Dining Out More Might Actually Save You Money. Here's How.
For the restaurants, loyalty apps are helping fill seats and encourage return visits. Jacob Weiner, general manager at LPM Restaurant & Bar in Miami, said that partnering with the Dorsia app 'makes for a consistent and guaranteed revenue stream.' Nick Amano-Dolan, general manager and beverage director of Trick Dog in San Francisco, likes the seamless, no-wait payment system the app Blackbird offers customers. 'There's nothing worse at a bar than when I want to close out my tab and it takes 20 minutes to pay and leave,' he said.
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CBS News
4 days ago
- CBS News
End of an era: Sneaky Pete's closing its North Texas lakeside location after nearly 40 years
After days of speculation on social media, the longtime owner of Sneaky Pete's has confirmed the lakeside restaurant and bar will close its doors at Eagle Point Marina next month. Nick Mehmeti, who has operated Sneaky Pete's for more than 25 years, said the business will shut down on Sept. 28 after the City of Lewisville declined to renew its lease. Mehmeti said the city plans to build a hotel and conference center on the site. "I got involved 25 years ago — it's been a great run," Mehmeti said. "Unfortunately, we're not going to run anymore, obviously, but we'll get beyond this. There will be another business." Mehmeti said he had previously offered to build a hotel resort that would include a new Sneaky Pete's, but the proposal was not accepted. "We offered the city ten years ago to build the hotel resort," he said. "We offered to build a 150-room hotel, bulldoze it from square one and start fresh. They would have had a brand-new building in 18 months." For many longtime patrons, the news is bittersweet. Krista Williams, who worked at Sneaky Pete's as a waitress 25 years ago, returned recently as a customer, dining with friends during a lunch break. "It means fun. It means summertime. It means every year, every season of the year," Williams said. "We can always find something fun." Williams said the restaurant has always felt like family. "You never met a stranger here," she said. "Everybody just came up to everybody, and everybody was out for a good time and helped one another." Mehmeti said he plans to relocate Sneaky Pete's to a new location, possibly in The Colony, though details are still being finalized. In the meantime, customers can continue to visit the original location until the end of September. "I'm sad. I'm not gonna lie," Williams said. "I'm very sad. And there's a lot of memories out here."
Eater
5 days ago
- Eater
1310 Kitchen & Bar Adds Gourmet Market to Georgetown Cafe
is an Editorial Associate at Eater and a proud Washingtonian. She fell in love with food while growing up in Los Angeles, eating plenty of street tacos and Sichuan dishes. Chef Jenn Crovato started selling easy, healthy frozen meals during the pandemic, under the moniker Jenn's Homemade, when 1310 Kitchen & Bar's devoted diners were missing her cooking and trying to navigate expensive grocery stores. Now, her former farmers market pop-up can be found in a permanent storefront in the Georgetown restaurant's 1310 Provisions, a grab-and-go pantry filled with favorites like her frozen chicken pot pie and new fresh items, including Chinese chopped chicken salad, smoked salmon flatbread, and chicken Caesar wraps. The grab-and-go will open on Wednesday, August 20, with operating hours from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Tuesday and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Friday (1310 Wisconsin Avenue NW). Overnight oats can be picked up in the morning. 1310 Kitchen & Bar Crovato was inspired to open the storefront in the back of 1310 Kitchen & Bar when she heard workers in Georgetown were struggling to find easy, fast lunch options after Foxtrot and Wawa closed last year. 'There are a ton of places now where you can go in and order, and it's fast casual, but you're still standing in line, you're still waiting,' she explained, hoping to fill that hole for grab-and-go items. 1310 Kitchen & Bar is also known for its vegan items (including a delicious cinnamon roll and vegan charcuterie boards), so the small market will follow suit with flaky vegan croissants in the morning and a take-home frozen lasagna layered with ratatouille, tofu ricotta, and house-made tomato sauce. The new market will span all three essential meals. Overnight oats, cream-filled bomboloni, lattes, and seasonal juices will be available in the morning, while daily prepped salads and stacked sandwiches will be available during the lunch time rush. Crovato also hopes customers will use the grab-and-go like their own personal pantry, grabbing beet hummus or charcuterie favorites before heading to a friend's house or taking a comforting roasted chicken salad home for dinner. Prepared frozen meals from 1310 Provisions. 1310 Kitchen & Bar Georgetown's grab-and-go game got another boost this summer with the arrival of Filomena Emporium, stocked with sauces, pastas, and other pantry essentials from the 40-year-old Italian restaurant next door. Daikaya Izakaya reopens after a refresh Daikaya Group's playful upstairs izakaya reopened on Friday, August 8 after a month-long refresh to update the playful interior and elevate the food menu. New dishes include crispy fries that come with their own spice bag for customers to shake them in, called 'shaka shaka' fries to reference the Japanese onomatopoeia term that mimics the rustling noise of shaking the spiced spuds. DIY hand rolls also join the new menu, served with sushi rice, seasoned tartare, and nori sheets that guests roll up themselves. Dishes for larger groups include a large rice dish cooked in a Donabe pot, filled with daily special toppings like oysters, pork belly, and lotus root. 705 6th Street NW Limited-time brioche doughnuts and toasts at Cucina Morini Basil limoncello doughnuts covered in lemon zest. @capitoljillbaking Chef Matthew Adler teamed up with baker Jill Nguy? n to create some extra special treats only available at Cucina Morini on Sunday morning, August 17, from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Nguy? n, known as @capitoljillbaking on Instagram, is making sourdough bomboloni doughnuts for the collaboration with flavors like basil limoncello, black sesame honey, green tea coconut, chai caramel, and even mango Taijin. She's also baking up durum what loaves covered in toasted sesame seeds, with Adler and his team are turning into savory toasts covered in summer produce, like charred corn caponata with burrata or heirloom tomatoes with wild oregano and Sicilian olive oil. 901 4th Street NW Victory Brewing partners with new social gaming complex in Tysons If you've ever enjoyed a complex tripel from Victory Brewing and you love escape rooms or other challenging games, a new adult games venue in the huge Tysons Corner mall might become your go-to spot. Level99 opens next month with over 40 interactive challenge rooms testing agility and logic, plus a taproom full of Victory brews. This is the first outpost in the DMV from the Charlotte-based brewery, with some location-specific brews on tap alongside pitchers of ginger peach sangria or blood orange mules from the Level 99 culinary team. Look out for more details from Eater on this opening in the future. 1961 Chain Bridge Road, Tysons, Virginia Plenty of classic and location-specific Victory brews will be on-tap. Level99 Eater DC All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
San Francisco Chronicle
7 days ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F. classic Original Joe's finally opens in the East Bay
It took eight years, but one of San Francisco's most beloved Italian American restaurants is finally arriving in the East Bay. Original Joe's is opening its much-anticipated Walnut Creek location at 1300 S. Main St. on Aug. 14. At 10,000 square feet, with 300 seats and two huge outdoor patios, it's a massive extension of the old-school feel and approachable Italian American fare the restaurant has been known for since 1937. Co-owners and siblings John and Elena Duggan have had their eyes on Walnut Creek since 2017. They said many East Bay residents make the trek to Original Joe's in San Francisco or Original Joe's of Westlake in Daly City, while lots of San Franciscans have moved to the East Bay but still work in the city. 'We saw it as a big market that we could … hopefully make it a clubhouse for this neighborhood,' John Duggan said of Walnut Creek. 'When you do a restaurant this size, you have to feel confident in the region, in the market, and we do.' When they found the former, longtime Stanford's Restaurant & Bar — a long, wide space on a prominent downtown corner — they knew it was the right fit. Customers who open the hulking wooden front doors (with the same gold handles as the Westlake restaurant) they'll enter a spacious lobby with green-and-white marble floors and Original Joe's ephemera on the walls. To the right is a 50-seat cocktail lounge with cozy green leather booths and a fireplace. The back of the lounge bar is a glass window into the main dining room. The 'Original' sign from the first Original Joe's on Taylor Street, which had been in storage for 17 years, hangs on one wall. (The 'Joe's' hangs in the North Beach location.) A 50-foot counter looking into the large open kitchen, a design signature of all Original Joe's locations that recalls the original counter on Taylor Street, stretches the length of the vast dining room. Customers can sit at red diner-style leather seats at the counter, with a view of chefs flipping porterhouse steaks and lamb chops on the mesquite charcoal grill, another Original Joe's staple. On the other side of the dining room is a private room with its own bar and patio, which will be used for events and possibly public dining. The two main outdoor patios are covered with retractable awnings and equipped with misters and heaters. The menu will serve Original Joe's staples for lunch, dinner and weekend brunch, from meatballs and Caesar salad to spicy rigatoni and wood-fired meats. The owners are also bringing over popular dishes from their newest San Francisco restaurant, Little Original Joe's, including zucchini fries and a cheeseburger that's smaller than the seared burger 'sandwich' on a sourdough roll that the restaurant is known for. Tony Rodin, a Croatian immigrant, opened the Taylor Street restaurant in 1937; the Duggan family later took over and expanded to North Beach and Westlake. (The Taylor Street original was destroyed in a fire in 2007.) The Duggan siblings, the second-generation operators, have been on an expansion tear in recent years. They took over the celebrated cheesecake company Zanze's; opened Mexican American restaurant Elena's and a Little Original Joe's market in West Portal; then a Little Original Joe's spinoff with pizza and pasta in the Marina District. (The Corte Madera restaurant Marin Joe's is separately owned.) Like the rest, the Walnut Creek location is decorated with framed photos of family members and longtime employees. Many restaurateurs, especially in today's hyper-competitive climate, might be tempted to create something trendy and new. But the enduring draw of Original Joe's, the owners believe, is in multi-generational nostalgia. 'We receive emails and messages and DMs about people who have moved here to Walnut Creek. They want to bring their grandmothers. They want to bring their mothers,' Elena Duggan said. 'They share all kinds of stories about their time on Taylor Street, Westlake and North Beach.' The Duggans aren't done expanding. They said they get constant requests to bring Original Joe's to other parts of the Bay Area. Original Joe's. Opening Aug. 14. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Monday-Thursday, 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-11 p.m. Saturday and 10 a.m.-10 p.m. Sunday. 1300 S. Main St., Walnut Creek.
