Why This 104-Year-Old Mission District Diner Is for Sale

The 24th Street fixture St. Francis Fountain is looking for new owners. Levon Kazarian and Peter Hood, who have owned the location for 20 years, tell SFGATE they would love to see a return of the business’ famous peanut brittle and for the new owner to “take the soda fountain thing very seriously.” The San Francisco Business Times further reports the location is available for $350,000.

A designated legacy business, St. Francis Fountain will stay open during its sale and the current owners hope there’ll be “no interruption in business.” After it opened in 1918, three generations of the Christakes family, who emigrated from Sparta, Greece, ran the soda fountain and sweets store until the family sold it in 2000, and in 2002 Kazarian and Hood took ownership. Most of the fixtures in the old-school space and on the facade date back to 1949 when the Christakes family renovated the location. “It’s been there for 100 years, maybe it will be there for another hundred years, long after we’re gone,” Kazarian told SFGATE.

Coffee gets decommodified at Burning Man

Famously (or infamously, depending on who you ask) everything is free in Black Rock City, Burning Man’s ramshackle city constructed each year in Nevada — except coffee and ice. Now, SFGATE reports, coffee will be community-sourced. This means, like wood-fire pizzas and pancakes before, coffee will be provided by festival goers themselves.

Sebastopol wine shop opens amid public controversy

Lowell Sheldon’s Georgian wine bar, Piala, will open in Sebastopol, despite former employee of Sheldon’s Jesse Hom-Dawson and a group of women filing appeals to stop the opening, The San Francisco Chronicle reports. The paper broke the initial investigation into allegations that Sheldon engaged in ongoing and pervasive sexual harassment of his employees. The wine country town’s planning commission has imposed additional restrictions on Sheldon, such as when and where he is allowed to be at Piala and a total restriction on his drinking alcohol while on site.

Vegan doughnut pop-up at Valencia coffee shop this Labor Day

Whack Donuts, owned and operated by San Francisco’s Vandor Hill, is coming to Ritual Coffee’s Valencia Street location this long weekend with horchata, matcha, and cinnamon doughnuts. First come, first served.

Pick up Claude the Claw to-go at Birdbox’s soft opening this weekend

For anyone excitedly following the happenings over at Chris Bleidorn and Aarti Shetty’s Birdbox, opening at 680 Second Street, there’s an opportunity to get your fried chicken fix ahead of the opening: the Birdbox team plans to hold a Labor Day weekend to-go pop-up featuring select items from the final menu. This upcoming Friday, Saturday, and Sunday from 11 a.m. until they’re sold out, pick up a Birdbox with either a quarter or half chicken (which comes with cornbread, hot sauce, and choice of chicken seasoning), or select one of three sandwich options, including Claude the Claw and a fried chicken breast sandwich. Customers can conveniently order through Birdbox’s platform on its website. Keep an eye on updates via Instagram, because it’s likely Birdbox will sell out.