restaurants

We spent last weekend at the San Francisco Street Food Festival and didn't walk away with too much damage to our pockets, but that could be changing. According to SFoodie, the latest event to hit San Francisco is a Street Eats Benefit Gala that'll set attendees back as much as $225.

The price tag — which is awfully steep to pay for something coming out of a cart or a truck — got me thinking about what the price ceiling is when it comes to street food. What seems like a reasonable amount to pay for offerings such as banh mi tacos and caramelized s'mores? I don't think I would spend more than $12 on any single item I've ever seen come out of a food truck. Do you, like me, have a magic number?

It's hard to keep a restaurant that's been open over a decade perennially packed, but Craig Stoll makes it look easy. The chef-owner's flagship restaurant, Delfina, has been open for 13 years, yet remains one of San Francisco's top dining destinations. Stoll and his wife, Annie, have a new Roman restaurant, Locanda, as well as two locations of the absurdly popular Pizzeria Delfina, which was named one of the 25 best pizzas in America.

I talked to the James Beard Award winner about what keeps his restaurants interesting, upcoming projects, and the controversial state of fine dining today.

YumSugar: Delfina's been open for 13 years. How do you continue to move forward?
Craig Stoll: It's just hard work. What we need right now, in order for our restaurants to continue to thrive and grow, is talent. We have a brand-new chef coming in here; you're the first to know. Matt Gandin, our chef de cuisine who's been with us nine years, is leaving; he doesn't know where he's going, but he wants to pursue his own thing, possibly Mexican food. Dylan Montano is coming in; I'm super excited for this. He's been the chef at Manzanita, Traci Des Jardins's restaurant in Lake Tahoe, and has worked at Quince.

Keep reading after the jump to learn about what Craig Stoll has planned next.

San Francisco food festival SF Chefs is in full effect! Yesterday I attended an interesting panel discussion in which many of the Bay Area's most successful restaurateurs talked about what it's like to open an eatery. It was fascinating to learn the things that a restaurateur has to consider. It's not just about finding the right chef; everything from the location to the lease of the building matters. If you've dreamed of opening a restaurant, read on to see what you should think about before you make the investment.

Starbucks doesn't just want its coffee drinkers to drop in for joe each morning; it also wants customers to stay for lunch.

Today, the coffee company rolled out a new line of Bistro Boxes — all-day meals and snacks under 500 calories with a focus on healthier, more wholesome food — to approximately 5,400 Starbucks locations across the United States and Canada. The target? The 45 percent of Americans who are "wellness seekers looking for healthy options," according to one executive.

The lineup includes $7-and-under entrée-sized Bistro Boxes, such as Chipotle Chicken Wraps, Sesame Noodles, Chicken Lettuce Wraps, and a Salumi & Cheese box. Also available are the smaller-sized Tuna Salad, Protein Plate, Chicken & Hummus platter, and Cheese & Fruit box.

Given the trend of healthier on-the-go menu options, this rollout seems to make sense for Starbucks. But considering the fact that these items don't come cheap and Americans aren't willing to pay more for healthier options, it remains to be seen whether these offerings will be successful. Will you try them?

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Are you a frequent diner-about-town? If so, it could be making you fat. The USDA has been examining the relationship between restaurant food and obesity, and it turns out that eating just one meal a week outside the home correlates to roughly two extra pounds a year.

Non-shocker: in comparison to homemade meals, restaurant portion sizes are larger, higher-calorie, and filled with inexpensive, obesity-promoting foods like processed grains and trans fats, all factors that certainly promote weight gain. That's a staggering statistic when combined with the fact that more than half of all American adults eat out more than three times per week.

Are you one of them — and if so, are you worried about its long-term impact on your waistline?

We're thrilled to present this smart Kiplinger story here on Savvy!

When dining out, I love to enjoy great food. After all, that's why I'm there in the first place. But if you’re going to be spending your hard-earned cash on a restaurant meal, there are some things you want to stay away from when you go out to eat so you’re not just throwing away money.

This advice comes from someone who has spent the better part of his professional career managing the kitchens of various restaurants. Although most places are committed to the highest food service standards, there are a few common traps to avoid.

So without further ado, here is my list of four things to skip when ordering at a restaurant.

1. Fish on a Monday. Have you ever heard this phrase? I sure have. The reason behind it is that even if a restaurant claims their fish is "fresh daily" or "flown in fresh," most fish markets and purveyors do not deliver on Sundays. Therefore, the majority of the time, the fish you order on Monday was actually delivered to the restaurant on Friday or Saturday. Although fish going on three-days-old probably won't get you sick (i.e. food poisoning at a restaurant), why take the chance? It isn't exactly "fresh" as advertised either.

2. Featured items. This word is a definite red flag to me. When I worked in the restaurant business, we featured food we were trying to get rid of. In many cases, the food had not sold well or was about to expire, so we drew extra attention to it or advertised it at a lower price. The bottom line was that we wanted to sell what we could while it was still acceptable for human consumption. In most corporate kitchens, recipes are produced in batches and used over time. If a restaurant has chicken and cheese nachos on their menu, it's a safe bet that the cook mixes the chicken and cheese sauce in advance and marks it with an expiration date. Leftover and expired portions have to be discarded, and it goes without saying that throwing out food can put a serious dent in a restaurant's profitability. Add in the fact that restaurant managers are under great pressure to produce a profit, and voila!, you have a featured item. If my chicken and cheese sauce imagery didn't do the trick, I'll say it again: Stay away from the featured items. If you wanted leftovers, you would have stayed at home.

Read on for more things to avoid at restaurants.

For the past 18 or so years, Kate Krader has been the restaurant editor at Food & Wine magazine. If there is anyone who knows about dining trends, it's Kate! After she candidly described a day in her glamorous life, she spoke with us about cocktails, menus, and more. Here's how the conversation went down:

YumSugar: You recently came out with Food & Wine Cocktails 2011. What's your favorite drink in the book?
Kate Krader: There's a bunch of awesome cocktails. Phil Ward's old-fashioned with tequila. The new drinks that are made by chefs are cool. More chefs are getting involved in cocktail programs! Linton Hopkins's sidecar is really good. Wylie Dufresne's sake drink is the best one I've ever tasted.

To see if Kate prefers a short or long menu, keep reading.