Joe Kukura

The more than 30-year-old dim sum favorite Lai Hong Lounge is back from a months-long remodel, and while the giant menu is still the same, there are new private dining rooms to enjoy those Michelin Bib Gourmand-winning pork and custard buns.

Grammy winners Flume, Chemical Brothers, M.I.A, and Fatboy Slim are coming to SF’s newest music festival, though the Portola Music Festival will be located more in Dogpatch.

Dance bar and happy hour spot Tope is reopening this weekend with a new parklet, new cocktail menu, a complete interior redesign, and some sweet new neon.

Midnite Bagel has gone from a nighttime stunt to a pop-up to the pages of the New York Times, and now has an Inner Sunset brick-and-mortar shop opening May 23.

This vacant lot has been a sanctioned tent encampment, and at one point was slated to be a meth sobering center, but now will get a dignified happy outcome as 70 units of affordable housing for low-income and homeless families.

A new affordable housing complex at 16th and Shotwell Streets drew the likes of Nancy Pelosi on Thursday, as Casa Adelante will be home to more than 300 low-income people, plus provide on-site childcare and a rooftop farm.

The filming location that served as Neil Patrick Harris’ psychiatry office, whose view and interiors were depicted in the film is for sale — but a sale appears to be pending with an interested buyer.

More than 1,000 hungry noodle lovers descended upon North Beach and Chinatown for the revived SF Noodle Fest on Saturday, and celebrity chef Martin Yan cracked up the crowd and took pictures with anyone who asked.

The SF Board of Supervisors granted Fillmore Street’s 109-year-old Clay Theatre a historical landmark designation Tuesday, though it remains unclear if the place will ever operate as a movie theater again.

The former Everyday Cleaners at Divisadero and Golden Gate Avenue is spinning into a new incarnation as a cannabis dispensary, after getting a City Hall permit Thursday.

A tiny bottle shop selling local craft spirits will be built into Nob Hill’s Soda Popinski’s, despite neighbor concerns about “meandering drunks making raucous noises.”

SoMa’s Common City Gardens will become 200 units to house families experiencing homelessness, after the SF Board of Supervisors approved its purchase for $145 million late Tuesday night.

The latest class of local small businesses to join the SF Legacy Business Registry includes Buddha Lounge, Far East Cafe, Helmand Place, Sai's Vietnamese, and Stanley's Steamers.

A very large dispensary will bloom at Lombard and Steiner streets, though those plans were nearly choked because the Department of Building Inspection spaced out on a permit 17 years ago.

Mayor Breed sounded less than thrilled that 4/20 is around the corner in a Monday press conference on the topic, and laid out the new rules now that there will be legal cannabis sales that day in Golden Gate Park.

Chalk up another popular restaurant brand coming to the Stonestown Galleria, as cult-hit burger chain Shake Shack will open its third San Francisco franchise there later this year.

The Giants’ ballpark area will soon have a statue to the first woman who played for the SF Sea Lions in the Negro Baseball Leagues, plus four other new “street room” installations at the Mission Rock development.

City Hall has approved plans to demolish the Phoenix Irish Pub building on Valencia Street, and from the wording of the documents, it does not seem the Phoenix will rise from those ashes.

The noodle wars are coming back, as the street food festival Noodle Fest will pit 29 North Beach and Chinatown restaurants against one another in a noodle contest with celebrity judges Martin Yan, Soleil Ho, and Broke-Ass Stuart.

The North Beach location of popular taqueria chain El Farolito finally gets the green light, after the burrito franchise was foiled when the planning department said it ran afoul of SF formula retail regulations.

A small stretch along the Great Highway is generating far worse air quality readings than any other spot in the city, which could be a public health problem, or could be that sea salt and spray are screwing with the monitors.

After 11 years of dazzling the Mission with an out-of-this world mural, Asiento is going out with a big bang on Friday and Saturday nights. But stay tuned, because ownership is promising a “remodel and rebrand.”

The San Francisco International Film Festival returns to the Castro and other SF theaters, with Michelle Yeoh, Ron Howard’s new Chef José Andrés documentary, and Michael K. Williams’ final screen performance.

Yet more businesses are bullish on a big downtown revival, as sustainable coffee purveyor Saint Frank Coffee is one of several new retailers coming into the ground floor of the twisty silver condo Mira Tower.

The San Francisco Lowrider Council celebrates its 40th anniversary with a three-week art show at the Mission Cultural Center, and a Mission Street lowrider rally scheduled for Saturday, September 18.