These are San Francisco's biggest restaurant openings right now
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We hear Tur's karaage & waffle is a must at this new brunch spot. Photo: Nadia Lopez/Axios
A beloved jazz bar is back. A Michelin-starred chef's Thai spot is about to open. And a new class of pop-ups is graduating to brick-and-mortar.
Why it matters: Your summer is about to get more delicious.
- Here are the restaurant openings we've been tracking across the city.
Happy returns
🎷 Club Deluxe, the Haight Street jazz bar that closed in 2023 after a messy landlord dispute, has been resurrected as The DeLuxe.
- There's live music nightly, a neatly restored art deco interior and a drink list that evokes liner notes you'd find in a CD case, per the Standard.
🥂 The Big Four, a 50-year-old institution, reopened inside the opulently restored Huntington Hotel in Nob Hill.
- The restaurant went dark in 2020, a sign the city's elite "had found new rooms for yoo-hooing," as the Chronicle put it in its review, which was lukewarm on the food but appreciative of the sequins-and-suits evening ambiance.
- Of note: The menu retains the legendary chicken pot pie.
Big Thai energy
🇹🇭 Saam, a buzzy project from the chef behind two Michelin-starred Bangkok restaurants, opens in SoMa next week.
- Thitid "Ton" Tassanakajohn's restaurants regularly rank on the prestigious Asia's 50 Best Restaurants list and sit firmly in the fine dining category.
- For San Francisco, he's going casual, with an a-la-carte menu and family-style dishes, per the Chronicle. Menu specifics are scant, but that's not stopping diners from snapping up reservations.
🍜 Ka Kai opened in the Castro in March with a focus on northern Thai food.
🍤 Sawaan Thai Kitchen opened in the Mission in May, with a menu that includes shrimp donuts they've named "cloud rings."
🍳 Tur, a West Portal spot owned by the couple behind Khao Tiew, opened, with an emphasis on breakfast and lunch.
Pop-ups go permanent
Three well-loved pop-ups are graduating to brick-and-mortar locations.
🌯 Semilla is taking its scratch-made tortillas to a storefront in Sunnydale, per Infatuation. Their breakfast burrito was named one of the best in the Bay Area by the Chronicle.
🍕 Piedays, a pop-up that pumps out thick-crust, Detroit-style pizza in weekly drops, plans to open in the Richmond District on Balboa Street, per Mission Local.
🍞 Rize Up Bakery, known for its array of sourdoughs, including an often-photographed ube loaf with purple crumb, is renovating its production facility to accommodate a café and retail space opening in August. Previously the loaves were only available wholesale and at farmers markets.