New On Resy: The Bay Area’s Newest Restaurant Openings

Since 2014, Causwells in San Francisco’s Marina neighborhood has been a favorite for quality cocktails and comfort food. This spring, chef-owner Adam Rosenblum and team opened Causwells at Springline in Menlo Park, serving favorites from the original like housemade ricotta on lavash crackers with rosemary honey, their beloved burger, and a banana bread “grilled cheese” sandwich. Co-owner Elmer Mejicanos’ beautiful cocktails are an equal draw in S.F. and thankfully star in Menlo, too.

Opened 2023 above the over-a-century-old Bus Stop Saloon, Left Door is the yin to the iconic sports bar’s yang: a seductive cocktail lounge lined with velvet and leather couches. Under photography art — including Slim Aarons’ iconic tiger rug photo of Mrs. George Cameron — sip classics like Negronis with Arbequina olive oil or roasted pear daiquiris, paired with snacks like cacio pepe popcorn, buttermilk fried chicken, or hot fudge sundaes.

Family-owned Aliment opened in 2013 as a casual Lower Nob Hill hangout for drinks and food. Comfort food is the game here, the menu weaving from buttermilk fried chicken to grilled ribeye with truffle fries. Vegetarians aren’t left behind with dishes like kabocha curry risotto or chickpea “meatballs.” Cocktails stick to the straightforward, including beloved classics like a Corpse Reviver No. 2 or pitchers of margaritas, plus eight beers on draft — heavy on California brews.

Calabash is an Uptown Oakland go-to for Afro-Caribbean and Jamaican fare, also housing a market selling international foods, prepared foods, and baked goods. Alongside soulful dishes like Kingston oxtail stew, jerk chicken salad, ginger butter salmon, and Jamaican beef and veggie patties, the bar makes it a gathering place for conversation around Kingston Rum Punches or cheekily named drinks like Skirt Slides Up (tequila, sorrel, lime).

Zaytoon has been an Albany destination for two decades, with Middle Eastern food in an sunny, all-day space. Brothers Izat and Walid Eliyan named Zaytoon (“olive” in Arabic) because they grew up harvesting olives in family orchards. They share their Palestinian roots with mazza dips, kubba (lamb, beef, pine nut fritters), fried cauliflower in harissa toum, moussaka and grilled kebab platters. They also offer Middle East-tinged cocktails like Arabian Nights, mixing mezcal, sumac, lime, amaro and Campari.

In a giant food complex from the Bon Appetit group on a South San Francisco biotech campus, Camber is in a massive, lofty space with views of the south Bay. It’s an ideal pre- or post-flight stop, as it is evening gathering for Frenchified food from chicken paillard, and croque madames, French onion soup and steak frites, to seasonal fish dishes and ceviches. The LEED Gold certified building houses a glowing bar serving easy sippers like Little Red Bus, mixing rhubarb vodka, strawberry vermouth, Aperol, and spring herbs.

Family-owned Marica has been a Rockridge staple for seafood since 2000. Mushroom toast, spaghetti and meatballs, or honey garlic gochujang Korean pork ribs ensure fun for non-fish eaters. But seafood stars here, whether their signature twice-cooked Maine lobster, Prince Edward Island mussels in lemon Pernod butter broth, or shrimp corn cakes in chipotle butter.