S.F. Chronicle joins the lineup for San Francisco Story Fest
Produced by Back Pocket Media, Story Fest brings the city's most captivating tales to stage for one night only, featuring a mix of local artists and storytellers from Bay Area media outlets, including Mother Jones, KQED, KALW, Berkeleyside, SF Standard, Mission Local and Bay City News.
Throughout the evening, journalists will pull back the curtain on their reporting, sharing some of their most riveting stories and the surprising journeys behind them.
From the Chronicle newsroom, restaurant critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan will take the mic with a tale of romance — and roast lamb — in a mall basement food court.
Get your tickets now for a night of thrilling stories and performances in San Francisco. Early bird tickets from $35 are on sale today.
Back Pocket Media has produced previous editions of Story Fest in Philadelphia and Detroit, as well as other live experiences across the country. SF Story Fest is sponsored by the Knight Foundation with support from MOAD.
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San Francisco Chronicle
4 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Some of S.F.'s most coveted handmade pasta comes from this one-woman operation
Each week, critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan shares some of her favorite recent bites, the dishes and snacks and baked goods that didn't find their way into a full review. Want the list a few days earlier? Sign up for her free newsletter, Bite Curious. I don't get to eat dinner at home too often, and when I do, I'm usually reaching for something low-lift to supplement leftovers. Now in rotation is frozen pasta from Sfoglia Club, the one-woman micro-batch pasta company from Tanaya Joshi. A product designer by day, she folds intricate filled pastas by night and sells them via Hotplate. The drop model will be familiar to any sneakerhead, and her batches of balanzoni and tortelli sell out quickly. I got my hands on a couple boxes of sachetti — Joshi's version kind of look like hamentaschen but with four sides instead of three — stuffed with ricotta, corn and chives. The filling is very delicate; I've been saucing the sachetti ($20 per box) with butter, Calabrian chile and Parmesan so as not to overpower it. I didn't intend for this week's installment to be What I've Been Eating, Corn Edition, but facts are facts: Restaurants are exulting in corn season, and I am happily along for the ride. At Lunette in the Ferry Building, chef Nite Yun stir-fries fresh kernels with coconut milk, chicken schmaltz, dried shrimp and scallions. Yun modestly told me that the wok does all the work — the corn takes on just a touch of char — to which I say, 'Yeah, right.' It's a glorious summer side dish that I can't wait to eat again. Lunette. Ferry Building, 1, Suite 33/47, San Francisco. Over in Emeryville, Good to Eat also has a seasonal sweet corn special. For $14, you get two half-ears of corn, skewered and grilled. The singed cobs are then lacquered with shacha, a Taiwanese barbecue sauce, and coated in sesame seeds. If 'barbecue sauce' conjures up memories of sticky-sweet Kansas City ribs or tangy, vinegary Carolina pulled pork, shacha is something else entirely — savory and briny thanks to dried shellfish.
New York Post
27-07-2025
- New York Post
Cooked: Celebrated Chef exits new venture after allegedly balking at free food for influencer because she wasn't famous enough
A prominent San Francisco chef threw in the apron at his newly opened cafe after allegedly belittling a TikTok influencer during a tense exchange over her follower count aired out in a viral video. The incident unfolded Wednesday at Kis Cafe in Hayes Valley, when 'micro-influencer' @itskarlabb described how she had pre-arranged a collab with the restaurant's team and showed up early to film content, according to a video she posted to her platform. 3 Influencer @itskarlabb was allegedly belittled by top chef Luke Sung over her supposedly low follower count, leaving her running from his new California restaurant in tears. itskarlabb/tiktok The influencer, known as Karla, claimed that a man — later identified as celebrated James Beard Award-nominated chef and co-owner Luke Sung — questioned her 15,000-follower count and told staff it was a 'mistake' to invite an influencer so small. 'I know they're talking about me, because I can hear them saying 'TikTok, views, followers' ,' she said in a later video, which has racked up more than 20 million views. The influencer said that when she introduced herself, Sung grilled her over whether she had researched the restaurant, a wine bar serving small bites. She insisted she knew the menu and the vibe, but Sung disagreed and began scrolling through her TikTok feed at full volume within earshot, the influencer said. 'After scrolling like, two times, he says to me that he doesn't think my videos are at the level which he wants his restaurant represented,' she recalled. 'It seemed like he was insinuating that my followers would not be able to afford to eat at this restaurant.' 3 Sung couldn't take the heat after the pair's alleged exchange went viral and left his new venture. San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images Sung then reportedly asked, 'Do you know who I am?' and told Karla he was a two-time James Beard Award finalist and that his daughter is Big Apple vlogger, Isa Sung, who has 600,000 TikTok followers. He also dismissed the influencer's cooking videos she posted to her platform, dissing them as 'homey,' Karla said. The belittling exchange left her in tears, she said. 'I told him I felt disrespected and didn't want to collaborate anymore,' the influencer said. Karla's follower count has since skyrocketed to more than 350,000 since she shared the story on TikTok. The influencer said she wants to 'be an advocate for micro influencers' who don't receive as many handouts. 'You don't need to have a million followers to be respected or feel like you're making a difference,' she said. 3 Kis Cafe, which opened in May, announced that Sung had left as chef and co-owner. FOX By Friday, Kis Cafe's was getting cooked on Yelp, where its rating plunged from four to five stars to just over two stars, and reviews for 'Isa '– a 'pioneering' Cal-French restaurant that Sung previously opened and named after his influencer daughter — grew with haters lambasting the chef for his behavior. Kis Cafe, which opened in May, soon announced that Sung had left as a chef and co-owner, later clarifying he had done so of his 'own accord' and was not technically fired. 'Our chef's behavior was unacceptable, and he is no longer a part of the team,' Kis Cafe wrote in an Instagram post Thursday. The restaurant said it has now temporarily closed to 'restructure.' 'We want to create a space that's welcoming and respectful to everyone. In this instance, we failed to do so,' Kis Cafe said in a statement.
San Francisco Chronicle
26-07-2025
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F.'s most famous pizza spot has opened a new location — with $10.50 slices
Each week, critic MacKenzie Chung Fegan shares some of her favorite recent bites, the dishes and snacks and baked goods that didn't find their way into a full review. Want the list a few days earlier? Sign up for her free newsletter, Bite Curious. I just so happened to be catching a flight out of SFO's Terminal 1 last week during the grand opening of the SF Eats food court. As I waited for my egg and cheese from Napa Farms Market, SFO communications employees circled with cameras and cell phones, capturing content. The most noteworthy business in the food court is an outpost of Tony's Pizza Napoletana, the perennially popular North Beach restaurant from champion pizzaiolo Tony Gemignani. Look, the slices are great — a real middle finger to airport Sbarros everywhere — but they are also $10.50. Airport prices will never not take my breath away. Japantown's newest coffee shop is located on the ground floor of the New People building on Post Street. Best Boy Electric was lively on a recent weekday afternoon, with groups of students perched on stools, sipping matcha lattes and talking about restaurants (sorry for eavesdropping, it's my job). I opted for the Okinawa brown sugar latte — not too sweet, despite the name — and a slice of pistachio-huckleberry coffee cake from Loquat Bakery. There are also mochi muffins from Third Culture Bakery and assorted pastries from The Midwife and the Baker. Earlier this week, Shuggie's announced that it's phasing out pizza, the backbone of its food-waste-fighting menu, to make room for more seasonal, creative dishes. If the new stone fruit and tomato salad ($17) is a harbinger of things to come, we're in luck. It's so vivid and juicy that you will not care that said stone fruit and tomatoes are blemished, rescued from the farmers market discard pile. You won't be able to see much of the apricots and tomatoes anyway, buried as they are under an avalanche of seasoned peanuts and slightly bruised herbs. It's a bright, Southeast Asian-leaning take on the summeriest of salads.
