Welcome to Eater Tastings, where Eater SF editor Allie Pape shares the best restaurant and bar news of the week.
SAN FRANCISCO—It's Greasy Spoon Week here at Eater, and we kicked things off by finding 15 of the city's most iconic greasy spoons for a delicious diner meal.
HAYES VALLEY/BERKELEY—No diner is complete without a longtime owner full of stories, and we talked to two: Bette Kroening of Bette's Oceanview Diner in Berkeley, and the Chapman siblings, whose family has owned It's Tops Coffee Shop since the '50s.
UNION SQUARE—Meanwhile, new openings continued apace, led by the Golden Gate Tap Room, a Union Square palace of adult play with 100 beers, skeeball, shuffleboard, pool, video games both new and vintage, and pub grub.
TENDERLOIN—Another killer beer bar also opened downtown: Mikkeller Bar, which specializes in 40 taps of ultra-rare craft brews, including exclusives from the famed Copenhagen gypsy brewer it's named for.
SAN FRANCISCO—Salads are great, but sometimes nothing beats the glory of fried food...any fried food. That's why we identified 10 SF restaurants that make it a specialty. Meanwhile, our house sommelier picked drink pairings for all your greasy-spoon favorites—turns out fried stuff goes great with Champagne.
SOMA—The former Kok Bar space is now a fancy cocktail bar called Driftwood, with a cool nautical theme. Take a look around and see what they're serving up.
THE EMBARCADERO/HAIGHT ASHBURY—Other new openings: Bouli Bar, from the team behind Boulettes Larder, is now rocking the Ferry Building with fancy pizza and cocktails. And over in the Upper Haight, Great Indian Food is serving up tasty thali plates to a neighborhood that desperately needed what it advertises.
FRUITVALE—Ale Industries, the hit four-year-old brewery out of Concord, is moving to Oakland to open a bigger brewery and a new taproom.
THE MISSION—24th and Mission is getting a new pizzeria, called Rustic, and they'll have beer, bocce, and a back patio.