The Eater Wrap: Gatekeepers, Black Saturday and Yelp Under the Microscope
20 February 2009
Welcome to our exciting new partnership with Eater. For this weekly Friday column, Eater editor Paolo Lucchesi gives his opinionated report on all the restaurant news that's fit to print, including and a little something dubbed Black Saturday.
1) What's it like being a GM at one of the busiest restaurants in the Mission? Just ask Bar Tartine's Xelina Leyba, today's subject of a little feature Eater likes to call The Gatekeepers.
2) Last weekend marked Valentine's Day, or as it was quickly dubbed this year thanks to its notorious dining out reputation, Black Saturday. The most egregious incident of the evening is alleged to have went down at Hyde Street Seafood House, where a diner claimed the restaurant actually served triscuits as part of a smoked salmon dish. Yes, triscuits.
3) Weird Fish quickly became a favorite in the Mission when opened a few years ago, and now it is just about ready to open its spinoff next door. The Corner is a wine bar/nightlife spot on—you guessed it—the corner of Mission and 18th; if all goes to plan, it should debut in the first week of March. Get excited!
4) Just a pair of major(ish) openings to report from the last week or so. First up, Fulton Street's Tsunami debuted its second location, this time a block from the ballpark in Mission Bay. Just up the road, The Creamery added its name to the city's long list of coffeehouses.
5) On the other side of the coin, after a rash of closures early in the year struck fear in the hearts of restaurateurs across the city, the shutters have slowed down, for now (knock on wood). Nonetheless, this week, the FiDi's Medicine Eatstation officially went to restaurant heaven.
6) The award for comeback chef of the week goes to Michael "The NapaStylist" Chiarello, who keeps winning over the critics at Bottega. The latest: three stars from the Chron.
7) Meanwhile, Yelp continues to come under media scrutiny for a veritable cornucopia of alleged misdeeds, with the latest investigation being a lengthy piece in the East Bay Express called "Yelp and the Business of Extortion 2.0." The article set off a flurry of reactions around the country, but none more aggressive than that of Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, who made it his personal mission to try to refute the article to every single person on Twitter. A valiant effort to protect his company, perhaps, but the campaign has led some to suggest Shakespeare said it best: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks."