Left Wing chicken and beer restaurants arrive in San Jose and Mountain View
After blanketing South Korea with nearly 400 eateries, Left Wing Bar decided to take its concept — hot Korean fried chicken paired with cold beer — on the road.
A fast expansion that started in 2019 has resulted in Left Wing winging its way to Texas, Hawaii, Arizona, Southern California and now Northern California. The company’s first regional eatery occupies a space in the H Mart food court in San Francisco. The second opened recently in Mountain View, inside Ava’s Downtown Market & Deli.
And the third — the Bay Area’s first free-standing location — just opened at Santana Row in San Jose. It’s located at the CineArts/Splunk side of the center.
Left Wing boasts that it uses fresh, never frozen, chicken and cooks with vegetable oil. Bone-in and boneless wings come in five styles/ flavors: original (crispy fried); sweet and spicy (the sticky sauce version), house special (wok stir-fried with garlic sauce); Go Bachi (Korean chile barbecue); and Khan Bachi (soy teriyaki barbecue). You can mix-and-match two styles in one regular order, three styles in a large order.
The suds list features regional craft brews.
DETAILS >> The Santana Row location is at 3090 Olsen Drive, San Jose; the Mountain View one is inside 340 Castro St.; and the San Francisco H Mart location is at 3995 Alemany Blvd. www. leftwingbar.com
Hot new Taiwanese breakfast spot Cafe Mei opens in Fremont
Get ready for quadrupledecker breakfast sandwiches.
Cafe Mei, the first U.S. spinoff of Mei Er Mei, a popular quick-service chain in Taiwan, has opened in the Pacific Commons Shopping Center in Fremont. Fans of the cafe’s 10 neat, toasted sandwiches, which feature everything from ham and eggs to cucumber, pork and sweet mayo, will also find traditional Taiwanese breakfast foods like dan bing and rolled egg crepes described on the menu as Taiwanese pancakes, as well as tea and coffee.
As reported by Berkeleyside, fans of the original Mei Er Mei should note that the restaurant isn’t officially owned by the Taiwanese company. Rather, Fremont owner Kandy Wang owns the restaurant trademark in the U.S.
and is serving the official recipes at 43761 Boscell Road, Suite 5125.
It joins Newark’s Chef Wu — for years the Bay Area’s only dedicated Taiwanese breakfast shop — which recently reopened after staying closed through the pandemic, KQED reports.
Cafe Mei’s sandwiches start at $3.50. A small offering of lunch-ish items, including a pork burger ($5.50) and black pepper teppan noodles with mushroom and pork ($9), round out the menu, which is available during the restaurant’s soft opening hours, 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday.
Equator Coffees ventures south to Burlingame
Need a jolt of java to fuel your bayshore run or bike ride?
Equator Coffees has made its first foray south of San Francisco and Oakland, opening a Peninsula cafe in Burlingame.
The coffeehouse started brewing this month at Burlingame Point, a complex of office
towers built on 18 bayfront acres east of Highway 101. Nearby are the Bay Trail, which loops through the Bay Area, Fisherman’s Park and San Francisco International Airport.
Besides pour-overs, filtered coffee, cappuccinos and cortados, Equator offers a number of signature drinks. The Habibi Latte combines steamed milk and two shots of espresso with orange blossom, cardamom, clove and vanilla syrup. For the Shakerato, two shots of espresso, heavy cream and dark brown sugar are shaken until frothy; there are chocolate and matcha variations too. Heading to San Francisco International Airport? The Red Eye tops filtered coffee with two shots of espresso.
The Burlingame food menu features a breakfast frittata sandwich, avocado toast and banana toast (all made on Rustic Bakery’s flax sunflower sourdough), fresh blueberry waffle and almond butter-banana waffle. Mountain View’s The Midwife and the Baker supplies the croissants and other baked goods.
The women- and LGBTQowned
Equator was founded in 1995 in a Marin County garage by Brooke McDonnell and Helen Russell, who both still hold executive positions.
DETAILS >> Open 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays and 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekends at 312 Airport Blvd., Burlingame. www. equatorcoffees.com
Berkeley’s Boichik Bagels plans Bay Area expansion
Bay Area bagel savant Emily Winston, the founder of Boichik Bagels and subject of many East Coast versus West Coast bagel debates, has signed a lease for an 18,000-square-foot North Berkeley warehouse and retail space that will allow her to bake more bagels and get back into pastry-making. It will also have a large patio with tons of seating.
“I really love the location,” Winston says of the industrial neighborhood on Sixth Street, near Covenant Winery. “I love the neighbors. I love that it’s industrial but still delightful. It has character.”
As first reported by J. Weekly, Boichik’s original shop in the Elmwood District “is bursting at the seams” with orders for Winston’s boiled New York-style bagels and bagel sandwiches. The new warehouse will house all dough production and cream cheese whipping, and allow Boichik Bagels to increase its wholesale business with fine grocers, like Diablo Foods and Berkeley Bowl.
It also means the epic black and white cookies, rugelach and triple chocolate loaf cake that Winston offered when she first opened her doors in November of 2019 are coming back.
“There was just such a demand for bagels at the time that we couldn’t do the pastries, but I want to bring them back,” she says.
Winston says she is currently in the design phase, with building permits and construction, hopefully, to follow. She estimates that the new warehouse and retail space will be open a year from now. She also revealed her plans to open more Boichik Bagel locations in the Bay Area.
At the top of her list: the Peninsula.
“People tell us they drive an hour from Palo Alto and San Jose for bagels, so the Peninsula is definitely a priority,” she says.