San Francisco Food Blog

David G./Yelp

Two minus two equals see ya.

​City restaurant closures in November weren't so much evidence of a local economy in the latter stages of collapse, as a sort of playing out of the food chain, in bricks and mortar, no less. On Irving Street -- just like in the sub-Saharan savannah -- the weak and slow must give way to the swift and the jaggedly toothy. Only in the case of izakaya mom 'n' pop Sozai on Irving, it didn't so much yield to the strong as cannibalize itself. Owners Gil Payne and Mari Takahashi teamed up with Nick Bally to launch Nombe (2491 Mission at 21st St.).

Overall, November was a mild month for San Francisco restaurant closures. And just as with Sozai, good news often eclipsed the bad.

Take the Marina branch of pasta shop Fuzio. Over the weekend, the Chestnut Street space was reborn as Delarosa, a beer and pizza concept from Beretta Inc. FiDi dessert café Chill blinked its eyes, clicked its heel together and became the salad and sandwich joint Urban Picnic, without ever changing owners. And Mission Street's Café Arguello laid its tapas concept to eternal rest; the space will soon house a spinoff of quirky sausage-and-burger phenom Rosamunde.

The swank-ish small plates bistro Two put itself out of its nightly misery Nov. 20 -- private events play out through December. (In January, French Laundry alum Corey Lee takes possession of the keys; he'll launch Benu.) AT&T Park anchor Acme Chophouse announced it won't see 2010, but will regroup as a more casual, presumably less steak-y concept. B's BBQ, which quietly slipped away in September for a little, uh, vacation, is clearly not coming back. And the Inner Richmond's Sushi Boom went, well, bust. Scan the full list of the fallen after the jump.

• B's BBQ & Grill 855 Divisadero (at Fulton)
• Café Arguello 2832 Mission (at 24th St.)
• Chill 125 Kearny (at Post)
• Fuzio 2175 Chestnut (at Pierce)
• Two 22 Hawthorne (at Howard)
• Sushi Boom 3420 Geary (at Commonwealth)
• Sozai Restaurant and Sake Lounge 1500 Irving (at 16th Ave.)