This Bay Area Chef Caught Online Scammers Selling a Fake Dinner at His Restaurant

If restaurant owners didn’t already have enough on their minds, here’s yet another thing they’ll want to pay attention to: ticketed dinner event scams potentially involving their restaurants. Brokeass Stuart has the story of how chef Telmo Faria of Uma Casa discovered his restaurant was being used to advertise a fake dinner event on Eventbrite.

Using images of an event Faria threw in October, someone advertised a dinner on the ticket event site Eventbrite, charging between $22 and $62. Faria had no idea until a prospective diner reached out to him about the dinner, to inquire about a food allergy. What follows is Faria and the diner trying to work through the labyrinth of Eventbrite customer service to get the scam event taken down — spoiler, they couldn’t reach anyone, apparently — but the fake dinner wound up being taken down somehow anyway. Caveat emptor, I guess.

Sacramento hofbrau sustains major fire damage

California hofbraus are an “endangered species” and a fire at one of the elder hofbraus isn’t helping the situation. Sam’s Hof Brau in the Arden Arcade neighborhood of Sacramento has been a staple since its start in 1959. But an early morning fire on Tuesday led to major damage to the kitchen area and rear of the building, a Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District spokesman told the Sacramento Bee. The spokesman went on to tell ABC10 that the owners will face an “extensive recovery” before they can reopen. No injuries were reported and the cause of fire is under investigation.

Pizza My Heart owner heads to Washington

The President’s State of the Union is set for today, Tuesday, February 7, and among the guest attendees is Pizza My Heart owner Chuck Hammers, the Mercury News reports. Hammers is there by invite from Rep. Jimmy Panetta and will be representing the victims of those affected by storm damage in January in Santa Cruz and Monterey counties.

Chef collabs are in the air

Collabs are nothing new in the culinary world, but this spring has seen a number of fun partnerships between bars and restaurants and there’s only more to come. Chef Johnny Spero of Reverie recently turned up at Commis and Snail Bar, and Little Red Door is popping up at True Laurel on Tuesday, February 7. Now, Abaca and Nisei announced their own guest chef series. Abaca is kicking things off on March 1 with a collaboration dinner featuring Tom Cunanan of the now-closed Filipino restaurant Bad Saint in Washington, D.C. Nisei, meanwhile, is launching “Third Culture: a Nisei Collaboration Series.” In its social media announcement, Nisei states the series “will showcase the plural identities of talented chefs and provide a platform to celebrate diversity in the culinary arts.” The first event will feature chef James Parry of the Happy Crane on March 11 and 12.