San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Shake Shack opens, La Folie bids S.F. adieu
Here is the latest on Bay Area restaurant openings and closings.
Shake Shack
Shake Shack opened its first restaurant in San Francisco on Monday, Feb. 3 — complete with crinklecut fries, Angus beef burgers and frozen custard —and it somehow all feels familiar. An outpost of the New York burger chain was swarmed by more than 1,000 fans when it opened at Palo Alto’s Stanford Shopping Center in 2018 and right after that at Larkspur’s Marin County Mart. At the Cow Hollow location, a majority of the menu is typical for Shake Shack, except when it comes to the frozen custard, where popular San Francisco businesses come into play. The restaurant’s California Gold Rush version is made with vanilla custard, B. Patisserie’s kouignamann and Dandelion Chocolate cocoa nibs.
The new Shake Shack sprawls across 3,654 square feet at the former site of Real Food Co.; there’s ample seating on the outdoor patio, which is shared with the new Indie Superette from Michael Mina. The design highlights ecofriendly construction, including tabletops made from salvaged walnut tables. The Cow Hollow
location will soon be followed by another at Westfield San Francisco Centre. Shake Shack also plans to open in Oakland as well as at Mineta San Jose International Airport. The company, founded by New York restaurateur Danny Meyer, has 275 locations worldwide.
11 a.m. to 10 p.m. SundayThursday, until 11 p.m. FridaySaturday. 3060 Fillmore St. 4154054618 or https://www. shakeshack.com
— Justin Phillips
Indie Superette
Next door to Shake Shack, Michael Mina added to his international collection of restaurants with Indie Superette, a tiny market and cafe that serves a plantbased menu of smoothies, acai bowls and avocado toast.
At just 700 square feet, this quaint grabandgo is a new direction for Mina, who has sprawling, highprofile projects across the country, including the new 125seat Bourbon Pub at the Village at Northstar at Lake Tahoe. His local empire includes the Michelinstarred Michael Mina, Pabu, the Ramen Bar, International Smoke and Trailblazer Tavern in San Francisco.
Indie Superette’s
plantbased food menu has veggie burgers, vegan softserve and vegan pastries from local bakery Firebrand Artisan Breads, among other things. The market component focuses on health food, with organic coconut water, Beyond Meat burgers and sausages, and kombucha. Guests can order togo or dine in on the shared patio area.
7 a.m.9 p.m. daily. 3060 Fillmore St., San Francisco. 6282226642 or https://www. michaelmina.net
— J.P.
Alley Kitchens
When Roy Lam worked in Japan two years ago, he loved frequenting yokocho, narrow alleys lined with tiny restaurants and pubs.
“I found the most true Japanese food in small alleys,” Lam said, adding that it was a prime place to see the Japanese culture of perfectionism on full display, with most tiny restaurants serving just one specialty to a handful of diners.
Those days inspired him to open Alley Kitchens, a restaurant near the UC Berkeley campus that functions somewhat like three businesses in one, all sharing one narrow, 2,000squarefoot space that replicates the look of a yokocho.
The minirestaurants inside include Unidon, a chirashi and donburi restaurant with rice bowl options, including salmon, albacore and yellow tail sashimi over rice ($14.95). Kuroki is a ramen spot that specializes in tonkotsu ramen ($8.95), which can be customized with additions like black garlic. Whisk is a cafe that serves organic matcha tea in lattes (starting at $4.75) with potential addons like boba, strawberry puree, red bean and cheese crema.
Guests order from a central counter; there are just 12 seats total, plus a standing bar.
“It is a very communityoriented setting to encourage people to open up and talk and have some good food,” said Lam, who also opened a series of Yifang Taiwan Fruit Tea boba shops in California.
Noon8 p.m. daily until Monday, Feb. 10, when the hours will change to 11 a.m.10 p.m. daily. 2309 Telegraph Ave., Berkeley. 5103564467 or www.alleykitchens.com
— Janelle Bitker
La Folie
San Francisco’s most esteemed French restaurant, La Folie, will close on March 14 after 32 years in business.
Chefowner Roland Passot said that he and his wife, Jamie, will also close the more casual La Folie Lounge, which opened in 2009.
Both restaurants are located on Polk Street in Russian Hill.
“It’s bittersweet for me to let it go, but it’s time,” Passot said. “I’m turning 65 this year. It’s time to let the next generation do their thing.”
At La Folie, Passot serves contemporary French cuisine while avoiding passing trends like molecular gastronomy. He won the James Beard Foundation award for Best Rising Star Chef in 1990, and La Folie was a frequent pick for The Chronicle’s Top 100 Restaurants. Chronicle critic Soleil Ho praised the lounge in a review last year, calling out one of the best salads she’s had in her life.
Passot said two main factors drove his decision. First, La Folie’s lease is coming to an end soon. Second, a flood at La Folie Lounge last year — which caused the space to close for four months — reminded Passot of the operational challenges he won’t miss when he retires.
That said, Passot is still a partner with Left Bank Brasserie, which has locations in Larkspur, San Jose and Menlo Park; Meso, which recently opened in San Jose; and LB Steak, which has one location in San Jose and another coming to San Ramon. He also wants to write a memoir and start leading small tour groups on foodfocused trips through France, Italy and Spain.
“I want to enjoy life a little,” he said.
5:3010 p.m. TuesdayThursday, 510 p.m. FridaySaturday. 2316 Polk St., San Francisco. 4157765577 or www.lafolie.com
— J.B.
Allegro Romano
Another closure in Russian Hill: Allegro Romano, a colorful Roman restaurant known for hosting political power meals and celebrity guests over the years, has closed after 16 years.
Lorenzo Logoreci and his wife, Kelly Steckelberg, opened the restaurant in 2004 and billed it as a quintessential neighborhood restaurant. The menu was mostly based around Italian classics such as fettuccine with a white truffle sauce and homemade ravioli.
During the restaurant’s heyday of the mid to late 2000s, Allegro Romano was a regular stop for famous athletes like Barry Bonds and Orlando Cepeda. Movie stars like Brad Pitt and Demi Moore also had dinners there. But it was within the California political crowd that Allegro Romano found a notably faithful cadre of regulars, including former Mayor Willie Brown, Gov. Gavin Newsom and former U.S. Sen. Barbara Boxer.
Logoreci opened another restaurant, Ala Romana, in 2014 as a spinoff to Allegro Romano. It closed in 2015.
— J.P.