Four Things In the Bay Area Not to Miss This Month
- Outdoor Dining Szn: San Franciscans know that October tends to be the most pleasant-weathered and beautiful month in San Francisco. The air starts to get a little bit cooler and the days just a touch slighter, but it’s still bright, sunny, and warm enough to enjoy a good meal outside. A Chamorro feast on picnic tables in Prubechu’s enclosed parking lot? Perfect. Pizza in Del Popolo’s backyard oasis? Wonderful. Pasta in Piccino’s Dogpatch cul-de-sac? Yes please. See this handy-dandy guide for many more awesome options.
- Khao Soi Pop-Up at Nari: For the uninitiated, khao soi is a delicious, spicy coconut curry noodle soup brought to northern Thailand by Burmese immigrants. You can find an bonkers version on the lunch menu at Kin Khao, and now Friday-Saturday from 12 to 2:30 p.m. you can also find it upstairs at Nari’s mezzanine. Look for two styles: one with coconut curry broth, and another style called maesai — that’s the name of the village where owner Pim Techamuanvivit comes from and features a pork broth sans coconut; it’s a little bit lighter and infused with tomato and pork relish and served with cracklings as well. For extra heat, you can add chile oil to spice it up, plus a pared-down list of cocktails to help cool you down.
- Pizza Pizza: If there’s a more perfect food than pizza, we’d like to know. This is the one thing we can eat every single day and never tire of. And in The Bay Area, there’s just so much of it. Whether you’re slamming Sicilian or Detroit squares at Pizzeria da Laura or pounding pet-nats with your pepperoni pies in the Berkeley backyard garden at Rose’s, there’s a limitless supply, it feels. Check this list for more pizza inspiration. And if you get a chance, know that Craig Murli’s beloved June’s Pizza is finally back with a shiny new brick-and-mortar in Oakland.
- I Scream, You Scream: We all scream for Bad Walter’s Ice Cream. Sydney Arkin’s cult pandemic ice cream pop-up has finally found itself a brick-and-mortar — it’s located in Rockridge and is wonderfully ’90s themed. Its loud yellow walls give “Nickelodeon” while the multicolored ceiling feels very Lisa Frank. And then there’s the ice cream, of course with fun flavors like Slumber Party, which features a Ritz cracker frozen custard base with Reese’s Pieces, Nutter Butters, and fudge swirls. Can’t decide? Get a flight of six scoops and call it a day — a very, very good day, that is. And yes, of course we have more ice cream suggestions.
New to the Hit List (Oct. 2024)
Izakaya Rintaro, The Morris, Popoca, Routier.