Well, that was quite a year. And that last sentence was quite an understatement. Walk with us for a moment as we look back fondly on the Plinko, the French maids and that time State Bird Provisions broke the Internet.
The less said about the closure of Fog City and Tosca, the better. Still a tender subject. Luckily, everyone was soon able to distract themselves from the melancholy at... Fog City and Tosca. The new versions. Then go for a nightcap at the new-old Tonga Room.
Sitting around in a bar, having a conversation: sure, great. But 2013 was all about skee-ball (Golden Gate), bocce (Stock in Trade) and board games (S+R Lounge). But it was S+R with the showstopper: a giant Plinko board. 2014: the year bars initiate the Showcase Showdown...
There were whispers that our city might’ve maxed out on brewpubs. Those whispers grew quiet(er) in a year when Cellarmaker opened. And Mikkeller. And the solar-powered Woodfour. Now it’s official. The sun shines down and it shines down on beer.
There was just something about an open flame. Something that cried out for meat. And all around San Francisco, several brave souls answered the call: Penrose happened. TBD happened. Roka Akor happened. Coqueta happened. And all around San Francisco, people rubbed their hands together and blew on them.
Sure, Twitter’s stockholders did all right with the whole IPO thing. But more important was the pork shoulder at Alta CA, the crazy machine-made Corpse Revivers at Oddjob and plenty of beer at the Beer Hall—all in the neighborhood surrounding HQ. Yeah. Their year would’ve been awful without pork shoulder.
2012: State Bird Provisions was born. 2013: it was reborn. It needed more space. It needed a raw bar. It needed... some sort of futuristic reservations system. After the reopening melted the Internet, things are smoother now. You only have to wait two months for a table.
Usually when you went out to dinner, you didn’t end up slathered in whipped cream by a French maid before the third course. Then again, usually you weren’t at Our Gourmet Life, which calls itself an erotic underground dinner. And they have French maids with whipped cream, so...
