Hayes Street Grill Finally Fires Back Up but Only Allows Fully Vaccinated Inside

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

• After a 16-month pandemic hibernation and four months after its 42nd anniversary, the legendary Hayes Street Grill is reopening. The classic seafood restaurant announced their plans on Instagram: beginning July 30, the restaurant will open Friday through Sunday for lunch and dinner, with plans to add days and hours down the road. Founder and co-owner Patty Unterman will continue to play it safe, however — the restaurant says all of its staff has been vaccinated and is asking only fully vaccinated customers dine inside, though it’s unclear if customers will have to provide proof.

• The Grubstake, Polk Gulch’s lunch wagon-style diner, has roots in the city that go back about a hundred years. Now plans to demolish the existing diner for an eight-story, mixed-use condo project, and then rebuild it, have won Planning Commission approval. Thursday’s meeting featured voices all in favor of the rebuild and restoration, reports Hoodline, which includes plans to retain the Grubstake’s facade and reopen the restaurant upon completion of construction. You can see renderings of the new building by design firm Kerman Morris here. [Hoodline]

Kerman Morris

• A pair of friends have been quietly popping up around town with some fiercely inventive tortas. Creations have included chile relleno grilled cheese with Mayan pumpkin-seed salsa and spicy pork milanesa with dates, black garlic, and mole, all served on a special version of telera bread. My Friend Fernando is a new Bay Area pop-up by Jacob Croom and baker Jaren Wilkinson, reports the SF Chronicle. They’ve held two so far, one at Neighbor Bakehouse where Wilkinson works, and another at Sister Restaurant in Oakland, with a third scheduled for August. Follow My Friend Fernando on Instagram for future dates and locations. [SF Chronicle]
• As more locales across the country announce mask advisories and other recommendations similar to those issued last week in the Bay Area, three local counties are trying to take it one step further: Contra Costa, Santa Clara, and San Francisco counties urged employers in a joint statement Thursday to require workers to get vaccinated as a condition of employment. The statement said “employers can play a critical role in increasing vaccination rates.” They “want to say public health is fully behind these type of requirements,” but, it would seem, not enough be responsible for their enforcement. [ABC 7]