The Bay Area’s Bagel Bonanza Has Finally Spread to Wine Country

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

• Napa’s bagel scarcity has now been remedied, thanks to the duo behind Winston’s Cafe and Paulie’s Bagels. Partners Paul Brown and Alex Macaraig will open a bagel shop and cafe serving diner-style food in the former home of Alexis Baking Co. in downtown Napa. They want to provide something for locals outside of the continued influx of high-dollar tourist destinations. Brown’s bagels are kind of their own thing, avoiding the inevitable pitfalls of trying to recreate an NYC bagel in Wine Country with a brown, “pretzilized” exterior. The cafe opens in September; order delivery all the way from Napa to Calistoga on Fridays and Saturdays til then. Learn more here. [SF Chronicle]
• Alice Waters, Slow Food icon and queen of Chez Panisse, gave an interview to the New York Times Magazine. Those familiar with Waters’ ethos won’t find a lot of surprises in the interview, but it’s a refresh on the chef’s strict dedication to organic and whole foods, and why she doesn’t consider those to be luxury foods. It also includes a vignette in which daughter Fanny tries to sneak some non-organic blueberries past her mother’s scrupulous tastebuds. (She didn’t get away with it.) [NYT Magazine]
• A new bar has opened in Silicon Valley’s And hotel in Mountain View, with a Michelin-pedigreed chef at the helm. Jarad Ghallagher, former executive chef of Chez TJ, will provide the food at the Emerald Hour, which opened Monday, May 17. It’s the first in a series of concepts within the hotel, which will open over the next few months: Carte Blanch, a coffee shop; a casual Spanish restaurant called Broma; and a fine dining spot called Belle Terra. Belle Terra will offer a la carte and tasting menus, giving powerful tech execs the option of snacking, or just eating everything, before heading into the restaurant’s own separate bar, Parlor. That’s a lot to digest, so stay tuned as the various concepts open. [SF Chronicle]
• The DNA Lounge is busting back open on June 19th with a major double-header. There’ll be live shows from Hubba Hubba Revue and Bootie Mashup, unless something goes haywire with the state’s plans to full reopen by June 15. Grab a ticket and keep your vaccinated fingers crossed for this one. [Brokeass Stewart]