Jake M./Yelp

Reward yourself after tax season with a 99 cent pizza

What: Tax Day Happy Hour

Where: Credo Restaurant, 360 Pine (at Montgomery)

When: Monday, April 16 through Friday, April 20, 2:30 to 6 p.m.

Cost: Pizzas cost $.99 with purchase of a glass of wine or cocktail

The Rundown: Tax season is finally at an end on Monday (unless you've filed for an extension, in which case, you're not invited). In honor of the 99 percent who paid their extensive, regressive dues to the government, Credo is offering 99-cent pizzas to guests who purchase any glass of wine or Tax Day-inspired cocktails at regular price ($10 to $16). What are Tax Day-inspired cocktails? We don't know, but we want to find out.

The elite 1 percent is also invited for the happy hour, but they will be forced to pay an entire dollar instead of 99 cents for one of Credo's delectable pizza specials. Credo says "'One Percenters' will be identified based on a set of highly scientific criteria posted at the Credo bar throughout the week."

"One Percenters" at Credo will be easy to identify, as they will be moaning and groaning at Credo's decision to open up the exclusive downstairs dining area (usually a 1 Percenter's stomping grounds). There, the 99 percent will be welcome to "gather to commiserate about the regressive U.S. tax code over drinks and small plates."

Wendy Hector

The view from Per Diem.

Walking through the doors of Per Diem feels like stepping into another time. Big band music plays, elaborate curtains drape from high ceilings, a massive chandelier glitters overhead. The marble bar looks well worn, softly lit from above by a series of salvaged boat lamps and dominated by a turn-of-the-century water heater that's been repurposed as a draft beer tower. Historic nautical details are everywhere, bringing to mind a 1930s-era cruise ship.

Per Diem injects some much-needed style into the Financial District, a neighborhood without much of a dining identity. The second floor holds another bar and two cozy areas known as the lounge and the library, as well as a small square patio full of lush green plants. Homey details abound: shelves of old books, a table which is really a backgammon board, and an antique (and fully operational) typewriter, from which a sheet of paper emerges emblazoned with a Virginia Woolf quote: "One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well."

If you're seeking sous-vide meats, carbon dioxide foams, and spherified-caviar garnishes, look elsewhere: The Per Diem time-warp effect extends into the kitchen. According to chef Adam Hinojosa, the most high-tech gadgets you'll find in his kitchen are "a bunch of knives and pots." The menu is streamlined, simple, and Italian-inspired, based around locally sourced ingredients right down to "00" flour milled in San Francisco and sea salt from Monterey.

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​What: The Commonwealth Club's Distilled In SF: How To Drink Like A Locavore

Iann Ivy

Perbacco's agnolotti al plin, $13 small / $18 entree

​SFoodie's countdown of our favorite 50 things to eat and drink, 2012 edition ​The best pasta dishes -- like Perbacco's agnolotti dal plin ("pinched" agnolotti), for instance -- embody numerous contradictions: the minimalist and the orgiastic, the peasant-like and the ethereal. More >>

John Birdsall

Curry Up Now has been parking at Bush and Sansome for two years now.

​Yesterday's food feature in the Weekly described the escalating battle between downtown restaurants and food trucks parking on FiDi streets, which began after San Francisco introduced new -- and apparently flawed -- food-truck regulations in March. Last week, I spoke to Akash Kapoor, co-owner of Curry Up Now, whose truck at Bush and Sansome was one of the early arrivals downtown. I talked to Kapoor about competition, being a good neighbor, and how many trucks are too many for the neighborhood.

How long have you been parking in the Financial District now?
We actually purchased a truck that came with a permit two years ago, and we are in the process of getting permits for a new truck. Our hearing is coming up.

What opposition has Curry Up Now received from nearby businesses?
We have received a little, but you know, some of the nearby restaurants that have opened after us don't have too much to say because we were there before them. We're pretty conscious to not serve the same food. One of the reasons we chose the spot we're at now is that there's a Japanese place nearby, and no other restaurants, except a Freshii -- that's the only two restaurants on that block. We try to park in front of Wells Fargo, so there's no restaurant within 50 feet directly in front of there. And fortunately, no one else sells a tikka masala burrito.

In addition, we've encouraged the coffee shop that's next to us to pass out samples to people waiting in line for Curry Up Now. He says his business has gotten better because of us being there. Every couple of months, some restaurant will call the cops on us, and we'll have someone stop by and ask to see our license. Apart from that, relations have been pretty good.

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Miguel Arias

​In place of a full-length restaurant review, the food lead in this week's edition of the Weekly covers a disturbing battle that's emerging in the Financial District. Food trucks granted permits through the city's new street-food legislation have come up against organized, lawyered-up opposition from nearby restaurants and commercial-real estate owners.

In a San Francisco Board of Appeals hearing last week, the board struck down permits the Department of Public Works had granted to Kasa Indian Truck and Doc's of the Bay, though the two businesses had followed the application guidelines to the letter. This ruling could have significant consequences for every food truck in the city -- especially any of the trucks with street-parking permits in the business district.

The city's new legislation, passed unanimously by the Board of Supervisors in December 2010, was meant to facilitate the expansion of the city's growing food truck scene. Instead, the process is taking three times as long, costs almost as much, and leaves food-truck owners with easily nullified permits. Just as worrisome, the FiDi restaurateurs, who pay extremely high rents and do the bulk of their business during only a few hours a day, see the city's new legislation as privileging one type of small business over another.

Troubling all around.

Lou Bustamante

The Foraged Manhattan

​As the days continue to get colder and shorter, so do my drinks -- my preferences slowly shift from tall, juicy, and shaken, to stiff and stirred cocktails. I'm not alone. For lots of people, winter brings an increasing fondness for aged spirits, with whisk(e)y and brandy bold reinforcements for heaters laboring in drafty Bay Area homes.

The drink that is the exact snapshot of this mood is Victoria D'amato-Moran's candy cap mushroom laced Foraged Manhattan ($10, brandy or rye whiskey, sweet vermouth, candy cap syrup) at Belden Taverna. The earthy maple-syrup-and-cinnamon essence compliments the aged spirits and lingers in your palate long after the drink is gone, insisting on a second round.

D'amato-Moran came up with the drink while cleaning a bookshelf and her grandfathers' 1968 copy of Kitchen Magic with Mushrooms, a collection of recipes from the San Francisco Mycological Society, fell on her head. "I joined the society that day, thinking it would calm me down from the bar business ... get away from cocktails on weekends," she explained. After finding wild candy cap mushrooms with a co-member, "The very first thing that came to my head was, 'How do I get these mushrooms into my cocktails?'"

Belden Taverna, 52 Belden (at Bush), 986-8887

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For years, I've been reading reports in local papers and online about the free appetizers at Eddie Rickenbacker's (133 2nd St). Since I couldn't find any mention of the deal on the pub's menu or Web site, I called to ask, and the bartender told me happy hour runs from 5 to 7.

Since at some bars the free food runs out before happy hour is over, and I've walked by the place and seen it completely packed, I got there right at 5. The server said there were no happy hour drink specials. The mojito had the place of honor at the top of the specialty cocktails list, so I gave it a try. The $10 price tag seemed a bit steep for happy hour, but it came in a pint glass, was made with fresh lime just and fresh mint, and tasted full-strength. With the mojito, I got the half a taquito and dollop of guacamole pictured below.

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San Francisco has a longstanding tradition of bars offering free food to customers. In the hard-drinking Victorian era, the "free lunch" was a staple of the city's saloons. By the 1970s, the free buffets had shifted to happy hour, and poor SF State and City College students flocked to places such as the Iron Pot (torn down for a high-rise office building) and the Assay Office (now the far-from-free Bix), where they could get an ample dinner for the price of one beer.

These days, free food is hard to find. One place that keeps up this noble tradition is Schroeder's (240 Front). On Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays, from 4-6pm, happy hour customers can help themselves from a rotating selection of appetizers, usually including delicious spicy meatballs, decent garlic fries, and edible fried chicken, while enjoying selected German draft or bottled beers at reduced prices.

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