Inside Scoop
James Beard Award nominees.
The James Beard Foundation has announced the finalists for its annual awards — widely considered the Oscars of the food world — and a cadre of prominent Bay Area industry figures made the cut.
Notably, of the semifinalists for Best Chef: West list (which covers California, Hawaii and Nevada),
Dominique Crenn was the only Bay Area chef to make the final cut. Crenn, who just opened Bar Crenn this week (see below), was also one of two women on the fiveperson list which included Los Angeles chefs Michael Cimarusti of Providence), Jeremy Fox (Rustic Canyon), Jessica Koslow (Sqirl), Travis Lett (Gjelina). Three-Michelin-starred Quince, which has been named a finalist for Outstanding Restaurant every year since 2015, is once again in the running for the award. Christopher Kostow (The Restaurant at Meadowood) and David
Kinch (Manresa) are finalists once again in the Outstanding Chef category. Kostow’s new St. Helena restaurant, the Charter Oak ,is the only Bay Area restaurant to be nominated for Best New Restaurant. Belinda Leong and Michel Suas of B. Patisserie are the local representatives in the Outstanding Baker category. Bar Agricole and Trick Dog are up for Outstanding
Bar.
Bay Area talent occupied most of the Outstanding Outstanding Wine, Spirits, or Beer Professional category with the legendary Miljenko Grgich (Grgich Hills Estate), 2011 Winemaker of the Year
Cathy Corison (Corison Winery), 2014 Winemaker of the Year Steve
Matthiasson (Matthiasson Wines), and Lance Winters (St. George Spirits) filling all but one of the five nominee spots.
Corey Lee’s In Situ is a finalist in the restaurant design category. Meanwhile, both Zuni Cafe and Saison are being recognized for Outstanding Service.
Several Bay Area figures were also named finalists for James Beard Foundation book awards. Included among them is Samin
Nosrat’s “Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat.” The regional Mexican recipe collection from Gonzalo Guzman and
Stacy Adimando in “Nopalito: A Mexican Kitchen” also made the cut, as did the State Bird Provisions book by Stuart Brioza and Nicole Krasinski, with J.J. Goode; Andrea Nguyen’s “The Pho Cookbook;” and Paula Wolfert’s “Unforgettable.” In the journalism category, the San Francisco Chronicle Food Section was named a finalist in the best Food Section category. It’s joined on the list by Roads & Kingdoms and New York Magazine.
Notable openings
Bar Crenn: The highly-anticipated wine bar from Dominique Crenn opened Tuesday night in a space adjacent to Crenn’s two-Michelin-starred Atelier Crenn on Fillmore Street. Bar Crenn features a rotating cast of French wines curated by wine director Matt Montrose.
The food menu is billed as an
homage to the classics of French gastronomy, with recipes “donated” by French powerhouses like Alain Ducasse and Yannick Alleno, among others.
The entirety of Bar Crenn’s menu is available a la carte or as a three-course tasting menu for $85; its website describes the menu as “a rotating menu of typically eight menu items, all of which are shareable bites.” There’s also a $165 caviar tasting for parties of two. Reservations for Bar Crenn are available on Tock.
About 17 wines are available by the glass, ranging in prince from $14 to $50.
Bar Crenn: 3131 Fillmore St., San Francisco; Tue.-Sat. 4:30 p.m. to 12 a.m. www.barcrenn.com; (415) 4400460
AltoVino: A little less than a year after taking over the former Mason Pacific space (1358 Mason St.), Claudio Villani opened the doors to his latest project, AltoVino.
The new venture, similar to Villani’s Cole Valley hotspot InoVino, is a wine bar, but at AltoVino, the wines are of the high-altitude Italian variety. The location has dozens of white and reds available by the glass or half-glass, as well as rosé, Champagnes and spritz apertifs.
Nick Kelly is at the helm in the kitchen. He implemented a rotating menu of Italian fare, the first iteration being one the team said will focus on the heartier flavors found in dishes from Northern Italy.
AltoVino seats 48 in its dining room and when including bar seating and additional nooks by the windows, has the capacity for 60. AltoVino will also have heated seating outside for roughly 12 or 14 people, a nice spot for folks looking to watch the nearby cable cars.
AltoVino: 1358 Mason St., San Francisco; Tue.-Thu., Sun. 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.; Fri. and Sat. 5 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.; www.altovinosf.com; (415) 8345766 Wursthall: Serious Eats culinary director and cookbook author J. Kenji Lopez-Alt opened the doors to Wursthall on Tuesday in San Mateo.
The German-style beer hall is the first time López-Alt has been a driving force behind a restaurant opening, but it isn’t a solo venture. He’s joined by Adam Simpson and Tyson Mao, the owners of San Mateo craft beer and wine bar Grape and Grain.
The upstairs space at Wursthall will serve as a full-service beer hall with food, while the first floor will only have cocktails, wine and beer. López-Alt created a menu with dishes like the vegan doner kebap made with the Impossible Foods’ plant-based meat and cooked in a vertical rotisserie. There’s also a pork shoulder sandwich with meat that is cooked sous vide for 24 hours, shredded and combined with raw pork before getting seared.