Latest news with #KarltheFog
Eater
16-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Eater
San Francisco's Next Great Chocolatier Has Arrived
Mark Lieuw is storing an oven in his mom's basement. It's the same oven that San Francisco chocolate institution Jade Chocolate used at its soon-to-close Chinatown location. He threw his back out moving it. There's a tempering machine in the basement, too. It's from Carol Gancia's Kokak Chocolates; Gancia announced in April that she was closing her retail location to focus on her online business. In a sense, the basement has become a monument to the city's chocolatiers — a passing of the torch, or rather equipment, from one generation of chocolatiers to the next. Lieuw had a rigorous run in fine dining. Pastry chef at Saison, the Wild (formerly Gozu), Sorrel. He cooked on the savory side at now-closed Meadowood. Now, like so many Bay Area luminaries before him, he's on the startup grind. Lieuw struck out on his own in December 2024 and opened Stay Sweet SF. The 10-by-10-foot cave at his mom's house is now Stay Sweet SF headquarters. 'She would always tell me to stop working so hard for someone else's dream and invest in my own,' Lieuw says. Selling seven kinds of bars, Lieuw's roster paints a sweet and creamy tapestry of San Francisco life and its many flavors. His shiitake mushroom chocolate bar is one of his most popular; a Karl the Fog bar tastes like a coffee caramel medley with notes as deep as a San Francisco fog bank. He uses farmers' market produce in his chocolate. For Chinese New Year, he bought mandarins at the Ferry Building for an orange marmalade bar. 'What I want to create more than ever is a very California, San Francisco product,' Lieuw says. 'I don't see that in chocolate right now.' But the timing is just as critical to Lieuw's moment as his skill. Beyond Jade and Kokak, Santa Clara's Charlotte Truffles is going on 'indefinite hiatus.' Numerous other players in the Bay have been impacted by the highest cocoa prices in more than 60 years, per Confectionary News. To be fair, the colorful and exquisite treats at Topogato are getting the star treatment at owner Simon Brown's first permanent location on Geary Boulevard. But thanks to a somewhat stale San Francisco chocolate game — for reasons not within confectioners' control by and large — Stay Sweet SF is a rare, hopeful light. It was thanks to that Sorrel stint that he nabbed one of Stay Sweet SF's first big breaks. The florist across the street from Sorrel, Fleurt, offered him space for a Valentine's Day pop-up. Between 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. he sold 10 boxes of chocolate — one of which happened to go to a San Francisco Chronicle food critic. Mackenzie Chung-Fegan's write-up rhapsodized on Lieuw's strawberries-and-cream and raspberry-pink peppercorn-marshmallow bonbons, and dropped two days before February 14. In his words, the attention sent him on 'quite the rollercoaster.' It's an auspicious time for chocolate in San Francisco. The history of sweet gold ingots in the Bay is long-standing, with Domingo Ghirardelli launching the country's longest-running factory in the country in 1852. Since then, there's been 1996's Scharffen Berger Chocolate Maker in Berkeley (acquired by Hershey in the '00s), Tcho's tech-focused birth in 2005, and Dandelion Chocolate in 2012. Smaller players entered the ring — the Lieu sisters with wine country's Socola Chocolatier in 2001, Malena Lopez-Maggi churning out plant-based goodies in the East Bay at the Xocolate Bar since 2006. Jade and Kokak's closings are a reminder that the San Francisco business climate has changed dramatically since the late 19th-century Gold Rush. To be fair, Jade's Mindy Fong wants to focus on family, and Gancia is focusing on her health. But operating a restaurant, cafe, and certainly a sweets shop can seem impossible in 2025 San Francisco. A few blocks from Kokak on Castro Street, the former Dogo Love retail space is on the market for just over $5,000 a month. That sweet history, and precarious present, is the context Lieuw steps into. He was born and raised in the city. He graduated college in San Francisco with a degree in biology and minors in math and chemistry. He wanted to be a pediatrician and even worked at UCSF for awhile before taking a year off. He enrolled at Le Cordon Bleu in 2012 after his mom suggested he try his hand at cooking. 'I never looked back,' Lieuw says. He joined the opening team at Pier 5's Coqueta, and headed there after finishing his culinary school classes each day. On his days off, he'd pick up shifts at Atelier Crenn. For an externship, he found a way into Eleven Madison Park in New York. (It was the only restaurant that got back to him of eight places he emailed.) Before returning to San Francisco, he crossed working at Le Bernardin and Nomad off his list to be on the safe side. His first Stay Sweet SF pop-ups were at Pacifica's Craftsman Coffee in May 2024. He'd use the kitchen at whatever swanky restaurant he was at to make the bars, then drive south to sell his sweets. Golden Goat Coffee in SoMa and Breadbelly in Outer Richmond have been supporters and venues, too. Cottage business licensing allows him to work from his family's house and continue growing the nascent brand. There's no rush to take on a big rent payment that a landlord could hike into oblivion just yet. That said, of course, he dreams of opening a storefront someday. He envisions a small shop in Chinatown to appeal to tourists. For now, he's going day by day. He just finalized his logo and branding, which nods to Chinese knots meant to invoke good luck. At the beginning of April, he cleaned up at the annual San Francisco Chocolate Salon. He took home six out of nine People's Choice Awards at the Golden Gate Park event in addition to two golds from the judges. 'Everybody always tells me I do good work,' Lieuw says. 'But there's always that fear in the back of your mind. You're like 'Can I do this? Is this really working? Is this happening?'' Sign up for our newsletter.
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
First look at ‘Karl,' SF Bay Ferry's new high-speed, low-emission vessel: video
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — On Friday, the newest addition to the San Francisco Bay Ferry fleet was officially unveiled. Dubbed 'MV Karl,' the state-of-the-art ferry is the cleanest high-speed passenger ferry in the U.S. and the first delivered that meets the California Air Resources Board's (CARB) new emissions limits for commercial harbor craft. A Dorado class ferry, Karl is powered by four U.S. Environmental Agency (EPA) Tier 4 engines and equipped with diesel particulate filters, which is a first for the passenger ferry industry. 'MV Karl is a perfect example of what is possible when cleaner transportation options are embraced and brought to market. This passenger ferry will provide Bay Area residents and visitors alike with an alternative that recognizes the importance of clean air and public health in the communities adjacent to the Bay,' said CARB Chair Randolph. Karl will be among the last diesel vessels that will be added to the SF Bay Ferry Fleet. The agency recently approved SF Bay Ferry's plan to accelerate adopting zero-emission technology for new short-run and existing transbay routes. The first five battery-electric ferries SF Bay Ferry will add to its fleet are currently under construction. The first of these vessels is expected to be in service by early 2027. The ferry was named in a region-wide selection process with names submitted by Bay Area students. The name Karl was submitted by a local high school student Sean O., who chose the name on honor of the Bay Area's iconic fog, which was named 'Karl the Fog' by a social media account launched in August 2010. The name Karl received the most votes in a public poll and was approved by SF Bay Ferry's Board of Directors. Karl features a fully enclosed upper deck area that increased its indoor capacity by 73 seats, giving it a total capacity of 320 passengers. SF Bay Ferry plans to have MV Karl begin service on the Vallejo route next month. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
San Francisco Chronicle
21-04-2025
- General
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Bay Area has an ultramodern new ferry. Meet ‘Karl the boat'
The first thing to learn about naming a new ferry boat: There are a lot of rules. You cannot name your San Francisco Bay Ferry vessel after a human being or a corporation. Never duplicate the name of another ship operating in San Francisco Bay. And perhaps most importantly, be very careful when taking suggestions from hormonal middle schoolers. The transit agency received 'a lot of nominees from sixth-, seventh-, eighth-grade boys, which we didn't understand,' ferry spokesman Thomas Hall said. 'And then when we did understand, from talking to our own children, we said, 'Oh, no, that's off the list.'' SF Bay Ferry settled on 'Karl' for its new ultramodern vessel, which passed under the Golden Gate Bridge at 3 a.m. two weeks ago after a 30-hour voyage from Seattle, where it was built. The name is a Bay Area insider nod to the anthropomorphization of San Francisco's marine layer, which showed up in 2010 on social media as Karl the Fog. Karl the boat will be christened this Friday, and the new 320-passenger ferry starts taking passengers in May. But first the Chronicle got a tour. The system's first four-engine ferry and California's cleanest workhorse ferry yet — a 'Tier 4' diesel particulate filter boat that traps soot from the engine exhaust — Karl was built as the next step in the system's quest for a zero-emissions fleet. Karl is cleaner, faster and more versatile, leading to in-house comparisons to a famous Golden State Warriors do-a-bit-of-everything player. 'These were initially designed as the Iguodalas of the fleet,' Hall said. 'They're fast enough to work out of Vallejo, big enough for all of the routes and small enough to fit in all of the marinas.' Karl and its under-construction twin Zalophus, the scientific name for a sea lion, were named by Bay Area students who last year presented more than 350 nominations that were whittled down to 12, then voted on publicly. Other finalists included 'Painted Lady' and 'Chowder'; the latter was narrowly beaten by Zalophus and could appear on the side of a future ferry. There were sports-related nominations, too, including nods to Willie Mays and seafaring ex-Warriors star Klay Thompson, who was a ferry rider before he bought his own boat and started commuting to Chase Center from across the bay. 'We did get some nominations to call it 'Say Hey,'' Hall said. ''Splash Brother' I thought was a pretty good nomination that didn't make it through the process.' Hall said when Sigma was a popular nomination, he asked his teen daughter to explain the Gen Alpha term. 'She said 'No, don't name your boat that.'' (It loosely translates to a lone wolf-type of dominant male.) Karl is a Dorado class boat, a sister ship to the sleek and fast Dorado and Delphinus, which launched in 2022 and 2024, respectively. But Karl and the Zalophus have subtle differences, including an enclosed top deck and a four-engine configuration that add speed, but also the option to conserve fuel on shorter runs. KARL is painted in all caps on the side of the ferry. Taking Chronicle journalists on a run through the Napa River into San Pablo Bay, veteran captain Chris San Miguel used the name frequently during radio chatter with the Coast Guard and other boats. ('Karl copies, thank you.') 'It's going to take a little while to get used to it,' San Miguel said, laughing. Adding to the confusion: Karl will likely be a regular on the Vallejo run, where there's a regular deckhand named Carl. San Miguel started in 1989 as an engineer on the Bay Breeze, now the fleet's oldest boat that is overdue for retirement. He says Karl's controls are 'just plain smoother,' moving laterally with jets of water instead of propellers and a rudder. The inside is sleek and white, looking more like a sterile 'Star Trek' spaceship corridor than the grimier 1980s and 1990s ferries still in the system. The prime spot for passengers may be the back of the top deck, where bar-style seats surround an elevated table like a lounge on a cruise ship; part of the ferry system's shifting functions which include things like shuttles to Giants games and special scenic Fleet Week runs. 'It works wonderfully for a commute and it will work wonderfully for those summer days, when people don't have a destination in mind and want to hang out on the water,' Hall said. 'It's a commuter boat and a party boat all in one.' But there's always a younger, faster, cleaner boat coming into town. Next after Karl and Zalophus are three battery-powered ferries holding 150 passengers each, set to arrive in 2027. They'll shuttle riders on the system's shortest routes from the Ferry Building, including Treasure Island and Mission Bay. Battery-powered boats with room for 450 passengers are coming in 2028. Until then, Karl the boat will rule local waterways. 'Once you know the history,' Captain San Miguel said, 'it fits the bay.'
