Category: Food & Drink

By THOMAS REYNOLDS La Mediterranee — the beloved restaurant at 2210 Fillmore that has been feeding the neighborhood healthy and affordable food for almost half a century — has signed an additional 10-year extension on its lease. “Let’s keep it going,” said Vanick Der Bedrossian, who now runs the eatery his father Levon opened in…

LOCAL DISH | SHELLEY HANDLER Let me begin by saying I do not bake. There is a line drawn in a professional kitchen that divides sweet from savory and I have spent my 50-plus years slinging savory dishes. Even so, my preferences in the sweets realm are sharply defined, and my annual birthday choice is…

By THOMAS REYNOLDS The first hint that something special was about to happen came during the Fillmore Jazz Festival in 2018. Sayat and Laura Ozyilmaz catered a private party in a nearby home after the first day of the festival that introduced them and their special brand of hospitality to their new neighbors. Already they…

LOCAL DISH  |  SHELLEY HANDLER I’m not finicky, never have been. As a kid I loved everything from tongue to Brussel sprouts and was game to try just about anything. Barracuda in a light tomato sauce? Bring it on. Sweetbreads in brown butter, you betcha. Lobster Cantonese? Yes, please! That said, there is one thing…

FLASHBACK | First published in February 2014 By LAURA WERLIN When they created the Cowgirl Creamery in 1997, Sue Conley and Peggy Smith sold their cheeses exclusively at farmers markets and out of their barn in Point Reyes Station. But their focus at the time on making fresh cheeses with inherently short shelf lives —…

LOCAL DISH | SHELLEY HANDLER Somewhere over a hill and around a corner in Fort Mason is a virtual wall of blackberries growing a good 10 feet high. In summers past I used to cruise by there and casually pick a container full — then try not to eat them on the way home. My…

By THOMAS REYNOLDS Fillmore Street investor Dr. Anthony Fauci — perhaps better known as the face of public health in the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic — is back on Capitol Hill today. A Republican senator over the weekend released portions of Dr. Fauci’s private diary, amplifying earlier claims that Fauci made the pandemic…

LOCAL DISH | SHELLEY HANDLER The longest relationship in my life has been with corn. Milk and I started very early on, but we parted ways after one too many Carnation Instant Breakfasts in my senior year of high school. But corn, we’ve been tight since I had the teeth to chew it. My mother,…

LOCAL DISH | SHELLEY HANDLER A Californian born and bred, I perk up when I see signs of summer coming my way. As a kid in L.A. I could smell it, still and warm, creeping in through the jasmine under my window. In San Francisco, it’s less a weather shift and more what lands on…