JouJou coming along, Castagnola’s makes a comeback in Fisherman’s Wharf, and a smashburger pop-up goes brick-and-mortar in the Sunet, all in This Week In Food.
There is a little less to cover this week on the Bay Area’s food scene, after a couple of busy weeks full of openings and announcements.
We have one minor update on JouJou, the new Design District French restaurant from the Lazy Bear team that had been slated for a summer opening, last we heard. Chef-owner David Barzelay tells SFist that they are now aiming for an opening in the new year, with more details to follow. As we previously learned, the restaurant, which is moving into the former Grove space at One Henry Adams Street, will have classic brasserie vibes, with high-end service touches, and dishes like seafood towers, shrimp bisque, salmon almondine, and duck a l’orange.
Earlier in the week we learned that Castagnola’s, which was the oldest continually operating restaurant at Fisherman’s Wharf before its pandemic closure, will be reopening following a settlement with the Port of SF. Details on that are yet to come.
Also, the Future Bars team behind hit bars like Local Edition, Bourbon & Branch, and the Dawn Club, just opened a new spot Thursday in North Beach called Long Weekend. It’s a cocktail bar that will take a new global inspiration every nine months, with the opening theme being Havana, Cuba. The drink menu, soundscape, and interior decor are all Havana-inspired, and all of that will change in nine months to a new, as yet announced city. As at Bourbon & Branch, reservations are encouraged.
Over at Delfina, in November, the restaurant’s By-the-Glass takeover series continues with Ettore Germano, a fourth-generation winery from the Piemonte region of Italy, in the heart of Barolo country. The restaurant is offering a special a la carte dinner menu on November 13 “leaning heavily into seasonal dishes from the region with optional white truffles,” to pair with by-the-glass pours from Ettore Germano. Reserve your table here.
Maillards, a smashburger pop-up that landed on the Chronicle’s best burgers list, is getting a new brick-and-mortar location inside a new SF taproom from Two Pitchers Brewing Co. of Oakland. As the Chronicle reports, Maillards and its burger maestro Max Ponzurick will be setting up shop in the new shared space at 3821 Noriega Street in the Outer Sunset, in the former Noriega Produce market, which is set to open in the new year. Fans can expect multiple variations on Maillards smashed patties, as they’ve seen at the Outer Sunset Farmers Market and other pop-ups, as well as crispy fries and some new fermented sodas.
As has been the case in most of the last ten years, the commercial Dungeness crab fishing season has been delayed until around the new year, to make the waters safer for migrating whales heading south for the winter months. Recreational Dungeness crab fishing can begin on November 1, south of the Sonoma/Mendocino border, which may result in the appearance of some local crab in stores.
And Fall Restaurant Week, organized by the Golden Gate Restaurant Association, is taking place November 1 to November 9, and features lunch, brunch, and dinner prix-fixe deals at dozens of restaurants around the city. See the full list of participating restaurants here.
Top image courtesy of Maillards/Instagram