The Slanted Door Will Renovate, But Has No Plans to Close

Welcome to p.m. Intel, your bite-sized roundup of Bay Area food and restaurant news. Tips are always welcome, drop them here.

• Famed Vietnamese restaurant the Slanted Door is undergoing some renovations after 15 years at the same address. The news came after rumors circulated across the city that the COVID-19 crisis may have been to blame for the potential closure of the restaurant. Good news: that gossip was false. There’s no set opening date yet for the renovations, but owner Charles Phan tells The San Francisco Chronicle that he will resume business when it is safer to do so. [SF Chronicle]

• San Mateo County is the first in the Bay Area to reach the “orange” tier of COVID restrictions. This means restaurants in that county can now be at 50 percent capacity indoors. Find the most up-to-date news on where each county stands here.

• The cost of liquor licenses is up to about $145,000 in San Francisco. Prices dropped when bars and restaurants shut down during the pandemic, but they seem to be bouncing back now. Pre-pandemic, licenses cost about $250,000, but they’d dropped as low as $120,000 last year. [San Francisco Business Times]

• Oakland’s Red Bay Coffee will open a cafe in San Francisco’s Ferry Building next month. The new business will go into the former Peet’s Coffee space. Red Bay Coffee is well known for its promoting diversity and inclusion in its hiring practices. [SF Chronicle]