The Claremont Spa & Club is Closing Its Flagship Restaurant

Changes at the Claremont

Historic Berkeley hotel the Claremont Spa & Club is closing its main restaurant, Meritage, in “early January,” replacing it with a new restaurant, details of which aren’t yet public. Last year, the Claremont scuttled another of its restaurants, Antoinette, after an unsuccessful partnership with chef Dominique Crenn; that restaurant opened as Limewood after a five month renovation last year.

Yelp can be compelled to identify negative reviewers

Yelpers can’t hide behind the cloak of anonymity, a California appeals court has ruled, if a review they leave ends up as part of a defamation lawsuit. The case, Yelp v. Superior Court, started with a negative Yelp review of a Newport Beach accounting firm. The firm sued Yelp and asked the SF-based company to identify the reviewer to the court. Careful out there, negative Yelpers — but remember, for something to be defamation it’s got to be false, not just negative.

Alex Hochman

Cha Cha Cha owner buys Potrero Hill Papito

Potrero Hill Mexican restaurant Papito, which Jocelyn Buelow of Chez Papa/Chez Maman opened on Connecticut Street in 2010 and expanded to Hayes Valley in 2014. is changing hands. The new owner is Irfan Yalcin, a Turkish-American restaurateur who already owns Potrero Hill Turkish restaurant Pera, L’Emigrante wine bar and next door Urban Fish on Mission Street , and acquired both Cha Cha Cha tapas restaurants this summer. “My plan for Papito is keeping [it] mostly the same,” Yalcin says. “We will offer some of our popular dishes (cajun shrimp, chicken paillard, plantanos maduros) from Cha Cha Cha and also [start] serving Cha Cha Cha’s signature sangria... But Papito’s menu mostly will remain.” Yalcin also explains that he’s kept the kitchen and front-of-house staff, and purchased the rights to Papito’s name and concept for expansion in the Bay Area.

Temescal Brewing teams up with local brewers to troll Golden Road

The name of a collaboration beer between Southern California's Eagle Rock Brewery, Petaluma's HenHouse Brewing, and Oakland's Temescal Brewing can be interpreted as a jab at Golden Road, the LA-based brewery that sold to mega-brewer Anheuser-Busch Inbev and was approved this week to build an Oakland beer garden. The collab beer is called “The Winning Team,” likely in reference to Golden Road owner Meg Gill’s quote on selling to AB Inbev to be “On the winning team.” A release party for the beer, which is a single-hopped rice lager with 20 percent jasmine rice and whole cone Hallertau Blanc hops, will be held at The Good Hop tonight.