The 2023 Eater San Francisco Holiday Gift Guide

Holiday gift-giving is all about celebrating the people you love, but in some ways, gift-buying can be a form of celebration, too. This year’s Eater SF gift guide is chock-full of local food products and restaurant merch that celebrates the San Francisco Bay Area’s vibrant dining and drinking scenes with fun gifts for the food-loving family members, partners, and friends in your life. We’ve got you covered with decadent bonbons for chocolate fans, teas sourced from Japan for connoisseurs, cookbooks for the home chef, and a T-shirt that supports a beloved San Francisco queer bar. Shout your Bay Area love out loud with these 13 gifts from across the local food and drink scene.

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Spritz kit

from Mommenpop

Aperol spritz mania may have reached its zenith, but in its citrusy wake, Americans have found a lasting appreciation for light, bubbly, and low-ABV drinks. Mommenpop, a small producer of aperitifs made with ​​organic citrus, wine, and botanicals, is here to meet that moment. The Napa-based company crams all the red fruit and baking spice flavors of fresh Moro blood oranges into its blood orange aperitif, which pairs perfectly with a bottle of the company’s sparkling rose to make an easy 1:1 spritz. This kit includes a bottle of each, enough to make a dozen four-ounce cocktails.

— Lauren Saria, Eater SF editor

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Bonbons

from Jade Chocolate

Mindy Fong opened the new location of her Grant Avenue chocolate and tea shop in March 2022, but she’s been a player in the Bay Area chocolate game for much longer than that. Her bonbons are compact packages of powerful flavors, as evidenced by offerings such as a 12-piece mixed bonbon box and peanut butter and mango jam Buddha heads. She’s got seasonal treats like pumpkin bread on rotation, and her rice paddies, inspired by the rice paddies endemic throughout Asia and Rice Krispy-style treats, are delicious. Don’t sleep on this San Francisco confectioner’s iconic treats, including the chocolate-covered ginger, fortune cookie chocolate bars, and more.

— Paolo Bicchieri, Eater SF reporter

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Assorted Teas

from Bernal Cutlery

Bernal Cutlery offers some of the sharpest knives in San Francisco, and now the business is expanding into the pantry world. Enter: the Bernal Cutlery House Line, featuring teas, condiments, and a special new donabe, all sourced directly from Japan. The powdered teas in particular will please any tea aficionado, such as the Tomo-Gaki Matcha, Uji-Hojicha, Izumo Genmaicha, and Izumo Sencha Powder — perfect for getting cozy with a cuppa during the winter season.

— Dianne de Guzman, Eater SF deputy editor

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Eater: 100 Essential Restaurant Recipes from the Authority on Where to Eat and Why It Matters

by Hillary Dixler Canavan

Eater’s first cookbook arrived earlier this fall, and as you’d expect, it’s more than just an impressive collection of recipes from star-studded restaurants including San Francisco’s Zuni Cafe, which offers up the recipe for its legendary roast chicken. There are also instructions for how to build your own seafood tower, inspiration for creating dessert-and-drink pairings, plus pantry and shopping lists to keep your larder well-stocked. It’s an essential library addition for anyone obsessed with restaurants — from institutions like La Taq and Chez Panisse to rising stars such as Oakland’s Wahepepah’s Kitchen.

— Paolo Bicchieri, Eater SF reporter

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Classic Stud Tee

from The Stud

The Stud is as iconic a San Francisco gay destination as any, and you can guarantee many in the city have spent countless nights crisscrossing between the temporarily closed club, which succumbed to its COVID-induced closure in May 2020, and nearby Oasis. The collective behind the Stud is set to reopen a few blocks away from its original home on Folsom Street, and they’re selling merch to raise funds. That includes this snug black tee with both a venue name and a confidence-boosting message on the front.

— Paolo Bicchieri, Eater SF reporter

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Rintaro: Food and Stories from a Japanese Izakaya in California

by Sylvan Mishima Brackett and Jessica Battilana

Rintaro burst onto the San Francisco food scene in 2015, earning accolades for chef Sylvan Mishima Brackett’s fresh style of Japanese cuisine. Now the restaurant is finally receiving the cookbook treatment, with Brackett and food writer Jessica Battilana sharing some of Rintaro’s finest recipes in the new Rintaro: Food and Stories from a Japanese Izakaya in California. Readers will learn how to make udon, crispy, fried tonkatsu, grilled skewers, and more, to recreate the Rintaro experience at home under Brackett’s thoughtful guidance.

— Dianne de Guzman, Eater SF deputy editor

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The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza T-shirt

from State Flour Pizza Company

Mac Barnett and Shawn Harris, the duo behind The First Cat in Space Ate Pizza graphic novel series for children, teamed up with Berkeley’s State Flour Pizza Co. for a book-appropriate (and pizza-appropriate) collaboration. Given that Barnett’s a State Flour regular, it’s perhaps not hyperbole that the t-shirt proclaims the East Bay pizza spot as “A neighborhood restaurant serving the best pizza in the universe.” Fans of the book series — and the pizza shop — will want one of their own. Thankfully, it’s available for both children ($26) and adults ($34).

— Dianne de Guzman, Eater SF deputy editor

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Napa Valley restaurant drawings

by John Donahue

Former New Yorker editor John Donohue made the leap from journalism to illustration, sketching the exterior of restaurants in New York, Paris, and London – eventually expanding into Napa establishments. This collection of Napa Valley restaurants includes wine country standards such as Model Bakery, Oakville Grocery, and Mustards Grill, plus high-end favorites like the French Laundry and Press. With every purchase of a Napa restaurant drawing, Donohue will donate 10 percent of print-sale profits to support arts education at the Napa Valley Museum Yountville.

— Dianne de Guzman, Eater SF deputy editor

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Wine tote

from Shuggie’s Trash Pie + Natural Wine

When you consider the over-the-top interior design behind Mission District restaurant Shuggie’s Trash Pie, it makes sense the restaurant would also have sick merch. Take for instance this two-bottle wine tote. It’s perfect for bringing drinks to an outdoor picnic or for lugging home a special duo of bottles to enjoy at home. Pre-orders are now open for the latest edition.

— Dianne de Guzman, Eater SF deputy editor

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Pâté Box subscription

from Maison Nico

Whether you’re a baguette-obsessed Francophile or just a fan of all things flaky and laminated, there’s no better place in San Francisco to live out your Emily in Paris fantasy than Maison Nico, the modern épicerie and café from chef and owner Nicolas Delaroque. For a taste of French indulgence at home, the cafe offers this Pâté Box subscription, which includes an array of seasonal items — thick slices of pâté en croûte, dainty jars filled with terrine de porc, an array of sweet and savory housemade accouterments — all delivered directly to your doorstep.

— Lauren Saria, Eater SF editor

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Coffee beans

from Kaveri Coffee Works

Kaveri Coffee Works, the brainchild of third-generation Indian coffee roaster Tanya Rao, makes phenomenal coffee. The Berkeley-based roaster imports only Indian beans, sourcing directly from partnerships that Rao’s cultivated throughout the country. The offerings from this East Bay business, including the Bold roast ($19) and Heritage Blend ($19), manage to be bright and fruity on everything from French press to Chemex.

— Paolo Bicchieri, Eater SF reporter

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Raging Falcon Hot Sauce

from Birdbox

Chef Chris Bleidorn might be best known for his Michelin-starred fine dining restaurant Birdsong, but he and partner Aarti Shetty also debuted their casual spot Birdbox last year. Thanks to Bleidorn’s obsession with sustainability and fermentation, the restaurant takes fried chicken to a whole new level. This Birdbox-branded hot sauce is no exception, undergoing a 6-week, double-fermentation process with fresh and dried whole peppers, spices, and shio koji. The end result? An unami-rich hot sauce that’s punchy and softly sweet, ideal for amping up the flavor on just about anything you dish up.

— Lauren Saria, Eater SF editor

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Food-themed hair accessories

from Jenny Lemons

In a world where just about anything can be cake, why not let broccoli florets, hot dogs, and crusty baguettes be hair accessories? Since 2015, San Francisco-based artist Jennie Lennick has been infusing a little whimsy and a lot of food into the accessory game with a line of hair clips and barrettes shaped like just about any food you can imagine. The line includes sprinkle-covered donuts, pungent pickles, and sweet slices of cake. In short: there’s an accessory for nearly every kind of taste.

— Lauren Saria, Eater SF editor