Shake Shack Will Open Just Outside the Powell Street BART Station

Downtown SF’s Shake Shack will open in a shuttered grocery store

It was safe to assume that the Westfield San Francisco Centre location of Shake Shack would be in one of its two its food courts, and Hoodline has word on where exactly its crinkle-cut fries will be served. The venerable smash-style burger chain will open in the long-vacant Bristol Farms space just steps from the mall’s doors into the Powell Street BART and Muni station, they report. Shake Shack will apparently share the 30,000 space with yet another Amazon Go store, which will be the fifth SF location of the grab-and-go chain. Opening dates for either spot have yet to be revealed.

Hotels fake the food truck “experience” for tech conference attendees

The New York Times reports that organizers of conferences — many of them local tech companies — are seeking “authentic” food experiences, which apparently means food trucks. However, some conference-hosting venues don’t want to lose those sweet catering budgets, so they’re hitting the salvage yard to set up fake trucks that serve food made in hotel kitchens that servers then pass through the faux vehicle’s windows.

Some BottleRock tickets go on sale next week

Though BottleRock Napa Valley’s 2020 “music, food, wine, brew” festival isn’t scheduled to kick off until May 22-24, organizers are offering a holiday-timed ticket pre-sale that starts at 10 a.m. on December 11. Packages available to early birds begin at $349 for three-day general admission, and go all the way up to $4,350 for three days of “Platinum” access, which includes “daily signature dishes and gourmet bites” from Meadowood Estate Chef Alejandro Ayala. Those well-heeled enough to give those tickets as gifts can find them here.

Berkeley’s famous delivery robots have powered down

Kiwibot, the robot delivery service that was just written up in The New York Times for its ubiquity on UC Berkeley’s campus, sent users an email Monday with a subject line that included the skull emoji, the coffin emoji, and the ominous words “Kiwi is no more,” Berkeleyside reports. Though the email says that the company is ending service as of December 15, in a follow-up conversation, Kiwi founder Felipe Chávez told Berkeleyside that the company would be revived in Berkeley on January 21, but that “Kiwibots, as we know them, are going to change.” Puzzled face emoji, Westworld emoji, shrug emoticon.

The Chron’s pop culture critic is looking for Taco Bell’s “soul”

Apparently unwilling to admit that by 2032, all restaurants will be Taco Bell, the SF Chronicle’s Peter Hartlaub headed to Pacifica’s revamped Taco Bell Cantina, concerned that the longstanding chain restaurant had lost its apparent soul in the refresh. “What exactly is the upside to change?” Hartlaub asks of the restaurant, which is part of a nearly $15 billion company with over 7,000 locations, and is itself the subsidiary of a publicly traded company called Yum! Brands, Inc, which also owns Kentucky Fried Chicken and Pizza Hut. In other words, perhaps the soul ship sailed out of Taco Bell harbor a while ago, folks.