Summer whirl
Flour + Water Pizzeria, Glen Park, Evan Kinori, Russian River Valley, Dodgers vs. Giants, Big Sur restaurants, personality hires, MORE
RESTAURANTS • First Person
Electric pizza in North Beach
After a three-year run in the Mission, Thomas McNaughton and his Flour + Water Hospitality group packed up their pizzeria last year and moved it to a marquee space in North Beach. At the relocated Flour + Water Pizzeria, which turns one year old this week, all the hits are here, but in a richer, more enjoyable presentation.
The space is better, for one thing. With entrances on both Columbus and Stockton, the large, trapezoidal dining room was previously home to ‘90s power restaurant Rose Pistola. From the moment it arrived, the new pizzeria already evoked the bustling energy of the former tenant in its heyday. The Flour + Water team kept colorful tile floors from the old restaurant and added a glass-walled dough room, so guests on their way to the bathroom get a view of the rising dough. The eastern corner of the space became a slice shop with its own entrance, a fridge full of natural wine for takeaway, and a fully operational Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles arcade cabinet.
The starters and salads are all good, but the pizza is the thing. McNaughton and chef Ryan Pollnow are using electric ovens to fire pizzas with crisp, bubbly crusts, just like you’d expect from a wood-fired oven, minus some of the residual char. And the dough is heartier and more flavorful than most Neapolitan-style pizzas. My favorite from a recent meal was The Conrad, topped with whole roasted garlic cloves, taleggio, mushrooms, kale, and aged mozzarella. The burrata pizza, with dried tomatoes, chile flakes, and lemon oil was a close second. These are just as inspired and balanced as any of the pasta dishes at the Flour + Water mothership, and their flavorful crusts help put these pies squarely among the best in the Bay Area.
A note about the slice shop: Unlike the circular pizzas on the main menu, the slice shop sells big, flat squares with crispy frico crusts. Slices are $10 per, and easily a meal. It’s a totally different experience than what’s offered in the dining room, and can be enjoyed while staring out the window at the Slice House, a spinoff of Tony’s Pizza Napoletana, located across the street. If a slice war breaks out between two of San Francisco’s top restaurant groups, you’ll have the best seat in the house. –Greg Morabito
→ Flour + Water Pizzeria (North Beach) • 532 Columbus Ave • Daily 1130a-10p • Reserve.
SF RESTAURANT LINKS: In North Beach, just-opened April Jean updates a longtime neighborhood watering hole • Fiorella Noe Valley opens its doors today, pizza bar is where it's at • Hinodeya, ramen restaurant with a legacy, coming to the Marina in August • Two longtime Bay Area Italian restaurants, Villa Napoli in Sunnyvale and Fiorello’s in Santa Clara, have closed • What the fuck is an Oklahoma martini?
REAL ESTATE • On the Market
Glen Park gems
Marketed a century ago as a “gem subdivision of the Mission,” Glen Park remains a village within city boundaries. New proposed zoning could change that, making way for taller buildings around the Muni/BART station in the neighborhood’s center. But for now, it’s mostly single-family homes with a distinctly away-from-it-all feel. Sixty-five houses have sold in the ‘hood in the last 12 months at a median sales price of $1.8M.
Today, a trio of current listings, two of which came to market this week, and another that was reduced in May.
→ 435 Laidley St. (Glen Park/Fairmount) • 5BR/5.1BA, 3090 SF house • Ask: $3.99M (reduced from $4.695 on 5/17) • modern rebuild with panoramic city and Bay views • Days on market: 40 (and previous) • Agents: Frank A. Castaldini & Gabriella Ghai, Compass.
→ 35 Hiliritas Ave (Glen Park, above) • 5BR/4BA, 4092 SF house • Ask: $4.995M • retro-suburban facade with freshened up interior • Days on market: 16 • Agent: Kevin L. Kropp, Vanguard.
→ 340 Gold Mine Dr (Glen Park) • 4BR/5BA, 2500 SF house • Ask: $2.45M • stylish rebuild private unit down below • Days on market: 21 • Agent: Winnie Wong, Surpass Real Estate & Finance.
SF WORK AND PLAY LINKS: After flooding chaos, new development 33 Tehama rebrands as SperaSF • Waymo opens robotaxi service to anyone, no more waitlist • UC says nah to new campus in downtown SF • Cupertino farmers market in limbo as summer begins • Whatever happened to ‘smart cities’? • Why is LinkedIn so unfunny?
CULTURE & LEISURE • Saturday Night
Hauser, Fox Theater (Oakland), Sat @ 8p, orchestra, $112 per
Dodgers vs Giants, Oracle Park (SoMa), Sat @ 415p, section FC108, $291 per
Drive-By Truckers, Fillmore (Fillmore District), Sat @ 8p, GA, $49 per
WORK • Wednesday Routine
Barrel proof
MAGGIE KRUSE • winemaker • Jordan Vineyard & Winery
Town you live in: Windsor
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
Our cellar team always starts early in the morning, so I arrive at 7 a.m., check in to see if anyone has questions about the day’s activities, and then make my way to my office. I’ll grab a coffee and either sit down at my desk to answer emails or head out to the vineyards. This week’s a fun one — we’re meeting with our growers to taste different blocks from the previous vintage. It’s always a treat when we get to enjoy the hard work and effort our growers put into each block of grapes they bring us.
What’s on the agenda for today?
After some office work, I’ll drive to Russian River Valley to take a look at our chardonnay vineyards and investigate some new sites for us. Our chardonnay has been Russian River Appellative for decades, but in the last few years, we’ve been focusing on getting fruit from even colder sites in the Russian River Valley that are closer to the Pacific Ocean. After the offsite excursion, I’ll go back to the office for a cabernet tasting to decide if the 2022 Alexander Valley Cabernet is ready to be drawn from the new French oak barrels.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
One of my new favorite restaurants is Augie’s French in Santa Rosa. Classic French food is one of my favorite types of cuisine, and everything at Augie’s is delicious. The menu, vibe, and wine list are all amazing. My husband and I could devour the entire menu, but my picky 10-year-old loves the duck confit.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I love live music at outdoor venues. I try to get to the Berkeley Greek Theater at least once a year, and I’m excited to see Khruangbin there again this summer. The Hollywood Bowl has been on my coveted concert venues list for a while now, and I’m finally going to see Chris Stapleton there tomorrow night!
Any weekend getaways?
I struggle to unwind and relax most of the time, but when I spend the weekend on the Sonoma Coast, I’m instantly at ease. If my family has a three-day weekend without plans (which is rare), we always try to rent a house and head to the coast. A weekend to just relax, hike with the dog, read, and unplug can be so necessary.
What was your last great vacation?
My last great trip was renting an apartment on the Gironde River in Bordeaux. By day, we spent time tasting in the different wine regions. By night, we explored the city. When most people think of Bordeaux, they picture vineyards and wineries, but the city of Bordeaux is quite lively and worth exploring. My favorite morning started with a trip to the farmers market across the street from our apartment, where we bought delicious bread, incredible roasted chicken, fresh vegetables, and of course, the regional delicacy canelés.
WORK • Culture
Staffing up
We’ve added a handful of new folks to the FOUND team this month. It feels good — especially since, during our first year, we’d been doing most of the work ourselves (except for our group of excellent regular editorial contributors — love you guys!).
The staffing plan was on purpose, because 1) we wanted to be as hands-on as possible in the earliest stages, 2) media is weird right now and we’re being careful not to get over our skis, and 3) it takes a little while to figure out what you really need. It’s the same idea as living in a house for a year or two before undertaking any renovations.
New work culture memes suggest that, in their own recruitment efforts, some employers are currently focusing mostly on vibes. Per the WSJ:
Skill was king during the talent war of 2021 and 2022, but recent layoffs suggest a lot of companies believe they have enough, or even too many, capable employees.
Enter the “personality hire,” deliverer of sunshine and good times (except when other employees have to do their work). Maybe we’ll get there someday! But for now, there’s enough work to go around, no office to put the vibes in, and a general wariness about building capital-C culture.
All that said, we’re still and always on the lookout for talent. Like more contributors to write about shopping and the retail scene here in San Francisco. If that’s you, reply to this email or drop us a line at found@itsfoundsf.com. Vibes not required. –Josh Albertson
GOODS & SERVICES • Menswear
Evant garde
Evan Kinori’s shop, housed in the same century-old Victorian on Valencia Street as the designer’s studio, is only open on weekends. Too bad: Bathed in sunlight, the long space smells of woodsy Japanese incense, and is adorned in earthy contrasts of concrete, hinoki stools, ceramics, a Noguchi lamp or two. More than that, long racks of Kinori’s flowing, broadly designs run the space, a veritable zen retreat itself. And you need to try on Kinori’s hand-made, individually-numbered, critically-beloved clothing to understand the way it hangs off you, the way it billows around you, the way, maybe, its Taoist magic works on you. And it will.
On a visit last summer, I bought one of his popover shirts in a Japanese typewriter cloth — a papery (yet high density) poplin. Since then, the shirt’s been with me everywhere from a warm August catamaran ride in the Balearic to a cool September concert at the Hollywood Bowl, to an incredibly important drinks date in October, to a recent early season beach day on Hydra with said date. It’s a unisex shirt for all seasons, breezy but resilient, one of those shirts that somehow adeptly moves from beachwear to (if you’re so inclined) business casual, but who’d want to waste it on anything but being out in the world, letting its distinct pleasures — the shirt, and a summer night — whirl around you with joy. –Foster Kamer
→ Shop: Popover Shirt (Evan Kinori), $495.
→ Visit: Evan Kinori • 1367 Valencia St • Fri 12-6p, Sat-Sun 11-6p • Weekdays by appointment.
GETAWAYS • The Nines
Restaurants, Big Sur
Nepenthe (Highway One, above), cliffside mecca with panoramic views, sneakily great Champagne list
Big Sur Bakery (Loma Vista), brilliant baked goods in a converted 1930s ranch house
Sierra Mar (Post Ranch Inn), floor-to-ceiling glass skybox adjacent to the waves
Big Sur Roadhouse (Glen Oaks), diner-esque hang serving California comfort fare
Coast Big Sur (Seal Beach), veggie-forward cafe and art gallery inside a trio of Redwood water tanks
Deetjen’s Restaurant (Rancho Grande Rd), reclaimed barn with knick-knacks and homestyle cooking
The Sur House (Ventana), open-air terrace with dramatic ocean views and on-site organic garden
Big Sur Taphouse (Loma Vista), beloved local pub for nachos, wings, and pints
Solstice (The Village), seasonal fish and produce-focused menu within a new-age compound
Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundsf.com.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Priority Pass-accessible lounge The Club opens today at SFO’s new Terminal 1 • Inside Alaska Airlines’ new terminal (and lounge, opening next month) also at T1 • After 56 years, iconic Hilton Hotel near OAK will close at end of summer • Noted seafood shack The Marshall Store opens second outpost, Out the Door, in Tomales • Here’s Le Coq, a new ‘new wave French steakhouse’ in San Diego.
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What’s your Restaurant of the Summer?
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