Tongues are always wagging in San Francisco — and The Waggle is your straightest shot to gossip. Got a tip or some tea to spill in our weekly gossip column? Email us at [email protected].
Our boo is about to leave us, San Francisco, and we’re feeling a certain kind of way about it. We’re talking, of course, about Sam Smith, the singer who has fallen in love with the city during their 20-night residency at the new and improved Castro Theater. What will we do without their Finstagram food videos and genuine glee over the beauty of our city? “I’ve never felt so much a part of a community. My first time in San Francisco was the first time visiting a place that provides that safety — what a fucking place,” Smith told the audience last weekend.
Before skipping town, Smith brought their foodie-tour “Sam Served” to beloved Sunset Chinese restaurant San Tung, after so many fans (including Pharrell (opens in new tab), DJ Jazzy Jeff (opens in new tab), and Draymond Green (opens in new tab)) suggested the wings couldn’t be missed. The singer showed up early enough to be first in line — a very pro move. “You were right, piggies, you were right!” they told the camera, fingers glistening with sauce.
Bestselling author and local scenester Erin Leigh Carlson commented on Instagram, “Sam, can you please establish permanent residency in SF??? We ❤️you!!!”
We agree! And we’re sure the kids who sold Smith $1 lemonade (opens in new tab) from their stand do, too.
But forget lemonade stands: In 2026, what we need is pop-up therapy in the park. Therapists Ali Pflaum (opens in new tab) and Jessica Good (opens in new tab) think so too. They will be holding open office hours Saturday afternoon along JFK Drive, for anyone who wants to talk about their feelings with a human rather than a chatbot. The two friends first set up in Golden Gate Park a week ago with a sign that read “Ask a HUMAN therapist!” More than 30 people stopped by for advice. On their minds? Anxiety over the state of the world, of course, and about what AI means for the future. But mostly people wanted advice about relationship issues. “Even a therapist came and sat down to talk to us,” Pflaum said. At various points, strangers gathered for impromptu group therapy, though Pflaum is quick to point out that these casual conversations are not actual therapy. Still, we’ll take old-fashioned human connection wherever we can find it.
Therapy in the park with Jessica and Ali. | Source: Ali Pflaum
Tech cafeteria food: Today’s tech workers may be hostages to OpenClaw, their lives run from tiny Mac minis — but at least they are eating well. New OpenAI employee and everyone’s favorite tech prankster Riley Walz built an interactive scraper (opens in new tab)for tech company cafeteria menus. Why? Because why not. As the AI people like to say, you can just do things! Thanks to Walz — whom The Standard revealed this week as the proud new owner and paver of “Dirt Alley” — we know that on Friday, Nvidia employees were treated to “truffled duck confit pizza,” OpenAI employees were chowing down on “beef birria ramen with spicy beef consomme,” and Atlassian was serving “spicy pork bulgogi with sesame and tamari” — the day after it announced 1,600 layoffs (opens in new tab).
C’est the newest hot spot: The Waggle snagged a couple of bar stools during opening night at Jou Jou, the frou frou new French restaurant in the Design District from the star duo behind Lazy Bear, Colleen Booth and David Barzelay. Cocktails and the raw bar were on point, though we couldn’t stay for mains. Pilates influencer Alexis Haynes did, though, and delivered an ASMR-esque restaurant ree (opens in new tab)l with trenchant observations such as the big-eyed tuna being “super fresh” and the tarte tatin being “perfect.”
Grok leaves applicants on read: On Thursday, the same day he reportedly pushed out (opens in new tab) two more founders of his AI startup xAI, Elon Musk took to his personal diary, X, to announce that the company had “not been built right the first time around” and needed to be entirely rebuilt. This follows troubling behavior from the company’s flagship AI model Grok, which has been known to create and share images of child sexual abuse, speak lovingly of Hitler, spread conspiracy theories, harass people, and just generally be wrong a lot. (Sound like anyone else you know?) For all of those reasons, top AI developer talent has apparently been hard for the company to attract. On Thursday, Musk announced that he’d figured out the problem: xAI’s recruiting problems were due to an error in the xAI code itself. “Many talented people over the past few years were declined an offer or even an interview @xAI (opens in new tab). My apologies,” he tweeted. (opens in new tab) Now, Musk says, the company is going through past applicants to see who got passed over. The unemployed blue check crowd has never been thirstier in the comments.
Fulk as fuck: San Francisco’s preeminent interior designer, church owner, (opens in new tab) and giraffe (opens in new tab)enthusiast Ken Fulk is selling his wine country ranch estate. The 76-acre country home near St. Helena hit the market this week at a list price of $4.5 million. But Fulk isn’t going anywhere. In fact, he’s everywhere. On Thursday night, he was partying with former mayor Willie Brown, current mayor and influencer Daniel Lurie, Lurie’s wife and Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Director of Protocol Becca Prowda, gallerist Jessica Silverman, hospitality maven Samantha Bechtel, and socialite Sonya Molodetskaya at a party celebrating the newly reopened Big Four restaurant at The Huntington Hotel, which Fulk designed.
Mind the Gap: Riding on Bad Bunny’s fluffy Super Bowl halftime coattails, Gap dropped a campaign (opens in new tab) that’s entirely in Spanish, starring queer Puerto Rican rapper Young Miko. Credit Calvin Leung, Gap’s head of creative and the hometown hero behind this collab, who’s quietly on a streak: He masterminded last year’s viral Katseye x Gap Milkshake campaign that brought Kelis back into everyone’s Spotify rotation. The sweats might be gray, but the vibes are anything but. We see you, Gap, and we are waggling about this glow-up.
Will the real Alysa Liu please stand up? A San Francisco woman named Alysa Liu had her Instagram account suspended because she shares a name with a certain famous figure skater. Meta apparently flagged her real account as an imposter. ABC’s 7 On Your Side (opens in new tab) team is trying to help her get the account back, but so far, no dice. The real real Alysa Liu was back on home turf as the belle of the ball outside Oakland City Hall for a party in her honor. Many Oakland A-listers showed up, including Kehlani, W. Kamau Bell, ice skating legend and East Bay native Kristi Yamaguchi, and more than a few people sporting Liu-inspired raccoon wigs. Missing was the second-coolest Oakland girl of the moment, Zendaya, but she was spotted hanging with Liu on Tuesday (opens in new tab) at Paris Fashion Week.
Alysa Liu spoke to reporters in Oakland Thursday. | Source: Miles Cull for The Standard