1) North Beach: Our long national froyo nightmare is over: following an actual year of battling red tape and various vehement neighborhood groups, Swirl Culture (née Honeydoo) finally opened yesterday at 11am. As is the growingtradition amongst new frozen yogurt shops, they handed out free gifts—this time, t-shirts—to opening day customers. 1400 Grant Avenue, at Green; (415) 397-9475; website [EaterWire]
2) The Marina: A bit later than planned, neighborhood staple The Grove reopened over the weekend. The "new" space is bigger, having taken over the retail space next door, and as a commenter pointed out during last week's post-plywood report, it bears a much stronger resemblance to the Fillmore Street location. And the WiFi remains, for those interested in such matters. 2250 Chestnut Street, at Avila; (415) 474-4843 [EaterWire]
The Marina: Above is the first peek inside the new and improved Grove Cafe on Chestnut Street. Now shuttered for nearly a month, the popular Marina hangout has been busy converting the retail space next door in order to nearly double its seating capacity and move closer to a restaurant proper. As highlighted by the lovely red arrow (for your viewing convenience), the addendum even includes a new focal point: a sizable stone wall (faux fireplace?). Inspections are today, meaning that if all goes well, The Grove could be back in action as soon as tomorrow or Thursday.
· Cheery Shutter Signage: The Grove Expands, Happily [~ESF~]
· Marina Report: The Grove Expanding? [~ESF~]
The Marina: Way back in the fall, word came out that The Grove was trying to expand into the vacant storefront next door. The expansion would not only add on about 30 seats to the existing 48 (also apparently involved: "SURPRISES"), but would allow the cafe to make the jump into a full service restaurant. At the time, next door rival Judy's Cafe tried to block the move with formal protests, but now, almost nine months later, The Grove's expansion is underway, though all that demolition work in just 12 days seems challenging. Anyway, if the thirteen consecutive exclamation points are any indication, it's going to be GREAT. Judy's Cafe, consider yourself warned.
· Marina Report: The Grove Expanding? [~ESF~]
Going into yesterday's planning commission meeting, a pair of restaurant-related items were on the agenda, including one certain fro-yo controversy. Let's get straight to the proceedings.
NORTH BEACH—Ladies and gents, you can now rest easy: there shall be frozen yogurt on the corner of Grant and Green. After a long and drawn-out affair that saw neighborhood associations battle each other and some froyo disdain, Honeydoo's taxing acquisition of that change of use permit, originally assumed to be a simple affair, was finally approved. More information on Honeydoo's opening date and whatnot is certainly forthcoming, but for now, a sigh of relief is surely in order for the Honeydoo folks, who have been embroiled in red tape since the summer. [EaterWire]
THE MARINA—Also approved late yesterday was the proposal put forth by The Grove Cafe on Chestnut Street. As reported earlier, The Grove had been wanting to absorb the vacant space next door in order to add 660 square feet and 27 seats to its existing cafe. The expansion would also lead to other changes (like evolving into a full-service restaurant), but neighboring Judy's Cafe reportedly filed a protest, meaning that a hearing was necessary. In any event, the expansion was approved by the PlanCo; going forward, look for further updates on The Grove's expansion and changes in the Plywood Report. [EaterWire]
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NORTH BEACH—Ladies and gents, you can now rest easy: there shall be frozen yogurt on the corner of Grant and Green. After a long and drawn-out affair that saw 
