San Francisco Food Blog

A30 Tsitika/Flickr

Sorry -- you'll have to buy the rest.

​Score a free truffle at various Godiva Boutiques today between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m. And as part of a daylong promo to get you a-shopping, the popular luxe chocolatier is also offering $5 off any purchase over $25. In the city, get your Godiva on at Westfield Shopping Centre (865 Market at Fifth St.), Two Embarcadero Center (the Embarcadero at Battery), and at Stonestown Galleria (3251 20th Ave. at Winston).

Cups and Cakes Bakery

​Good news and bad news from cupcake land. First, the bad: Cups and Cakes Bakery (451 Ninth St. at Harrison), which was expected to open Nov. 4, has stopped projecting its actual opening date because unexpected delays keep popping up.

However, the good news is that a soft opening is imminent. Cups and Cakes tweeted that everything is being moved in this morning and hopes to be baking in its new ovens by the afternoon. If you're in the vicinity later today, stop by for a free test cookie.

flirianders/Flickr

There's no excuse for rawists to spend the holiday alone in front of the dehydrator.

​Can you say, "I feel grateful?" or perhaps "I feel bountiful?" Café Gratitude sooo wants you to. Keeping with a well established annual tradition, four out of five Café Gratitude locations will serve free food this Thanksgiving. The alive and vegan food mini-chain will have volunteer-served meals at its San Francisco, Berkeley, San Rafael, and Healdsburg locations. Addresses here.

This'll be the fifth year Café Gratitude hosts the Thanksgiving appreciation meals, meant as an expression of gratitude to customers and other fans. Meals will be served on a first come, first served basis, 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Ingredients donated by Veritable Vegetable, Bariani Olive Oil, and other local purveyors. Interested in donating products yourself? E-mail info@cafegratitude.com with 'Thanksgiving' as the subject.

Fair is good, but free is better.

​Hey, it's free chocolate day! Indulge in the sweet life today at Fog City News (455 Market at First St.), where free samples of Divine fair trade chocolate will be available from noon to 2 p.m. Savvy chocolate fans might remember the Divine giveaways in S.F. and the East Bay last month. An informal fair trade discussion with a Divine rep will also be happening at Fog City, if you want to learn more about exactly what the whole fair trade thing means. Divine Chocolate is owned in part by farmers in Kuapa Kokoo in Ghana.

​Dogpatch sweet freaks: Heed this siren call. Free samples of popcorn toffee from Poco Dolce are fresh out of the oven right now at Poco Dolce's headquarters at 2419 Third St. (at 21st St.). This is an inaugural batch of popcorn toffee. A Poco Dolce tweet proclaims in all caps, "HELLO HEAVEN!" as a descriptor. Poco Dolce is known for handmade bittersweet chocolate tiles, made with local ingredients when possible. But don't stop to read; run.

kaplan.davidari/Flickr

The Karavan, at August's Eat Real Festival.

​Sunday is looking pretty suh-weet. That's when Kara's Cupcakes' original Marina location (3429 Scott at Chestnut) will be offering one free cupcake with purchase, per customer, from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Seasonal fans may favor the pumpkin spice cupcake with cream cheese frosting; peanut butter fiends can get a serious fix of smooth peanut butter and milk chocolate ganache frosting. The full menu is here. If you plan your visit in the afternoon, check out the Karavan mobile cupcake wheels from 3 to 5 p.m.; extra caffeine jolts available in the form of Blue Bottle New Orleans-style iced coffee. We saw the Karavan at the Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival and can vouch for how cool and tasty it looks.

Amit Gupta/Flickr

Not super close to 24th Street BART, but free is free.

​Oops! Due to -- uh -- especially high traffic on BART, the locations for this evening's chocolate giveaway have been changed. It's still happening from 5 to 7 p.m. this evening, but at the following spots:

• Bittersweet Chocolate Café 5427 College (at Hudson) Oakland


• Berkeley Bowl Main 2020 Oregon (at Shattuck) Berkeley


• Rainbow Grocery 1745 Folsom (at 13th St.)


• Fog City News 455 Market (at Front) The Divine street team will also be handing out chocolate in Union Square

Promise you won't smudge the handrail of your BART car.

​UPDATE: The locations for the chocolate giveaway have changed. Find the current locations here.
Didja get your free Bay Bridge broken hot dog yesterday at Zog's? Still hungry for schwag? This evening, samples of Divine Chocolate will be handed out at a number of BART stations: from 4 to 8 p.m. at Montgomery in S.F., and from 5 to 7 p.m. at 24th Street in S.F. and at the Ashby and Rockridge stations in the East Bay.

Turns out October is fair trade month, and Divine Chocolate is fair trade-certified, co-owned by the Kuapa Kokoo Farmers Cooperative in Ghana, West Africa. We think it's only fair that your unfair commute is improved by bagging a bite of fair-trade chocs. For free.

M. Brody

Something tells us they'll run out long before the bridge reopens.

​So maybe Caltrans rushed it a little with that Labor Day fix. Forced onto BART with the teeming hordes? Emerge from your sardine can at Montgomery station, walk over to the little yellow stand huddled near the One Post Street building, and claim your prize. Until they run out, Zog's Dogs will be giving away a free Bay Bridge Dog -- broken in half! -- to anyone who shows a BART ticket. (Print out a coupon from the Web site and you can score a free lemonade, too.)

Zog's Dogs One Post (at Market), 391-7071. Free dogs today from 10 a.m. until supplies run out.

ZagatBuzz

Let's just hope it doesn't take you an hour to find Marina street parking.

​Get to Bin 38 Wine Bar & Restaurant (3232 Scott at Lombard) before 6:30 p.m. tonight, and a glass of wine will be your free reward. Bin 38 is celebrating its second anniversary today, from 4 p.m til midnight. You'll get to choose from bubbly or a special red or white, subject to availability. The Web site explains its gifting as a chance for customers to "raise a toast to many more years in the neighborhood together." After that first freebie, you'll be able to order special $5 anniversary glasses all night, or until they run out. Bin 38's wine-friendly small(-ish) plates aren't bad, should you decide you want to pair your with something more substantial.

Janine Kahn

Christopher Elbow at CocoaBella.

​The upscale chocolate boutique known as CocoaBella (2102 Union at Webster) will celebrate its fifth anniversary next week with an Oktoberfest party featuring a tasting from the store's close pal, artisan chocolatier Christopher Elbow, whose creations are visual and edible jewels. A to-be-determined dark beer will be paired with four of Elbow's new fall flavors, which include pumpkin truffle and maple pecan. Space for this free tasting on Wednesday, Oct. 28 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. is limited to 40 guests, so it's wise to RSVP now. Call 931-6213.

T. Palmer

Just try not to lick Godby's arm, though.

​Mondays just got a lot better. As of today, haute ice cream parlor Humphry Slocombe (2790 Harrison at 24th St.) is now open seven days a week. Seductively whisper, "I want to lick it" to owner Jake Godby or manager Sean Vahey (we suggest the former, who's more likely to blush) behind the counter today before 9 p.m. closing time and you'll be rewarded with free hot fudge or (warm) butterscotch topping.

​SOMA cookie fiends who use Twitter can score a freebie at the just-opened restaurant Ironside (680A Second St. at Townsend); see John Birdsall's first-daywrite-up here. If you tell the staff you follow ironsideSF on Twitter, that midday sweetie is yours gratis, from 3 to 4 p.m. today. Lauren Englehardt of Rivera Public Relations, who handles PR for the restaurant, confirmed the free cookie deal. Englehardt told SFoodie that today's flavor is peanut chocolate chip. Yesterday's selection was a tad more adventurous: chili and white chocolate chip. Oh well.

​Get yourself down to the Tacolicious stand at the Ferry Plaza street food market today -- it opens at 10 a.m., so you really only have time to down your latte and get moving -- and if you're among the first five people to say "chino loco" to Joe Hargrave and his staff, you'll get a card for two free spicy margaritas at Laoïla, Tacolicious' parent restaurant in the Marina (2031 Chestnut at Fillmore).

T. Palmer

Super Mario-inspired cupcakes from the 2008 competition.

​Last year's inaugural CupcakeCamp competition was so rabid, you had to really want to eat the cupcakes against all odds to have even half a chance to snag one. Trays, which came out once every 10 minutes, took no more than two seconds to be cleared.

With all the talk of an impending cupcake crash, crowds might be even more enthusiastic and chaotic this year before the bottom falls out. Cupcakes will come out every 15 minutes instead of 10, which should only increase the anticipation. Prospective cupcake contestants need to register their entries by September 27; categories include Best Halloween Cupcake, Best Decorated, Best Unique Ingredients, and Best Breakfast-Inspired. The actual event takes place on Sunday, October 4, from 2-5 p.m. at Automattic (Pier 38, Embarcadero and Brannan).

T. Palmer

Poleng's Five Spice Pork Chop

​Poleng Lounge (1751 Fulton at Masonic) has extended last week's free lunch giveaway through this Saturday, September 19. The first 50 people through the door each day this week (they open at 11 a.m.) will receive a ticket good for a free portion of the selected entree of the day from the street-food focused menu (almost everything is under $8). All the food is packaged to go, but you can eat it there.

SFoodie loves a tasty freebie and stood in line last Thursday for 15 minutes before Poleng opened for a shot at the deal. We scored a gratis serving of the succulent five spice pork chop served over vermicelli or rice with sweet nuoc cham ($7) and added a fried egg for a buck, just because it sounded like the right companion. Then we remembered how good the sweet potato fries with banana ketchup ($5) are and ordered those too. Still a bargain.

​SF Weekly restaurant critic Meredith Brody recently enjoyed her meals at pan-Asian eatery/nightclub Poleng Lounge, and mentioned that Chef Timothy Luym would soon reintroduce lunch and tea service with a street food-focused menu largely $8 and under. Well, that lunch started today, about 30 minutes ago in fact. Poleng is celebrating by giving the first 50 diners a free lunch entree every day this week.

As of post time, Poleng's Desi Danganan told SFoodie it had given away 35 free lunches already today, so there's still a possibility of dining gratis -- if you go, like, right now. Otherwise, give 'em a try tomorrow through Friday; lunch is served from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.   

heatherinsf.wordpress.com

A tasty S.O.B.

​Hey, everybody, hurry! There's free Blarf babies in San Francisco! It may not sound appetizing, but don't be scurred: That's just the name for Danny Gabriner's sourdough starter, descendants of which he's offering for free through the Web site of his forthcoming bakery Sour Flour.

If you're really serious about getting into making bread, Gabriner sells a $50 baker's kit that includes everything he thinks is needed to fashion perfect loaves, from instructions and ingredients to containers and half sheet pans. But if you just want your own Sour Blarf, Bastard Blarf, Little Blarfarella, or Bo Blarf (all real Blarf baby names in the Blarf Family Tree), Gabriner will hook you up gratis, a gesture of good faith towards building a better baking community.

Still sound like too much work, lazypants? Gabriner is also more than halfway through a goal he set in May to give away 1000 free loaves of his own bread, so you can simply request a free, already-baked loaf. He blogged his top 20 reasons for doing this, including "fun" and "good karma."

Impersonate the original big-nosed rapper, get sloshed.

​Eater SF reports on a pretty funky freebie in its "Dealfeed": Head on over to Showdogs (1020 Market at 6th) today, perform the "Humpty Dance" (as imagined by legendary Oakland rap group Digital Underground), and you will score a beer on the house. If you don't know the dance, it's real easy to do.

"First, I limp to the side like my leg was broken/Shakin' and twitchin', kinda like I was smokin'/Crazy wack funky/People say, 'You look like MC Hammer on crack, Humpty . . .'"

For more pointers, check out the "Humpty Dance" performed live on The Arsenio Hall Show (featuring a young Tupac Shakur) after the jump.

yumdiary.com

​Eater SF has given us a valuable free tip: Four Barrel Coffee (375 Valencia at 15th St.) is giving away free coffee drinks today. This generosity is to celebrate the cafe's one-year anniversary. There may be free cake and Humphry Slocombe ice cream too, if you get there soon enough. One important detail: Four Barrel will close early today, at 5 p.m.

pickyourown.org

​

Gayle Okumura Sullivan of Dry Creek Peach and Produce in Healdsburg, one of the last peach farms in all of Northern California, will join Omnivore Books owner Celia Sack in hosting a special tasting of Dry Creek's heirloom yellow and white peaches. They'll also oversee a canning swap of your homemade peach preserves (if you're so inclined with an apron).

Okumura should also be able to give you pointers on what else to do with these beauties, from snappy salsa to tipsy bellinis. The free event takes place on Thursday, September 3rd, from 6 to 7 p.m. at Omnivore Books (3885A Cesar Chavez at Church).

cat-chitchat.pictures-of-cats.org

​On Thursday, Pacific Environment will toast the survival of Siberian tigers while honoring Russian tiger conservationist Sergei Berezniuk at a happy hour at 111 Minna. Organizers are promising complimentary "light bites" in addition to the usual cash bar.

We don't know what those snacks will consist of, but if we could just imagine for a moment, we'd recommend Tiger Tails Twinkies, the Bay Area specialty of tiger bread (aka Dutch Crunch rolls), or Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon rolls (shrimp tempura, avocado, cucumber, and unagi) from Sushi Bistro (431 Balboa at Fifth Ave. and 2809 24th St. at York). Hopefully, organizers will be serving Tiger beer, too. Have a grrreat evening this Thursday, August 13, from 5 to 9 p.m. at 111 Minna Gallery (111 Minna at Second St.).

​Don't scream, but there will be free ice cream in Garfield Square Park (3100 26th St. at Harrison) in the Mission on Saturday, August 22, 3-5 p.m., hosted by San Francisco Neighborhood Parks Council. The frozen delights are from Humphry Slocombe, while Anthony's Cookies is providing cookies -- sounds like some potentially awesome ice cream sandwiches in the making. 826 Valencia will also be on hand to present a free creative writing class for kids, which is great because it might distract the little ones away from the food.

Lone Binky/Flickr

It's the summer of Berry Lime Sublime.

Soooo smooth-ie! This week, in an effort to help consumers get their "summer bliss" back -- by heading to stores, rather than, say, chilling on a beach somewhere -- Jamba Juice has a buy one, get one free special. If only it were that easy to find bliss beneath our summer-pattern fog and clouds....

 

Print the online coupon and use it at any stand-alone Jamba Juice location before the promo ends this Sunday, August 9 (no Safeway or Von's locations are offering the special) -- a Bay Area store locator link yielded 47 results. Classic Jamba smoothie flavors include Peach Pleasure, Berry Lime Sublime, Caribbean Passion, Mango-A-Go-Go, Citrus Squeeze and its cousin, Orange-A-Peel, and the vaguely porny-sounding Strawberries Wild.

jillpyle85/Flickr

No, the freebie you get won't be this big.

Overlook the PR materials' überserious tone and rather brooding use of punctuation (Discover. Savor. Share.), and the reality is this: Ciao Bella is dishing out free swag tomorrow. 

At a couple of Whole Foods markets in the city, the national gelato chain is unleashing its 2009 coast-to-coast summer tour on S.F. pavement, handing out 3.5-ounce cups of blood orange, lemon, and mango sorbets, and Tahitian vanilla and chocolate hazelnut gelato. Ciao Bella plans to pull up its Gelato Mobile (done up in colors as bright as some Dora the Explorer backpack) to the Whole Foods at 1765 California (at Franklin) from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and at the store at 399 Fourth St. (at Harrison) from 4 to 7 p.m. And while the promo's branding has a whiff of some grand humanitarian gesture with a touch of, say, Idol Gives Back, don't let that distract you from feeling deliciously selfish about scoring a frozen freebie.

Tags: free food

Premshree Pillai/Flickr

Start thinking about which flavor you'll choose.

 Ice cream fans may be screaming (or flipping out) with delight over the city's plethora of freebies this month, and tomorrow's no exception. From noon to 11 p.m., the newish outpost of Three Twins Ice Cream (254 Fillmore at Haight) is promising what's been called a "free ice cream extravaganza!!!"

Celebrate with Three Twins by having a teeny cup or single-sized serving of organic creamy goodness. Flavors include milk and cookies, vanilla chocolate chip, Strawberry Fields, milk coffee, Madagascar vanilla, and bittersweet chocolate. Actual sales for the day benefit Friends of the Urban Forest, which is totally in keeping with the purveyors' green business practices. Sweet.

After that scoop of Ben & Jerry's this Saturday, foodies can flock to the Union Square Macy's (170 O'Farrell at Powell) cellar for another freebie. At 2 p.m., Delfina executive chef (and ahem! James Beard Award winner) Craig Stoll and pastry chef Koa Duncan will demo and offer tastes of "summer flavors": fresh stretched mozzarella and buttermilk panna cotta. The Delfina panna cotta -which Michael Bauer recently said he "can't forget"-- is a serving of culinary wonder: creamy, fresh, and delicately sweet. Stoll and Duncan are a part of the upcoming SF Chefs.Food.Wine festival, which is a sponsor of the Macy's event. The event is likely meant to get foodies salivating for more: SF Chefs.Food.Wine will run August 6-9 in the Bay Area, with varying events and price points.

Ben & Jerry's certainly doesn't have to invent anything new to hold our interest, but luckily they're excited enough about their new concoction they'll be slinging it for free this Saturday, July 18, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Macy's Cellar (170 O'Farrell at Stockton). Flipped Out! is a new portable snack (ice cream, fudge, and brownies) you invert before eating. Okay, guys, twist our arm.

ruggedelegantliving.com

Chef Daniel Patterson is offering free lunch today.

SFoodie doesn't like to be a tease, but there's something wonderful that we need to tell you about that may or may not still be happening right at this very moment! SFist (via a tip from Tablehopper) reports that chef Daniel Patterson started handing out free lunch about an hour ago at his new rotisserie/sandwich shop Cane Rosso in the Ferry Building. If you're within spitting distance, we modestly suggest getting up out of your seat and running.

"Usually no free lunch," Patterson tweeted. "Today, free lunch . . . until we run out of food."

sffnb.org

Construction is underway on Chez Gay Cafe's Eiffel Tower.

Peacefully demonstrating for pride and equality deserves a reward of snacks. Fortunately, SF Food Not Bombs recognizes this and wants to feed you during your gender-bending day at Trans March tomorrow -- Friday, June 26 -- at Dolores Park (Dolores and 19th St.) from 3-6 p.m.

Look for the hotties in short shorts and tuxedo shirts (and possibly fake mustaches) under a miniature Eiffel Tower. That'll be the 'Chez Gay Cafe,' and free food will not be far behind.