Hamdi Ulukaya, the billionaire founder and CEO of Chobani, came out on top in a months-long auction process to sell off Anchor, the 127-year-old brewing company that closed last summer due to declining sales and rough economic conditions. The news was shared to San Francisco City Hall on Thursday, and later confirmed by the San Francisco Chronicle.

Ulukaya and his family office bought all of Anchor’s assets, including its Potrero Hill campus and brewing equipment, for an undisclosed price. Ulukaya told the Chronicle he hopes to get the brewery running again as soon as the city allows it, saying: “Wouldn’t it be amazing to get it going in time to make the Christmas ale this year?”

Anchor was one of the first craft-beer brewers in America, and its unique brewing techniques quickly made it an icon far beyond San Francisco. However, a downturn in beer sales across the country — a more-than 3 percent drop in volume in 2022 alone, according to the trade group, the Brewers Association — landed it in a perilous position in recent years.

The brand was sold to the Japanese brewer Sapporo in 2017, which decided to discontinue it last July. When the news broke, it sparked a flurry of hoarding by beer lovers who fanned out across the city to find the last bottles and taverns pouring Anchor.

For a brief period, the union that works at Anchor, Warehouse Union Local 6, tried to raise funds to purchase the brand. It dropped that effort in April “due to the competing bid amounts from other interested parties,” it wrote on Instagram. The union did not respond immediately to a request to comment about Anchor’s new owner.

Here are a dozen of the most eagerly anticipated restaurants expected to make their debut in the last half of the year, with a few inching even closer to opening day.

Eos & Nyx, San Jose

The entrepreneurs behind an impressive restaurant venture named after the Greek goddesses of dawn and night — Eos & Nyx —  are hoping to energize a key downtown San Jose block with their modern Mediterranean concept.

Hospitality industry veterans Dan Phan, Johnny Wang and George Lahlouh, who co-own the spirit-centric MiniBoss, Paper Plane and Still OG, all downtown, are bullish on Urban Catalyst’s plans for Paseo, on the site of the old Camera 12 movie complex.

They’ve leased nearly 4,000 square feet for their Eos & Nyx restaurant, and construction is well under way. Schematic designs show an angular and dramatic space with 20-foot-high ceilings, live trees and wood design elements.

Managing partner and GM Ronald Bonifacio and executive chef Nicko Moulinos promise an innovative menu that features the influences of France, Spain, Italy, Greece and North Africa. Dinner, lunch, brunch and craft cocktails will be served both inside and alfresco.

Details: Planning a summer opening at 201 S. Second St., San Jose.

The Monk’s Kettle, Oakland

For nearly 17 years, The Monk’s Kettle served as a sort of church for beer lovers in San Francisco’s Mission District, pouring revered tipples like St. Bernardus Belgian Tripel and smoked Aecht Schlenkerla Urbock (gesundheit!).

But this spring, owners Christian Albertson and Nat Cutler posted a heartfelt Dear John letter announcing their intent to move out of the city, bemoaning the “crazy delivery fee numbers” and “drastically changed customer behavior” that’s damaged the pub environment. “I would say in a nutshell, the city just hasn’t recovered,” says Albertson. “And it’s not just from the pandemic, it’s really been in the works for the last decade where the economics of the city have really made people move out. In a way, we’re really chasing the clientele.”

Well, the Mission’s loss is Oakland’s gain – Rockridge’s, to be specific, that tony neighborhood of boutique shops and buzzy restaurants. The new Monk’s will feature a more spread-out space with perhaps 80 seats and plenty of standing room, plus parklets out front and a back deck with a roof trellis to protect against the elements. In other words, it’ll be a great place to hang for hours while guzzling beer and munching on chef Raiden Brenner’s elevated farm-to-table grub – including a much-lauded burger with stout-onion jam and gruyere, killer pretzels with beer cheese and fried-chicken sandos with hop-salt fries.

“We’re going to bring over our draft system with 28 drafts and do something similar with the bottle list of probably 60 to 80 bottles,” says Albertson. Those rotating drafts have featured the Russian River Brewing Company, Santa Rosa’s Moonlight Brewing and Fort Bragg’s North Coast Brewing, among others. With the move, expect East Bay beers — including Ghost Town, Cellarmaker and Temescal Brewing — to feature heavily as well.

“We’re just really excited and honestly, it feels in a way we’re getting back to what Monk’s was a decade ago, until the city fell apart and went a little haywire,” says Albertson. “We love the new space and neighborhood, and we couldn’t be happier.”

Details: Scheduled to open in September at 5484 College Ave., Oakland; monkskettle.com. (Monk’s also has a location in San Rafael.)

Pedro’s, Los Gatos

How many combination plates and margaritas do you suppose have been served in the past 52 years?

Pedro’s Restaurant & Cantina, the classic Mexican restaurant that has held forth in downtown Los Gatos since 1972, is temporarily closed for a major renovation of both the interior and the menu.

What began as a 12-table restaurant more than 50 years ago has gone through two expansions since, including opening a massive location near California’s Great America in Santa Clara. That’s where Pedro’s fans will need to get their fix until the Los Gatos original reopens.

Diners can expect a new food and drink menu that balances creativity, seasonality and authenticity, the Pedro’s team says, while retaining generational classics such as chiles rellenos and enchiladas. And longtime general manager Harry will be back to welcome customers.

Details: Look for a late summer reopening at 316 N. Santa Cruz Ave., Los Gatos; www.pedrosrestaurants.com.

The Black Cat, Livermore

Livermore’s dining scene continues to heat up with the imminent arrival of The Black Cat, a restaurant and bar that will highlight natural wines, eclectic small plates and tins of seafood known as conservas.

The Black Cat is the passion project of Dina Parks, daughter of the head winemaker at Plowboy Wine in the Sierra foothills, and restaurateur Gianni Schell, who owns Livermore’s Rebel Kitchen & Libations. The space is undergoing renovations to transition from its old life as a Mexican restaurant into a charming, retro-themed space with natural wood, pops of contrasting color and midcentury light fixtures. There’s a lush back patio and garden, with mismatched bistro sets, colorful umbrellas and picnic tables, and a restored vintage photo booth inside.

“We have just hired our chef, Abel Visa, who is the creator of Aguita Dinner Club (in Los Angeles) and has experience at numerous L.A. restaurants, such as Poltergeist and All Day Baby,” says Parks. “We are currently creating a menu based on seasonal and local ingredients. There is no specific cuisine, but the dishes are inspired by the foods that Gianni and I love to eat, but done in our own way.” That means small bites like “fresh crudo, Japanese sweet potato, bone marrow and an anchovy snack plate with Wingen Bakery sourdough which is down the street from us.”

The restaurant will stock traditional wines from California — including Wood Family Vineyards, Soda Rock Winery and Retzlaff Vineyards — as well as natural wines from the U.S., Europe and South America. The cocktail list is small but focused on craft ingredients in concoctions such as the Cat’s Meow, made with black sesame-infused aged rum, Amaro Averna and honey.

“We are crazy cat lovers,” explains Parks. “So 10 percent of proceeds from this cocktail will go to local cat-rescue groups, such as one I used to foster cats called Paws That Matter.”

Details: The Black Cat plans to open in early June at 2241 First St., Livermore; blackcatlivermore.com.

Rise Woodfire, Santa Clara

Restaurateur Omid Zahedi, who transformed the historic San Mateo train station into a huge eatery and bar with outside dining during the pandemic, has turned his sights to the South Bay.

He’s opening his second Rise Woodfire restaurant — with wood-fired rotisserie chicken, salmon, ribs, prime rib and pizza — in the largest restaurant space at Rivermark Plaza in Santa Clara. There will be house-baked pies too (maybe in time for summer’s stone fruit).

Zahedi grew up in the fast-food pizza business — his Iranian immigrant father opened pizzerias after coming to this country — but chose the financial services field for his career. Years later, he developed a passion for “the new wave of fine pizza” and built a brick oven on a trailer to practice on family and friends and serve at charity events.

Once the recipes were perfected, he and wife Susan Payrovi launched their first eatery, Rise Pizzeria, in downtown Burlingame in 2017.

Details: Expected to open in late summer at 3905 Rivermark Plaza, Santa Clara; www.risewoodfire.com

Calicraft, Walnut Creek

The Walnut Creek-based brewery is working on three big expansion projects right now: adding a rooftop bar in downtown Walnut Creek; building a new research and development brewing, winemaking and distilling space in Walnut Creek’s Shadelands area and launching a new taproom in Davis.

According to brewmaster Thomas Vo and CEO Blaine Landberg, the first of these to open will be a new rooftop bar and taproom planned in downtown Walnut Creek above Va de Vi. One of just two rooftop bars in the city, the new Calicraft venture will have an outdoor deck and indoor drinking space. They’re also working on building out their non-alcoholic drink offerings, with beverages like a new mint-and-ginger spritz, as a way of making their brewery a “third place” — one where people of all ages feel comfortable hanging out that’s neither home nor work.

Next, they’ll expand their production facility to not only brew more beer but expand into winemaking and distilling. The new 10,000-square-foot, two-story building in Walnut Creek will offer research and development space to broaden their offerings beyond beer. The team recently returned from a visit to Louisville, Kentucky, where they got pointers on adding whiskey distilling to their repertoire. And on the winemaking front, they’re hoping to make natural-style wines that celebrate the region and play with unorthodox grapes. That’s currently set to open in spring or summer of 2025.

And the Davis project — a new taproom and beer garden — is on deck for fall of 2025. Why Davis? Several Calicraft staffers are alums of UC Davis’ prestigious brewing program.

Details: Calicraft plans to open its rooftop taproom at 1501 Mt. Diablo Blvd. in Walnut Creek in early September; calicraft.com.

Giorgio’s, Mountain View

Red-sauce lovers who’ve been missing Frankie Johnnie & Luigi Too since the vintage El Camino Real restaurant closed for redevelopment a few years ago can rejoice: The Italian classics are coming back.

Giorgio’s, a sibling restaurant from the D’Ambrosio family, will open this summer in the new mixed-use development being constructed near Castro Street.

Look for the same great recipes (insider tip: the Sausage Bread is stuffed with links from their New York Style Sausage Co. in Sunnyvale) but a different footprint. There will be about 60 indoor and patio seats for onsite dining, as the new restaurant puts a greater emphasis on takeout, delivery and corporate catering.

For those new to the D’Ambrosio clan, they’ve been cooking in the Bay Area since 1956. The original Giorgio’s is located on Foxworthy in San Jose; there’s also one in Milpitas and the newest location in Morgan Hill. And the Frankie, Johnnie & Luigi nameplate lives on in Dublin.

Details: Slated to open in late June or early July at 939 W. El Camino Real, Mountain View; www.giorgiositalianfood.com/mountain-view

Daryoush, Walnut Creek

Berkeley’s popular Persian restaurant will be opening on Walnut Creek’s Locust Street in early June, after redevelopment at the original location forced a move, says owner Daryoush Ermagan. That’s bad news for Berkeley denizens, but excellent news in The Creek, where the eatery is taking over the downtown spot formerly occupied by Kaiwa Sushi.

Expect to enjoy the same Persian fare that has delighted Daryoush devotees near the UC Berkeley campus: Colorful appetizers including Panir Sabzi (marinated feta with fresh herbs) and Kashk-e-Bademjan (roasted eggplant dip), and 14 variations on the kebab theme, from Chicken Koobideh and Shishlik (lamb) to Salmon Kabob and Jujeh, skewered Cornish game hen.

Details: Daryoush plans to open in June at 1534 Locust St. in Walnut Creek; daryoush.com.

Petiscos, Gilroy

Carlos and Fernanda Carreira are expanding their popular Portuguese small plates concept beyond San Jose’s Little Portugal neighborhood and downtown San Jose — to Gilroy first and who knows where next?

The family that won San Jose’s first Michelin star for Adega had been balancing both that upscale restaurant and their more casual Petiscos concept. Now they and their executive chef, David Costa, are concentrating on Petiscos and their Pastelaria bakery.

What can South County diners expect? A menu with dozens of savory Portuguese choices, including Flamed Chourico, Shrimp Fritters, Codfish Cakes, Cuttlefish Tempura, Duck Rice, Pork & Clams and Roasted Octopus. Pastry chef Jessica Carreira makes the desserts, both classic and contemporary.

Look for an impressive wine list, as the Carreiras were wine importers before they got into this end of the business.

Details: Opening later this year at 7574 Monterey Road, Gilroy; www.petiscosadega.com

Crush’d, Danville

From the mind of Francis Hogan, the chef behind Pleasanton’s Sabio on Main, comes a new restaurant concept: Crush’d.

The new spot will offer 24 wines on tap, charcuterie, cheese and seasonal small plates, and a gourmet mini-market beginning in mid-June. The wine bar’s taps are a big deal to Hogan, who says storing wine in kegs lets wine bars optimize their by-the-glass experience. The wine temperature can be precisely controlled and there’s generally less exposure to oxygen, which can dampen a wine’s aroma and flavors, with this method than if the wine is served from an already-opened bottle.

“We’re really focused on changing the narrative about wines on tap,” he says.

Details: Expected to open in mid-June at 312 Railroad Ave. in Danville.

Pivot, Pleasanton

Hogan is also well into the ambitious process of reimagining this former Faz location in Pleasanton and converting it into a modern sports bar.

“At its core, it’s going to be everything you know and love about a sports bar,” he says, with flat screens showing sports from around the world, from the Super Bowl to morning cricket games.

The menu will offer sports bar favorites and classics, but with an elevated spin. Chicken wings, for instance, will come from free-range chickens sourced from the Central Valley, and sauces will be made from scratch.

The restaurant will also offer four private suites designed to mimic those at Chase Center, which offer passed hors d’oeuvres and a comfortable, private space for watching sports. And if you prefer to play, as well as watch, Hogan has partnered with Topgolf to create simulator suites for playing virtual golf.

Details: Pivot is expected to open this fall at 5121 Hopyard Road in Pleasanton.

Raising Cane’s, Hayward, San Jose

Cult favorites can be just as highly anticipated as restaurants with Michelin cred.

Such is the case with Raising Cane’s, which is bringing its signature chicken fingers to two more Bay Area cities, two years after making its regional debut. In the coming months, fans and the Cane’s-curious should be able to buy the crunchy, fried-to-order chicken breast strips in San Jose at the Evergreen Circle Project and in the East Bay at the Hayward Center.

Founded in Baton Rouge, the Raising Cane’s chain is known for maintaining a strict menu focus — just chicken fingers with one signature dipping sauce, crinkle-cut fries, cole slaw and Texas toast. Customers may purchase a single chicken finger, a few as a combo, loaded on a sandwich or in large party packs.

The beverage menu, also concise, includes sweet tea and “unsweet” tea, both freshly brewed throughout the day; lemonade that’s freshly squeezed daily; and fountain soft drinks.

Details: Expect opening dates to be set soon for 2394 Evergreen Place, San Jose, and 26231 Mission Blvd., Hayward; www.raisingcanes.com/home

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STILL COMING

We’ve highlighted these much-anticipated restaurants before, and they recently confirmed that, yes, they are still on the way!

Ocean Oyster Bar & Grill, Redwood City: Ocean, a restaurant in Union City with a large menu of fresh fish, seafood and raw bar offerings, is taking over the prime location on Redwood City’s Broadway that housed the Spaghetti Factory until early in the pandemic.

Hobee’s, San Jose: This venerable breakfast establishment is taking over a German beer garden downtown. Camille and Daniel Chijate, owners of the long-running Hobee’s chain, are opening soon in a historic blue Victorian on North Second Street.

The Silos, Morgan Hill: Ross Hanson, owner of the popular Oak & Rye artisanal pizzeria in Los Gatos, says work is coming along nicely on his new place called The Silos in the historic Granary District on Depot Street. Look for a big bar program and shareable small plates.

The Alameda County Health Department inspected the McDonald’s, located near downtown at 1330 Jackson St., on Friday and found a dead rat in the kitchen. The restaurant was shut down until health violations could be remedied.

The employees went on strike this Saturday, calling for the ownership to clean the premises and guarantee their pay while the McDonald’s is closed.

“We are not trained to clean up rat feces and urine and we do not have protective equipment,” they wrote in a strike notice. “We demand that management bring in professionals to deal with the unsanitary, unsafe environment.”

The health-department inspection was triggered when employees filed a complaint to Cal/OSHA on May 1, writing: “We see rats in the kitchen every day. We see rats at the grill where we make the hamburgers, nibbling on pieces of bacon or on hamburgers that are ready to be sent to the customers, and we see rat droppings next to the bags of chicken nuggets, Big Macs and the papers we wrap around cheeseburgers.”

“I have seen rat excrement in the paper that we use to wrap food, by the nuggets and in the sauce packet containers by the drive through,” alleged a worker in the complaint.

Videos the workers shared online show a rat — or rats, it’s hard to tell them apart — scurrying on top of a bacon station and lodged in a hole in a food warmer. The workers have personally killed several rats with brooms, they say.

In their complaint they note that management sent out exterminators in March, but that they “still hear and see rats every day,” especially coming down from the ceiling.

In a statement last week, franchise owner Joseph Wong said: “It’s very important to me as a small business owner in Oakland that my employees have a safe place to work. When we became aware of the issue, we immediately contacted pest control and continued to work with them to address the issue.”

The striking workers have a rally scheduled outside the McDonald’s at 5 p.m. on May 7, where they hope to emphasize their demands.

Maria Maldonado, statewide director of the California Fast Food Workers Union, said in a statement: “This is a long-standing problem that needs to be addressed by adequately trained professionals before workers or customers step foot in the store again.”

Started in Berkeley in 1990 by music-loving record collectors Marc Weinstein, Dave Prinz and Mike Boyder, Amoeba sprouted locations in San Francisco and Hollywood and soon became the biggest independent music store in the world. Amoeba sells and trades records, sure, but it has also delivered legendary in-store concerts with Valhalla-level artists like Patti Smith and Paul McCartney.

Downloading, streaming and the pandemic took their toll in recent years, and Amoeba was forced to temporarily close its L.A. store. But it’s since reentered the good times, surging on a wave of vinyl demanded by a new generation of vintage record lovers. Step into the Berkeley location, and you’ll be overwhelmed by the delightful things on offer. There are sections for jazz, metal, New Orleans, soundtracks and spoken word (like “Allen Ginsberg Reads Kaddish,” which the poet wrote on Dexedrine and LSD). There are $100 sealed Miles Davis LPs and $1 cassette tapes, T-shirts for The Germs and Public Enemy and clothing patches for James Brown and the Sex Pistols.

These days, Prinz lives in Point Reyes but spends time on Maui, where he paused during a recent tropical squall to chat.

Amoeba wouldn’t exist without cannabis >>>

After Prinz sold his Bay Area chain of Captain Video stores in the 1980s, he was looking for something else to get into. Shopping at San Francisco’s Streetlight Records, he met Weinstein, the store manager, and formed a fragrant bond. “I used to bring back pot from Hawaii, which he’d never had,” Prinz recalls. They decided to open an independent music store in a college town — Berkeley. “We became pretty good friends, and that’s how Amoeba started – me smoking Hawaiian pot with Marc Weinstein.”

A huge day in Amoeba history involved Sir Paul McCartney >>>

Amoeba has held in-store concerts for everyone from Nancy Sinatra to Brian Wilson, Elvis Costello, The White Stripes and Billie Eilish. Prinz’s favorite memory? In 2007, Paul McCartney and his touring band recorded a secret concert at the Hollywood Amoeba. In the audience was Alanis Morissette, Joe Walsh and Ringo Starr. “Ringo didn’t really like to be in crowds, and he was a little nervous,” says Prinz. “I said, ‘Why don’t you stand in my row, and I’ll guard the end?’ Ringo felt comfortable enough in the crowd to watch his old bandmate.”

Celebrities love (and love shopping at) Amoeba >>>

Eric Clapton was swarmed by customers on his visit, but Jimmy Page and Robert Plant have shopped there with no problems – though Plant, when asked to step around a security gate, joked that “for a bunch of hippies, you guys sure have a lot of rules!”

Prinz was “totally surprised” that vinyl came back >>>

For a while, the customer base at Amoeba was aging. It was like a baseball team with no farm system – you need young people coming up through the ranks to shop and trade, and that wasn’t happening. Then somehow, vinyl became popular again. “Kids are buying vinyl, and it’s cool,” says Prinz. “I can’t tell you why, exactly. I guess people came to the realization that it’s cool. It’s always been cool. It wasn’t viewed as cool for a while, but now it’s cool again.

“We love to have kids from UC Berkeley shop in our stores, because they’re the future of America and the future of people who are going to support the music industry. Having kids shop for vinyl again has changed everything. Go to a store on Record Store day, and you’ll see how many there are, looking for artists they care about.”

CDs aren’t headed for the landfill, just yet >>>

Sales may be down for new compact discs, but Amoeba is selling more used CDs than ever before. “There’s a big market for those, because there’s a lot of stuff not on vinyl right now,” Prinz says.

And don’t throw away your old boombox >>>

Everything has its cycles. Right now, physical media is experiencing a huge boom. “Even cassettes are popular again, which is really crazy,” says Prinz. “That’s a format you’d think would be totally dead by now.”

Expect a big Louis Armstrong project to drop soon >>>

Prinz has spent almost a decade hunting down items from the jazz giant’s 400-page discography and hopes to do, he says, what “iTunes and Spotify couldn’t do, which is actually put a discography of an artist together correctly.” Armstrong was never beholden to one label – he recorded for more than 50. When Decca tried to lock him up by sending thugs out to “persuade” him (this was a real practice), he moved to France to record for a couple of years.

Prinz tracked down hundreds of sources from around the planet to gather and remaster his catalog. “It was like putting together a giant jigsaw puzzle,” he says. “At least half the songs in that discography weren’t official releases, and most people haven’t heard them. I’d like to get those out sometime soon as a downloading site (supported by donations). I think that’d be a real gift to the world.”

The jams an independent record-store founder listens to are … obscure >>>

“I love collecting records, that’s how I got into this business,” Prinz says. “My dream was, I used to go into a record store, right? And I’d see this big stack of cool records that just came in and see a guy going over them and then the owner coming over to look at them. I said, ‘I want to be that guy – the guy who gets to look at the stack of records first, before everybody else gets in there, and you have to fight for the ones everybody wants.’ And now I am.”

Prinz has about 4,000 CDs and perhaps 6,000 LPs, but what he’s digging at the moment is playing 78s on a 1948 Wurlitzer jukebox. “I have almost every Django Reinhardt 78 – he’s one of my favorite artists – and a lot of rockabilly 78s. I just got this amazing 78 of Eddie Bond doing ‘Slip, Slip, Slippin’ In,’ which I’ve been looking for for years. I got Ray Charles’ ‘Hit the Road Jack’ recently, which is a great 78 to hear, and 10 Beatles 78s, real ones, like an acetate of the Beatles doing ‘Crying, Waiting, Hoping’ at a BBC session. That’s what I’m really into, so I’m really retro.”

More…

Amoeba Music is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday at 2455 Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley and 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. daily at 1855 Haight St. in San Francisco.

Hear Bay Beats — streaming music playlists that showcase local artists, a collaboration with the San Francisco Public Library — at baybeats.sfpl.org.

Of course, everyone has their own niche preference. Some crave crunchy, while others lean chewy. And sweetness is a continuum unto itself. The one sure thing: We know a great chocolate chip cookie when we taste it.

Here’s a guide to some of the best in the Bay Area. (Did we miss your favorite? Tell us about it via the submission form at the end.)

East Bay Bakery, Danville and farmers markets in Danville, Walnut Creek, Orinda

It’s not surprising that some of the East Bay suburbs’ chewiest, most chocolaty chocolate chip cookies come from chef Gaby Lubaba. Her small but popular bakery in a strip mall near Blackhawk has wowed locals and food critics with its unique spins on baked goods, including signature croffles and treats inspired by Lubaba’s native Indonesia.

Generally, the selection at the bakery is wide-ranging. But when it comes to cookies, Lubaba usually sticks to one flavor – chocolate chip – and focuses on doing it really, really well. We were warned that the cookies, baked fresh every morning, can sell out by noon. Fortunately, you don’t need to drive all the way out to Blackhawk to get the cookies. East Bay Bakery also operates stands at weekend farmers markets in downtown Danville, Walnut Creek and Orinda.

The cookie: As one friend announced on first bite, “This is a substantial cookie.” The cookies ($4 each) are large, and their beautifully balanced brown-butter dough is loaded with slabs of chocolate, instead of mere chips. It’s almost as if the cookies contain rich chocolate deposits — a Mother Lode of chocolate — which may spill out when you bite in, so keep a napkin handy.

Details: The Danville shop is open from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday-Friday and 9 a.m.-2 p.m. on weekends at 9000C Crow Canyon Road. Find the bakery stall at the Orinda and Danville farmers markets from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturdays and at the downtown Walnut Creek farmers market from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Sundays. https://eastbaybakery.squarespace.com

Choc Cookies, Santa Clara

It’s a good thing Choc’s website gives the bakery’s location as “in an alley behind a gas station.” You’d never find it otherwise. But it’s definitely worth the effort to find this hidden gem, which serves up some of the tastiest — and certainly biggest cookies — in the South Bay.

Each cookie clocks in at just over 5 ounces, which the Choc folks point out is roughly the size of four “normal cookies.” That makes them big enough to split with a friend — or two friends. No wonder Choc has become so popular with college students. (The late-night hours certainly don’t hurt either.)

The only caveat: Cookies are only sold by the foursome ($14.90-$16.90), so you’d better really, really like cookies.

The cookie: One giant chocolate chip cookie, with its crisp baked surface and warm, gooey interior, and you won’t even want to think about dinner. The chocolate chip is the star of the cookie menu here, which also typically includes cookies and cream, triple chocolate and ube crinkle.

Details: Open for pick-up/delivery from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday-Thursday and until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday at 1614 Pomeroy Ave. in Santa Clara; choccookies.com.

La Noisette Sweets, Kensington and Berkeley

Growing up in Morocco, Alain Shocron would see his mother’s chocolate mousse cooling in the kitchen and – as little kids are wont to do – dip his finger in for a lick. That deep, unforgettable chocolatey taste led Chocron down a rabbit hole of baking and, after a long career as a hairstylist, he finally indulged his passion by opening a pastry shop in Berkeley.

La Noisette Sweets’ headquarters is only open two days a week, but on Sundays you’ll find Shocron holding court in a prominent spot at the Kensington Farmers Market, a charming East Bay bazaar with vivid vegetables, fresh seafood and live jazz. Jars of his mother’s super-rich mousse are on display, as are buttery croissants, galettes gianduja, creamy mille feuille and a compact but star-studded roster of chocolate-chip cookies.

The cookie: None of the chef patissier’s cookies are overly sugared, instead relying on quality chocolate and a well-measured hit of salt to deliver the flavor. The chocolate chip is an excellent version of the classic, soft and chewy with imported Valrhona chocolate and vanilla-smoked Maldon salt ($5). But if it’s chocolate you’re really after – CHOCOLATE with all-caps – then go for the triple-chocolate cookie with intensely flavored Valrhona P125, which Shocron grinds into a fine powder, as well as milk chocolate, opalys (white-chocolate chips) and a snowfall of cocoa dust on top. That’s actually four kinds of chocolate, and it’s all gluten-free, if you want to make the argument that any of this is remotely healthy for you.

Details: Open from 7 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Wednesday and 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday at 2701 Eighth St., Suite 116 in Berkeley and from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sunday at the Kensington Farmers Market at 379-389 Colusa Ave., Kensington; lanoisettesweets.com.

Icing on the Cake, Los Gatos

“We are chip happy,” bakery founder Lynn Magnoli says of the Icing on the Cake crew and clientele. Not only are there several varieties of chocolate chip cookies, but chocolate chips are also worked into pound cakes, brownies and banana cakes at this wildly popular shop that’s been open nearly four decades, since 1985.

But we’re here for the cookies ($3.75 to $4.25), and customer demand has resulted in lots of choices. These big, satisfying cookies are all made with real butter (except the vegan Top Notch) and semisweet chips. There’s the classic, the Studly Do Right (with walnuts and sea salt), the Oatmeal Chocolate Chip, the Dee-Luxe (semisweet and white chips, walnuts, coconut), the Chocolate Cherry Chunk (with brandy-soaked cherries), the Triple Chocolate, plus nutty, vegan and other options. You can also purchase logs of dough to bake at home and Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough shots.

After 39 years of running the shop and developing recipes, Magnoli has just sold the business — and recipes — to former employee Maggie Raye, who vows not to take anyone’s favorite out of the bakery case.

The cookie: There’s no single base recipe, which means you may be tasting many to find the texture you desire. They had us at “brandy-soaked cherries,” but the Hippie Chip, a dairy-free, flour-less cookie made with almond butter, eggs and honey, was a delightfully chewy discovery. Loved the sliced almonds in that one.

Details: Open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Saturday at 50 W. Main St., Los Gatos, with phone orders (408-354.2464) accepted starting at 8 a.m. www.icingonthecakebakery.com

Doh!, Lafayette

If you want to taste any of Sonya Ginsburg’s delectable Doh! cookies, you’ll have to plan ahead. Order your treats at least 24 hours in advance — and by the boxful — then pick up your freshly-baked batch in downtown Lafayette. Ginsburg’s cookies are worth that extra effort. And she sells the dough too, in case you want to bake them  at home for that warm-out-of-the-oven experience.

Ginsburg didn’t start out as a professional baker. She left a 20-year career in project management to go to culinary school at Diablo Valley College and found she had a knack for creating unique variations on the drop-cookie template. A generous dusting of Maldon salt flakes, for example, gives her chewy chocolate chip cookies a nice balance of salty and sweet.

The cookies: Other cookies that wowed us include her stellar peanut butter chocolate chip; a Chai Latte cookie studded with white chocolate chips and rolled in sugared chai powder; the Cafe Latte, filled with white and semi-sweet chocolate chips and espresso powder; and the Caramel Pecan Pie, loaded with salted caramel chips and candied pecans. Boxes of 13 or more cookies start at $30.

Details: Doh! offers curbside pickups on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays at 271 Lafayette Circle, Lafayette. Order at https://cookiedohpro.com/, then arrange an exact pickup time via email.

Little Sky Bakery, Menlo Park, Los Altos and assorted farmers markets

This farmers market darling wows with its giant chocolate chip cookies, which come with and without nuts (we tried both, obviously). The giant cookies on offer, which included a tempting dark chocolate with dried cherries option at the Menlo Park bakery’s outdoor stand, are so hefty, two of them threatened to rip right through their paper bag.

The cookie: Go for the nutty version ($6), and you’ll be blown away. Not only does this cookie contain walnuts and pecans, it has dried apricot bits mixed in among the large, melty dark chocolate chunks. Besides, dried fruit makes this healthy, right?

Details: Open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily at 506 Santa Cruz Ave. in Menlo Park and 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday at 170 State St. in Los Altos; littleskybakery.com.

Sideboard, Danville and Lafayette

Over the years, Sideboard has become a town hot spot, where residents flock for high-quality, rustic, comfort food. But those long lines aren’t comprised just of fans ordering breakfast, lunch or dinner fare. There’s the bakery lineup, too. Sideboard’s scrumptious muffins, scones and other baked goods are made, like everything else on the menu, from scratch.

Sideboard is especially known for its really, really good chocolate chip cookies – reminiscent of the cookies your grandmother might have had cooling on the kitchen counter when you arrived. Enjoy those cookies as dessert ($3.65 each) after tucking into a hearty lunch of fried chicken, mac and cheese or a Thai chicken salad. But they’re also a yummy afternoon treat with a latte or tea.

The cookie: Erin Andrews, Sideboard’s chef and owner, said she’s a fan of chewy cookies, so that’s what her chefs bake fresh every day: large, golden cookies, with crinkly, crispy tops and loaded with chips. In one of the few times Andrew uses anything but locally-sourced ingredients, she said the chips come from a French chocolate maker.

Details: Sideboard is open from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily at 90 Railroad Ave. in Danville and 3535 Plaza Way in Lafayette; https://www.sideboard.co.

Butter Pecan Bakeshop, Pleasant Hill, Emeryville and Pinole

Is there any combo better than warm cookies straight from the oven and a cold glass of milk? You’ll find both at Butter Pecan Bakeshop, a newcomer that draws lines out the door for its unapologetically sweet cookies in flavors like Dark Chocolate Sea Salt and Chunky Monkey (chocolate chips, walnut, fresh banana).

Wendell Hunter, a Cal Bear who played briefly in the NFL, wandered into the baking world during the pandemic. Now he has three Butter Pecan Bakeshops and a fourth coming later this year to Fairfield.

“I used my grandma’s nut-cake recipe and turned it into our brown-butter pecan cookie,” Hunter says. “I developed a perspective on what the perfect cookie should taste like and decided to make an entire line of cookies. My ideal cookie was buttery, delicious, handmade and tasted like your grandma made ‘em. This was a sharp contrast from other popular chains that focused on oversized, doughy, dry cookies slathered with icing and weird stuff like gummy bears.”

These are cookies for fans with an intense sweet tooth – and don’t expect any concessions. There are no vegan, gluten-free or low-sugar options. We’re talking real butter, flour, eggs and sugar.

The cookie: As fun as it is to sample the entire lineup, with rotating flavors arriving every month – Banana Pudding or Rocky Road, anyone? – it’s hard to go wrong with the classic chocolate chip ($3.75). It’s a substantial discus of brown-butter dough studded with gooey hunks of chocolate, crispy on the outside and soft and melty within. Get it freshly baked and pair it with milk.

Details: Open daily at 6472 Hollis St. in Emeryville, 2360C Monument Blvd. in Pleasant Hill and 1889 San Pablo Ave. in Pinole; butterpecanbakeshop.com.

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Pacific Cookie Company, Santa Cruz

This Surf City landmark has been wowing chocolate chip cookie fans since 1980, when Larry and Shelly Pearson opened their cookie shop in downtown Santa Cruz.

All these years later, the company still follows the same basic recipe for success, offering up such incredible sweet treats as the Almond Joe cookie (toasted almonds, semi-sweet chocolate chips and coconut) at prices that defy inflation. A single chunky cookie, which will satisfy most people’s sweet cravings, runs just $1.50, with a Baker’s Dozen (13 cookies) going for $16.

Plus, the place is open late, which makes it an ideal stop — perhaps for a Mom’s Special (two cookies, one milk for $3.70) — after catching a movie or a concert downtown.

The cookie: There are so many different takes on the classic, and every one is delicious. We dig the Almond Joe — a salute to the Almond Joy candy bar — and the Cahootz with its white chocolate chips, macadamia nuts and  coconut. But our favorite is the classic chocolate chip with walnuts.

Details: Open 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday-Thursday and until midnight Friday-Saturday at 1203 Pacific Ave. in Santa Cruz; pacificcookie.com.

Backhaus, San Mateo and Burlingame

A first attempt to score a legendary, browned-butter chocolate chip cookie from Backhaus was stymied, sold out by 1 p.m. on a recent weekday at both mid-Peninsula locations. (This reporter consoled herself with an everything croissant bowl instead. It was beautiful, delicious and everything you’d want in a savory pastry.) The cookie’s elusiveness required a second visit – this time early on a weekend. Fortunately, the cookies were in, and let’s just say, it was worth the shlep.

The cookie: Texturally, this chocolate chip cookie ($5) has hit its golden-brown peak. It has the quintessential blend of crispy-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside mouthfeel that lets you know no butter was spared in the making of this oven-fresh delicacy. Mysteriously, the entire cookie had disappeared by the end of the drive home.

Details: Open from 7:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday-Sunday at 32 E. Third Ave. in San Mateo and 261 California Drive in Burlingame; backhausbread.com.

Busy Lizzy’s Baked Goods, Burlingame

At some bakeries, it feels like the cookie selection is an afterthought. That’s not the case at Busy Lizzy’s Baked Goods, where cookies take center stage. The small Burlingame storefront is run by Lizzy Detert, who opened the shop in 2021 after offering her baked goods at farmers markets and pop-ups. The bakery’s slogan is “Happiness in a cookie” – and it delivers just that.

The cookie: The browned-butter chocolate chip cookies ($4.25) are ideal for cookie lovers who prefer their chocolate chip cookies on the softer side, so they melt in one’s mouth. Molasses adds caramel notes that blend with the browned butter and chocolate to add complexity and richness to each bite. The S’more cookie ($4.25) is also a contender. It adds graham crackers and marshmallows to the mix for a taste of campfire nostalgia, only tidier.

Details: Opens at 11 a.m. weekdays and 10 a.m. on weekends at 10 a.m. at 1231 Burlingame Ave. in Burlingame; busylizzysbakedgoods.com.

Did we miss your favorite bakery? Tell us about it here: 

This year, “Top Chef” alum Fabio Viviani plans to open a sweet shop in Emeryville called Jars. True to its name, the shop will offer single-serve portions of sweet treats in jars: tiramisu, blackberry pie, honeysuckle cake, something called Pistachio Ambrosia and more. The flavors will rotate in and out, with special limited-time desserts appearing each month.

The Italian-born Viviani, who starred on the fifth season of “Top Chef,” debuted Jars in Chicago in 2022 and has opened others in Texas and Southern California. The first NorCal Jars will be located in the Bay Street Emeryville shopping mall at 5649 Bay St.; a sign on the door indicates it will open this summer.

Other layered desserts that Jars has experimented with include carrot cake, Rice Krispies Treat, strawberry cannoli, berries and cream and blueberry pie.

“We’ve started a movement – changing the way people eat dessert,” asserts the Jars website, whose copywriter definitely deserves a gold star. “At JARS, we think outside the little box. And refuse to conform to a space filled with cookies, cupcakes and copycats. We’ve forced dessert outside of its comfort zone with an insanely adventurous twist on traditional treats from around the world.”

Jars arrives amid a bustle of restaurant activity at the Bay Street Emeryville mall, with new restaurants, including Pippal, Flores, Arthur Mac’s Little Snack, Saucy Asian and Fogo de Chao, popping up in quick succession. As quirky as the concept sounds, it’s not the only jarred-dessert place in town. Right across the railroad tracks is Petit Pot, another Emeryville place making pot de crème and other French-inspired treats in little jars available at local markets.

The closure will affect 62 workers, including bartenders, bussers, servers, managers, cooks and expeditors, according to a WARN Act layoff notice.

“Unfortunately, we were unable to reach a lease renewal agreement, leading to this difficult decision,” said Mike Johnson, chief operating officer at Xperience Restaurant Group, which owns Chevys. “We are thankful for our loyal diners and especially to our committed team members.”

Warren Simmons, the entrepreneur who developed San Francisco’s tourist and sea lion-crowded Pier 39, started the first Chevys in Alameda in 1986. The restaurant quickly expanded to 37 locations nationwide. That number shrank in the following decades to just under two dozen today, including outposts in the Midwest and East Coast. The Bay Area is still California’s Chevys hotbed, with eight restaurants remaining in Union City, Vallejo, South San Francisco and beyond.

The company operates several other Mexican-themed chains, such as El Torito and Acapulco Restaurant y Cantina, and claims on its website to have originated the concept of Taco Tuesday.

The Emeryville Chevys opened on the cusp of the new millennium, in 1999, at 1890 Powell St. in what used to be a Charlie Brown’s steakhouse. It proved a hit with local diners who, walking in the door, could enjoy its unique take on Tex-Mex cuisine, which included seasonal margaritas, flaming tableside fajitas and a tortilla-making machine in a glass-enclosed space that kids could endlessly watch. (Children would also get little masa-dough balls to play with.) For many in the Bay Area, it may have been their first encounter with fresh tortillas, rather than the cardboard-y things that wrapped Taco Bell fare.

Birthdays were celebrated with sombreros and ice cream sundaes and, at this location, the cherry on the cake was the view: The 13,000-square-foot restaurant looks right out over the swelling waters of the Bay. Right now, with no documents publicly filed, it’s uncertain what restaurant will inherit this impressive dining vista.

Ahead of its closure, the kitchen has limited its menu to only certain popular items, according to recent Google reviews. “As the closing date gets closer, expect this place to be active, so be sure to get a reservation,” wrote one reviewer. Commented another: “I’m going to miss Chevys. Rest in peace.”

These ancient remnants have scientific value and, as Indiana Jones would say, belong in a museum. That’s where people like Jim Walker come in. Walker is a senior paleontologist/geologist for Applied Technology & Science, a San Francisco engineering and environmental-consulting firm. His job is to monitor construction sites for fossils and, when they’re discovered, quickly get them out of the dirt and into safe storage.

Walker has worked on some of the largest government and private projects in the Bay Area, from the $2.2 billion Transbay Transit Center in San Francisco to the $810 million Calaveras dam seismic retrofit and Samsung’s $300 million corporate headquarters in San Jose. He monitors many Caltrans projects and has helped shepherd fossils from those digs to public exhibits at the Children’s Natural History Museum in Fremont.

It’s the sense of mystery that has kept Walker engaged in his job for the last 14 years.

“I often joke that with the whole paleontological thing, it’s like the ultimate cold-case file,” he says. “You’re coming across an animal that’s been dead for 10,000 years, and you’re trying to get a little picture of what its life was like — and also what that world looked like.”

Walker recently took time from his home fossil-study station – complete with drafting table, microscope, dental tools and soon, an air scribe – to chat about the rigors and importance of his work.

Q: Can you explain what you do in a nutshell?

A: It’s probably best characterized as “salvage palaeontology.” This work is really all around the CEQA requirements – that’s the California Environmental Quality Act. Fossils are considered a nonrenewable scientific resource. So what I do is collect any fossils deemed scientifically significant and get them to a museum or something like that. And this is always work that’s related to a construction project.

Q: Have you ever had to halt a construction project?

A: I have never had to halt construction. We have redirected work sometimes. My job is to keep my client in compliance, so they don’t run afoul of any agencies that would be watching this stuff. If we have determined there is a possibility of them damaging these nonrenewable scientific resources, our job is to mitigate that, which usually means getting the stuff out of the ground as quickly as we can.

Q: Why quickly?

A: So those machine operators do not sit idle for hours, waiting for someone to come and tell them, “Yeah, this is a fossil and we should do something about it.” Or (conversely), “You have found an interesting-looking rock.” You got to remember that having equipment sit idle can run into the tens of thousands of dollars very quickly. So we are a cheap insurance to keep them in compliance.

Q: What types of things do you find?

A: Typically, most of our stuff is from Pleistocene or “Ice Age” time (from 2.6 million to 11,700 years ago). Depending precisely on what we’re talking about, there wasn’t a Bay back then. The Bay was a big valley with a river running through where the Golden Gate is and meeting the ocean just past the Farallon Islands. Across that field, we had mammoths, bison, camels, giant sloths and a lot of animals we recognize today – deer, coyotes, brown squirrels and rabbits.

Q: Have you ever dug up human bones?

A: With any bone that’s possibly human-sized, the first thing I do is call a specialist in human osteology. I can get in as much trouble as anybody else on the job site for messing around with human remains.

Q: Because it could be a crime scene?

A: That’s the thing most people don’t get. The first question is, “Is this a homicide?” Or they can be Native American (bones), and then there’s a whole protocol to deal with that.

Q: You monitored the Calaveras dam seismic retrofit, which lasted from 2011 to 2018, for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission. Find anything interesting?

A: I think we pulled something like 10 or 12 whale skulls out of that project — at least one we believe is a new species. That was a very special project.

Q: Wow – whales?

A: Yeah. We worked with the construction firm and used their heavy equipment. We’re talking about whales, so in a couple of cases, we’re removing things that probably weighed two or three tons. I have now seen more 15 million-year-old dead whales than I’ve seen modern dead whales. Those remains went to the University of California Museum of Paleontology.

Q: How about the Transbay Transit Center?

A: With that one, a dredge operator picked up a big clamshell bucket of wet sediments, dropped it down on the ground and from 30 feet away, saw a rock that looked kind of funny. It turned out to be a mammoth’s tooth. So we were brought in. After that, I found other bone fragments, possibly skull or clavicle or shoulder blade. (In) the San Francisco business district, they have found mammoth and a couple species of bison.

Q: And the Samsung headquarters in San Jose?

A: There was a horse there, probably from the Ice Age. Horses were pretty common – we see them along the 680 corridor and have found them on the South Peninsula. They ran in big herds. You’d be hard pressed to tell them apart from a modern horse; they were slightly smaller on average.

Q: What’s one of the most unique fossils you’ve found?

A: At one project we worked on, for a public utility in Alameda County (around 2015 to 2017), we found a marine vertebrate called a desmostylus. It looked kind of like a small hippopotamus, but is probably more closely related to elephants. It has the dubious honor of being the only order of marine mammal to have gone extinct.

It’s interesting, because we’re quite concerned now about dugongs (a manatee cousin) and animals like that. These are animals sitting on the edge of extinction. In some ways, desmostylus kind of filled a similar niche – it was an herbivore, like dugongs are today. So understanding them helps us understand what’s going on today.

Q: Do you ever just dig up junk? Old batteries, car hubcaps and the like?

A: I often get people contacting me with what turn out to be rocks. Probably one of the hardest things for me to do is let them down gently. Because it’s kind of a bummer: They’re really excited, they think they found something, but it’s often just a rock. But I’m a geologist, so there is no such thing as “just a rock.” I tell them all about their rock, and it keeps them interested in it.

Jim Walker

Age: He’ll turn 61 this winter.Position: Senior paleontologist/geologist at Applied Technology & ScienceEducation: M.S. from San Jose State University; B.S. from California State University, East BayResidence: Walnut CreekFamily: Jim lives with his daughter, Sasha, a cat, a dog and a fish

Five things about Jim

1. He was born in Oakland and raised in Walnut Creek.2. He enjoys rock climbing, surfing and mountain biking.3. He teaches geology at Diablo Valley College.4. He doesn’t have a favorite fossil. “It’s like asking somebody what their favorite puzzle piece is. I enjoy the puzzle part of putting all those pieces together, and seeing what the world looked like.”5. He appreciates the “Jurassic Park” franchise: “Everybody enjoys watching dinosaurs eat people.”

A manager who picked up the phone Monday, and who goes only by Grady, said the last day will be Jan. 31 – “that’s if we’re still open, it might just be half the day.”

The owners were not available for an interview.

Quinn’s Lighthouse has been a fixture on a gritty part of the Oakland Estuary since 1984. The original building was constructed in 1903 as the Oakland Harbor entrance light, which was deactivated in the 1960s and moved to its present location where it became a restaurant. Locals and passing mariners knew it for its classic seafood dishes, its peanut shell-covered floors and its sea-shanty singalongs.

Grady, who’s worked there for almost 25 years, said there were many possible reasons for the shuttering.

“It’s too expensive – minimum wage is going up, food costs are going up,” he said. “The Warriors left (Oakland), and that killed us. The Raiders left, that killed us too. The A’s are terrible and that’s slowly been killing us over the years. Then Covid hit, and with everybody working from home, we don’t get the corporate parties we relied on nearly as much.”

Grady said there’s somebody trying to buy the place, but he doesn’t know if it will re-open under the Quinn’s name.

So far, there’s no wake scheduled for closing day, but there’s already one occurring on the Oakland Reddit, where people are sharing their memories of the salty watering hole.

“Went to eat there today, and the server was nearly in tears,” wrote one person. “The beers aren’t really being restocked, so half the taps are still avail. Really wish this downward slide would stop.”

Said another: “I’ve sort of shrugged off most of the closures I’ve heard about, but this one really hits me.”

In no particular order, here are 10 of the most eagerly anticipated restaurants expected to make their debut in early 2024, and a couple more inching closer to opening day.

Downtown Food Hall, San Jose

All will be revealed soon at the hush-hush food hall at the prime downtown corner of Third and Santa Clara streets.

Thanks to an early build-out of the website, we know about the first dozen restaurants planned by CloudKitchens, the culinary project from Uber co-founder Travis Kalanick. Inside the historic Odd Fellows building look for Monosushi, Forza Italian Kitchen, Sophia’s Streets, Y-Linh Sandwiches, Silk Road Kitchen, Cosmic Cuisine Halal, Mercy Mediterranean, Sam & Curry, TeaZer, Azuma San Jose, Cinco Milpitas and SLobster.

Names not looking familiar? We’re expecting a number of these to be fresh concepts, perhaps spin-offs from existing restaurants. Sam & Curry, however, is a known — and popular — fast-casual restaurant, a customized Indian kitchen that first opened in North San Jose in 2021.

According to city planning documents, one sit-down restaurant and a coffee bar will also be in the mix.

Details: The website lists January 2024 as the projected grand opening date at 82 E. Santa Clara St., San Jose; sjdowntownfoodhall.com

Cured: Fish Bar, Livermore

Livermore isn’t exactly known for its glitzy raw bars. So it’s exciting that Cured: Fish Bar is coming with its promised bounty of fresh shellfish, Bay Area-sourced crudo and an expertly curated gallery of sake.

The folks behind the restaurant are Frances Catano and Joe Tomaszak, industry vets who’ve worked at swanky Japanese spots like San Francisco’s Robin and Los Angeles’ Ototo (she on the beverage side, he as a sushi chef).

“We live out here in Sunol, and have worked in San Francisco for 10 years or so, and sad to say, we don’t have anywhere in this area that we can pop in before dinner or on a sunny day for raw bar bites,” says Catano. “Something about slurping down oysters, tasty bread and butter and a nice glass of wine is nostalgic – and an overall experience we wanted to provide.”

For this venture, the duo are pulling hard on local producers. The fish is coming from places such as Four Star Seafood and Provisions and Water2Table, a sustainable hook-and-line fish company operating from San Francisco’s Pier 45. Other ingredients are sourced from farms such as Happy Acre in Sunol, which grows and presses olives for oil in Livermore, and there’s even talk about roping in famed Livermore bakery Wingen for the bread service.

The early menu should have every fan of seafood salivating. From the fish bar is Baja bluefin with roasted Anaheim chile, pumpkin seeds and miso dust and premium Ora king salmon with smoked trout roe, herb oil and charred lemon. Classic raw-bar dishes get elevated into an Old Fashion Prawn Cocktail with transparent sea prawns and fermented horseradish, marinated mussels with white wine and coconut vinegar and a Bowl O’ Steamers with melted butter and sake.

As for that sake, Catano and Tomaszak are featuring their favorite Japanese and local varieties, including Den Sake from Oakland and Sequoia Sake in San Francisco.

Details: Opening scheduled for late January at 136 Maple St., Livermore.

Isola Osteria, Danville

East Bay restaurateur Angelo Dalo is hoping to share his love for the Sicilian way of eating at his family’s new restaurant, a 1,600-square-foot space with two patios for Mediterranean-style alfresco dining when the weather warms.

This is the same family behind Agrodolce, a Sicilian restaurant in Berkeley. Dalo says that he and his siblings have been heavily influenced by their mother, Rosa, an advocate for Sicilian cuisine who has “made it her mission to push Sicilian cuisine and culture to the forefront of what people think about Italy.”

The menu will be familiar to Agrodolce fans with appetizers such as melanzana impanata, fried eggplant with mozzarella and tomato sauce, and dishes such as ragù di maiale ($25) as well as Sicilian-inspired seafoood and other entrees.

Details: Opening in January at 100 Railroad Ave. in Danville; isolaosteriadanville.com

Ritual at Manresa, Los Gatos

Los Gatos has been without Michelin cuisine for a year, ever since chef David Kinch closed his three-starred Manresa after a final feast on Dec. 31, 2022. That all changes Jan. 17, when Silicon Valley entrepreneurs Juan and Luis Caviglia will officially launch a most unusual concept, Ritual at Manresa, 10 months’ worth of culinary residencies that will pair Michelin-starred chefs from around the world with Kinch.

In announcing the news, Kinch called Ritual at Manresa “a creative playground for top culinary talent to innovate and create right here in Los Gatos.”

The residency weeks will feature innovative prix fixe meals open to a limited number of diners. In January, chef Angel Leon of the three-starred Aponiente in the south of Spain will join Kinch, followed in March by two-starred Atomix chef Junghyun Park from New York and in April by Brazilian chef Alex Atala from the two-starred D.O.M. in Sao Paulo. Tickets for those became available in December, and most dates are already booked. Diners hoping to score spots can add their names to the waiting list or purchase a Ritual membership, which offers early access to tickets.

Details: Dinners will be held at the home of Manresa, 320 Village Lane, Los Gatos; ritualatmanresa.com.

The Salty Pearl, Oakland

Few chefs have as deft a hand as Danny Pirello at transforming simple, fresh seafood into a totally scrumptious meal. So it was a shame when his Rocky Island Oyster Co. got unceremoniously booted from Point Richmond this year. But Pirello is now back in a big way – with a larger kitchen, elevated menu and perfect location near Oakland’s waterfront Jack London Square.

The formula is simple: Creatures pulled from the sea flow in – lobsters, market fish, oysters from Pirello’s childhood haunt of Massachusetts – and the chef does his thing to make them tasty. “I might bring in a whole salmon and break it down, maybe smoke some and serve other parts as fillets,” he says. “We’ll have steamed clams and moules-frites. There will always be crudo on the menu, whether that’s local halibut or scallop or salmon, and occasionally a sea urchin. And always Dungeness crab, when it’s in season.”

Accompanying the lobster rolls and chowders are smaller bites like $1 oysters, marinated olives, Acme bread with butter and artfully constructed salads. There’s Scrimshaw Pilsner to pair with raw oysters, and a small but lovable wine list pulling hard from Mendocino County and France. (A Melon de Bourgogne Muscadet, anyone?)

The design of The Salty Pearl resembles a charming, European corner bistro. “There’s a 10-foot bar with a cool green tile backsplash, a little bit of an outdoor area and then a dining area. The whole place seats about 50 people,” says Pirello. “It’s supposed to be like an Irish pub/oyster bar, but a little nicer, with a neighborhood bar vibe.”

Details: A grand opening is scheduled for Jan. 12 at 550 Second St., Oakland; www.saltypearl.us.

The Hideout Kitchen and Cafe, Lafayette

The Hideout’s signature weekend brunches and elevated lunch and dinner offerings will soon be taking place in a new, expanded venue – and fortunately, it’s not far. Chef and restaurateur JB Balingit is about to move his Lafayette bistro into the space formerly occupied by the Cooperage.

Expect to see all your favorites from the current menu — from waffle sandwiches at brunch to honey-fried chicken at dinner — in the new space too. But the expansion offers a chance to expand the food and cocktail offerings, as well as serve up a range of dining experiences for families looking to grab a bite or friends seeking an elevated multi-course dinner or fun, music-filled boozy brunch, says brand manager Peyton Ferrer says.

“We have so much more room to look forward to using,” she says.

As for the former digs on Mt. Diablo Boulevard, the Hideout team has plans to launch a cocktail lounge there with Asian-inspired bites. (And for those of you keeping track, The Cooperage moved to Walnut Creek’s Broadway Plaza last fall.)

Details: Opening in January at 32 Lafayette Circle, Lafayette; hideoutkitchen.com

Ocean Oyster Bar & Grill, Redwood City

A new player is coming soon to downtown Redwood City’s theater district.

Ocean, a restaurant in Union City with a large menu of fresh fish, seafood and raw bar offerings, is taking over the prime location that housed the Spaghetti Factory until early in the pandemic. Lovers of a certain crustacean will find a wide array of flavors and styles: Mango-Habanero Prawns, Garlic Prawns, Louisiana Prawns, Spicy Peanut Prawns, Crunchy Jalapeno Prawns and Chef’s Special Prawns. And if the East Bay menu is any guide, diners on the Peninsula will enjoy Oyster Tuesday and Taco Wednesday specials, along with a Monday Slider Trio special that features crab, lobster and fried fish.

Bonus: There’s a full bar with a weekday happy hour that lasts from 1:30 to 6 p.m.

Details: Aiming for a March opening at 2107 Broadway, Redwood City; oceanoysterbargrill.com

Arthur Mac’s Big Snack, Hayward

Eating on a BART train car is pretty rude. Unless, of course, that car is part of an actual restaurant, as is the case with Arthur Mac’s Big Snack.

For the centerpiece of the new space, cofounders Adam Stemmler and Joel DiGiorgio transformed a legacy 1990s BART car into a dining compartment complete with a retro arcade and a kid’s play area. All that’s missing are the rowdy A’s fans and people dozing ’til the end of the line.

“No one has ever craned a 75-foot BART train car onto a vacant lot in Hayward, so the engineering and permit process has been long and complicated,” says DiGiorgio.

But that’s not the only thing that sets this new Arthur Mac’s apart from its sister locations in Oakland and Emeryville. It’s twice the size of the Oakland location, for one thing, making it ideal for parties and big sports-watching events like the Super Bowl and Women’s World Cup. There’s a sprawling outdoor dining area with fire pits and heating lamps, plus a corrugated awning to provide shelter from the elements.

The food is a hearty mix of brick-oven pizza, hot wings, double-fried french fries and a growing assortment of gluten-free and vegan slices and snacks. These are prepared in a repurposed shipping container, a nod to the original Arthur Mac’s in the MacArthur Annex shipping-container park in Oakland.

Big Snack also has a full-service cocktail bar in the garden by the BART car. “That’s not to say that we won’t have 20 draft handles serving up our favorite Bay Area craft beers, as that is a staple of our brand,” says Stemmler. “This location will just lean really hard into innovative, refreshing cocktails – timeless classics and modern spins on your favorite drinks.”

Details: Opening is scheduled for summer at 1060 B St., Hayward; arthurmacs.com

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Pinstripes, Walnut Creek

This bistro-meets-bowling-alley-and-bocce-space has been in the works in Walnut Creek for some time, with a debut currently set for spring in Broadway Plaza. Although if your gameplay extends to a great fondness for musical chairs, you’ll want know that Pinstripes is going into the space formerly occupied by Crate and Barrel, which has moved to the former Talbots space across the street.

Pinstripes is known for its Italian and American fare — think wood-fired pizzas, meatballs and polenta, crispy chicken sandwiches and burgers, and weekend brunch buffet — and lively atmosphere, complete with a bowling alley, bocce options and full bar.

Don’t want to wait for spring? Head for the Pinstripes at San Mateo’s Hillsdale Mall. While pricing varies by market, locations share the same menu, bowling and bocce offerings, says Anthony Colucci, Pinstripes’ vice president of marketing.

Details: Opening spring 2024 at 1115 Broadway Plaza in Walnut Creek; pinstripes.com/walnut-creek.

The Silos, Morgan Hill

For years, foodies have been wondering when chef Ross Hanson would branch out from his super-successful Los Gatos pizza-focused restaurant, Oak & Rye, with a second location. And would it be Willow Glen? Downtown Campbell? The Peninsula? Turns out he’s heading south to Morgan Hill, where his new venture, The Silos, will be located in the historic Granary District, agricultural buildings that have been renovated for retail and office uses.

The craft cocktail lounge and restaurant, with indoor dining for 52 patrons and patio seating for 27 more, will go into newly constructed space in the Weston Miles project.

Don’t expect artisanal pizza. Instead, Hanson’s looking to expand upon the Oak & Rye bar program and put the food focus on small plates. He’s not dropping any hints. but considering his background – he was chef at the revered Restaurant James Randall – this could be a very creative menu.

Details: Slated for later in 2024 at 17480 Depot St., Morgan Hill; hoakandryepizza.com

STILL COMING

We’ve highlighted these much-anticipated restaurants before, and they recently confirmed that, yes, they are still on the way! Most say it’s hard to estimate opening dates, given the current economic climate, but here’s what lies ahead.

Hobee’s, San Jose: Yes, this venerable breakfast establishment is taking over a German beer garden downtown. Camille and Danielle Chijate, owners of the long-running Hobee’s chain, are opening soon in a historic blue Victorian on North Second Street, the German social-club venue with a street-facing patio that had formerly been home to Ludwig’s.

Mazra, Redwood City: The second location of the popular San Bruno Levantine eatery is now expected to open March 1, according to co-owner Saif Makableh. The restaurant, located at 2021 Broadway in Redwood City, has faced delays in opening due in part to the large mesquite-burning grill they’re installing.