Most of the time, we celebrate food for its ability to bring people together. But this year’s most-read restaurant stories prove that sometimes, it has the power to spark heated debates and incite serious drama.
We’ve rounded up 10 of the stories that made the biggest splash this year. We saw chefs display bad behavior, beloved institutions struggle to forge new futures, and historic neighborhoods experience restaurant revivals. Eat up.
Kellergate ignited endless debate 
The French Laundry, where critics may or may not be welcome. | Smith Collection/Gado/Getty Images | Source: Getty Images
When Thomas Keller asked the San Francisco Chronicle’s lead restaurant critic, MacKenzie Chung Fegan, to leave The French Laundry, it was the request heard around the world. Or, at least, it felt like that for the industry. For those who somehow missed the drama: Restaurant staff recognized Chung Fegan, Keller asked her to leave, she insisted she wasn’t there to review the restaurant, and, after an emotional tête-à-tête, he lavished her and her companions with a complimentary meal, which he knew her job prevented her from accepting.
“Kellergate,” as The Standard dubbed the incident, began with a single story that spawned numerous think-pieces and group chats as restaurant obsessives debated whether the legendary chef or the newspaper critic was at fault. San Francisco pros mostly defended Keller’s right to decline to serve any customer, pen-wielding or otherwise. But some saw Keller as a Trump-like tyrant out to wrest control of the narrative from a free press. No matter which side you were on, the fiasco proved beyond a doubt that the power struggle between chefs and critics is unlikely to end soon.
Anchor Brewing remained an enigma 
Another year without a clear path forward for the city’s oldest brewery. | Source: Jeremy Chen/The Standard
It’s been more than 18 months since billionaire yogurt magnate Hamdi Ulukaya posted a video to social media stating that he’d purchased Anchor Brewing. Since then, crickets. San Francisco’s best-known beer producer remains as quiet as it has been since 2023, when beverage giant Sapporo vacated the art deco complex on Potrero Hill.
But the brewery is anything but dormant. Both of its buildings, on either side of Mariposa Street, showed signs of activity throughout the fall. Yet Anchor and its parent have rebuffed every inquiry, and staff are mum, leaving the city to wonder how many more years will pass before America gets a fresh batch of Christmas Ale. We’ll keep quasi-stalking that brewery for as long as it takes to get answers.
The Cliff House progress continued to stall 
Little progress has been made toward the Cliff House’s reopening. | Source: Getty Images
If you thought 18 months was a long time to wait for news about Anchor Brewing, then buckle up, because it’s been nearly 26 months since attorney and Richmond district native Alex Leff was granted a 20-year lease for the Cliff House. It wouldn’t be fair to say there’s been no progress since then, but the building remains vacant, and despite initial forecasts for a 2024 reopening, a 2026 debut seems unlikely.
According to Leff, ballooning restoration costs and his own expanding ambitions for the project have contributed to the delay. But his spotty record as an operator isn’t inspiring much confidence from the historic restaurant’s many fans. There was at least one piece of good news this year: The couple who operated the Cliff House for decades until its closure in 2020 have donated the restaurant name and all related trademarks to a local nonprofit, which can license them to Leff. Hope lives on.
Food and sex were a heady combo 
We went inside the city’s longest-running erotic dinner party. | Source: Our Gourmet Life
San Francisco has always been a hotbed for both fine dining and free love, and this year, we brought you inside the places where those worlds collide. It turns out there are a lot of unspoken rules around eating while at an orgy — and we spoke to a handful of cooks who specialize in feeding people in between, er, encounters. (According to the experts: charcuterie boards, yes; soup and stinky cheese, no.) Meanwhile, at the city’s longest-standing erotic supper club, performative licking and boob-shaped crème brûlée are not only accepted but encouraged. If house-cured bacon with hearts of palm and fennel purée served by a topless server in a smoky room sounds like a dream come true, well, rest assured, you’re not alone.
Influencers sparked drama, again and again
Online drama became restaurant reality this year. | Source: TikTok & Instagram
No trend polarized readers quite like periodic flare-ups among Bay Area restaurant influencers. Whether taking down chefs over claims of threatening texts or calling out popular burger joints for allegedly unsafe conditions, content creators made a mark this year, as did the Yelp-bombers who left enraged, one-star reviews at eateries they’d never visited, with little regard for the fate of the businesses or their employees.
Supporters see these influencers — most of whom are women — as brave advocates, exposing the industry’s pervasive misogyny. Others decry what they see as selectively recounted versions of events, with a considerable amount of ego on both sides. Either way, drama can be good for business: One local influencer’s follower count increased more than tenfold after she shared a story of alleged mistreatment.
Steph Curry’s bourbon bar dropped the ball
The Eighth Rule has a $145, six-cocktail tasting flight based on Steph Curry’s bourbon brand. | Source: Jason Henry for The Standard
When the Golden State Warriors superstar teamed up with prolific restaurateur Michael Mina on a bar to showcase Curry’s bourbon brand, the concept seemed like a layup. But The Eighth Rule, inside Union Square’s Westin St. Francis Hotel, is anything but a three-pointer.
For starters, it’s neither a sports bar filled with Dub Nation memorabilia nor a place to experience a vertical tasting. Instead, it’s a phenomenally expensive pseudo-speakeasy where a $145 cocktail tasting menu offers various ways to drown out the flavor of the whiskey, some of them saccharine-sweet. Back to the drawing board, Mina.
A massive Korean market drew long lines 
Hundreds lined up for Jagalchi’s opening in March. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard
This was the year H Mart, the cult-favorite Korean grocery store, got serious competition. In March, Jagalchi bought 75,000 square feet of Korean food, drink, and skincare products to Daly City’s Serramonte Center. On opening day, hundreds of shoppers lined up to peruse a butcher case stocked with honeycomb pork belly, an impressive selection of sool, and shelves of ready-to-eat items like steamed jijim mandu.
Though not everyone was wooed by Jagalchi’s Eataly-meet-Erewhon aesthetic, the store’s popularity reflects a larger trend: Asian brands are breathing new life into the Bay Area economy. Along with retailers like PopMart and entertainment centers like Round1, domestic and international Asian brands filled sprawling spaces that had been sitting empty for years. We’ll raise a glass of soju to that.
The Upper Haight underwent a renaissance
Co-owner Maria Haught pours a drink at Mary’s on Haight. | Source: Amanda Andrade-Rhoades/The Standard
Long the province of tie-dyed tourists enamored of the Summer of Love’s indelible appeal, the Upper Haight is suddenly bursting with fresh energy. The dynamism applies to both food and drink. O’Reilly’s Pub and Mary’s on Haight took over, respectively, the former Milk Bar and Trax, while family-run Indian spot Jalebi Street vaulted to a spot on The Standard’s list of best new restaurants.
Granted, some of the boom came from Deadheads who flocked to a trio of Dead & Company goodbye shows, which brought tens of thousands to Golden Gate Park in August. But 2026 promises even more openings, including Green Heron (in the former Hobson’s Choice space) and a revived Club Deluxe. The Haight’s appeal, it seems, is eternal.
Bakersfield emerged as a food destination
The Pyrenees Cafe, a Basque restaurant in Bakersfield. | Source: Jennifer Emerling for The Standard
While the Bay Area and Los Angeles hog the limelight, plenty of California cities have distinct food cultures of their own. Take Bakersfield. The city of 350,000 has been home to a Basque community for far longer than California has been a state, and its meaty cuisine comes with its own rituals and traditions, like the elaborate, family-style supper known as a “complete setup.”
“Bako” is also home to a clutch of magnificent dives, a restored Woolworths lunch counter, and a tiki bar. Sure, it’s hot, dusty, and filled with petroleum extraction, but we maintain that this Central Valley city, some 280 miles from San Francisco, is a worthy destination for the curious and famished.
We became mall rats 
A spread of food from Nande-Ya inside the Japantown Center mall. | Source: Morgan Ellis/The Standard
Gone are the days when the best things to eat at the mall were greasy snacks or mediocre meals from chain restaurants. In 2025, we proved that San Francisco’s malls are actually some of the best places to grab a bite.
On the heels of the debut of Supreme Dumpling, we ate at every single restaurant inside Stonestown Galleria, the city’s most popular shopping destination. From a Vietnamese restaurant serving flaming quail and curry Dungeness crab to a counter slinging Taiwanese street snacks, Stonestown has something for every diner. Next, we tackled the sea of ramen, sushi, and bento plates at all 27 restaurants inside the Japantown malls, uncovering several hidden-in-plain-sight gems. Got ideas about what mall — or other destination — we should tackle next? Email us at [email protected].