Bon Appétit's 50 Best New Restaurants List Has 3 SF Contenders, and More A.M. Intel

Bon Appétit names its 2016 best new restaurant contenders

Bon Appétit is back at it again with its list of the best new eateries in America. This year’s list has Cala, The Perennial, and Lord Stanley as possible entrants to the coveted top ten. It was Al’s Place that made it on last year, and it’s still hard to get a reservation there. Stay tuned for an update in two weeks on if any SF restaurants will make it this year.

Daniel Patterson now has an SFO restaurant

Sort of. Patterson (Coi, Locol) is taking over the American Express Centurion Lounge, which you need to be a cardholder to enter. Meadowood’s Chris Kostow was the opening chef for the lounge in 2014, but now Patterson will take over, effective immediately.

The GGRA wants in on awards season

The Golden Gate Restaurant Association, a collective that supports SF restaurant initiatives, is starting an awards gala, called The Saucy Awards. Restaurants don’t have to be a GGRA member (which costs money) to be nominated, after which a panel of judges (which includes former mayor Willie Brown and CUESA executive director Marcy Coburn) will narrow down to the top four in each category.

Finally, nominees and GGRA members will vote for the winners to be announced in November. The Saucys will benefit the GGRA’s non profit, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association Scholarship & Education Foundation, as a part of its initiative to advance and support the hospitality industry in the Bay Area. You can start making nominations right here, right now.

Caviar’s trying to differentiate itself in a tough market

Caviar

Restaurants like Pizzeria Delfina, the American Grilled Cheese Kitchen, and Merigan Sub Shop are now offering off-menu items, all of which you can see here. The catch? You have to order it through Caviar to get it. It’s an interesting strategy for the delivery app to try to differentiate itself in a market that’s saturated with other apps like Uber Eats, Grub Hub, and Amazon.

Surprise, surprise: Silicon Valley residents pay more for wine than people in SF

Bacchus Management wine and spirits director Andrew Green spoke with Wine Spectator about his life managing the wine lists at eight restaurants, including Spruce in SF and Village Pub in Woodside. The most interesting tidbit is the hard fact that tech billionaires down there spend more on wine than SF residents. “When it comes down to Burgundy, the Village Pub definitely sells higher-end wines. At the Pub, it’s all the tech billionaires and it’s the grands crus Burgundies that sell. At Spruce, it’s the villages and the premiers crus,” Green said.

Speaking of wine, Monterey County’s may be smoky this year

That’s because of the Soberanes fire. Smoke from the fire could impact Monterey wines this year, imbuing a “smoky taint.” It’s too soon to tell if that will be the case, but it’s been known to happen before, specifically to the the 2008 vintage in Mendocino County after the the Lightning Complex blaze.