Flickr/allaboutgeorge

The Bold Italic has a fun blog post today with six things you never knew were invented in San Francisco, and one of them took us completely by surprise: the mimosa. As the cited story goes, everyone's favorite brunch drink was invented by the Master of Suspense himself, Alfred Hitchcock, on a rough morning after a night of drinking at Jeanty at Jack's. (He must've been in town a lot -- Vertigo, The Birds, and Shadow of a Doubt were all filmed in or near San Francisco.)

See also: Re-Visiting the Hangtown Fry, the Dish That Epitomizes Gold Rush California
The 20 Most Significant Food Inventions in History
Step Inside S.F.'s Oldest Restaurants With New Interactive Book

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Tandemvines Publishing

Food history buffs, take note: a new digital book available for the iPad through Apple's iBookstore takes a behind-the-scenes look at some of the city's oldest restaurants that opened in the years after the 1906 earthquake. In Tables From the Rubble, author Denise E. Clifton steps inside five iconic San Francisco restaurants -- Swan Oyster Depot, Liguria Bakery, Sam Wo, The Palace Hotel, and House of Shields bar -- and tells their stories through historic and new photographs, menus, recipes, stories, and more.

See also:
- San Francisco is Home to Two of the Oldest Bars in the U.S.: Can You Guess Which Ones?
- Great Moments in San Francisco Food History: Green Goddess
- Cookbook Explores California's Culinary Past

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Many restaurants come and go in San Francisco, while some stay for hundreds of years. Since there's no shortage of good food around these parts, it is the personalities of the defunct places that can stir up the most nostalgia. We don't ever remember a Doggie Diner (1949-1986) wiener as being the best hot dog around, for example, but we are still always strangely comforted to drive past one of the old friendly dog heads resting high above Sloat Boulevard near the San Francisco Zoo, preserved as a local landmark.

What are your favorite San Francisco restaurants of yore? Tell us about 'em in the comments. And while you're reminiscing, check out the four spots we miss most:

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fresh herring

​Ever wonder where the many tons of fish landed by San Francisco Bay's commercial herring fleet throughout the winter go?

There's a growing market for local and sustainable seafood, but the bay's herring -- an inexpensive fish that lends itself to a variety of preparations -- doesn't end up at the wholesalers that line the piers along Fisherman's Wharf. Instead, the fish are processed for their roe, which is consumed as a delicacy in Japan.

That's about to change. Over the summer, local herring fisherman Ernie Koepf was instrumental in getting California Department of Fish and Game regulations revised to allow for a market from November through March for fresh herring. (The prior regulations, geared to the roe fishery, allowed only a token quota: fresh herring could be landed for only two weeks early in the season, before the fish are abundant.) The department will issue up to 10 permits, each allowing a boat to land up to 1,000 pounds of herring per day for the fresh-fish market.

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takver / flickr

Last month, SFoodie discovered that if you're vegan and you go to jail in S.F., you can get vegan meals. Eileen Hirst, chief of staff at the Sheriff's Department, told us that vegan food in S.F. county jails came about because of vegan PETA protesters who were arrested in antifur protests in the '90s.

We're sure that news prompted celebrations all over the Bay Area, but at least one person was infuriated: activist Anita Carswell, who called up SFoodie to set the record straight. PETA had nothing to do with getting vegan food in jails, she says; the credit belongs to her and her organization, In Defense of Animals.

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Rosencruz Sumera

Louis' Restaurant on Point Lobos Ave. reopened today with some menu changes that were more or less mandated by the U.S. government.

The restaurant on federal land, run by the Hontalas family since 1937, was closed by the feds for eight months while the family had to rebid for the contract.

SF Weekly covered the news of the reopening on the Snitch. Here on SFoodie, we thought we'd give you a peek at what menu items the government's demand for locally sourced produce would translate into.

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Photos by W. Blake Gray

Number 4: half a roast five-spice chicken, country salad, and meat sauce on rice

When we're feeling very poor and very hungry, we sometimes drop in to Cordon Bleu on Nob Hill to quietly scarf down a mountain of food at the counter. On our most recent visit, we got to talking with Katie Yu, the proprietor.

Yu is from Hong Kong and has never been to Vietnam. In 1995, she bought the restaurant from its founders, who claimed to have opened San Francisco's first Vietnamese restaurant in 1968. Think about the timing of that: People probably marched right in from antiwar protests to chow down on the country meat sauce.

"I bought it just because it was a small restaurant," Yu said. "I didn't know how popular it is. It's really an institution. The customers said, 'Don't change anything'."

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my_southborough

If you're vegan and you go to jail, do you get vegan meals? In a city with a substantial vegan population, this is no trivial question. It turns out that, while the law does not require jails to provide vegan options, San Francisco County jails do serve vegan meals on request, and we have PETA activists to thank for it.

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Cooking Channel

Emeril Lagasse chats with Buena Vista Cafe's Robert Freeman.

The original bam!-tastic O.G. Food Network veteran, Emeril, just debuted a new show, The Originals with Emeril, on its sister Cooking Channel network. Last night's show may have been a premiere, but there was nothing new-school about it. While everyone else on TV is looking for the new hot restaurant, Emeril is traveling from city to city, focusing on what is still standing and still slinging. The first episode took him to our beautiful city by the bay so, of course, SFoodie was watching.

The episode begins just as you'd expect: bridge shots, Emeril on a cable car, words and phrases like "progressive" and "one of the oldest cities." Within the first few seconds it becomes clear that we're about more than just sourdough (duh!), leading to the inevitable "I Left My Heart in San Francisco." Cue Emeril: "If you wanna be taken seriously in this town, you gotta be in business for at least a century." Good to know.

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dead redhead/Flickr

Irish California: An Evening with the California Historical Society Collection

Where: California Historical Society, 678 Mission (at Annie), 357-1848

When: Tonight, Mar. 16, 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Cost: $4 suggested donation

The rundown: You're over St. Patrick's Day, we get it. It's a phony, white-bread tradition, probably invented by Jameson or Guinness, that leaves the streets littered with plastic hats and green puke. Cheer up, ya cynics: Tonight the California Historical Society hosts a St. Patty's event for the NPR set, with a minifeast and a chance to learn about the Irish immigrant experience in California. They'll be serving small portions of shepherd's pie, mini roast potatoes, soda bread, bangers, corned beef, Irish cheeses, and cookies. Just don't get your grubby mitts all over the historical stuff ― the CHS will be breaking out its collection of Irish "ephemera," with rare artifacts like advertisements, catalogs, menus, theater programs, travel guides, and more. There will also be beer and wine, but probably no keg stands.

Arrive early for the snacks; Kathy Jacobson of the CHS fears there may not be enough for all.

New York refugee Jesse Hirsch tweets at @Jesse_Hirsch. Follow SFoodie at @sfoodie, and like us on Facebook.