Jay Barmann

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.

Two people were shot and one was killed Wednesday morning onboard a Muni train traveling between Forest Hill and Castro stations.

A nonprofit has formed specifically to thwart plans by Another Planet Entertainment to remake the interior of the historic Castro Theatre to be more conducive to live music events — and specifically the group wants to stop a plan to remove all the seats from the theater's main level.

A new Indian restaurant has just debuted on the Divisadero corridor, Curry and Kabab, in the former Wine Kitchen space at 507 Divisadero.

After five years in Hayes Valley, Johnny Doughnuts has closed at 392 Fulton Street, but a new SF location appears in the works and they're making Off the Grid appearances.

By the end of summer, Johnny Doughnuts plans to be open in the former Smitten Ice Cream space at California and Fillmore, next to Pizzeria Delfina.

The Slanted Door pop-up, featuring new dishes in testing, will be happening in UC Berkeley Wurster Hall on nine nights, Wed-Fri, in the second half of June, and reservations are now available.

Former Tartine head baker Nick Beitcher finally realized his goal of opening a brick-and-mortar bagel shop last week with the debut of Midnite Bagel (646 Irving Street).

Tom Silargorn, the acclaimed chef and founder of the Lers Ros chain of local Thai restaurants, appears to be on the move with another restaurant concept, just a few doors down from the 16th Street location of Lers Ros.

Bernal Heights dumpling and Chinese food restaurant United Dumplings is readying to open a second location in the Marina, at 2015 Chestnut Street.

Mirame, the acclaimed two-year-old Mexican restaurant in Beverly Hills from chef Joshua Gil, is readying a second, NorCal location — and it's going to be in the new Springline development in Menlo Park.

There's a taker for the large bar-restaurant space at 1875 Union Street that was formerly known as Hollow Cow and Lightning Tavern, and it's called Sacred Taco

Apparently not all of restaurateur Charles Phan's landlords have worked out deals with him for pandemic-closed properties. Nine-year-old New Orleans-themed whiskey bar and restaurant Hard Water has now been hit with a lawsuit from its landlord at Pier 3.

Cafe du Soleil, the well-loved and worn-in Lower Haight Cafe at the corner of Fillmore and Waller streets, is making a surprise comeback, a little less than two years after it closed permanently at 200 Fillmore Street.

Another local restaurant that had a mid-pandemic opening is calling quits already, and that is Daughter's Diner in Oakland.

The latest retail casualty in the ongoing shutter parade around Union Square — and in the ongoing retail decline nationwide — is the Market Street/Westfield Mall location of Abercrombie & Fitch.

A new banh mi shop, Banh Mi Viet, has quietly opened at 518 Divisadero, in a former beauty salon, offering both banh mi sandwiches and a couple of Vietnamese entrees as well.

A new retro-diner-inspired brunch spot, Hilda & Jesse (701 Union St. at Powell) has just opened in North Beach, in the space formerly occupied by North Beach Gyros.