Latest news with #BackHomeHospitality
Vogue
08-07-2025
- Vogue
The Best Part of a Summertime Drinks Menu? Fancy Soda
Today, learning that a restaurant calls itself farm-to-table holds about as much shock value as hearing my server explain that everything at said restaurant is meant to be enjoyed family style. One part of the menu that remains a place of unexpected whimsy, however? The drinks list—and more specifically, the soda section. I find this to be especially true as the weather heats up and my neighborhood farmer's market in Manhattan turns into the place to be on a Saturday morning. 'Serving sodas affords us the ability to create a snapshot of the season. Whether it's a perfumy sweet strawberry or tingly fresh spearmint, using produce during its peak is the ultimate treat,' says Danielle Peters-Clossey, bar director at San Francisco-based Back Home Hospitality, which includes Che Fico restaurants and soon-to-open Bubbeleh. 'Without the use of artificial flavors, sweeteners, or preservatives, we can offer our guests a natural alternative.' Those local, seasonal snapshots are especially delightful in the summertime. At the newly opened Feathers restaurant inside Audrey Gelman's much-anticipated Six Bells Inn in the Hudson Valley, I ordered a simple, pastel pink soda that made use of local strawberries and rhubarb; at Bastia, beverage director Benjamin Kirke highlights eastern Pennsyvlannia produce with lacto-fermented sodas that, in June and July, include apricot and maquis; strawberry and mint; rhubarb and basil; lemon, lime, and thyme.
San Francisco Chronicle
21-04-2025
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Bay Area is getting a Jewish-inspired restaurant from the Che Fico team
A specialty market run by Bay Area Italian favorite Che Fico has closed, but a new restaurant from the same owners will take its place. Il Mercato di Che Fico in Menlo Park shuttered on April 19, a year after opening at the buzzy Springline development at 1300 El Camino Real. (The owners didn't provide a reason for the closure; their second outpost of Che Fico there remains open.) Back Home Hospitality owners David Nayfeld and Matt Brewer are replacing the market with a fast-casual restaurant inspired by the Jewish diaspora, from Eastern Europe to the Middle East. Called Bubbelah, it will open in May with house-made breads, dips, sandwiches and soups. Che Fico's menu has long featured dishes influenced by Jewish cuisine from Rome, honoring Nayfeld's heritage. At Bubbelah (named for the Yiddish term of endearment), expect a range of mezze, from baba ghanoush and chopped chicken liver to hummus with merguez and pickled peppers, or ful (a Middle Eastern fava bean dip) with pecorino cheese. More substantial dishes include arayes on house-made pita, veal pelmeni (dumplings), potato spring onion latkes and matzo ball soup. A range of proteins, like lamb shoulder shawarma, poppy seed chicken schnitzel and harissa rotisserie chicken, will be available a la carte or wrapped in house-made pita for sandwiches. The kitchen will also bake fresh challah, rye and lavash breads. For dessert, there will be artikim, or Israeli popsicles, in flavors like banana-date, halva and mango-labneh, as well as ice cream. (Il Mercato di Che Fico was known for its gelato window, which will return this summer.) Bubbelah will be a counter-service restaurant open daily but will have seating for up to 50 people. Back Home Hospitality, best known for the original Che Fico on Divisadero Street in San Francisco, now operates three restaurants in San Francisco and Menlo Park, and is opening a splashy new Tuscan restaurant in San Francisco. The owners closed their more casual Che Fico Alimentari in San Francisco last year.
