What to Anticipate When Fashionable Russian Restaurant Birch & Rye Opens in San Francisco

As mentioned earlier, Moscow-born chef Anya El-Wattar, a former Greens cook, will be opening a new Russian restaurant in Noe Valley with Birch & Rye. Now we have some juicy updates: She’s announced she’s working with chef Evan Eisen, who’s from Jean-Georges and Public in New York and Aqua and Wayfare Tavern in San Francisco – as well as Amiran Tskhvaradze, the former chef at the Georgian restaurant Bevri in Palo Alto, who is still on board as a sous chef.

Regardless of this, the menu with soaking khachapuri cheese boats, the iconic Georgian dish, as well as “elevated versions” of potato salad, borscht, stroganoff and other “modern Russian” specialties with fermentation and using the wood-burning oven, according to a rep. Brunch sounds particularly nutritious with rye waffles with sour cherries and hazelnuts as well as a hearty roasted buckwheat husk with Nameko mushrooms and a jam egg.

In addition, Interval’s Jennifer Colliau will advise on beverages at Long Now, infuse vodka with everything from flowers to horseradish, and pour a range of rare vodkas. The wine list is Californian, French and Georgian. Architects II is renovating the former Mahila room in Castro and 24th and seems to have toned down the bright yellows and reds, so Birch & Rye is a bit quieter with neutral colors, warm wood elements and blue banquets and pillows. As it always seems to be, the opening has been postponed – Birch & Rye is now planning to open in early 2022. Stay tuned for the full reveal.

Birch & Rye

Birch & Rye

Architects II

Popular Filipino-Japanese pop-up is now full service

In early fall, popular Filipino-Japanese pop-up Ox + Tiger started teasing a new semi-permanent location, and although it has been open for a few months, they are finally ready for full service. They take up residence in the former Silog room in the Tenderloin and do six izakaya-style courses for only 10 seats. There are only two seats a night and they are only open on weekends. It’s a big departure from the takeaway they’ve served for most of the pandemic, switching to a full-fledged experience of yakitori-style fish balls on skewers, seafood doria, and other riffs and mashups of calming Japanese and Filipino dishes. Make a reservation if you can.

The San Jose factory will produce 30,000 tamales this season

It’s also officially tamales season, and Mercury News is on a tour of the Tamale Factory, a San Jose institution for 25 years where owner Claudia Lopez and her women’s team plan to fold more than 30,000 tamales for the holiday season. [Mercury News]

Impossible Foods gets caught in the ghost delivery

Impossible Foods from Redwood City has announced a new “restaurant brand”, according to Restaurant Business, which is of course silicone-like for a ghost delivery kitchen. Eight states including California now have various nefarious delivery apps available to order a plant-based burger or fake chicken nuggets.

Chef Jose Andres is the new face of the laboratory chicken

Chef Jose Andres is the new face of the laboratory chicken in the fake meat news too. He joins the board of directors of Good Meat, based in San Francisco, and has promised to put the cell-raised chicken on the menu at one of his restaurants. It’s a partnership reminiscent of Dominique Crenn and Upside Chicken, Traci Des Jardins and Impossible Foods, as well as other star chefs who have done deals with big, venture-backed brands.

Update: December 15, 2021 3:11 p.m .: This story has been updated to include Chef Amiran Tskhvaradze joining the Birch & Rye team.

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