Janelle Bitker

Senior Editor, Food and Wine at San Francisco Chronicle

senior editor food & wine @sfchronicle | send tips and pitches to [email protected]

Articles

Zuni Cafe is one SF restaurant that's been on every Top 100 list

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

The San Francisco Chronicle published its first Top 100 in 1996 — with each restaurant chosen at the time, then-critic Michael Bauer wrote, “because it adds something special to the dining scene.”Nearly 30 years and a few critics later, that dining scene has changed drastically, but it remains just as special. To reflect it, we have a new Top 100. And remarkably, there is only one restaurant that has made the list every year. That restaurant is Zuni Café.
Our Top 100 Bay Area restaurants list is here. What did we miss?

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

The San Francisco Chronicle released its new Top 100 restaurants list this week, and we want to know what you think. Critics MacKenzie Chung Fegan and Cesar Hernandez spent more than a year eating around the Bay Area for research. In a region with so many great options, picking only 100 restaurants can feel like a grueling process. Inevitably, some strong contenders get left behind. Did your favorite get left off the list? Tell us about it. The Chronicle will report on the results next week.
Charles Phan Legacy Award goes to SF chef Pim Techamuanvivit

1 month ago | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Beyond crowning a new class of Top 100 restaurants this week, the San Francisco Chronicle also introduced a new honor: the Charles Phan Legacy Award, intended to recognize a restaurateur for their impact on the Bay Area dining scene. Phan, the San Francisco chef behind the Slanted Door who died earlier this year, was famous for changing the way the mainstream American dining public saw Vietnamese food.
The 3 most delicious Bay Area cookbooks of the year

Dec 1, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Every fall, a glut of shiny new cookbooks hits the shelves. With hefty covers and beautiful photography, they make reliable gifts — though inevitably, some are better for coffee table display than actual kitchen use. These three new Bay Area cookbooks manage to be aesthetically pleasing objects, engaging reads, sources of inspiration and full of achievable, tasty recipes.
Daytrip, one of Bay Area's hottest restaurants, is closing

Nov 18, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Daytrip, the funky Oakland restaurant with a scene-stealing celery salad and a worker-centric ethos, is permanently closing next month. “The reality of it is that we’ve been operating a business model that we just can’t get to work, and we’ve been losing money — especially this year — at such a fast rate,” said Stella Dennig, who opened Daytrip with her husband, chef Finn Stern, in 2021. They’re planning to try a new restaurant concept in the same Temescal space next year.
A lush comfort food gets its own Bay Area restaurant

Nov 11, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

MacKenzie Chung Fegan is busy recovering from all of the fine dining she’s been eating (see her definitive guide here, and gear up for another piece next week). So here’s her editor, Janelle Bitker, who forced her to eat far more tasting menus than one human probably should. On the main boba-filled drag near UC Berkeley, there’s a new restaurant specializing in a popular homestyle Indian dish: curd rice. The setup is Chipotle-like in its customization.
What to eat and drink in Santa Cruz, a California seaside gem

Mar 27, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Elena Kadvany |Esther Mobley |Janelle Bitker

In Santa Cruz, it’s possible to roam a majestic redwood forest and watch famed surf breaks in the same day. Most visitors flock to the coastal city for its natural beauty. But Santa Cruz also boasts an energetic food and wine scene, if you know where to look. Avoid the tourist traps and instead tuck into Venezuelan arepas, Thai fried chicken and fresh ice cream laced with pink peppercorns.
Great gluten-free eating in the East Bay

Jan 14, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Here’s senior Food + Wine editor Janelle Bitker:My colleague Caleb Pershan put together an excellent guide to gluten-free eating in San Francisco last week. There was just one problem: What about the rest of the Bay Area? Well, that’s a lot of eating for one human to do! Allow me to fill in with some recommendations in Oakland and Berkeley.
Korea’s candied fruit craze has reached the Bay Area

Jan 7, 2024 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

Here’s senior Food + Wine editor Janelle Bitker:Walking through the street food markets of Seoul last year, one particular snack kept catching my eye: skewers of candied strawberries so shiny they looked like costume jewelry. The treat is known as tanghulu. Originally from Northern China, it can feature any fruit encased in a glossy shell of sugar. Its popularity exploded in South Korea last year, particularly on social media, where people eat the shiny orbs on video.
The most-read Bay Area food and wine stories of 2023

Dec 28, 2023 | sfchronicle.com | Janelle Bitker

It’s been a notoriously difficult year for Bay Area restaurants, with rising costs, widespread tech layoffs leading to fewer diners and many, many closures. That reality is reflected in the stories people read the most this year. Looking back, readers responded strongly to heartbreaking closures and challenges facing the industry — as well as some escapism.