Out the Door Pac Heights Closes Permanently After 11 Years of Spring Rolls and Chicken Porridge

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

• Vietnamese-California cuisine trailblazer the Slanted Door will not reopen its Pacific Heights fast-casual spinoff Out the Door, as announced on Instagram Tuesday. The Slanted Door San Ramon is open, “as of May 2021,” the post noted, but the flagship restaurant at the Ferry Building as well as the Out the Door counter at the Ferry Building have been dark for months. Further fueling fear about the future of the big-deal restaurant collection, founder Charles Phan is selling his apartment in Pacific Heights, reports the Mercury News, on the market for a cool $6.2 million.

• A resourceful new pizza kitchen is opening in the Mission District this fall, after plans for a North Beach restaurant fell through, reports the SF Chronicle. Shuggie’s Trash Pie & Natural Wine says it will make its pies with food waste, like using carrot tops for chimichurri, a local farm’s excess milk to make ricotta, and meat toppings made from proteins like pork jowl and smelt. The pair behind it, Kayla Abe and David Murphy, also own a company that pickles extra produce from farms, Ugly Pickle Co. Shuggie’s is taking over the former Velvet Cantina space at 3349 23rd Street, with seating for 48 people across the dining room and parklet. [SF Chronicle]
• In further feel-good news, Dogpatch bagel maker and creamery Daily Driver is hosting a cheesy event this Sunday, May 30, featuring some very special guests — six baby goats from its West Marin farm, Toluma Farms. “Goat Day 2021” runs from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., with beer from Magnolia Brewing, and of course wood-fired bagels, fried cheese curds, and other Daily Driver specialties. Tickets are $10 per person, with free entrance for kids under 10.
• Apparently, Los Angeles–based comedian and actor George Lopez thinks San Francisco needs ghost tacos. Lopez has teamed up with Nextbite, a virtual restaurant management company that operates ghost kitchens for celebrities like Wiz Khalifa, to create the delivery-only operation George Lopez Tacos. According to a press release, the recipes for the tacos were created by Lopez himself, including the proteins and salsas served. George Lopez Tacos will debut in San Francisco via delivery apps like UberEats and Grubhub on June 8.