North Beach

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.

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.

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.

North Beach has plenty of places to get your drink on. But until recently, if you were seeking a mellower high from a cannabis dispensary, you were out of luck.

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.

North Beach resident and artist Jeremy Fish is excited about The Fish Tank, his new gallery and studio located at 1331 Grant Ave. But he’s even more thrilled to be part of the renaissance his beloved neighborhood is experiencing now that the worst of the pandemic — knock on wood — is behind us.  

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.

“We were in the Tenderloin for 10 years and were really advocating for the neighborhood,” says owner Kristin Klein. “But I could not turn down a primo location in North Beach for the same price as pre-pandemic Tenderloin.”

What was once a SoMa pop-up restaurant in 2019, SF Chickenbox has since grown into a fully-fledged eatery with a permanent location at 464 Broadway. But without needed renovations, the North Beach business could go the way of the dodo bird. 

The “Unthanksgiving” gathering at dawn on Alcatraz Island is back on, and boat tickets are still available, plus the ceremony will be streaming online.

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.

The temporary outdoor Just Add Music permits have bars’ and venues’ parklets bustling, but nearby residents are lodging complaints, often with dog-whistle grievances over “thuggy” crowds.

'Dear San Francisco: A High-Flying Love Story,' opened Tuesday night at Club Fugazi (678 Green Street), marking a new life for the venue that for 45 years was home to 'Beach Blanket Babylon.' 

A celebration of the life of San Francisco’s fourth poet laureate will wind through North Beach on Saturday, hitting several of his favorite haunts.

There's now a petition and multiple news stories about the fight to allow local burrito favorite El Farolito to open a new location in North Beach, which would be the brand's 12th in the Bay Area.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

102-year-old Tosca Cafe (242 Columbus Ave.) is coming alive yet again in North Beach, after a too-brief rebirth last year, and following its much bemoaned 2019 closure.

A volunteer-run used bookstore in the Financial District, run out of some window alcoves near Bush and Montgomery, has a more secure future after signing a 10-year lease.

Legendary North Beach poet, publisher, and bookseller Lawrence Ferlinghetti, has died. He was 101 years of age. The beloved literary icon died peacefully in his San Francisco home surrounded by loved ones, "holding the hands of his son and his son’s girlfriend, 'as he took his last breath,'" his son Lorenzo Ferlinghetti said on Tuesday.

A priest has died of COVID-19 at Saints Peter and Paul Church in North Beach, 27-year-old Muddy's Coffee House has closed at 24th and Valencia, and an East San Jose gym that had remained open in defiance of health orders has temporarily closed.

The Tacolicious locations at San Jose’s Santana Row and in San Francisco’s North Beach are no more – some of the latest casualties of pandemic economics.