Roam Builds Burger Empire With New San Mateo Location

Roam now flipping artisan burgers in San Mateo

2010-founded Roam Artisan Burgers is now open at 246 South B Street in San Mateo, where daily hours are 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m. Alongside grass-fed beef, free range turkey, and all natural bison burgers, Roam has added a new salmon burger option for the pescatarian crowd. San Mateo is the fourth branch for Roam, which has two locations in San Francisco and one in Lafayette, with a fifth scheduled to open in Oakland next year.

The Saucy Awards celebrate SF hospitality biz

The Golden Gate Restaurant Association presented their annual Saucy Awards, a would-be local food world Oscars, for the second time last night at an industry celebration in the Herbst Theater. The winners are all here, and the big night was particularly special for Mariann Costello, who was presented with the group’s Lifetime Achievement Award for her 30 year career (so far!) at Scoma’s.

Google will estimate restaurant wait times

An update to Google restaurant listings will provide potential customers an estimate of how long they might expect to wait for a table. Google data will show wait times at one million sit-down restaurants around the world, the company says. Google already provides users with a sense of how busy a location might be at certain times, as it’s done since 2015. But just when will the new wait time feature arrive? “Soon,” Google estimates.

Daniel Patterson says woke stuff

“I have succeeded for many reasons, but one of them is that I am a white man,” celebrated chef Daniel Patterson acknowledges in a Food & Wine dispatch on the state of discrimination in the restaurant industry. “As a chef and as a restaurant owner, I am representative of the patterns of gender and racial discrimination that exist in our industry in the United States.” Patterson goes on to detail the changes he’d like to see in the industry, including the possibility of collaborating across restaurants “to create equitable and just standards.”

Willi’s Wine Bar lives on

Mark and Terri Stark lost one of their businesses, Willi’s Wine Bar, to the Wine Country fires, but to help their community rebound, they’ll bring it back, offering special Willi’s menus at their five remaining restaurants through the end of the year. $2 from each item sold on the Willi’s Wine Bar menu will go to Sonoma Family Meal, which offers free meals to those in need.

Pot insurance arrives at last

The state of California has approved the first insurance provider to create insurance policies and coverage for cannabis businesses, which the industry has long and sorely lacked. Golden Bear Insurance will issue coverage immediately — but not in time for many Bay Area pot producers who lost crops and more in the North Bay fires.