Copita's New Chef; SFBW Collaboration Brew

The dining room at Copita. [Photo: Aubrie Pick]

SAUSALITO— Inside Scoop brings word of a new chef at Joanne Weir and Larry Mindel's Copita: Gonzalo Rivera, Jr., a former Michael Mina cook who was most recently at Ixtapa, Mexico's Capella. Rivera's new tweaks will include a seasonal tasting menu based on four regions of Mexico: Jalisco (winter), Mexico City (spring), Michoacan (summer), and Oaxaca (fall). Details on those menus are still forthcoming. [ISSF]

BAYVIEW— Each year, the SF Brewers' Guild teams up for a collaborative SF Beer Week brew, and this year's creation, Green Death, is inspired by a malt liquor brewed in SF from the '30s through the '60s that made an appearance in On the Road. The beer, made at Speakeasy, is a higher-alcohol take on a cream ale, brewed with 2-row malt and corn and clocking in at 7.5% ABV. You'll be able to find it at the SFBW opening gala, as well as bars throughout the city during the festival. [EaterWire]

THE MISSION—After the hubbub in the Mission during October's World Series win, everyone's on edge about the potential consequences of a 49ers victory (or loss) on Sunday evening. So Mayor Ed Lee and the SFPD decided to hold a meeting to soothe worried business owners, promising patrols of major thoroughfares throughout the game and hourly trash-bin emptying so miscreants won't have fuel for their bonfires. We're not sure this will keep our industrious citizenry from finding new and different things to set on fire, but it's a start, anyway. [Mission Local]

BERKELEY—The Diablo Dish checked out a preview dinner by Scott Quinn, the new chef de cuisine at Meritage in the tony Claremont Hotel. They dug his oxtail rillettes and duck breast with grilled endive, and thought the "fun" Elvis-inspired dessert of banana bread pudding with peanut-butter ice cream and maple bacon was tasty. Quinn, a Bagatelle and Bouchon Bistro alum, plans to update the menu 6-8 times per year. [Diablo Dish]