- Vanessa’s Bistro, a mother-and-daughter-run Vietnamese spot known for its comforting clay pot dishes, is seeing an uptick in “super rude” patrons, co-owner Vi Nguyen told SF Gate. In fact, some customers have gotten so challenging that Nguyen has had to ask the diners to leave. “People who were already nice prior to the pandemic are super nice, and people who were a little bit difficult to deal with pre-pandemic are now completely just unbearable to even serve,” Nguyen said.
- Restaurants along Alameda’s Park Street have been hit with a spate of Americans with Disabilities Act lawsuits, KPIX reports, all filed by serial litigant Orlando Garcia. While the suits are frustrating to many business owners and even members of the disability community, current California law requires compliance with certain accessibility rules, making these suits difficult to defend against in court. That means that many businesses settle with the filers for a few thousand bucks, prompting some to characterize the filings as a “shakedown.” A prominent filer of suits like these actually lives in Oakland, the New York Times reported last week: Albert Dytch has sued 180 businesses including San Leandro’s Top Hatters Kitchen and Bar over alleged ADA violations. He says that without legal threats, most area businesses refuse to do what it takes to allow wheelchair users to visit their spots, but “If there weren’t some money involved, I probably wouldn’t do it.”
- Walnut Creek Police have arrested a suspect in the shooting outside Spoontonic Lounge that killed 25-year-old Lutfi Abbushi and injured three others, Bay City News reports. Police have not said why they believe the suspect, a 22-year-old Brentwood man, opened fire on bar patrons as he left the bar’s parking lot early in the morning of July 18.
- Raymond Gee, the co-owner of cool new(ish) Oakland bar Veridian, told KTVU that the restaurant’s chicken nugget dish is made to look like fried tofu “because we want people to be a little confused and a little offended.”
- Uptown Oakland’s high-profile upscale grocery shop Howden Market was struck by a driver Saturday night. There’s no word on the driver or cause of the crash, but video from the scene shows extensive damage to the business, which was empty at the time of the collision.
- Palmetto, one of the Oakland restaurants that will require guests to be vaccinated or provide a negative COVID-19 test, has garnered raves in Diablo Magazine, which says its food “is as fun and bright as the decor.”
- Bay Area coffee company Farley’s, the employee-profit-sharing business with a popular shop in Uptown Oakland, was told in May that it had been awarded a $381,000 grant from the U.S. Small Business Administration. According to Reuters, a successful lawsuit by former Trump staffers against prioritizing businesses owned by historically marginalized people means that the grant has been canceled, and Farley’s is unlikely to ever see those funds.
- Maria Cecilia Hernandez’s Cafe Con Pan got some attention in the SF Chronicle for its wildly popular conchas. See what the fuss is about on Saturday and Sunday mornings at Nido’s Backyard, aka the Bay Area’s first “margarita garden.”
