This article comes to us courtesy of 7x7 Magazine.
As a food writer in San Francisco, I've seen my fair share of stripped down restaurant interiors and farm-pimping menus. Hormone-free meats and sustainably sourced everything is great for our bodies and our environment, but it's gotten to the point where I need a keyboard shortcut for "local and organic," and if I see one more Edison bulb hanging over my classic cocktail and Neapolitan pizza (fired at 1,000 degrees!), I might gag.
A recent series of posts on Eater SF (where I serve as full-time editor) prompted me to take stock of the San Francisco restaurant trends that I wouldn't miss if they died tomorrow. Am I the only one who feels this way?
1) Exposed Everything: You get dressed up for dinner, so why is it okay for your restaurant to be naked? I agree, it's miraculous when a new restaurant owner unearths some gorgeous vintage brick or raw concrete behind the styrofoam walls of the Jamba Juice he took over. But please, layer it up with pillows, flowers and art to make us feel cozy as we dig into your coddled cow meat. San Francisco is always cold at night, and it's painful to feel like you're camping while dropping $50 on dinner and drinks.
2) Edison Bulbs: I think I wrote about my first Edison bulb when The Alembic opened in 2006. The trend has now trickled down to new, "trendy" Thai restaurants and seafood bars, and it continues to amaze me that restaurants are still bragging about the shade-less light blub dangling from the ceiling and a gangly wire. There are so many other ways to keep your eating spaces bright: table lamps, lattice pendants, plain old pendants, globes, porcelain chandeliers, it goes on and on. Enough already with the Edison bulbs.
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