Saturday, August 25, 2007

News Roundup

There seems to be an inordinate amount of restaurant news popping up in the city right now. So much so that it's getting hard to keep up. The well-done ZagatBuzz column helps out quite a bit, but not everyone's an online subscriber. Here's a few of the notable highlights from there and elsewhere.

- Spruce in Presidio Heights seems to be the new impossible reservation in town (probably replacing Salt House at the top of the list). Everyone loves the whole eco/sustainable/local food thing right now to the point where it's probably a necessity to weave that theme into any new opening to some degree. What's more interesting is that they serve 70 wines by the glass. How do they keep those from turning? Their storage system must be incredible. If not, is significant wine waste considered an ecological no-no? I have many questions here.

- Both Citizen Cake and Jardiniere are closed for the month for remodeli
ng. Indigo must love that. With some quick Google research it shows that the symphony is on tour and the opera season hasn't started yet, so I guess it's the Hayes Valley locals who are missing out, if they ever frequent those places anyway. Either way, I'm curious to see the new "J Lounge" on the bottom floor of Jardiniere when it opens.

- Palmetto and Laiola are new spots on Union St. and Chestnut St. respectively taking over where Home and Pizza My Heart once were. I haven't eaten at either, but I do know that Camber Lay, the bar manager at Laiola is very, very talented having seen her impressive cocktails-as-cuisine routine before at Frisson and Range. Word on Zagat was that they were having trouble with their liquor license though, so hopefully they have that fixed by now.

- Incanto's chef Chris Cosentino is on the next Iron Chef America. If there's an episode with an organ meat theme, he's going to dominate.

- Frjtz Fries opened a new spot on Valencia in the Mission. Twice-fried, extra-fat frites.... how trendy!

- Just finally ate at Salt House for dinner for the first time, and it didn't disappoint. The duck and the rib-eye are both great, and as long as we're talking about fries they do an upscale WT fries dish covered in cheese and rib gravy. Yum.

- There's an article this morning in the Chronicle about the new Intercontinental Hotel going up on Fifth and Howard, set for soft opening in January. Apparently there's a Cal-Italian restaurant street side going in. Given the area and the hotel, his could either be really good (Ame) or really bad (XYZ).

That's it for now.