Santa Con Partiers Trash SF Pakistani Restaurant

More reasons to hate Santa Con

Two belligerent Santa Con revelers trashed popular Pakistani restaurant Shalimar over the weekend. A video that circulated on Twitter shows one woman smashing Shalimar’s glass door with a chair and another hurling a jar at an employee at the Polk Street location. According to a CBS interview with an employee, the chaos stemmed from a disagreement over an unpaid tab. The SF Chronicle also confirmed the scene with an employee, who said Shalimar had been dealing with drunk Santas all day, including 15 people who hadn’t ordered food but were occupying tables. The San Francisco Police Department is doing a full investigation.

Fondue will live on

San Francisco’s only Swiss restaurant, the Matterhorn Swiss Restaurant, closed in September after 24 years in business. But a new Swiss restaurant is already set to take its place at 2323 Van Ness Ave. There’s no name yet and menu details are scarce, but it comes from the owners of Berner Rosen Baking, a farmers market stand serving Swiss-inspired treats. The new restaurant, which will open sometime in 2019, will serve Swiss baked goods as well as fondue — thank goodness.

A few more days to say goodbye

Castro cafe Hearth will close Sunday, December 16 after four years in business. The cafe at 3985 17th Street roasts its own organic coffee, bakes its own pastries, and serves beer and wine. A Craigslist post briefly explains that the owner needs to sell Hearth due to family reasons.

Purple noodles for the ‘gram

The Inner Sunset has a new Chinese restaurant, Zhuo Kitchen, which has landed in the former Meshi Sushi space at 1380 9th Avenue. The creative menu features a number of grilled skewers, small plates, chow mein, and fried rice, including black truffle fried rice with foie gras. The chow mein highlights fresh, colorful noodles made in house dyed naturally with purple cabbage, spinach, squid ink, beet, and turmeric.

All the mango treats

Over in the Inner Richmond, there’s a new Hong Kong-style cafe, Sweet Mango Dessert Cafe at 5217 Geary Boulevard. Taking over Creations Dessert House, Sweet Mango serves a lot of the same sweets but emphasizes the mango in its name: mango mochi, glutinous rice balls in mango juice, mango pudding, and more. The cafe also offers a slew of typical Hong Kong cha chaan teng dishes, like instant noodles, sandwiches, and baked rice — until as late as 2 a.m.

Gather over a glass or two

Wine bar Bottle Shop is now open at 2627 Broadway in downtown Redwood City. From the same owner as Redwood City cafe Kristi Marie’s, the new bar specializes in hard-to-find, small-batch California wines.

New Thai in Oakland

Indian spot Shalimar Garden closed in Oakland after less than a year. The space at 3814 Piedmont Avenue has quickly been transformed into Thai Taste Kitchen, serving Thai street food staples like khao soi (curry noodles), khao mun gai (poached chicken with rice), and ba mee moo dang (barbecue pork with egg noodles).