Remembering Dolores Cakebread, the 90-Year-Old Co-Founder of Cakebread Cellars

Welcome to p.m. Intel, your midday roundup of Bay Area food and restaurant news from publications near and far. Tips are always welcome, drop them here.

• The SF Chronicle has a glowing remembrance of Dolores Cakebread, who died on October 2 at the age of 90 after a life in the Napa Valley wine game. The co-founder of Cakebread Cellars with her husband Jack, Dolores was an influential figure across the Bay Area food and wine scene, and “always had a smile on her face and was always full of energy,” her son says. She also attracted attention this summer, when social media users threatened a boycott of the winery when she was listed as one of the wine industry’s top 20 donors to President Donald Trump. She reportedly gave $7,650 to his reelection campaign, but a winery spokesperson who spoke with the Chron “emphasized that the winery itself does not make political donations.”
• Diners will have plenty to do in the East Bay and SF in coming weeks: Eat Drink SF, the Golden Gate Restaurant Association’s 10-day celebration of dining in the city, kicks off with a full slate of in-person and virtual events next Friday, October 23. (7x7 picks out some highlights here.) Just a few days later, it’s Fruitvale Restaurant Week, which runs from October 25-November 1 with a special Día de los Muertos festival theme. The rundown is here, and the East Bay Times has a list of specials here.
• Cindy Pawlcyn, the chef behind destinations like Napa Valley’s Mustards Grill and SF’s storied Fog City Diner (among others) lost 3,800 cookbooks in the Glass Incident Fire, the SF Chronicle reports, including “first-edition cookbooks signed by Elizabeth David, Jane Grigson, Julia Child and James Beard” and “her personal notes on developing sophisticated yet homey California-style dishes for Mustards Grill, dating back to 1983.”
• Indoor dining is back in Santa Clara County, but Alameda County won’t resume the practice quite yet. That’s the word from SFist, which notes that indoor dining kicks off at 25 percent capacity in Santa Clara on Wednesday, and that Alameda County will do the same as of October 26.
• Restaurants in Calistoga are bracing for a PG&E power shut-off this week, a measure the company tells KTVU it must make to avoid wildfires. As many as 54,000 businesses and residents might be left in the dark on Wednesday and Thursday, as “extreme heat, dry conditions, and gusty winds” create the ideal conditions for another devastating blaze.
• Market Street’s Proper Hotel has launched a “permanent” outdoor dining situation called the Proper Patio, Tablehopper reports. Chef Jason Fox “has been reunited with his former team who all worked together at Commonwealth for over a decade,” and the group will serve “an all-new, Mediterranean menu” for lunch and dinner.
• A food truck that was stolen from a San Jose gas station over three weeks ago turned up in Merced County, the East Bay Times reports. The thieves remain at large, but officers with the San Jose Police Department towed the vehicle back to its owners.
• Palo Alto Weekly’s Elena Kadvany chased down the Mister Softee truck, as well as Redwood City resident Felix Tarnarider, a former tech worker who brought the beloved East Coast chain to NorCal in 2016.
• Now everyone wants a piece of Birdbox’s chicken claw. [CNN]
• Habibi, a pop-up at Russian Hill wine bar Bacchus, is only six tables deep, but manages to be “warm and welcoming.” [SF Chronicle]