operation to the always-busy Shattuck Avenue and Oakland received another Ethiopian spot. That’s all in addition to Sarah Kirnon’s new Holder’s House and Snail Bar spin-off Slug in Oakland, both recommended in The Chronicle’s guide to the Bay Area’s best new resaurants . Continue for more on recent East Bay restaurant openings. (And find last month’s edition here .) Gussie’s chef brings fresh cafe to Oakland Museum Town Fare at the Oakland Museum of California campus, originally helmed by Brown Sugar Kitchen’s Tanya Holland , returned under a … [Read more...] about Soul food queen’s latest restaurant debuts in Oakland, plus other East Bay openings

Thai Noodle II, a restaurant right in the heart of UC Berkeley 's bustling Telegraph Avenue, has closed after 15 years, according to Berkeleyside . On July 1, a notice posted at the restaurant announced that it had closed "due to circumstance[s] beyond our control" and that "we have loved being here on Telegraph Avenue and would like to thank you." SFGATE could not reach the owner for comment at time of publication. Thai Noodle II is the sister restaurant to Shattuck Avenue's The Noodle, Thai Restaurant, which remains open. Thai Noodle II was almost lost once before, when it burned in a destructive apartment fire in 2011, according to Berkeleyside. Luckily for Cal students, it reopened in 2012. The restaurant's exposed brick walls and mood lighting offered a slightly classier vibe than the usual student eatery, yet still with very student-friendly pricing. In this part of Berkeley, competition is fierce when it comes to Thai restaurants — Racha Cafe, Thai Basil and … [Read more...] about UC Berkeley student favorite restaurant Thai Noodle II has closed after 15 years

Little Shucker, a new bar from the team behind The Snug, is replacing The Grove at 2016 Fillmore St. The concept will focus on lower alcohol content — below 20% — across wine, beer and cocktail selections such as spritzes. Little Shucker’s food menu is headed by Adrian Garcia, who formerly worked at Michelin-starred San Francisco restaurants Benu and Quince. With a prime location on Fillmore Street between California and Pine streets, the business corridor is known for its people watching and window shopping. Little Shucker is coming in “ early 2023 ,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle . (SFGATE and the Chronicle are both owned by Hearst but operate independently.) Jacob Racusin, a managing partner at The Snug, sees the approachable bar as “like a Parisian bistro,” because of the large windows that will open up to outdoor seating. “It’s just what a lot of us want these days, especially when you want to enjoy a lighter meal,” Racusin told the Chronicle. “We’re … [Read more...] about New bar Little Shucker from The Snug team to open in SF’s Pacific Heights, focus on low-ABV drinks

Locals don't often go to Hang Ah Tea Room, the oldest dim sum restaurant in America — but they should. Part of the reason is that it’s hidden in an obscure alleyway in Chinatown, away from the more familiar streets in the neighborhood. Part of it is that any place that can be called the oldest of its kind is often a tourist trap. But the restaurant, a legacy business that is more than a century old, has plenty to offer for locals and tourists alike. Look for the giant arrow To find Hang Ah, follow the signage along a small alleyway called Pagoda Place. You won’t be able to miss it: There’s a huge sign painted on the side of the first building that lines the corridor, with a giant arrow pointing at the entrance. The restaurant belies its historic status with its casual, homey atmosphere. Inside the dining room, red vinyl-upholstered chairs and dark wooden tables sit atop cream tiles. There may not be tablecloths, but there is a curated mix of vintage Chinatown and San … [Read more...] about SF’s Hang Ah Tea Room is America’s first dim sum restaurant, with 102 years of stories to tell