Jay Barmann

At long last, the Mission District's beloved indie movie house, The Roxie Theater (3117 16th St.), has a reopening date and a reopening movie: 'Cinema Paradiso' (1988).

After nearly two years of being totally dark, the 102-year-old Tosca Cafe (242 Columbus Ave.) is opening its doors again this week, having undergone its second light remodel and refurbishing in the last decade.

Bistro Central Parc, the popular French bistro at 560 Central Avenue in the NoPa neighborhood that closed in December 2019, will be reopening under new ownership but under the same name in June.

While many bars across the city have spent money on heat lamps and outdoor patio platforms, and partnered with nearby food businesses in order to abide by public health orders that drinking can only be done with a "bona fide meal" in front of you, the last of those rules for bars goes away starting on Thursday, May 6.

It's been a long 14 months of total closure for a pair of acclaimed neighborhood restaurants, Octavia and Frances, both of which were opened by chef Melissa Perello in the last decade. And she says that the team is taking the task of reopening them one step at a time, with Octavia happening first.

Get your ten-layer Russian honey cake while you can. After eight years on Gough Street, pastry chef Michelle Polzine's ode to the cafe culture of Vienna and Prague, 20th Century Cafe, is calling it quits.

Historic, beloved North Beach dive bar Specs turns 53 years old this week, and after nearly 14 months of being dark, the bar and museum of curios is planning to light up again next month and start slinging its cheap drinks outdoors.

A spate of high-profile closures at San Francisco's once-thriving Ferry Building is being followed by some more positive news, as four new businesses announce openings at the iconic shopping and dining complex.

After months of operating a wildly popular bagel pop-up, Schlok's is getting set to open a brick-and-mortar shop at 1263 Fell Street, in a former laundromat off Divisadero in NoPa (in the same complex as RT Rotisserie and Nopalito).

SF Mayor London Breed on Tuesday announced a proposal to lease an empty office building at 1076 Howard Street for use as a 30-bed drug sobering center, making good on a promise first made before the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The facility will focus on those living on the streets who are experiencing methamphetamine-induced psychosis.

The one-story, flatiron-shaped building that once lived at 2100 Market was home to multiple businesses over several decades. One of its brief incarnations in the 1970s, a 24-hour diner called The Truck Stop, figures into the unsolved case of "The Doodler," a serial killer who preyed on gay men in San Francisco, and about whom Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan has just done a new podcast.

A new nightclub catering to the LGBTQ+ Latinx community of the East Bay is debuting on Tuesday, April 13 — but for obvious reasons it's going to start out sort of low-key serving drinks and quesabirria tacos.

At long last, after about an 18-month delay, popular Korean American grocer H Mart is opening its first San Francisco location in OceanView Village at a near-term date still to be announced.

A new neighborhood vaccination clinic at 20 Norton Street in the Excelsior District, similar to those that have opened in the Bayview and Mission in the last two months, just opened on Wednesday morning.

Liholiho is temporarily moving the Dear Inga space on 18th Street, a new Japanese fine dining spot from a former Californios chef is taking the La Folie space in Russian Hill, and Oakland is getting a new ghost kitchen food hall.

A majority of respondents to a recent survey by the San Francisco County Transportation Authority say they think the Upper Great Highway along Ocean Beach ought to remain closed to vehicle traffic post-pandemic. 53 percent of residents, many of them living in the Sunset District, said the four-lane stretch between Sloat Boulevard and Lincoln Way should remain the pedestrian and bicycle promenade that it has been for the past year.

They've been called "Oakland's cutest couple" and "Ebony and Ivory" and various other things, but a pair of domesticated ducks that were evidently dropped off at Lake Merritt last year to fend for themselves have officially settled into new digs at a rescue sanctuary for injured or neglected farm animals in Marin County.

Beloved Mission District bar El Rio is finally reopening its patio, 12 and a half months after it was forced to close along with the rest of the bars across the city in March 2020. Thursday, April 1 is the big day — and the patio will reopen for table service at 4 p.m.

The storefront at 575 Castro Street, which for over a decade has been home to a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) merchandise store but which was once the home of the camera store out of which Harvey Milk did much of his early political work, may be destined to become a national historic site. HRC announced that they are vacating the space in April, and the landlord has hinted at something "much larger" on the way.

As more businesses get to reopen around the Bay, we have news of some new ones opening for the first time, as well as a vaccination promotion from Krispy Kreme, and a Cal/OSHA fine for Alta Bates Summit Medical Center.

Boasting 100 seats outside on two sidewalks, a much anticipated new tapas bar is finally debuting in North Beach following several months of introducing itself to the 'hood via a takeout window.

Sad news arrived late last week that Cowgirl Creamery is closing its Ferry Building store after 18 years of cheesemongering in the beloved food hall. Both the store and its next-door Sidekick Cafe will close on April 10, ending an era for cheese lovers across the region.

Sad closure news came this week out of Noe Valley, where local chef and food entrepreneur Azalina Eusope's first brick-and-mortar Malaysian restaurant, Mahila (1320 Castro Street), has permanently closed after just 21 months.

The iconic, nearly 40-year-old SoMa Mexican restaurant Don Ramon's (225 11th Street) has skirted a permanent closure for now as it attempts to escape its current financial woes via Chapter 11 bankruptcy restructuring. 

Nine-year-old cocktail-focused spot Maven is closing its doors later this month in the Lower Haight, one of the swans at the Palace of Fine Arts has died, and Old Oakland has a new pizza spot and a salad spot on the way.