Loosen (or tighten) your belts Richmond District folks, because there’s lots of restaurant changes happening in the neighborhood of late:
Reader Adriana reports that sushi favorite Shimo (2339 Clement) has closed their doors. A note on the front entry said they are closing due to [personal] health issues and thanked customers for their long time support and loyalty. “Sushi life in the richmond will never be the same!” Adriana said.
Blissful Bites Bakery (397 Arguello) also closed. We have not heard why, but we know many people will be sad about that.
On the opening front, three new spots threw open their doors recently:
Nourish Cafe (189 6th Avenue), a plant-based eatery featuring salads, sandwiches, juices, smoothies and baked goods opened its doors last onhealthy cialis online week. This is one of our personal projects so thank you to all the neighbors that came out to support us in our first week!
The Flame (Hot Pot) opened on the corner of Clement and 19th Avenue. They’re putting a personal spin on the hot pot concept. “Instead of sharing with other people like traditional hotpot, you get your mini pot served on a box with a live flame,” writes one Yelper.
What was formerly, albeit briefly, De Place at 5700 Geary is no longer empty. Dragon Beaux, a new spot from the owners of Koi Palace, opened just last week. They serve morning dim sum and evening hot pot and shabu-shabu according to EaterSF.
Bon appetit!
Sarah B.
Photo by Adriana G.
stoked to check out nourish! not stoked to check out yet another hot pot / dim sum place.
Bummed about Blissful Bites, oddly excited about Dragon Beaux, though I will probably never have the patience to wait in the line I saw getting longer and longer over the weekend!
That’s exciting that Nourish is open, Sarah!
Blissful Bites closed because the long hours were getting to be too much for them. This according to the sign that was in their window before Christmas. A new owner will be reopening it soon. I actually thought that was going to happen by now, but workers have been in there regularly.
Oh cool, thanks for the update, Owen!
Go Nourish ! It certainly lived up to my expectations re. indigenous plant grub in the hood…
So bummed about Blissful Bites, we loved their cakes for celebrations. Excited to try Nourish
Ate ate Nourish twice. The food is good but the price is pretty steep for a salad. The Vietnamese sandwich is $12…um, you forget you are off Clement street, those sandwiches are $5!
Nourish: Really good food, ridiculously overpriced.
Had it twice already but felt guilty after the second time when I considered 2 salads cost me $30…
Ate at Nourish twice over the weekend. LOVED both salads: The Nourish Bowl and Forbidden Rice Salad. Both were large and filling, so I didn’t mind paying $12-$14, especially since everything is organic. LOVE the salad bowls too! However, $4 for one slice of avocado toast did seem a bit high. 🙂
Sunday’s cashier (redhead with glasses) would benefit from some customer service training.
Have eaten at Nourish a few times since their grand opening- the food and smoothies are great and high quality!
I heard that the business replacing Blissful Bites will be a French bakery?
Sad to hear about Shimo! It was my husband’s favorite- he’ll be crushed : (
I hope the owner will be okay.
Dang, I wish we could get a creperie along the line of Crepe Vine or Squat and Gobble out here. I won’t go to these frou-frou places.
Why are there so many hot pot places? Can’t the richmond get another type of different restaurant? I would like to see more bakeries, Mexican, korean, falafels
So bummed about Blissful bites. I ordered many birthday cakes for my son from there. What kind of bakery will be opening in its place?
Agree re. falafels; since Haig’s went we haven’t had a good middle eastern place in the hood (or maybe there is and I just haven’t found it yet…)
@SF girl: Hot pot places are popular because hot pot is a relatively affordable and appealing option for groups of various sizes and composition. You have various meat and vegetarian options, so you can generally account for people with dietary restrictions. Another plus is the fixed all-you-can-eat prices make splitting the check easy. There honestly aren’t too many options in the area that will seat a group of 10 for two hours+, and charge only about $40 a head when all is said and done. Given the state of the economy, flexible food options, and late hours, it’s a sensible choice.
Bakery-wise, there are plenty in the neighborhood as is–you have everything ranging from the army of Chinese bakeries, to Moscow and Tblisi on Geary, to Schubert’s, to the trendier spots like Marla. Korean is pretty much the same all along Geary, and you even have Korean-Japanese fusion spots like Joo Mak.
With Middle Eastern, you have Al Masri, Al Mansour, Layaly–albeit affordable fast-service type options aren’t really available. Maybe someone can corner this niche in our part of the city?
With Mexican, YES PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, SOMEONE OPEN A MEXICAN PLACE THAT SERVES TACOS AND TRIPAS AND LENGUA AND CABEZA AND CACTUS AND LARGE BOTTLES OF CORONA LIKE THEY DO IN THE MISSION. Please no more beef/chicken/pork places with “hot” (read: mild) salsa and 50 billion tortilla options (spinach kale unicorn horn) but not an ounce of Mexican Coke on stanbye. PRETTY PLEASE SOMEONE OPEN UP A TACO RESTAURANT/STAND/ROACHCOACH AND TAKE MY MONEY WITH A CHERRY ON TOP!!!
Thanks for clarification Andrew. I will have to try a hot pot place. Joo Mah sounds like a nice try. For falafels I was hoping for a place like Park Gyros in the inner sunset. I would love something like that here. And totally agree with your plea with some decent Mexican here!!!!!!!!! Amen!!!!
OK, as long as we are giving our wish-lists for the Richmond District, how about a Philz Coffee, and an Ikes Sandwich place?
Isn’t Lou’s our Ike’s?
🙂
Thanks for the Middle Eastern list Andrew. I like Laylay a lot (though it seems that they’ve curtailed their hours pretty significantly) but I was thinking more of a deli type place (ideal for me would be a place like Sunrise deli on Irving). But I haven’t been to Al Masri or Al Mansour so will definitely check them out.
I tried Nourish and really liked it! The salads are massive, like a 2-person salad. I took it to go and when I got home I had to eat it out of a mixing bowl. I couldn’t finish so it went to waste and wasn’t cheap either. I wonder if they’d do 1/2 orders for the 1/2 the price?
@Pamela – Yes to Philz!!!
I am happy to hear about Dragon Beaux, they have new dimsum dishes, and it directly competes with Hong Kong Lounge, so I’ll have at least 2 choices of great dimsum places to go to within a couple blocks of me. I don’t think we needed another Hotpot place either, there are way too many of them within a 10 block radius. I hope The Flame turns out to be good but I too would have been more excited about something less saturated in our hood. I guess we can’t choose, eventually things will work itself out.
No love for Shimo? It’s been in the neighborhood for years. This is a true shock. Was it a health issue of a single person? That place seemed run by multiple people, so what would cause them to close? Did the place fail an inspection or something? There was no warning or anything. I would have loved to have said goodbye, as that place had some of the best sushi in the neighborhood. SO sad.
Totally concur with Andrew about the lack of more Mexican restaurants. Gordo’s is solid for what it does but it doesn’t exactly blow one away with a varied menu of meats. I also really like the torta place on 6th and California. But would it kill us to have a place where I could get some good mole?
Also, two more shabu/hot pot places? Including these two, how many total does that make for the Richmond? Between Stanyan and Park Presidio alone there are at least six.
A discussion about Mexican food in the Richmond and no love for Tommy’s on Geary @ 23rd?? Granted, it’s not a taqueria…But I love that place. And we do have two Gordos around (that I know of)…Hey, they’re not THAT bad…
shimo! who cares about this other news!? why are we talking about nourish salads and the lack of taquierias again!? shimo was the definition of a neighborhood gem. i wish i could’ve had one last hurrah there.
Hi, my name is Mark. Shimo was opened over 30 ago. I was a customer there for over 27 years. Shimo San did have some of the freshest fish. He was the nicest man, very generous with his portions and always greeted you with a smile. I also worked there for the last 20 years, mainly on Wednesday nights behind the bar. He taught me everything I know about sushi, from washing rice, filleting, cutting, rolling and especially eating fish. He introduced me to many different items I would have never dreamed of trying. Now, I can eat practically anything coming out of any sushi bar, which is really sad to say because I only ate at Shimos. Shimo San was forced into retirement due to an unexpected illness. He is very sick. His wife, son and older brother all worked there, and yes, it could have ran itself. But with the mental anxiety of this illness put of his family, the decision to close the business was made. I worked the last weekend, which was Valentine’s. A very fun but sad night. Thank you Shimo San for all the years of service and for teaching me everything I know about the ‘Art of Sushi’. Arigato!!!
@ Mark – I am shocked that Shimo closed. Absolutely my favorite sushi place of all time. I remember being served by you – maybe you remember me – I was in the class of ’71 from Washington. I am very saddened to hear about Shimo’s health. I’m expecting and praying for a miracle for him. If you see this post please respond to me how I can get in touch with you on FB or elsewhere. My FB name is tonymetaxas. Thank you for your post…
Hi Tony. I remember you. I’m sad to say that Shimo San passed away soon after my post. He was a very good man and is sorely missed. He was only 62. Very sad.
Hi Mark, I’m so sorry Shimo-san passed away. I’ll always remember his kindness and warm smile. What you learned from him is a gift. He knew how to spot the freshest fish, gave the most generous portions, and that says it all. Will you continue to work as a sushi chef anywhere? Please let me know as I’d like to pay you a visit. Or even better still, if it’s a possibility that you’ll open your own sushi restaurant some day you can count on me to be a loyal customer.
Please write to me at tonymetaxas@yahoo.com