california

Four Food Trends to Savor in San Fransisco

Article found in National Geographic Travel Magazine; Eat It San Fransisco; Alanna Hale From upscale dining halls to cocktail lounges, here's how to eat your way around the bay.

  1. Healthy Cafes - Seed and Salt is among several area kitchens taking local and organic to new levels.  The clean-eating spot in the Marina district features plant-based, gluten-free bites like the popular veggie burger - a blend of beets, walnuts, oentils, and mushrooms.  A former fine-dining exec co founded Hayes Valley's Little Gem, a destination for veggie bowls and flatbreaeds free of dairy and refined sugar.  Michelin-starred Al's Place spotlights seasonal produce and fermented eats in the Mission district, dishing up meat items as sides.
  2. Fresh Food Halls - The three-floor culinary emporium China Live debuted this year, bringing an Asian tea cafe, a restaurant with cooking stations, and an eight-course fine-dining venue to Chinatown.  Last August the Tartine Bakery team opened Tartine Manufactory, a 6,000-square-foot Mission production space and dining hall.  The chic outpost houses a coffee counter, ice-cream bar, and restaurant.  In the Castro, the Myriad is a neighborhood market hall and entertainment stop with pinball machines, comedy shows, and game nights.

  3. Cocktail Dens - Local chefs are shaking things up with cozy cocktail lounges tucked inside restaurants.  After Liholiho Yacht Club's 2016 James Beard nomination, its owner unveiled Louie's Gen-Gen Room in the Club's basement.  The tavern serves tropical drinks and highbrow pub snacks, including a rotating waffle selection.  Expect cocktails, champagne, and seafood at the Hideaway, a Financial District retreat inside Leo's Oyster Bar.  At Union Square's Benjamin Cooper, above 398 Restaurant, a spirited cocktail menu gets updated weekly.
  4. Modern Mexican -  Dogpatch neighborhood's Glena's opened in February introducing seasonal tacos, tortas, and crispy churros.  Over a Cow Hollow, Flores offers family-inspired recipes, corn tortillas made daily, and playful

    drinks - including rum-based Tostiloco served with crushed corn chips on the rim.  Mexico City chef Gabriela Camara chose Hayes Valley for her first U.S. restaurant, Cala.  Dine on local produce and seafood in the hip main cafe, or get casual lunch-hour tacos and aguas frescas from the adjacent Tacos Cala.