MINNIE BELL’S ANNOUNCES UPCOMING CLOSURE OF EAST BAY LOCATION
Chef Fernay McPherson debuted the second iteration of her restaurant Minnie Bell’s Soul Movement in the Fillmore District this past April, but now the original Emeryville location of the business is set to close as of Sunday, July 28. Located inside the Public Market on Shellmound Street, the soul food restaurant has called the Emeryville food hall home since 2018, first starting as a pop-up and then upgrading to a permanent kiosk. In a press release, McPherson says she decided to close the location “to focus all her efforts on her new restaurant in San Francisco’s Fillmore district, where she is a third-generation resident.”
Chef Parke Ulrich to expand his restaurant empire to San Jose
Waterbar and Epic Steak chef Parke Ulrich will soon have a new restaurant in downtown San Jose, the Mercury News reports. The unnamed project is set for the ground floor of an office tower at 50 West San Fernando Street, in a space once occupied by public media organization KQED (but which has since been vacated by the news outlet). Sources tell the Mercury News that the restaurant is expected to open in the first three months of 2025.
McDonald’s McPlant burger flops in San Francisco
The president of McDonald’s USA told attendees of this week’s Wall Street Journal Global Food Forum that a test of the company’s plant-based burger in San Francisco and Dallas in 2022 “was not successful,” the Los Angeles Times reports. The McPlant, starring a patty co-developed with alternative meat company Beyond Meat, debuted in 600 McDonald’s locations in the Bay Area and Dallas-Fort Worth in late 2021, but by March 2022 a research firm found that diners were “underwhelmed by the culinary creation,” the Times writes. By July 2022, the company ended the test run without rolling out nationwide. McDonald’s president Joe Erlinger told the forum that consumers aren’t “looking for McPlant or other plant-based proteins from McDonald’s right now,” but says the company will continue to monitor trends.
La Societe takes a page out of Le Relais de l’Entrecôte’s book
Those familiar with the popular, line-inducing steak meal at Paris’s Le Relais de l’Entrecôte may want to take note of a similar concept that French restaurant La Societe is launching in San Francisco. On Friday, June 28, chef Michael Rosenthal will serve a $49 prix fixe meal featuring salad, steak au poivre made with Niman Ranch top sirloin, plus an endless stream of duck fat french fries. If you can’t make it to Paris, head to downtown San Francisco instead.
