Castro Falafel Shop Uses NIMBY Tactics to Keep Out Competitor

Falafel warfare

An owner of Castro restaurant Gyro Xpress is using SF’s discretionary review process to stall a would-be competitor around the corner. According to libertarian news outlet Reason, Gyro Xpress has successfully delayed permitting for a new location of small chain Flying Falafel, which needs a change-of-use permit at 463 Castro, a vacant space that was previously a clothing store. According to a leader of SF’s pro-development group YIMBY, it’s an example of how anything in San Francisco can be challenged for any reason.

Singaporean-Indonesian-Californian baked goods

Chef Nora Haron is opening a brick-and-mortar home for her popular Southeast Asian baked goods, the Chronicle reports, taking over Fearless Cafe at 303 Second Street in SF. Haron, praised for her sourdough pastries as culinary operations manager at Blue Bottle, then for her Singaporean-Indonesian-Californian cuisine at Drip Line Cafe in Oakland, took over culinary operations at SF’s Local Kitchen in May, also running cafes owned by Local Kitchen’s restaurant group including SoMa’s Fearless Cafe. Meanwhile, under the pop-up moniker Fuck You Up Bakery (FYUB), Haron has introduced new pastries like pandan coconut butterscotch cookies with Maldon salt and beef rendang and Kerala chicken curry empanadas at Fearless. Now, in November, she’ll permanently place FYUB Bakery at Fearless Coffee.

Oji Ramen arrives in Japantown

A new ramen shop is up and running in Japantown, per Hoodline: It’s called Oji, and it’s posted up at 1740 Buchanan between Post and Sutter. Three broth options on a small menu are tonkotsu, tori paitan, and shio.

SF chefs on what’s missing in the local dining scene

Chicken parm sandwiches. Marmite on toast. Korean jokbal. Those are just a few of the dishes prominent local chefs wish they could find, but mostly can’t, in San Francisco. SFGate asked chefs like Jason Halverson, executive chef at Hi Neighbor Group, to share their struggle to find favorites like, in his case, banh cuon (Vietnamese rice rolls). Halverson goes to San Jose’s Lo Banh Cuon, or his grandma’s house, he says.