My group chat has been lighting up with one particular restaurant question: Now that Oakland’s Snail Bar has a new chef, how’s the food? Once it got the stamp of approval from my colleague Cesar Hernandez, I decided to revisit. The steak frites were especially transformative. I don’t know what magic chef de cuisine Zachary Breaux works to make french fries — paired with silky, peppery beef — so crisp on the outside, yet ethereally fluffy on the inside.
4935 Shattuck Ave., Oakland. snailbaroakland.com
To celebrate the news that Loquat, one of the Bay Area’s best bakeries, is opening a second location more focused on savory dishes and bread, I tried one of the few non-sweet items on the current menu. Pick any of that day’s boureka varieties — I went with green garlic and ricotta — and staff will split the pastry open to make a sandwich. It’s stuffed with haminado (slices of hard-boiled egg), hummus, tahini and amba. Flaky and messy, it made me that much more excited about the expansion…