NOB HILL—Fresh off a glowing Bauer review, Noah Tucker is leaving Brick, as rumored on Yelp earlier this week. According to Madame Tablehopper, Tucker's wife landed a job in Amsterdam, so blame love and happiness for the loss of one of the Bay Area's rising stars. Alex Marsh of Solstice will take over executive chef duties at Brick. The small plates concept will remain, but the molecular gastronomy angle will go the way of Tucker. San Francisco just isn't destined to have a molecular gastronomy star. Sigh. [Yelp; Tablehopper]
NOE VALLEY—This past weekend also marked the debut of Chris Cosentino's Boccalone salumi line. Incanto hosted the opening party on the first of many "Salumi Saturdays." There's a nice little recap on Chowhound and plenty of information available on the official Boccalone site, including but not limited to one of the most pithy slogans in recent memory: "Tasty salted pig parts." [EaterWire Inbox]
POTRERO HILL—The brand-new Whole Foods is predictably generating tons of traffic, noise and chaos in quaint little Potrero Hill, but as far as megachains go, its design is pretty respectable. [SocketSite]
