With Labor Day weekend—and a regional heat wave—right around the corner, it’s the ideal time to line up dinner reservations, gather with friends for drinks and small bites on a shady patio, or just enjoy a cup of coffee in the comfort of a… plant shop?
Find all that and more, including a new SF-made line of canned cocktails, Dungeness crab, grilled sirloin and pizza by the slice.
Seafood & Beer
Fort Point Beer Company
One Ferry Building #54 | 742 Valencia St.
628-224-1999 | 415-361-7001
fortpointbeer.com
Fans of Fort Point’s Kölsch and Animal IPA can now enjoy a Crab Louie salad as they sip a pint. The Presidio-based brewery just launched a seafood menu at their Valencia Beer Hall and Ferry Building Beer Garden. Developed by Fort Point’s new culinary director, Cecile Macasero, in partnership with Aloha Seafood, Fathom Seafood, TwoxSea and Water2Table, the entire menu is sustainable and wild-caught. They’ll offer Dungeness crab rolls year-round with help from a fleet of small boats that trap seasonally from here up to Alaska. Rice-a-Roni, the original “San Francisco treat,” is served fried as an arancini, pairing particularly well with the delicate notes of pine and eucalyptus in Fort Point’s Sfizio Italian Style Pilsner.
Canned Cocktails
Seven Stills Brewery & Distillery
100 Hooper St. Ste 4 | 3645 Lawton Street
(415) 757-0178 | (415) 340-3654
sevenstills.com
Seven Stills Brewing & Distillery is shaking things up with a new line of canned craft cocktails. Launched earlier this week, the collection is mixed on the premises and includes a tequila margarita, a vodka mule, a vodka seltzer infused with watermelon, and a whiskey highball. Canned cocktails are typical of big brands like Absolut and Tanqueray, but you’ll soon find Seven Stills cans on the same shelves of SF grocery and spirit stores. For now, you can crack open a tab at their Mission Bay headquarters, or at their smaller taproom in the Outer Sunset.
California Cuisine Pop-Up
Big Alma at the Villa Florence Hotel
225 Powell St.
(415) 397-7700
bigalma.com
Alma de Bretteville Spreckels earned the name “Great Grandmother of San Francisco” after persuading her sugar magnate husband to donate the Legion of Honor to the city. Now we have the chance to thank Alma at her new namesake restaurant, a pop-up in the Villa Florence Hotel. With alums from New York’s Daniel and the French Laundry staffing the kitchen, Big Alma’s menu represents both the old and new guards of California cuisine. The pickled deviled eggs with trout roe and furikake and the grilled sirloin with bearnaise sauce are highlights. The $7 cocktails are also a major draw given our inflated state of affairs, and starting today, 4-6 p.m. is Big Alma’s daily happy hour.
Lattes & Leaves
The Mellow
1401 Haight St.
(650) 215-6754
themellowsf.com
It seems like Instagrammable plant stores have popped up like weeds over the past couple of years. The Mellow is no exception, but this handsome Haight-Ashbury shop now serves coffee alongside their palms and ferns. Beginning on Saturday, Mellow Coffee will offer specialty espresso drinks sourced from Intelligentsia and pour-overs from local roaster Lady Falcon. Owner David Velasco’s tenure as a barista at Duboce Cafe informed The Mellow’s approach to coffee. This weekend only, grab a free cup with any plant purchase.
New York-Style Slice Shop
Outta Sight Pizza
422 Larkin St.
(415) 829-3108
thatsouttasight.com
It’s always satisfying to hear about a great pop-up making the transition to brick-and-mortar. For the past two years, Chef Eric Ehler (Fort Point, Mister Jiu’s, Lazy Susan) has been serving up pizza slices at Fig & Thistle wine bar. Outta Sight Pizza will maintain a presence there, but Ehler and his business partner Peter Dorrance have also found a permanent home near Civic Center. The pizzeria has the overall aesthetic of a skateshop and the walls of a gallery, with local artwork on display. The pizza is simple thin-crusted New York style–expect mozzarella, pepperoni and mushroom as staple toppings. According to their Instagram, the slice shop will have a soft opening any day now, with the official opening to follow in mid-September.