The Bagel Blurb: It may not come as a surprise that a recent run of bagel taste tests — the SF Standard’s with bagels from five San Francisco shops, J.’s similar undertaking and the San Francisco Chronicle’s with bagels from 20 Bay Area shops — has led to some very different results.
The Chron’s No. 1 pick was Loveski, the deli with two locations — in Larkspur and Napa — owned by Michelin-starred chef Christopher Kostow. In second place was none other than Wise Sons, and in third was Oakland’s Poppy Bagels.
The lineup raised some eyebrows: Noah’s Bagels came in ninth — surprising because they’re steamed, not boiled like traditional bagels — and Boichik Bagels came in 13th. The Chron’s results precipitated a follow-up article about how Wise Sons has been working to improve its bagels. Clearly, the effort has paid off.
About 100 people gathered in early September at Camp Newman in Santa Rosa for its second annual Jewish Food & Wine Retreat. Workshops focused on such themes as olive oil with pro Dani Fisher, dumplings with J. columnist Micah Siva and spices with Aliza Grayevsky Somekh of Bishulim SF. (I was there in my capacity as a consultant.) Just like last year, an overarching theme was how wonderful it felt to be in community with fellow food- and wine-loving Jews right now. Next year’s is already on the calendar for the weekend of Aug. 28-30.
The owners of Iggy’s Place, Igor Teplitsky and Anna Flider, have launched an investment campaign on SMBX, a small-business bonds marketplace. This is designed to help them expand their San Francisco restaurant, which features Eastern European comfort food. We first covered the pair when they ran the Borscht Mobile food truck. Then in 2023, they opened Iggy’s Place, serving sandwiches like the ones Teplitsky grew up with in Chicago, as well as borscht, matzah ball soup and dumplings such as pelmeni (with chicken) and vareniki (with veal). The restaurant, which is in the Richmond District, serves dinner on the weekends and hopes to add hours if the campaign is successful. Iggy’s Place is at 3519 Balboa St., S.F.
The (M)eat Carnival, a gluttonous Israeli import of an event, which I first covered in an early iteration in Livermore in 2023, is coming to Napa Sept. 19-21 and San Francisco’s Treasure Island and Vallejo’s Mare Island in October. As a reminder, it’s an event where guests walk to different stations and use their hands to eat too many utterly delicious, sloppy, juicy meat dishes (and more). It’s completely over the top and worth doing at least once.
Aaron London is the Michelin-starred chef who was behind the wonderful but short-lived Israeli street food eatery AL’s Deli and vegetable mecca AL’s Place, both in S.F. He has now entered the cookie business.
London left behind his three decades in the restaurant industry for a better work-life balance. Then he began making cookies with his young daughters while also finding himself consuming a lot of sub-par store-bought cookies. So he knew it was time to step into the mix.A recipient of a Hebrew Free Loan to start the business, AL’s Real Goods, can be found in high-end Bay Area markets in three flavors: chocolate chip, double chocolate and ginger.