Jay Barmann

Uber-popular chicken tenders specialists Dave's Hot Chicken keep multiplying, and as of this week there will be a Dave's Hot Chicken in Oakland just a hop and a few skips from a BART stop.

Bad news for SF fans of the midcentury knockoff sofas and other modern accouterments sold by CB2 — the brand's 15-year-old store on Ellis Street, next to the newly open Central Subway entrance, is giving up the ghost.

Popular Vietnamese supermarket Dai Thanh, which sold off a downtown San Jose property in 2021 for a pretty penny, has now opened the second of two new locations, this one on North Capitol Avenue in the Berryessa district. 

Longtime SPQR executive chef Matt Accarrino appears to have a new venture in the works, and it is set to open around the corner from SPQR in Pacific Heights.

The days of bars reopening and then closing again appear not to be over, as once-bustling Tenderloin/Civic Center cocktail spot Whitechapel (600 Polk Street) has decided to close temporarily once more due to flagging business, and it will operate temporarily as a private event space.

Divisadero Mediterranean restaurant Zaytoon (607 Divisadero) has closed up shop after five years on the corridor — and three years after the closure of Zaytoon's original Mission District location.

A closure could be coming soon as the property is on the market for $6.5 million as a potential development site.

One of the early craft distilleries to gain traction in the Bay Area, Hangar 1, whose tasting room on the old Naval Air Station on Alameda Island has been a popular tourist destination for the last decade, is closing up shop and taking its production to an undisclosed location elsewhere in the region. 

San Jose is one of several big cities in California — including Oakland and Los Angeles — voting for brand new mayors on Tuesday, with their incumbents termed out. And spending in the San Jose mayor's race is reaching record levels for the two top candidates seeking to replace Mayor Sam Liccardo.

Sheriff Laurie Smith has left the building at the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, having suddenly submitted her resignation Monday effective immediately. Smith remains on trial over corruption charges relating to concealed-carry gun permits that she reportedly issued in exchange for campaign donations, as well as other charges.

Coming soon to the space that was formerly home to Mission Cheese and then Korner Store at 736 Valencia Street is BoBop, a new Korean snack bar from the family team behind downtown businesses BibimBar and Matko.

Johnny Doughnuts is coming back to life again in SF about a mile away from their shuttered Gough Street shop at California and Fillmore streets. The doughnuts will start coming out of the fryer on Saturday, October 29, with the public grand opening starting at 7 a.m.

Once upon a time, there was a cabaret-style nightclub in San Francisco's North Beach that featured a cast of female impersonators. The place gained nationwide notoriety, and became a go-to destination for tourists, sailors, and celebrities alike.

San Jose City Hall, the 2005-completed complex with its 18-story tower designed by architect Richard Meier (of Getty Center fame) was built to withstand earthquakes, but boy does it sway, say city employees.

A San Francisco sandwich institution is closing and changing hands after today — Monday, October 24 — and fans of the place were clamoring to get one last sub before the lights go out.

After 10 years of serving tacos and Mexican-inspired cocktails in Cole Valley, Padrecito (901 Cole St.) has called it quits.

Mission mainstay Delfina (3621 18th St.), which has been one of the neighborhood's great success stories and go-to restaurants for all of its 24 years, is finally reopening this month after a planned four-month renovation has turned into a nearly year-long wait.

Le Marais Bakery & Cafe in the Castro is becoming Bistro Le Marais, and they're opening a Grande Creperie window on the 18th Street side in back of the existing restaurant.

An annual barbecue competition and food festival that started in 2016 is coming back for its fifth year this weekend, after taking two years off during the pandemic.

A three-alarm fire on Tuesday afternoon did significant damage to a three-story apartment building at 901 Divisadero/1640 McAllister. 

Plants by Rare Device (505 Divisadero), the plant store that opened in November 2021 as Plant House by Rare Device, is closing on Monday, July 18, after just eight months in business.

"Ultimately this was a decision rooted in wanting to offer the best possible dining experience with the resources at our fingertips while maintaining as much of the original Frances character as possible," Perello says.

César, the 24-year-old tapas bar next door to Chez Panisse, is closing in two weeks, on July 23. But this likely isn't the end of the North Berkeley neighborhood favorite — which had its own crew of regulars who only sometimes might patronize the more lauded restaurant next door.

The Castro's fine-dining gem Frances (3870 17th St.) reopens Thursday night (June 23), after a months-long remodel, and after remaining mostly dark since March 2020.

A new location of Scott's Chowder House has made its debut at 1325 Fillmore Street, in the space formerly occupied by Afro-Caribbean restaurant Isla Vida, which closed in 2019, and before that Black Bark BBQ.