Jay Barmann

A little over 18 months after its 2021 debut, Castro restaurant Copas (2223 Market Street) has decided to make a pivot.

The Wooden Nickel, the women-owned bar that moved into the former Truck space at 15th and Folsom streets seven years ago, has permanently closed.

Following a successful pop-up near Union Square, the popular candy megastore It'Sugar (pronounced It's Sugar, FYI) is opening a big new location next to Fisherman's Wharf on Friday.

It hasn't even been a year since Maybeck's (3213 Scott Street at Lombard) reopened under the joint management of chef-owner Aaron Toensing and husband-and-wife restaurateurs Lori Baker and Jeffrey Banker, and it's already gone dark.

As construction is ongoing inside the former Rose Pistola restaurant space at 532 Columbus Avenue, Flour + Water's Mission District restaurant (2401 Harrison Street) has the tell-tale signs of a union protest, including a big grim reaper outside its front door.

Another of the towering, glowing neon signs leftover from the heyday of Mission Street's days as a hub of cinema has come back to life. It's the sign above the Grand Theater, which is now home to arts org Gray Area, at 2665 Mission Street (between 22nd and 23rd). 

It may be hard to look ahead to outdoor movies right now, but SF remains a town that loves an outdoor film screening, and the season for those is around the corner.

Dumpling Union (1809 Union Street) is joining the brigade of dumpling shops expanding in SF, and opening a second location in the Lower Haight, at the corner of Haight and Steiner.

At long last, one of the Castro's staple dance bars, Q Bar (456 Castro Street), is readying to reopen after a lengthy closure. After completing some renovations, owner Cip Cipriano says that the bar will be back open sometime this spring, at a date to be determined.

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.