Long-shuttered cafe inside S.F. City Hall reopening next year. Here's who's taking over - San Francisco Chronicle

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Customers enjoy the Assembly Cafe in front of City Hall at Civic Center Plaza on Dec. 11. It’s one of the external venues city staffers enjoy since the pandemic closure of the cafe inside City Hall.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Anyone who worked inside City Hall before the pandemic remembers the old cafe in the building’s basement. 

It was no Michelin-starred restaurant or hipster coffee shop. But for staffers who remember it fondly, it was an egalitarian space where a community activist looking for a Cobb salad could rub shoulders with a city supervisor buying every hard-boiled egg in the place. 

It was a de facto staff lounge, an impromptu conference room, a veritable oasis for insiders trying to escape ringing phones and angry emails. More than anything, it was convenient. 

These days, Emma Heiken, aide to Supervisor Myrna Melgar, finds herself walking down the steps of City Hall past vast plazas hunting for something to eat or a cup of coffee.

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Board of Supervisors staff members enjoy lunch on Dec. 11 at Rad Radish, a vegan restaurant two blocks from City Hall.

Lea Suzuki/The Chronicle

Heiken knows all too well how the inconvenience can turn into outright frustration, especially when hurrying back for a meeting carrying a coffee that’s just a little too full. 

“I’ve spilled it all over myself before,” Heiken said.  

Soon, Heiken and anyone else visiting or working at City Hall won’t have to risk spilled coffee: A group of five Bayview businesses is cooking up a plan — still awaiting formal approval — to revive the empty cafe space. And they have big plans to turn it into the top-notch eatery called Cafe Mélange.

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The cafe group is made up of a collective of businesses on Third Street in the Bayview: Gumbo Social, Talio’s, Yes Pudding, Radio Africa, and one of Mayor London Breed’s favorites, Yvonne’s Southern Sweets. It’ll be a mix of all five flavors — a melange.

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Dontaye Ball, owner of Gumbo Social, prepares a sausage po’boy sandwich in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco on Thursday. The restaurant is part of a collective of five Bayview-based businesses looking to revive the vacant cafe space inside City Hall.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

“We are thrilled to work in partnership with this talented Bayview chef collective of Cafe Melange,” said Majeid Crawford, executive director with New Community Leadership Foundation, which is coordinating the cafe’s opening. “Our shared vision is for the cafe to be that ‘third space’ — a welcoming, familiar spot to connect, enjoy some delicious food, or grab coffee or a quick snack and refuel.”  

NCLF has spent the past few weeks getting the space ready, including testing menu items at popups. There are also tentative plans to beautify the dining room space. 

Dontaye Ball, head chef at Gumbo Social, said “it’s an honor” to have the opportunity to reopen the space, and that he looks forward to supervisors and others coming together to enjoy the Bayview’s best.  

Dontaye Ball, owner of Gumbo Social, adds shrimp-infused butter to a pan of blue crab meat. The restaurant is part of a collective of five Bayview-based businesses looking to revive the vacant cafe space inside City Hall.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

“We’ve all been very fortunate to have our current mayor try our food,” Ball said of Breed. “It means a lot, and it also means a lot for us to be able to serve the civil servants, the engine of our great city.”

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Quanisha Johnson, the small-batch baker behind Yes Pudding, said she’ll never forget how much she wanted Breed to taste her food. 

“I remember earlier on doing events when I was hoping the mayor would come to my table and try some pudding,” Johnson said. “It’s going to be an amazing opportunity to give her that every day, if she wants, in City Hall.”

Yvonne Haines, who runs Yvonne’s Southern Sweets, said she couldn’t stop hearing from excited staffers during her popup event at City Hall last week. 

Yvonne Hines, owner of Yvonne’s Southern Sweets, packages brownies at her shop in the Bayview neighborhood of San Francisco on Thursday. Hines is part of a collective of five Bayview-based businesses looking to revive the vacant cafe space inside City Hall.

Stephen Lam/The Chronicle

But officials aren’t ready to confirm just yet: In a statement to the Chronicle, the city says it is still going through the process. 

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Claudia Gorham, deputy managing director for the real estate division, said the city “issued an intent to award” for the cafe space and is in “confidential negotiations” with the winning respondent. The lease will be subject to Board of Supervisors approval. 

“We hope to submit it to the Board early next year,” she said. 

Crawford said it means a lot to the African American community to share its rich cultural heritage at City Hall. 

“We look forward to bringing our unique ‘mélange’ of flavors, specialty dishes, gourmet coffee and more — from Bayview Third Street Corridor to the hallowed steps of City Hall,” Crawford said.

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The Cats' Pyjamas, a cat cafe, will open in downtown Springfield - The State Journal-Register

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Somedays a pick-me-up requires more than just a coffee and pastry. One soon-to-open downtown eatery is suggesting a side order of purr.

The Cats' Pyjamas – Springfield’s first cat cafe – is poised to open at 413 E. Adams St. serving up feline companionship and antics along with the grab-and-go selections on the menu.

Husband-wife team Tom Raymond and Samantha Enz are behind the new eatery that is projected to open in downtown Springfield in January.

The Cats’ Pyjamas is partnering with other local food establishments to stock the menu selections and with the local Animal Protective League for the live entertainment. Felines featured at The Cats’ Pyjamas are available for adoption through the not-for-profit APL.

While the business model is new to the Capital City, the concept has been the cat’s meow overseas for decades.

The first cat cafe – Cat Flower Garden – opened in Taipei, Taiwan in 1998. But this kitty craze took off after migrating in the early 2000s to Japan where leases in urban areas frequently restrict pet ownership. These cafes are often themed: black cats, fat cats, cats with pedigrees. Today, there are more than 400 cat cafes throughout Asia.

The business concept evolved when it arrived in Europe a decade later with cat cafes pairing up with animal shelters and also featuring adoption services. Arguably the most famous is Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium in London, which has been booked since opening in 2014.

That same year Cattown – the first cat cafe to mark territory in the United States – opened in Oakland, Calif.

Lately, cat cafes have pounced in central Illinois with River Kitty Cafe opening in Peoria in May and The Cat's Meow Cafe following on its tail with a September opening.

Cafe opens

A second Sgt. Pepper's Cafe opened this week at 700 W. Jefferson St. with all the comfort food favorites the original is known for, as well as a full coffee bar.

Muhammad Samara, son of Sgt. Pepper’s Cafe founders Ziyad and Souad Samara, owns the new cafe, located in the former Ritz's site.

The menu features the familiar breakfast-all-day service, as well as thick burgers, horseshoes, sandwiches, soups, and salads. The coffee bar will have a variety of caffeinated drinks ranging from mochas to cappuccinos.

Phone: (217) 717-9600. Hours for the Jefferson Street location are 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. (The cafe at 3141 Baker Drive in Park South is open from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. daily.)

Sgt. Pepper’s Cafe has operated from a handful of locations since the Samaras opened the original at 3115 Chatham Road in 1999. The Park South cafe opened in 2002.

And to avoid confusion, the annual free Christmas Day meal is at the Baker Drive location.

Saying goodbye after 40 years

Farewell to the McDonald's at 901 North Grand Ave. E., which will close on Dec. 30 after four decades of serving up the Golden Arches’ signature burgers and french fries.

A spokesperson for franchise owner/operator Mary Breznay confirmed the closing date but said no other information would be made public.

More:Where can you have a nice meal to bid adieu to 2023 and welcome 2024? Check out this list

The Peoria-based franchise declined to specify why the fast food chain was closing when the announcement was made last month. However, the news came after the Springfield City Council discussed plans to purchase the property for the rail project.

The fast food chain at the South Grand Avenue address was the eighth and final McDonald’s opened by Springfield’s original McDonald’s franchise operator John Mack. Mack opened the first McDonald’s in Springfield in 1957 at 2849 S. Sixth St. after being approached by McDonald’s Restaurant Inc. chairman Ray Kroc about bringing the new brand to Springfield.

The Mack family was the sole McDonald’s operator in Springfield from 1957 to 1989 when they sold the franchise to Rick McGraw. Today, the dozen McDonald’s operating throughout Springfield are carved up among three franchise operators.

Breznay also owns two other Springfield McDonald’s at 501 South Grand Ave. E. and 4301 Wabash Ave.

Wild game dinner

Luminary Kitchen & Provisions is taking reservations for its annual wild game dinner on Jan. 6.

The menu features foie gras cannoli, duck carpaccio, wild boar dumplings, rabbit saddle, venison tonkatsu, and salted honey pie with creme brulee ice cream for dessert. Cost is $85 a person.

Reservations can be placed by calling (217) 679-1819 or emailing theluminarychefs@gmail.com. The dinner begins at 5:30 p.m. at the 3121 Hedley Road restaurant.

Taking a break

The A la Carte column will be on hiatus for the next two weeks, returning to sj-r.com on Jan. 4.

The A La Carte column highlights restaurant openings, closings, renovations, and relocations, as well as personnel changes and business news. Natalie Morris can be reached at (217) 737-7254 or by email at natalie.sjr@gmail.com.

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Dos Hermanos’ huge new bakery has a cafe, Mexican pastries and chopped sandwiches from a noted Portland chef - OregonLive

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Dos Hermanos is leveling up.

The busy bakery from Yucatán-born brothers Gabriel and Josue Azcorra will debut a new Southeast Portland facility with its own grain silo and retail cafe starting Friday, December 22.

Anchoring a ChefStable-backed complex also home to Lil’ America food cart pod, Fracture Brewing’s taproom and seafood raw bar Cache Cache, the new bakery is quadruple the size of the North Portland original.

In addition to fresh-baked bread, the bakery’s upcoming cafe will highlight Yucatecan pastries, Mexican coffee from Portland’s Tostado roasters and a new lineup of chopped sandwiches from Lardo chef Rick Gencarelli.

“Having this bigger space allows us to work on our Mexican pastries, empanadas, conchas, cuernitos, hojaldras, and to incorporate more flavors from our Mexican roots into our regular stuff, like danishes, croissants, but incorporating more flavors from our Mexican roots” said Josue Azcorra.

The cafe — with ample light from south- and west-facing windows — also features a tall mural of Chichén Itzá, the historic Mayan city 90 minutes east of Mérida, where the brothers were born.

Visit Friday, and you might find five Azcorra brothers, plus mom and dad, among some 64 employees mixing, proofing, baking and packaging an impressive amount of bread.

Since firing up the new ovens in October, the brothers and their team have been making around 18,000 sandwich-sized loaves of ciabatta alone each week, putting Dos Hermanos on par with larger bakeries such as Grand Central and Portland French.

They’re also producing a special 16-inch roll exclusively for a new lineup of chopped sandwiches from Gencarelli. Those include the Beast Master, with roast beef and horseradish; the Papa Gabe, with ham, queso fresco and chicharrones; and the Bad Bing, with Italian cold cuts, mayo, mustard, red wine vinaigrette and olive oil all chopped to order and stuffed into those fluffy rolls. Sandwiches will be available from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily.

The pastries and sandwiches should be interesting, but bread is what the Azcorras know best, and what will pay the bills. In addition to ciabatta, Gabriel, Josue and their team produce full-sized sourdough loaves, San Francisco-style Dutch crunch rolls and fluffy English muffins you might have already discovered at your nearest New Seasons.

The brothers began baking two decades ago at Delphina’s, the former Northeast Portland bakery from Carolyn Mistell that Josue describes as a “our school.”

“I started as a dishwasher,” Josue Azcorra said. “Then they gave me the opportunity to learn mixing, shaping, everything. Then to be part of the supervisory team, learn how to run the schedules, come up with new recipes, they taught us all that stuff.”

By 2016, when Delphina’s abruptly closed, the brothers were managing the business, selling $400,000 worth of bread per month and sending shipments north to Washington and south to California through large accounts including Trader Joe’s and Costco.

Gabriel Azcorra left town for a job at The Essential Baking Company, the Seattle bakery that had quietly bought Delphina’s in 2012. Meanwhile, Josue Azcorra landed at Fleur de Lis, the great Hollywood neighborhood bakery, where he worked under Delphina’s and Pearl Bakery co-founder Greg Mistell.

In 2017, ChefStable owner Kurt Huffman reached out to the brothers to see if they might be interested in taking over Philippe’s Bread, an 1,800-square-foot bakery originally opened by French baker Philippe Garcia to fuel several ChefStable restaurants, including the rapidly growing Lardo.

Huffman told the brothers that if they managed to turn the business around, they could earn an ownership stake in the business. After rebranding as Dos Hermanos in 2018, the bakery quickly turned a profit. The brothers now own 50.1% of the business.

“It’s a blessing, man,” said Josue Azcorra. “Like my dad, I’ve got five kids, and I want them to go to college. And to do that, it takes money. That is one of the things that makes me stand up and work hard every day, to know that one day my oldest son could come in and run this place. It’s a dream for me and Gabe.”

Dos Hermanos will open for sandwiches from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. starting on Friday, Dec. 22, with earlier hours (but no sandwiches) starting on Dec. 26. at 1015 S.E. Stark St., 971-266-8348, doshermanosbakery.com

— Michael Russell; mrussell@oregonian.com

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Fitler Square Says "No" to Bringing Back Jezabel's Cafe - Philadelphia magazine

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Palace Cafe, Prairie Fire Pie to close Saturday - Tulsa World

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James D. Watts Jr.

The Palace Cafe, 1301 E. 15th St., and its sister restaurant, Prairie Fire Pie, 1303 E. 15th St., will close following service on Saturday, Dec. 23.

Brooke Shrader, co-owner of the two restaurants with her husband, chef James Shrader, said the decision to close the restaurants was one toward which they had been working for some time.

In 2024, there will be another venue for concerts and events in downtown Tulsa, and it it's in a former church building.

"We've been at this location for 23 years," she said. "And James is at a point where he's been feeling...'burn out' is a little too strong a term, but he certainly hasn't been feeling the same passion for the restaurant business as he's had in the past.

"It was time to step back from the day-to-day grind of running a couple of restaurants and explore some new things," Shrader said.

James Shrader came to Tulsa in the 1990s from Seattle, working first at Back Street Bistro in Jenks and the cabaret-restaurant Finales in downtown Tulsa. He also spent time studying with chef Tim Inman at Stonehorse Cafe before deciding to open his own restaurant.

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In the summer of 2002, the Shraders noticed the business at the northeast corner of 15th Street and Peoria Avenue had closed.

"When I saw that this place came available," Shrader said in a 2008 Tulsa World interview, "I just stopped the car — I went for it. I had been looking at properties, but I could envision the final product when I saw this restaurant. I could see it working in this location."

In a November 2002 review, the Tulsa World wrote that "The food shows creative flair with traditional French accents, and the atmosphere has a quirky trendiness that blends perfectly with the restaurant's Cherry Street neighbors," and awarded the restaurant four stars (at that time, the paper's highest rating for restaurants). A subsequent review in 2016, after the restaurant underwent a major renovation, raised the rating to four and a half stars.

Prairie Fire Pie opened in 2017, offering West Coast-style pizzas with innovative toppings. It earned a spot on the World's Best New Restaurant List for that year.

Brooke Shrader said her husband plans to continue doing private catering and that chef Tyler Whitson, who has worked at Palace Cafe for several years, "will become the public face of our catering operation, with our support."

She added that both the Palace Cafe and Prairie Fire properties have been sold, but was not in a position to say who had bought them, or to what use the spaces will be put.

"I can say that it was a win-win situation, and we all are happy about it," she said.

The new Tulsa World app offers personalized features. Download it today.

Users can customize the app so you see the stories most important to you. You can also sign up for personalized notifications so you don't miss any important news.

If you're on your phone, download it here now: Apple Store or Google Play

 

Patrick Prince

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Customer 'disgusted' after visiting Richmond cat cafe - Richmond News

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Animal cafes are often advertised as a fun experience for animal lovers, but one Richmond News reader was left "disgusted" after visiting a popular cat cafe.

Lorri Johnson took her kids to Catopia, a cat cafe on Minoru Boulevard nestled between the Hilton and Marriott hotels near Richmond Centre, back in October.

"It was absolutely filthy, with cat poo on the walls and furniture," she recalled.

Johnson added there was no washroom for customer use during her visit, and although she was able to wash her hands at the sink, there was no soap or paper towels.

When the News visited the cat cafe last month, a pungent odour could be smelled from the entrance, which consisted of two glass doors.

Customers are required to change out of their shoes and put on slippers before entering the cafe through the second glass door, where at least eight cats were seen roaming around freely. 

Catopia charges $17 per hour to hang out with the cats, and although it is called a cat cafe, food is not prepared on the premises.

However, customers are allowed to order drinks and cakes from First Bite Richmond, a dessert shop next door.

The shop is also known for its sold-out pop-up dog cafe events, which feature pets belonging to the owner's friends.

Catopia is registered in the City of Richmond's business directory as a retail pet supply store where customers are charged according to time to "stay and play with the cats."

Apart from hygiene concerns, Johnson also found the cats were "not in great shape" during her visit.

Most had matted hair and one cat seemed to have an issue with its eye, said Johnson, who added there was "also cat poo in one of the cats' fur."

She recalled only seeing one bowl of water and there was no food for the cats, who "went crazy" when offered a tune puree treat that Johnson bought from the store.

Concerned about the ethics of the business and how they treat the animals, Johnson ultimately filed complaints with BC SPCA as well as Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH).

Cat cafe denies mistreatment, BC SPCA investigating

When contacted by the News, Catopia denied having received complaints about hygiene and the cafe and the treatment of the animals.

According to Catopia, the entire store is disinfected and cleaned before opening, which includes cleaning the room and litter box.

The store is sprayed with pet-safe deodorizer after cleaning and the store is disinfected with a solution of veterinary disinfectant mixed with water after each customer leaves.

Apart from cleaning, staff are also tasked with monitoring the health of the animals "every day," reads Catopia's statement.

"We also will take cats to (the) vet to do physical exam and deworm."

Although Catopia is not a regulated food premises, a VCH spokesperson confirmed it did receive a complaint about food safety at Catopia.

"We’re working with the owners to ensure food is not being served in the establishment," reads the statement from VCH.

In the statement to the News, Catopia confirmed while customers can order their own food, staff will not pick up orders for customers.

BC SPCA, which manages the Richmond Animal Shelter, also confirmed that they have received complaints about Catopia.

"We are aware of past and ongoing concerns at Catopia and we are currently investigating the facility," said BC SPCA Richmond manager Krista Shaw.

Got an opinion on this story or any others in Richmond? Send us a letter or email your thoughts or story tips to Editor@Richmond-News.com.

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SD Bell's: Belfast cafe hit with one-star hygeine rating - Belfast Telegraph

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SD Bell’s has been warned “major improvement is necessary” following an inspection by a City Council food safety officer at its coffee bar at Knock in east Belfast

Top East Belfast café SD Bells hit with one star score for hygiene

Stephen Gordon

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A famous Northern Ireland tea and coffee specialist has been hit with a one star out of five hygiene rating at its popular Belfast cafe.

SD Bell’s has been warned “major improvement is necessary” following an inspection by a City Council food safety officer at its coffee bar at Knock in east Belfast.

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