Taste of the Nation; Mission Picnic Coming Soon

The bar at 2010's Taste of the Nation event. [Photo: Carolyn Alburger]

FINANCIAL DISTRICT—If you're a high-rolling culinary enthusiast who hasn't bought a ticket for tomorrow night's Taste of the Nation event at the Bently Reserve, now is the time. Benefiting child hunger charity Share Our Strength, the event brings together the chefs of 30 top SF restaurants (including Quince, State Bird Provisions, Sons & Daughters, Foreign Cinema, and the forthcoming Coqueta), along with top mixologists and wineries. It's seriously swanky, and if chefs are your celebrities, you'll be assured of star-spotting aplenty. Tickets are $150 for general admission and $250 for VIPs, who get in an hour early. [EaterWire]

THE MISSION—Tablehopper brings word of a new to-go soup/salad/sandwich joint, Mission Picnic, in the recently vacated Corazon Juice Bar space. The food will have a slight Asian twist, and they'll eventually offer call-ahead picnic boxes for toting to Dolores Park. They're targeting next Saturday, March 30; we'll have more on the menu once opening day approaches. [Tablehopper]

NAPA—The latest national burger player to arrive on the scene is Florida-based BurgerFi, which will be opening its first West Coast location in Napa. They haven't announced an opening date as of yet, but between Smashburger, Five Guys, Umami Burger, The Counter, The Habit, and Mooyah (all of which arrived recently or are making their debuts soon), we're about to hit Bay Area burger-chain overdrive. [Inside Scoop]

SAN FRANCISCO— Joe Montana must be clued into this whole crazy-popular-burger-franchise thing we've got going on, as he told the folks at a restaurant industry conference last week that he's developing a burger place in SF. Considering that he's an avid diner who's by far the most regular sighting in Tablehopper's celebrity column, we wouldn't be surprised if he actually puts out a pretty good product. [NRN via Grub Street]