Oakland Staff of Modern Times Beer Go on Strike Following Sexual Harassment Allegations

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• The staff at Oakland’s Modern Times Beer have announced that they are on strike, seemingly, after an Instagram account sharing stories of sexism and racism in the craft brewing industry — that included Modern Times — gained traction this week. Via a collective statement posted to Instagram Tuesday, the Oakland staff says they have “watched with disappointment and embarrassment as the stories of sexual harassment within our company and industry were published by Brienne Allan. We will not be pouring beer in Oakland until we feel that company leadership acts in a way that aligns with our personal values of inclusion and equality, and that appropriate actions and measures are put in place to prevent further discrimination and harassment.” Not long after the staff’s post, Modern Times’s founder and CEO, Jacob McKean, announced he was stepping down from the company. The brewery, which started in San Diego, has expanded all throughout California in the last few years, opening an Oakland location in 2019. Stay tuned for more details.

• Santa Clara can advance to California’s yellow tier, joining two other Bay Area counties, San Francisco and San Mateo, in the state’s least-restrictive stage of reopening. California Department of Public Health officials gave Santa Clara the go-ahead on Tuesday, May 18, allowing for the return of indoor drinking at bars at 25 percent capacity, regardless of whether or not they serve food. Four other counties statewide — Santa Cruz, Orange, Amador, and Inyo — are also able to enter the yellow tier as of this week. The state’s tiered system is set to be retired on June 15, at which point most pandemic-related capacity and gathering restrictions will end, along with the statewide mask mandate. [Mercury News]
• The statuses of at least two iconic Fisherman’s Wharf restaurants are in question following a discovery by Broke Ass Stuart that they are listed as closed on various apps. Castagnola’s, Tarantino’s, and Pompei’s Grotto, which have a combined 255 years of being open in San Francisco, are listed as permanently closed on OpenTable and Yelp, and Castagnola’s and Tarantino’s are identified as permanently closed on their Google business pages — Pompei’s Grotto is not, however, and the SF Chronicle has since confirmed that Pompei’s Grotto does plan to reopen next month. The Port of San Francisco still has active leases in place for Castagnola’s and Tarantino’s, according to the SF Chronicle, but both appear boarded up with phone lines disconnected. The restaurants have not responded to Eater’s requests for comment. [Broke Ass Stuart]
• DoorDash has leased a building in downtown San Jose for a DashMart store, DashMart being the company’s recently launched delivery service for “household essentials and local restaurant favorites.” The San Francisco–based company says the service offers grocery and restaurant items from the stores, that are owned, operated, and “curated” by DoorDash (it’s unclear if it’s all housed under the same roof). The DashMart site is located at 431 S. First St. in San Jose’s SoFa neighborhood. [Mercury News]
• The San Francisco Department of Public Health has administered more than one million vaccine doses to residents as of Wednesday, May 19. The Bay Area has among the best COVID-19 vaccination rates in the United States, the highest percentage of vaccinated residents in California, and among the lowest hospitalization rates, according to a Mercury News analysis.