Jay Barmann

San Francisco artist Optimist Williams says he grew up decorating his Trapper Keepers with paper Muni transfers, and using the now defunct tickets to record little memories, like scraps in a diary.

One of only two hotels in Japantown, the Kimpton Buchanan Hotel, has been identified as one of four properties around SF that the city hopes to purchase by the end of the year to turn into permanent homeless housing, but neighbors are pushing back.

The eight-story, 21-unit residential building being planned on the site of the historic Grubstake Diner (1525 Pine Street) has hit another hurdle this week, as we learn that an appeal has been filed opposing the project.

Well-loved, 11-year-old Dogpatch ice cream shop Mr. & Mrs. Miscellaneous (699 22nd St.) is remaining open as an ice cream shop, however its co-founder and owner, Annabelle Topacio, has sold it to a new owner, and its name will be changing to Sunday Social come October.

Another company has run afoul of San Francisco ordinances and spray-stenciled ads on sidewalks in the Mission District.

Frjtz, the go-to place for Belgian-style frites and waffles that first opened in the year 2000 on Hayes Street and later had locations in the Mission and Ghirardelli Square, has now ceased to even be a delivery option, which it had been for the past two years. 

The 2021 Michelin Guide for California, the company's first guide for the state in two years, is set to be released in late September. And ahead of the release, Michelin inspectors on Wednesday revealed 10 Bay Area honorees in the new category of "New Discoveries."

The Mission District space formerly home to Namu Gaji and more recently Namu Stonepot (499 Dolores St.), across the 18th & Dolores intersection from Dolores Park, has gone dark, marking the second closure for Namu Stonepot this summer.

With anxieties rising about the Delta variant and the current surge of COVID cases, more SF bars and restaurants are going to start carding — looking for your vaccine card along with your ID.

Most of the Bay Area is masking back up, at least in some situations, and tensions are high as COVID cases and hospitalizations tick up. But things continue to reopen, and events are still happening.

We have news of a taker for the prominent corner space that was briefly home to AL's Deli (598 Guerrero St.), and beloved doughnut spot The Jelly Donut at 24th and South Van Ness is finally back alive.

A new wine bar with dance bar aspirations is coming to the former Thieves Tavern space at 496 14th Street (at Guerrero), and it's called Bar Part Time.

SF's music venues are finally popping back alive, and the beloved Divisadero spot The Independent makes its resurrection official on Friday, July 9 with a show by Bay Area soul, psych-rock, and R&B band Con Brio. 

As businesses in Mid-Market and SoMa slowly come back to life, the Namu Gaji/Namu Stonepot/Sunset Squares team of Dennis Lee, David Lee, and Daniel Lee are opening up SSP Beer Hall (59 9th Street). Also, there's a Sunset Squares Slice Shop opening on Divisadero, in the former Namu Stonepot space.

Starting next week, San Franciscans don't have to go to Cow Hollow to get your Shake Shack fix. The chain is opening its second San Francisco location in the heart of downtown, at the Westfield San Francisco Centre mall (845 Market St.), just a hop and a skip from the Powell Street BART station.

SF's kitschiest Tiki bar experience, The Tonga Room at the Fairmont Hotel (950 Mason Street), will be welcoming guests and people who just want to Instagram the rainstorms starting July 9.

As (some of) the masks come off, here's some news this week about more things reopening in SF and elsewhere around the Bay.

The Stinking Rose (325 Columbus Ave.), which opened in 1991 in North Beach and maintains a loyal clientele of tourists and garlic-loving locals, has been closed throughout the pandemic. And now we learn that it won't reopen unless a new owner steps in and wants to keep the concept going, with the original owners deciding to retire.

Namu Stonepot (553 Divisadero) is no longer serving its loco moco bowls and stonepot rice from the Divisadero space where it's lived since 2017, but the menu is still being served at Dolores and 18th, and will be appearing at a new food-hall concept the team is opening soon on 9th Street.

Osito, a much-delayed restaurant with a celebratory, communal tasting-menu concept centered around live-fire cooking of meat and fish, is finally taking shape and aiming for a fall opening at 2875 18th Street (at Florida).

We all knew that the Stacks space (501 Hayes St.) at the corner of Octavia and Hayes likely wouldn't stay empty for long, and as the pandemic wanes we learn that the owners of Cow Hollow's The Brixton (2140 Union St.) are set to open a new location — their third — there in the coming months.

The 92-year-old private social club on Lake Merritt, the Bellevue Club (525 Bellevue Ave.), is being sold to San Francisco-based club The Battery, for an East Bay expansion. 

A mass shooting on Wednesday morning at the Valley Transit Authority (VTA) light rail yard (101 W. Younger Ave.) in downtown San Jose has claimed the lives of at least eight people, likely all VTA workers, and the shooter also reportedly took his own life at the scene.

The Hayes Valley/Mid-Market environs are about to get a new and unique sounding restaurant/wine bar called Le Fantastique, from the team behind Bird Dog in downtown Palo Alto.

Another mountain lion has made it into the urban wilds of San Francisco, and it was spotted in Bernal Heights on Tuesday morning.