Try These Places Before They Heat Up

To be cool in San Francisco requires more than forgetting to wear a sweater in the fog, it takes dedication to finding the newest places beloved by local hipsters, foodies and seriously stylish drinkers.  Alas, that is more than BADSF can manage  on it's own.

Luckily, Thrillest has made the determination of which are the newest, coolest places to imbibe and eat in the San Francisco Bay area.  The Thrillest folks are too cool to name a top 50, so here is a link to the Thrillest list for the Top 47 coolest eating and drinking establishments right now.

Restaurant Round Up for SF, North, South and East Plus the Lastest in Dine About and Restaurant Week Info for SF, Oakland

Here's an excellent resource for dining in the Bay area (San Francisco, East Bay, North Bay and South Bay) from KQED FM, a local NPR affiliate.

Click on this link for the audio of a recent program featuring local food critics and authorities discussing their restaurant recommendations and a list of those restaurants (with a Google map).

The only flaw is that the list of restos doesn't have links so you'll have to seek those out yourself (sorry).

And while we are on the subject of Bay area restaurants, Dine About in San Francisco is up and running (January 15-31).  Special deals on special meals!   Follow the links for more info and a list of participating restaurants and on-line reservation resource.

Oakland's Restaurant Week gets started tomorrow, January 18, and goes to January 27. Check the site for full list, deals and reservation info.  Since Oakland's resturants don't get the coverage SF's do, I thought I'd highlight some of the participating Oakland restaurants I've tried and can recommend.

Amba
Bay Wolf
Bocanova
Camino
Disco Volante
Flora
Italian Colors
Yoshi's

I've written about a meal at Yoshi's sometime ago, you can see that here.

Several of the Oakland restos are near BART stations.
For transit directions to all the Bay area restaurants, please go to the 511.org trip planner.

North Beach -- From Murals to Eats

North Beach was the first neighborhood I lived in when I first moved to San Francisco.  Here's some contemporary neighborhood highlights from VIA magazine.