Jeanne d’Arc Serves Union Square’s ‘Strangest Meal’

The Chron’s restaurant critic had an odd meal at Jeanne d’Arc

A little more than a year ago, then-Chron staffer Jonathan Kauffman painted a glowing portrait of Restaurant Jeanne D’Arc, terming the 47-year-old French “the Frenchiest bistro in San Francisco.” After a recent visit, critic Soleil Ho is less sentimental, saying that it offers “a dose of authentic weirdness” and calls out its “tough baguettes with industrial butter” as “kind of tragic.”

Zeitgeist will temporarily close next month

Zeitgeist, a Mission District bar of debatable age well known for its outdoor seating, friendly service (jk jk), and once-challenging bathroom situation will close for 12 days next month, its management confirms to Hoodline. The January 6–18 closure will allow a seismic retrofit of the building, and will be preceded by a draft-beer-discounted “Pre-Seismic Retrofit Rager” from January 3-8.

A new Oaxacan cafe opens Wednesday in the Mission

Cafe de Olla, an Oaxacan cafe from longtime Stable staffer Francisco Camacho and co-owner Eduardo Antonio, will open inside MEDA in El Mercadito Wednesday night. Mission Local reports that the spot will get its bread from La Mejor Bakery and will serve coffee drinks — including a traditional clay pot brew made with with cinnamon, orange peels, and piloncillo — made with fair trade beans from Proyecto Diaz.

Java Joy, a coffee cart chain dedicated to hiring people with disabilities, is now in SF

ABC 7 reports that Java Joy, a Georgia-based mobile coffee cart service, launched its first cart in San Francisco Monday, working at the SF office of cloud computing company PagerDuty. The service, which specializes in private bookings and corporate events, is a Kickstarter-funded outgrowth of a non-profit focused on vocational training for people with special needs and disabilities. It’s available only in SF and Athens, Georgia — but hopes to expand to 15 cities by 2022.

Citing untenable rent, San Carlos institution Chuck’s Coffee & Donuts has abruptly shuttered

Chuck’s Coffee & Donuts has served customers from its spot on Old Country Road in San Carlos for over 30 years, but that all ended Monday. According to a Reddit post by Ben Trin, the son of Chuck’s owner Thean Khou, “skyrocketing” rent forced his mom to close the business on December 9. Khou tells KRON 4 that the once-profitable business was mortally wounded by a road construction project that “basically shut the donut shop for months at a time,” and that Khou is no longer able to pay her rent of $2,700 per month.