Craving a Little Chat About Death? There’s a Bay Area Cafe for That.

There’s plenty of uncertainty in the Bay Area these days, but one thing is for sure: Death comes for us all eventually. Which doesn’t have to be as much of a bummer as you might think. Enter, the Death Cafe. It’s not a physical space, but a monthly gathering during which folks can get together, share some refreshments, and chat about the inevitable end of life. The San Francisco Standard shed a little more light on the concept, chatting with Karen Murray, an end-of-life doula who runs the Tiburon-based Bay Area Death Cafe that meets on the first Thursday of every month at Westminister Events.

According to the Standard, the cafe intends to offer an open forum for participants to talk about death, life, and mortality in general. Many attendees at a recent cafe session worked in jobs that put them in contact with the dead or dying in some capacity — think nurses, doctors, and one person who works for a suicide prevention hotline. The meeting are non-religious and not intended to serve as spaces for grief counseling or giving advice. “We should be talking about death more,” Murray tells the outlet. “[Because] when the time comes, it’s a foreign thing for us.”

Longstanding Richmond restaurant has closed, but it’ll be back

East Bay Nosh has the scoop on Mississippi Catfish, a well-loved Richmond restaurant known for its Southern-style fried fish and golden hushpuppies. The restaurant closed at its former location at 12440 San Pablo Avenue, but, according to Nosh, will reopen in El Sobrante down the line.

The beer is flowing again at this bear-friendly pub

Great news for all the Cal Bears sports fans out there: the San Francisco Business Times reports the on-campus pub the Bear’s Lair Tavern has reopened after a long, four-year hiatus. Located at 2465 Bancroft Way, the restaurant and bar is now serving lunch Tuesdays through Fridays and happy hour on Thursdays and Fridays, UC Berkeley spokesperson Adam Ratliff told the outlet.

Chef behind now-closed Palette debuts new restaurant

As Eater SF announced in February, chef Peter Hemsley closed his SoMa restaurant-slash-art-gallery Palette early this year with plans to flip the space into a totally new restaurant. Now we have details courtesy of the San Francisco Chronicle: The new restaurant is called Aphotic, a “moody new seafood restaurant” that’s putting fish into everything including dessert. The restaurant will serve an a la carte menu, plus an all-seafood 10-course tasting menu ($230). The 35-seat restaurant opens on Tuesday, March 21.

Dumpling Club now open for dine-in every Thursday

Cathay Bi moved her subscriber-based dumpling business into a spacious permanent home in the Mission earlier this year and as of Thursday, March 16, she’ll invite customers in once a week to enjoy hot dumplings on-site. The once-a-week event, which runs from 4 to 7 p.m., coincides with the Mission Farmers’ Market. Today the menu includes two options: 6-piece pork wontons served in a chicken bone broth with Chinese laver (zicai) or 8-piece Hong Kong-style shrimp and pork wontons in chili sauce and fresh herbs.