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4 days ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
Pulled to the stage atop a giant fiberglass bison covered with disco mirrorball tiles and holding a rainbow Pride flag, “Cowboy Carter Jesus” delivered a brief barn-burner of a sermon and won this year’s Hunky Jesus competition by one of the most lopsided margins in memory.
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5 days ago | 
sfstandard.com | Lauren Saria |Astrid Kane |Sara Deseran
San Francisco’s newest park may have split the city before it debuted, but now that Sunset Dunes is open for strolling and skating, even haters can’t resist the allure. The beachfront stretch of what used to be the Great Highway now has a giant octopus, a skateboard track and bike ramp, colorful murals, and stadium-style benches — which is to say, plenty to explore beyond the beach and attractions at nearby Golden Gate Park. What it doesn’t have is on-site food and drink.
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1 week ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
Bar Next Door is a spinoff of Columbus Cafe, but the two couldn’t look and feel more different. A boozy block in one of San Francisco’s biggest nightlife neighborhoods just got another spot for cocktails, beer, arcade games, and one decidedly unusual amenity: an in-house taqueria. Bar Next Door opened Wednesday on lively Green Street in North Beach, adjacent to Columbus Cafe, to which its name refers. The connection goes deep.
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1 week ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
By Astrid KanePublished Apr. 16, 2025 • 10:30amSan Francisco turned 175 years old Tuesday. And what better way to celebrate than by shooting some rainbow lasers at City Hall? Illuminate — the plucky nonprofit behind the Bay Lights, JFK Promenade’s car-free Golden Mile, and a series of rainbow laser cannons projected down Market Street and onto prominent local landmarks — debuted its latest effort just after sunset from UN Plaza.
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1 week ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
The competition was stiff — very stiff. A couple hundred people gathered at the Eagle Tavern on Saturday afternoon for the annual Golden Dildeaux awards, a ceremony acknowledging the city’s kinkiest kinksters hosted by San Francisco’s Leather and LGBTQ+ Cultural District.
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1 week ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
Ghazi Shami’s $800 Prada sneakers softened his footfalls through the main hall of 1 Montgomery St., formerly home to Crocker National Bank. Ghazi — who uses only his first name professionally, as the head of record label Empire — was just 5 when his mother brought him to a Crocker National branch to make some deposits, and a kind teller gave him a stuffed dog — a “Crocker spaniel.” He slept with it for years.
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1 week ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
International Smoke debuts a menu of four over-the-top dessert cocktails. But who are they for, exactly? Welcome to Swig City, highlighting can’t-miss cocktails at the best bars, restaurants and clubs in the city. Any time a restaurant server puts a torch to my food, be it tuna belly or marshmallows, I have to resist the childlike urge to squeal and clap. Which is exactly what happened last week at International Smoke when a server whipped out the blue-jet flames and set my drink alight.
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1 week ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
Why does Assemblymember Matt Haney think he can succeed where many others have failed? For more than a decade, the dream of extending California’s 2 a.m. last call for bars and nightclubs has been a legislative white whale, with state Sen. Scott Wiener and former state Sen. Mark Leno mounting at least five efforts, only to fail every time. That dismal track record isn’t stopping San Francisco Assemblymember Matt Haney from filing AB 342 this week.
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1 week ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
By Astrid KanePublished Apr. 11, 2025 • 11:25amTo customize the perfect drink, the touchscreen at the Torani Flavor Factory pop-up in North Beach peppered me with questions. Do I prefer coffee or bubbly water? What’s my preferred sweetness level? My favorite season? Behind the machine, a conveyor belt with gaudy fake desserts under glass domes was running slowly. I went for maximum wackiness, to see if it could come up with something borderline insane out of the company’s 150 or so flavors.
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2 weeks ago | 
sfstandard.com | Astrid Kane
By Astrid KanePublished Apr. 09, 2025 • 2:15pmSorry, “Parky McParkface.” It just wasn’t your time. At a special commission meeting of the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission held Tuesday afternoon, officials selected from a list of five finalists to rename the Great Highway, now a permanent park after voters chose to close it to traffic. The former roadway will be known as Sunset Dunes (not Sunset Dunes Park). The other finalists were Fog Line, Great Parkway, Playland Parkway, and Plover Parkway.
