Food Trucks Roll Back into Downtown San Francisco Next Week

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

• After more than a yearlong hiatus, food trucks are rolling back downtown next week, scheduled to coincide with California’s official June 15 reopening. Lamas Peruvian Truck, Bacon Bacon, and Rice Bucket will be among the offerings when Off the Grid launches its food truck spots at Salesforce Tower (Tuesdays and Thursdays), Levi Plaza (Tuesday through Wednesday), as well as further south in Menlo Park (Wednesday only). Additional food trucks are set to join the rotation in the coming weeks.
• San Francisco–based chocolate company Dandelion Chocolate laid off a number of staff members and made cuts to remaining employees’ hours and pay last week, as first reported by SFist. The cuts follow a unionization effort earlier this year, with employees seeking to address pay, workers’ safety, and a failure by management to address staff concerns. Union organizers say the layoffs were targeted, claiming that all laid-off staffers were members of the organizing committee, and said they plan to file an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board. The company has responded by saying the reductions were purely economical, and that those impacted by layoffs and cuts included both union supporters and not. [SFist, SF Chronicle]
• Forthcoming fine dining restaurant Osito is finally set to make its Mission debut, reports the SF Chronicle, with tickets now on sale for October 15 through the end of 2021. Initially planned as a communal, live-fire dining experience serving 15-course tasting menus for $200, chef and owner Seth Stowaway has since scratched the communal part, and shifted the menu to 10 or so rounds of more than 20 dishes for $295. All cooking will still take place over a live fire, and the restaurant, at 2875 18th Street, will open with a separate cocktail bar serving Tex-Mex snacks. [SF Chronicle]
• The founder of Boavida Cafe is leaving the coffee shop at the end of June, citing “a necessary separation of the silent business partnership behind it” and months of negotiations. Andrea de Francisco, who previously owned Cafe St. Jorge in Bernal, first opened Boavida Cafe in the Outer Sunset in 2019, and it quickly grew into a thriving Portuguese egg tart destination. While she’s not announced next steps, de Francisco says she’s open to pursuing new ventures, including consulting for small businesses.
• Berkeley Mediterranean restaurant Lalime’s will not return in any form, reports Berkeleyside, with owners of the 35-year-old staple citing a combination of pandemic-induced losses and their desire to retire. Despite hope for new owners to take over the business, real estate investor Ito Ripsteen has bought the building and plans to renovate and replace the restaurant, albeit with one that “will honor the legacy of Lalime’s,” he told Berkeleyside. [Berkeleyside]