Each restaurant in this list will be remembered for its dishes (a lip-tingling Nashville hot chicken at Bird & Bone; a satisfying bowl of noodles at Cake Thai), but a great establishment is also one where friendships are forged, be it sipping a cafecito with a buddy at David s or, in the case of the
New Times staff, holding the occasional editorial meeting over beers at Concrete Beach.
In these uncertain times, the fates of some establishments remain.uncertain. Chef Timon Balloo s magnificent spot, Balloo, for example, closed its 30-seat dining room for good and pivoted to selling meal kits from its website. The website now says the meals aren t available, and
Andrew Gilbert December 13, 2020Updated: December 14, 2020, 4:36 pm
Ashish Khan (left), the son of Ali Akbar Khan, performs with Zakir Hussain and Indranil Bhattacharya. Photo: Courtesy of Ali Akbar Khan School of Music
When the lights went down and the audience faded from view, Zakir Hussain realized he was entering a strange new realm.
As a teenager who’d recently arrived in the United States after getting a precocious start as a Bollywood studio musician and accompanist for North Indian classical recitals, Hussain had already worked in an unusually wide array of settings. But he’d never played anywhere like the hippie haven christened the Family Dog on the Great Highway in San Francisco.
Andrew Gilbert December 10, 2020Updated: December 10, 2020, 3:24 pm
Jazz clarinetist Ben Goldberg launched a project called “The Plague Diary” in which he composes, records and posts music every day. Photo: Paul Chinn, The Chronicle
Sheltered in place in Berkeley, clarinetist Ben Goldberg decided to keep a musical calendar, making an entry nearly each day since the Bay Area’s first lockdown in March.
Composing, recording and posting new pieces on the Oakland music service Bandcamp, Goldberg has created an ever-expanding body of work called “Plague Diary,” a sumptuously melodic account of this singular era. It’s served as a chronicle of an inner journey shared by everyone who has been suddenly cut off from loved ones, work and the world beyond due to the coronavirus pandemic.