• First Lady Michelle Obama brought her message of volunteerism and home-grown vegetables to Bret Harte Elementary School, where produce grown on-site will soon be sold at farmers' markets. [SF Chronicle] • Perhaps restaurants should provide little disposable flashlights with...
• SalmonAid drew hundreds of people to Jack London Square to learn about conserving and rebuilding the West Coast's decimated Salmon fisheries. [Oakland Tribune] • Francis Ford Coppola has included a picture of one of his vineyard's wines in an...
• The Parkway and Cerrito movie theaters, once siblings who served pizza and beer, will soon reopen as competitors. Fortunately they will continue to serve food and booze. [SF Chronicle] • El Bulli chef Ferran Adria's new beer is light...
• Women learn to cook with fire at Live Fire Boot Camps with Mary Karlin, founder of Sonoma's Ramekins Culinary School. [CoCo Times] • Six men have been charged in Marin County with last year's slaying of Bernal Heights grocer...
• The vendors in danger of losing their spots at the Alemany Farmers Market will get to stay after all. [Eater SF] • Recession-minded parents can take their kids to eat free at Oakland's Sadiedey's Cafe, Hobee's, and Chevy's. [Frisco...
• Bill and Nicolette Hahn Niman takes a look at the why and how of the swine flu H1N1 virus, and the Smithfield Foods facility in Vera Cruz, where it seems to have originated. [The Atlantic] • As cocktails get...
• The city wants to lure locals back to Fisherman's Wharf by, among other things, encouraging sidewalk dining. [SF Examiner] • The Night Owl seeks out the best ice in Oakland. Spoiler: "Ice connoisseurs" go to Flora. [Oakland Tribune] •...
• Michael Bauer asks around and discovers that a lot of restaurants don't take reservations because the practice incurs extra costs and can actually reduce the amount of seatings per night in a small restaurant. [SF Gate] • San Francisco's...
• The Silvercrest Donut Shop keeps it cozy on Bayshore Boulevard. It's an old-timey 24-hour joint with a bar for good measure. [SF Chronicle] • Napa Valley restaurant accoutrements are finding their way into the Williams Sonoma catalog. [Between Meals/SF...
• SF supervisors are considering charging a city fee for each bottle of alcohol sold, starting at $.05 for a bottle of beer and going up from there. [SF Examiner] • Michael Bauer agrees with a Between Meals reader that...
• West Oakland, where residents have long had to travel out of the neighborhood for produce or shop for food at tiny convenience stores, finally has a legitimate grocery store in Mandela Foods Cooperative [Oakland Tribune via East Bay Express]...
• Michael Bauer took Serious Eats founder Ed Levine to Gialina Pizzeria, which he claimed was the best pizza joint in town. Fortunately for the B-man's reputation, it performed. [SF Gate] • A court dismissed a woman's complaint that Cap'n...
• The so-called "gross-food movement" has roots in San Francisco, like the bacone, created for bacon camp. [Gourmet] • Local scribe Pim Techamuanvivit, of Chez Pim is endorsing Rachel's Yogurt and Cottage Cheese. [The Food Section] • The deadline is...
• Top management and staff at BART spent $27,000 on take-out food and catering over the past year, among other expenses at places like the Apple store and REI. [SF Chronicle] • San Francisco's Speakeasy brewery has a relatively new...
• An Oakland beekeeper makes a unique living not just selling honey, but capturing rogue swarms of bees to add to his production line. [SF Gate] • The city's hodgepodge of signs can lead to funny juxtapositions, like Nob Hill's...
People love comfort food — and bourbon — in tough times. Restaurants like Pican and farmerbrown are flourishing right now. [Between Meals/SF Gate] • The Night Owl discovers that some Alameda County restaurants have health violations, but most are pretty...
• Despite the proliferation of places like Blue Bottle and Stumptown, the coffee in a lot of Bay Area restaurants still leaves something to be desired. Perhaps it's time for a coffee sommelier. [The Shot] • Going vegan can be...
• Chris Cosentino impressed crowds and critics with his butchery and offal cooking demonstration at the National Restaurant Association show in Chicago last week. [Chicago Sun Times] • A man robbed a McDonald's employee in western Santa Rosa as she...
• A locally made indie film about coffee vendors will screen not at film festivals, but at local cafes. [CoCo Times] • Motivated by both money and health concerns, more and more city residents are planting backyard food gardens. [SF...
• One way to spend this long weekend is to go cherry picking at some of the East Bay's bursting-at-the-seams orchards, many of which let people come in and harvest their own. [CoCo Times] • Nate Appleman calls his cooking...