Human-driven

Best martinis, The Jolie Filtered Showerhead, Flour + Water, Pemulis Water & Power, Private Lives tix, reader survey results, Aphotic, MORE

Sep 11, 2024

BARS • The Nines

Martinis

Bar Sprezzatura (Financial District, above), seasonal martinis and cicchetti in pastel-pretty lounge
Holbrook House (Financial District), flip a switch for the martini cart
Starlite (Union Square), ‘90s-style dirty martinis on top of Beacon Grand Hotel
Left Door (Cow Hollow), swanky new speakeasy with pick-your-own olive pairings
Aphotic (SoMa), sustainable seafood star with briny caviar martini
Zam Zam (Haight), Bohemian classic with dry martinis and Persian-inspired interior
Bix (Jackson Square), double-decker jazz club with old-school ’tinis and tartare
Balboa Cafe (Cow Hollow), clubby crowd loves nitro espresso martinis on tap
Tallboy (Temescal, Oakland), buzzy newcomer with martinis and vegan hot dogs

The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of the Bay Area’s best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundsf.com. Photo: Allie Tong.

SF RESTAURANT LINKS: Oakland’s Burdell named national restaurant of the year by Food & Wine • BonApp’s national 20 best new restaurants of 2024 includes Chinatown’s Four Kings and Oakland’s Popoca • Inside new Marina bar Rick & Roxy’s • Shuttered wine bar Verjus plots mysterious return • High end lactose free ice cream shop Bad Walter’s lands in Oakland • The most overrated cocktails?

GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Sponsor

The beauty of a good shower

Ryan and Arjan here, the co-founders of Jolie, a beauty wellness company focused on purifying the quality of one’s shower water for better skin and hair. We’re both fans and readers of FOUND, which is why we decided to sponsor this newsletter to reach like-minded folks like you.

Jolie was founded with one simple goal in mind: to purify your shower water for better skin, hair, and wellbeing. That's what we do.

The quality of our shower water is fundamental to the quality of our hair and skin. And the Jolie Filtered Showerhead helps you address all your skin and hair concerns starting at the source… the water.

We offer a 60-day, no questions asked, money-back guarantee. So if you're generally skeptical (like we are), try it and see for yourself. If you don't love Jolie, we'll refund your money. –Ryan Babenzien & Arjan Singh

→ Shop: The Jolie Filtered Showerhead (Jolie) • available in brushed gold, modern chrome, brushed steel, jet black, and vibrant red • $148.

WORK • Wednesday Routine

Flour power

THOMAS MCNAUGHTON • co-founder/co-chef • Flour + Water Hospitality Group
Neighborhood you live in: Mill Valley

It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I live in Marin County, so I try to fit in a trail run before starting my work day. The proximity to nature is one of the best parts of living in the Bay Area, and it always brings me a sense of mental clarity. After my run, I'll head into work, popping by the Flour + Water test kitchen above the restaurant for a standing Zoom meeting with our leadership team. While we host private dinners there in the evening, during the day it doubles as an office and stage for our R+D.

What’s on the agenda for today?
Right now, most of my time is dedicated to planning for the expansion of Flour + Water Pizza Shop. We opened our flagship Flour + Water Pizzeria in North Beach with a dedicated dough room for pizza dough production, to centralize that process and ultimately, feed ancillary Pizza Shop locations throughout the Bay Area. Today, I'm reviewing some potential spaces; it's a long process, so we consider as many different options as possible, knowing that (of the dozens we're looking at) maybe one will move forward.

Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
On my radar in the Bay Area: Dalida, Prubechu, Ernest, Copra, and Outta Sight Pizza. On a trip to LA this spring for Pizza City Fest, I was excited to check out Dunsmoor and Saffy's. I really admire what Brian Dunsmoor, Ori Menashe, and Genevieve Gergis are doing.

How about a little leisure or culture?
One of the coolest things I've been to is the performance of Dear San Francisco in the old Beach Blanket Babylon space. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have two daughters, and just took them to Legoland in San Diego.

Any weekend getaways?
I love exploring small towns or revisiting favorite escapes in our Northern California backyard. Tahoe is always near the top of my list, but I recently took my bike up to the Ukiah-Mendo Gravel Epic.

What was your last great vacation?
Last fall, I went back to Bologna, where I spent a fair amount of time making pasta by hand with Italian nonnas. It was awesome to reconnect with so many old friends, especially Marcello Tori. Since 1995, he's run an amazing food and wine tour, Bluone, that really immerses you in the culture. I highly recommend it.

What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
My Stumpjumper Pro mountain bike.

What store or service do you always recommend?
Tam Bikes in Mill Valley and SF Running Club. We are so fortunate to be in such an epic place in the world for any style of biking or running.

Photo: Kristen Loken

GETAWAYS LINKS: Napa’s new Bella Union winery seeks younger drinkers • Checking up on Matt Kammerer’s Harbor House Inn on Mendocino Coast • How long can Big Sur sustain itself with ongoing highway closures? • Yosemite mulls changes to visitor access • Bank Stadium tickets for Niners v. Vikings matchup still available • Luxury riverboats are giving superyacht charters a run for their money.

GOODS & SERVICES • FOUND Shop

Inconvenience store

After a decade-plus at Apple and Google, self-described gearhead Molly Thomas ditched her commute down the peninsula for one down the street. In late 2023 she opened Pemulis Water & Power inside what was once a kung-fu school, replacing the dusty lion dance costumes with an eccentric collection of surf gear, motocross apparel, books, candles, and home goods.

“I just wanted a place to sell stuff I like,” Thomas says, which means Gato Heroi boards and wetsuits, sleek Biltwell motocross helmets, and pouches of mineral-based Avasol barrier creams in a wide variety of skin tones. It’s a place that’s filled with nothing you immediately need, but a slew of things you suddenly and unexpectedly want.

Thomas is a character, as you might have judged from the shop name (yes, it’s an Infinite Jest allusion) or its single, one-star Yelp review. Be prepared to be sucked into a conversation about the inside workings of autonomous cars as you pick up a pair of Von Zipper goggles, or trade Instagram algorithm conspiracy theories as you snag an Often Wander candle that smells like the church you moved to SF to forget. It might seem like the most random assembly of items you’ve seen in SF, but after a few minutes with Thomas, it all starts to make sense. –Eve Batey

→ Shop: Pemulis Water & Power (Outer Sunset) • 4051 Judah St • 1-7p Mon-Fri, 11a-7p Sat-Sun.

CULTURE & LEISURE • Mix It Up

Private Lives • opening night • Toni Rembe Theater (Union Square) • Thurs @ 7:30p • Orchestra, $82 per
In a Landscape • Crissy Field (Presidio) • Fri @ 4p • GA, $45 per
Soul Coughing • The Fillmore (Fillmore) • Sat @ 8p • GA, $72 per

WORK • Feedback Loop

Don’t ever change

The results of the first FOUND reader survey are in, and… you’re in good company! Here’s a quick snapshot from across the network:

As expected, FOUND readers dine out — 72% spend at least $500 per month on average, and 34% spend at least $1000
FOUND readers also travel — 91% expect to take at least two leisure trips in the next 12 months and 41% expect to take at least five
They’re frequent recommenders themselves — 64% often recommend products/services/experiences to friends/family/colleagues and another 29% sometimes do

Of course, none of you can be reduced to a series of numbers, but here’s an idea of the demo:

31% are 35-44 years old, 23% are 25-34, and 20% are 45-54
52% earn annual household income of $250K+; 6% earn $1MM+
51% have net worth of $1MM+; 9% have $10MM+

Fifty-six percent own a home, and 16% own multiple homes. Top work fields? Technology (17%), media (17%), finance (9%), and law (8%).

Meanwhile, here’s a sampling of our favorite responses to our fishing expedition, “What is your favorite part of FOUND?”

First person reporting feels like a note from a friend — rather than a traditional, expected "critique" by a "professional" paid, reviewer
The super local recommendations! Things that are in my neighborhood and on my mind. It's one of the few Substacks I receive that I read all the way through the DAY I receive it.
Makes me feel like I have an insider's edge and can make reservations or buy tickets in advance to feel in-the-know
I like that it seems human-driven, no-frills
Love the old-school approach, mixing food and real estate and art and fun together
The personal touch, it feels curated with love
I love the mix of content and everything is perfect length. Long enough to have substance but not so long I skip any of it. I literally read every one top to bottom.

Blushing. As for your “what would you like to see less of” responses, sorry, we’re already pushing “perfect length” for this item!

We’ll keep the survey open for another couple days and draw our two subscription upgrade winners at the end of the week. Thanks again for all of the responses and good feedback as we continue building in year two of FOUND. –Josh Albertson

Interested in advertising in FOUND? Hit reply or email us at sales@itsfoundsf.com.

SF WORK AND PLAY LINKS: SF’s new entertainment zone will be the first in CA • New renderings released for 65-unit Berkeley development • Levi’s Stadium parking rules rile 49ers fans • The weird truth about work is we actually like it.

RESTAURANTS • FOUND Table

In the swim

Few chefs take as many risks as Peter Hemlsley, whose seafood-centric passion project Aphotic has become a special occasion destination since its opening last year.

The space alone is ambitious, ship-like, with an arched ceiling and a dark, seductive floor criss-crossed by the smoothest servers you’ll ever meet. There’s a bar for those seeking a more casual time, or a half-moon booth for the fine dining, prix-fixe experience.

The 13-course menu changes seasonally, but the format stays the same — a succession of cold, small plates, a devastatingly good carb-centric dish, a couple of bigger, hot items, and dessert. On a recent visit, a beef and scallop carpaccio was especially memorable, and the steamed crab bun was so good, it must remain a menu staple.

Additional standouts include whatever risotto Hemsley is serving that night and desserts from pastry chef Deirdre Balao Rieutort-Louis, such as an improbable oyster ice cream that proves just how big Aphotic’s risks can pay off. –Flora Tsapovsky

→ Aphotic (SoMa) • 816 Folsom St • Tues-Sat 530-9p • Reserve.

ASK FOUND

First, a quick primer on how this works: You send us the pressing questions of the day (on dining, services, living in the Bay Area). We all put our heads together (us, FOUND, + you, FOUND subscribers, who are also FOUND) in search of truth and beauty.

Three FOUND subscriber PROMPTS for which we are seeking intel:

Where are you excited about dining this fall?
What’s your favorite bookstore in the Bay Area?
Which spa are you booking to escape the chaos of the season?

Got answers or more questions? Hit reply or email found@itsfoundsf.com.