Sara Deseran

California

Food Editor at The San Francisco Standard

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Articles

Everything to eat and drink this summer in San Francisco

6 days ago | sfstandard.com | Sara Deseran |Lauren Saria |Astrid Kane

The countdown has begun: There are exactly seven days until the official kickoff of summer. While San Francisco may not be known for its heat index, it is known as a city that never takes a warm day for granted. When the temps soar to 70 (which, for here, is roasting), suddenly, the best restaurant patios are full, the beaches are packed, and the parks are draped with pale humans who really should be reapplying sunscreen. So, when the fog clears and the wind dies, keep this list in hand.
Rumors of potential ICE raids at SF restaurants cause fear, anxiety

1 week ago | sfstandard.com | Lauren Saria |Kevin Truong |Sara Deseran

Want breaking Bay Area food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive Off Menu, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week. As activists took to the streets Monday to protest Immigration and Customs Enforcement deportations, rumors of impending raids quickly spread through San Francisco’s restaurant community, causing at least one high-profile spot to temporarily close and owners of others to consider doing the same.
5 most exciting new restaurants, bars, and bakeries coming to SF in June

2 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Lauren Saria |Sara Deseran |Astrid Kane

Want breaking Bay Area food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive Off Menu, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week. As the year approaches the halfway mark, San Francisco has already welcomed a slew of exciting new restaurants. In April, we saw the debut of Meski, an Afro-Latin spot from Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green, while May marked the opening of Jules, a Haight Street home for one of the city’s most popular pop-ups.
Jane the Bakery is quietly taking over more of San Francisco

2 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Sara Deseran

Want breaking Bay Area food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive Off Menu, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week. Jane the Bakery might not generate the buzz and lines of, say, Tartine or Arsicault. But since 2011, when it opened on Fillmore Street in Pacific Heights, it has been steadily producing some of the city’s highest-quality breads and pastries. And now it’s expanding to a surprising location.
The Hot List: Our favorite restaurants and bars in SF right now

2 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Lauren Saria |Sara Deseran |Astrid Kane

Want breaking Bay Area food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive Off Menu, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week. For anyone prepared to ask us, “Where should I eat tonight?” here’s our answer: the Hot List, our opinionated guide to the top restaurants and bars in San Francisco right now. Some of the picks are new and noteworthy; others are rediscovered favorites.
Beloved Mexican restaurant El Mil Amores opens second Mission location

2 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Sara Deseran

Want breaking Bay Area food news delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to receive Off Menu, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week. Two years after opening El Mil Amores, a brunch and lunch restaurant in the heart of the Mission, Andrea Becerra will launch a second location Friday. The new location of the Mexican restaurant beloved for its killer chilaquiles takes over the former Regalito Rosticeria space on 18th and Valencia.
Why chefs can't quit burgers

3 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Sara Deseran

This column originally ran in Wednesday’s Off Menu newsletter, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week. To sign up, visit the Standard’s newsletter page and select Off Menu. Happy World Hamburger Day! Yes, this is a thing, and it is today. On this fabricated holiday, it is worth asking: Is a restaurant a restaurant without a signature burger? After all, a burger — when it hits — can become the main draw, its reputation almost preceding the eatery itself.
The $375, wow-factor steak: Big, shareable slabs of meat are taking over menus - The San Francisco Standard

3 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Sara Deseran

Food costs may be more jaw-dropping than ever, but hedonism never goes out of style. The latest trend? Big, bodacious hunks of beef, lamb, and pork — slabs so big and spendy that diners have no choice but to share. At Cotogna in Jackson Square, you and your friends can dig into a 2-pound aged T-bone bistecca alla Fiorentina grilled over wood. At Morella, the Argentine-Italian restaurant in the Marina, massive braised bone-in beef short ribs give “Clan of the Cave Bear” energy.
The city's most prolific restaurant designer says SF needs to lighten up

3 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Sara Deseran

Since Hannah Collins Tate launched Roy Hospitality in 2009, the firm has designed more than 300 restaurants, the majority of them in San Francisco. It’s likely you’ve walked along the mustard-and-black mosaic floors she picked out for Delfina or gazed at the lush mural of pink poppies and chocolate calla lilies she had installed at Wildseed.
A cringey clash between a critic and a chef

4 weeks ago | sfstandard.com | Sara Deseran

This column originally ran in Wednesday’s Off Menu newsletter, where you’ll find restaurant news, gossip, tips, and hot takes every week. To sign up, visit the Standard’s newsletter page and select Off Menu. All week long, one man has been cooking rent-free in our heads: Chef Thomas Keller. On Monday morning, the San Francisco Chronicle’s lead restaurant critic, MacKenzie Chung Fegan, published a doozy of a story about how Keller (almost) kicked her out of The French Laundry.