After months of sitting with our legs politely crossed, we're happy to offer a warm pre-welcome to Sparrow Bar and Kitchen. Read on!

Sparrow Bar and Kitchen, the lovechild of Marc and Veronica Lopez moving into the former Bia's space at 1640 Haight, is likely to be the next gastronomical light of the 'hood. The restaurant is charmingly decked out with reclaimed lumber, waxed concrete (the bar!), brightly varnished wood tables, tiny potted succulents and framed black-and-white agricultural paper stencils (beautiful!). We're pretty much in love. And did we mention? They opened up the upstairs and put in an elbow bar. As below. So in case you haven't heard, the plan is to open July 6--they've got employees, a chef and a new menu in the works--and to be open 7 days a week for dinner (5 PM). Eventually, they'll be open for brunch and breakfast plates. Oh, and the plan is to throw a greenhouse into the back yard for growing kitchen herbs. They're focused on providing not only a restaurant and bar (choice wine list plus 14 beers on tap, including Pine Street, Linden Street, Pacific Brew Labs and similar California-minded brews), but also an A-plus coffee option for the neighborhood, including espresso and Sightglass coffee (swank!). We can't tell you how excited we are to welcome Sparrow to the 'hood. So excited that we're probably going to host a meet-and-greet there next month so you can check out the space and have a couple beers on us--stay tuned!