12 Ways to Eat, Drink and Be Relatively Merry at SF’s Best Annual Food Fest

Eat Drink SF is here, at home, and everywhere

violet's sf
Violet's makes the list
Grace Sager

It’s as weird to be writing about Eat Drink SF in October: the ultimate San Francisco food festival is as locked into our late-August schedules as … the NBA playoffs are, in May. Well, here we are. Let’s all make the best of this mishegas. 

Starting next week, we have tickets available for events, both virtual and in-person, from the best and brightest of our homegrown dining scene.

Everything kicks off Friday with an outdoor dinner at The Vault Garden in FiDi (1), which is both schmancy and, happily, an easily adaptable plein-air space. Contributions come from chefs like Robin Song of The Vault Garden; Jason Halverson, from the Hi Neighbor Group; and Angela Pinkerton, of Che Fico and Pie Society (yay!). Can’t make it to the dinner? Get a taste of Che Fico at home with the lasagna recipe chef David Nayfeld recently shared with us (2)

The closing night event, on Nov. 1, is titled “A Night of Gratitude” (3) and takes place at Epic and Waterbar, which for our money is the most festive seafood place in town (those views!). 

In between, of course, we have SF Restaurant Week, with deals and specials from a zillion (really, there are a lot) restaurants: A two-course lunch will set you back between $10 and $25, while a three-course dinner will cost between $25 and $65. Our choices: Violet’s in the Richmond has been making our best-of lists (including best happy hour) since it opened (4). We’ll never say no to a $15 sausage lunch at Rosamunde (5), or a $25 dinner at Pizzeria Delfina (6); we’d save that $65 splurge for the Accarrino/SPQR mash-up in Pac Heights (7)

If you don’t feel like going outside (we get it), consider the still-under-development slate of virtual programming — led by our choice, the stories of the chefs with La Cocina: Voices From the Kitchen (8), which will include appearances from Jia Tolentino, among others. Best of all: Bay Area types can order special La Cocina meals for at-home delivery during the event, like a Malaysian box from Damansara (9) or Algerian from Kayma (10) or (possibly top pick? best among equals?) a fried chicken family box from Minnie Bell’s (10), with mac ‘n’ cheese, corn bread, and caramel cake. 

If this has you energized but also exhausted: We get that, too — and can recommend a new service not official affiliated with #EDSF but surely a spiritual twin: the new San Francisco Cocktail Club (12), delivering cocktails to your home: This weekly, it’s the Prickly Pear, with mezcal, amaro, nopales, prickly pear, habanero and lime. Bottoms up, everybody.

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