John Birdsall

Are SF State students finally going to be able to buy food from trucks like Little Green Cyclo?

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Jun Belen

Kare-kare dumplings from a January 2011 dinner Mercury Lounge held.

​SFoodie received a sad email yesterday afternoon from Dominic Ainza, chef of Mercury Lounge. The SoMa restaurant and lounge is going to close, he wrote, at the end of the month. "It was definitely the economy," he explained, and also speculated the explosion of food trucks contributed to the restaurant's decline, since so many of them specialize in Asian food.

Mercury Lounge describes itself as "global Asian cuisine," but its soul is Filipino, and Ainza became known for cooking innovative modern-Filipino dinners and selling late-night Filipino street food on weekends.

Ainza will stop serving dinners after February 18; Mercury Lounge continue to serve bar bites and drinks until March 1. Check the restaurant's website for a statement tomorrow. And Ainza says he's currently looking around to see what comes next.

W. Blake Gray

Hing Lung's front kitchen, at least, looked presentable.

​The English-language newspapers and food blogs haven't made mention of it, but in early December, the San Francisco Department of Public Health shut down jook hall and longtime SFoodie favorite Hing Lung (674 Broadway) -- and not a temporary closure, either. The dining room of the space has been emptied out, and onflicting rumors have been making their way around Chinatown and the internet: Hing Lung is reopening in January! It's closed for six months! SFoodie spoke today to principal environmental health inspector Lisa O'Malley of the San Francisco Department of Health, who confirmed that it will be six months before Hing Lung can open -- at minimum. More >>

A Three Babes pie

​The best laid plans of people and pie do not always turn out. We've just heard from Three Babes Bakeshop that they've broken off their plan for co-habitation with Bacon Bacon in the old Ashbury Market Space.

As we had originally reported last week, Three Babes was going to open in the joint location today, but according to Three Babes co-babe Lenore, "We weren't able to reach an agreement with Bacon Bacon in order to finalize our moving in last week, so plans for a partnership are no longer on the table."

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Ben Narasin

Lenore Estrada of Three Babes Bakeshop

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Who doesn't love pie? And, sorry various "v" folks, what omnivore doesn't love bacon? Now one purveyor of each are teaming up to move from temp to perm with Bacon Bacon and Three Babes Bakeshop's new, non-portable location opening Monday, Dec. 5 at 205A Fredrick in part of the old Ashbury Market.

"We're moving in on Wednesday and we'll be baking on Thursday," says Three Babes co-founder Lenore Estrada. She also tipped us off to the opening menu for the month. 

Bacon Bacon, previously of food truck only prominence, will offer an array of bacon-breakfast-bites, from cheddar bacon scones to bacon-and-egg sandwiches

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​Is there a Charlie Palmer restaurant coming to San Francisco?

Last night SFoodie walked by the Crescent Hotel and spotted the sign above indicating a change in ownership liquor license to Palmer City-Core Restaurant.

Does this mean the celebrity chef who already has a foothold in Healdsburg with Dry Creek Kitchen is making his way into Union Square? We'll have to wait and see...

Here's the Palmer City-Core application.

bovinity/Flickr

SFoodie even hesitates to post this photo now.

​Remember Burmese Gourmet, the new Burmese food truck in SoMa that SFoodie wrote about a few weeks back? When we were chatting with the truck's owner, William Lue, before telling him we were a reporter for the SF Weekly, he mentioned that he started Burma Superstar several owners before Desmond Htunlin and Joycelyn Lee turned it into a popular business; he wished them all the luck in their success. We reported Lue's statement on the blog, reproducing the post in print.

Well, Burma Superstar was not pleased. Not pleased at all. They've delivered Lue a cease-and-desist letter for even mentioning his connection to Burma Superstar. Before the letter went out, the lawyer contacted me, and I informed him that this was not Lue's formal marketing pitch, just a remark he made to my friend and me while we waited for our food. Lue was quite specific about the chain of ownership.

Today, I received a copy of the cease-and-desist letter, which includes the following paragraphs:

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Earl G./Yelp

Prime Rib Shabu House.

​Three months ago, I was finishing up a review of the new Chinese-America shabu shabu restaurants in the Sunset and Richmond. My favorite? Prime Rib Shabu House, the two-year-old restaurant opened by Luke Sung (Isa's founding chef) and Patrick Wong.

Four days before publication, our photographer went to the restaurant to shoot photos and found the place closed for renovation -- a target (victim?) of Craig Yates, who has been blanketing the neighborhood with ADA-related lawsuits. I had 24 hours to visit one more shabu house and rewrite half of the article.More >>

Hiteshsharma

We bet this restaurant in Dhaba, India didn't pay license fees

​If you own a restaurant, beware Michael Jackson and R. Kelly.

Play their music -- or any other copyrighted songs -- in your restaurant or business without the proper license and you can face fines of $10,000 per song.

Fosters American Grille in Raleigh, N.C., played songs by those two artists -- and two others -- and lost a lawsuit last month that cost $30,450 in fines and $10,700 in attorney's fees.

To be exact, that's $10,287.50 per song.

How likely is that to happen in San Francisco?

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via Michael S./Yelp

The Snack Depot has served customers for over 20 years in its current location.

​After serving SOMA for over 20 years, the Snack Depot at 303 2nd St. is closing.

According to owner George Tannous, the property owner -- Kilroy Realty -- will replace his cafe and others in the complex with "high-end tenants" as the company renovates and remodels the building.

Tannous says management initially promised him that he would be allowed to stay after the remodel, but a few weeks ago they served him with a notice that he had 30 days to get out.

Phone calls to Kilroy have not yet been returned.

Regulars are up in arms about the closure and have begun circulating a petition to support the Snack Depot. Tannous says the petition already has over 600 signatures, and it continues to grow, but he is not optimistic about it having a significant impact.

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