Charles Phan Will Open a New Slanted Door Restaurant in San Ramon

A new Slanted Door will open at City Center Bishop Ranch

Restaurateur Charles Phan is joining the lineup of businesses headed to City Center Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, opening a new branch of his 1995-founded Vietnamese restaurant The Slanted Door, which grew from the Mission to prime real estate inside the Ferry Building. At the new location, Phan will take on a 7,500-square-foot space, a “glass box” inside the Renzo Piano-designed building. The interiors are being designed by Lundberg Design, with an open kitchen in view of diners and a large patio space. Also onboard the San Ramon project; Boba guys, Fieldwork Brewing Company, and Roam Artisan Burgers. The City Center Bishop Ranch is scheduled to open — with a movie theater and Equinox location — this fall.

Katianna Hong is a Food & Wine Best New Chef

Chef Katianna Hong of The Charter Oak, The Restaurant at Meadowood’s newer, more casual sibling in St. Helena, is one of Food & Wine’s Best New Chefs for 2018. “At The Charter Oak, Hong draws from the same well of gorgeous Napa-grown ingredients she had access to at Meadowood, but 
the results here feel limber and spontaneous,” Food & Wine declares. “Hong spent years winding 
her spool of experience at Meadowood. But at The Charter Oak, she lets it fly.”

Black Cat’s jazzed up lobby bar menu

Tenderloin jazz club and restaurant Black Cat recently updated its downstairs food and drink menu under new executive creative chef and culinary consultant Tu David Phu. Now, the swanky establishment is re-upping its game upstairs, too, with a new drinks menu at its lobby bar. Those come from new cocktail director Chris Amirault, a celebrated LA bartender at Otium, The menu itself resembles a passport, and features nine drinks that take tipplers on a tour of great jazz destinations from Paris to Havana. It’s equal parts jazz history and cocktail tradition with a dash of improvisation.

Likha opens inside Emeryville’s Hometown Heroes Sports Bar

Filipino pop-up Likha — the Tagalog word for “to create” — is open at 4000 Adeline Street, nestled within Hometown Heroes Sports Bar, recently opened there from bar owner BJ Tilos (Trademark & Copyright, Hometown Heroes South San Francisco). Likha, which has made the pop-up rounds before settling in more permanently in Emeryville, comes from chefs Bobby Punla and Jan Dela Paz, who met while cooking at Ramen Shop in Rockridge.

4505 Burgers & BBQ

4505’s chicharron-crusted fried chicken sandwich returns

A popular past item at 4505 Burgers & BBQ, dubbed the Fried Chicken Yum Yum sandwich, is back in the rotation, available just for delivery in the East Bay on Caviar, Postmates, UberEats, Doordash, and Grubhub. It’s served on a soft potato roll and topped with homemade pickles and mayo, and East Bay customers can order it starting today as they await their own permanent 4505 branch.