All stories about "San Mateo"

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NOB HILL—A tipster put forth the rumor earlier today, and now we've received confirmation from the restaurant: the official name of Luisa Hanson's upcoming pizzeria in the former Front Room space at 1500 California has changed from Pompei to 1500. We're not quite sure what to think of the name change—except that it probably won't be 200 better than 1300—but we do know one thing: this switch certainly won't get it off the Deathwatch. We couldn't get an opening date out of them though, so the date remains "soon." [EaterWire]

One of the hottest topics of the 2008 restaurant industry thus far has been the myriad rising costs that have descended upon San Francisco. It's a well-known trope at this point: between health care mandates, rents, recessions, a hefty minimum wage and even smaller issues like Gav's new water crusade, city restaurants are dealing with more costs than ever. For most intents and purposes though, the dining scene remains relatively healthy (if a little whiny), unlike say, the floundering restaurants down the Peninsula:

Many restaurants on the Peninsula are feeling the bite of an uncertain economy.... area residents are spending less eating out, restaurant owners say.

"People are very insecure with the country, and they're keeping tight with their money," said Carmelo Iacolino, one of the owners of Buon Gusto Italian restaurant in South San Francisco. "We're paying the bills, but it could be much better."

This weekend's opening of Little Sheep in San Mateo marked the arrival of one of the world's largest chain restaurants in the Bay Area. However, despite another location in Union City, it has come to our attention that many Bay Area residents are not aware that the little Mongolian hot pot restaurant is a chain, let alone a global presence with over 700 locations. Plus, there's a creepy devil-sheep wearing a bowtie, and if films have taught us anything, it's that people—or cartoons—wearing bowties are nearly always evil. To help explain the Little Sheep phenomenon, we took to the official site, and boy, are we happy we did, because there's nothing like some unintelligible website prose to start off a Tuesday morning. In their own words, here is the official story of Little Sheep:

With nearly a dozen restaurants in the "any day now" phase, The Dish, your source for recent restaurant openings, will be getting plenty of action over the next couple weeks. Before we set sights on the city restaurants, some noteworthy newcomers have arrived down in the 650. If you have a morsel for The Dish, please do let us know.

1) Red Lantern: This past weekend saw the debut of Red Lantern, the Southeast Asian home-style restaurant from Daniel Sudar, former chef du cuisine at San Francisco gem Betelnut. The 3700-square-foot space follows all sorts of feng shui principles, and we're nearly certain that it's the only place on the seaboard that boasts "a 20-seat communal table made from petrified wood found in a river bed in the Philippines." 808 Winslow Street, at Broadway, Redwood City; (650) 369-5483 [Eater Inbox]

2) Little Sheep: The glory of the Chinese hot pot chain has reached the friendly confines of San Mateo. From Chowhound: "Little Sheep opened last night on Ellsworth in San Mateo. I went by today but had just had sushi at Hotaru (which was great - best sushi quality/$ ratio in town) - so didn't try it. We did talk with the owner or manager - very friendly, she explained that it took them 10 months to open due to the conversion with PG&E (physical and bureaucratic both apparently) for the gas burners to fire the hotpots. But, they are finally open." 215 S. Ellsworth Avenue, at 2nd Avenue, San Mateo [Chowhound]

[Red Lantern Photo: Chris Schmauch]