Anna Mindess

In the good old days, when my husband and I would go out to Japanese restaurants, we would always order a bottle of cold sake to drink with our meal. We would ask the servers for suggestions, they would bring something that we usually liked, but, somehow, we never made a note of its name. I always told myself that--this time--I would remember the name or make a note of it, but once the sake started to have its desired effect, those thoughts seemed to slip my mind, like an eel slithering silently away...

Sanela Mlivo grew up on a farm in Central Bosnia, where her family grew all of their own vegetables, raised sheep, cows, and chickens, and made bread, stews, and soups. They lost everything in the Bosnian War, and in 1998 the family came to Oakland where Mlivo worked in a series of restaurants—Italian, Bulgarian and Palestinian. Now, Mlivo dreams of doing just that at her own farm-to-table restaurant that would sell Bosnian street food like ćevapi, a popular dish that pairs spiced sausages with homemade pita bread.

Winter Solstice festivities to celebrate the longest night of the year are an ancient ritual that can be traced back to the Stone Age. Cultures including the Ancient Romans, the Incas and the Hopi Indians have employed dancing and fires to chase away any malevolent spirits lurking around during the long, cold dark night—and special foods are an essential element of every revelry.

A 49-seat pizza restaurant in the Mission is the latest casualty of the pandemic, closing November 12 almost nine years after Melody and Russ Stein opened the spot on 16th Street. As San Francisco’s first and only Deaf-owned-and-operated restaurant, it was really two places simultaneously: A cozy eatery, appreciated by locals for its calm vibe, lack of booming music and crusty, wood-fired Neapolitan pizzas and a Deaf-centric space that was a welcoming home for the all-Deaf staff and diners from around the world...

Back in early February, as the Year of the Rat scampered in, the delectable dim sum morsels at Peony Seafood Restaurant delighted almost 1,000 diners every Saturday and Sunday. The huge space was filled with the exuberant din of families seated around large tables celebrating Chinese New Year, while smartly dressed servers wheeled carts laden with almost 200 different items. One month later, everything came to a crashing halt...

Bún kèn is one of the most treasured Vietnamese noodle dishes. The aromatic assemblage of rice noodles topped with an amber-colored, heavily spiced, coconut fish curry, garnished with fresh herbs like bean sprouts, mint and cucumber, is not easy to find in Vietnamese restaurants. Even if you travelled to Vietnam, you might miss it—unless you knew the right street vendor on the island of Phú Quốc...

Just before the pandemic hit, Chef Crystal Wahpepah was finally seeing the fruits of her labor. As the first Native American woman to own a catering business in California, she was in demand across the Bay Area and around the country, preparing her signature feasts of beautifully plated Indigenous dishes such as buffalo blueberry stew, three sisters salad with wild red rice, and blue corn flan with hibiscus berry sauce...

When does “cheese” not signify a wedge of creamy lusciousness? When it represents revenge, a hot date, or a bad hairdo. While the Danes nibble their Havarti, Cypriots enjoy their Halloumi and Swedes slice their Herrgårdsost, speakers of languages around the world creatively employ their various terms for cheese in their own particular idioms...

Antoine Hunter is a dancer, choreographer, dance instructor, and community activist who has performed around the world and received numerous honors and awards. He is also Deaf, a fact most people wouldn’t realize simply by witnessing his expressive body undulate gracefully to the music. The Oakland native, who identifies as African and Indigenous (Blackfoot and Cherokee), was born deaf into a family where everyone else could hear...

Attend almost any party in Brazil, and you’ll discover that the most popular guests are warm, cheesy orbs, crispy on the outside, moist and chewy on the inside. Pão de queijo (cheese bread) is woven into daily life, as a companion to the morning cup of coffee, then baked fresh all day long at stands, shops, bakeries, markets, and restaurants. No wonder it is one of the first things Brazilian emigrants miss when they leave the country...

The red, blue and yellow hands glowing outside the Parisian restaurant 1000&1 Signes are a tantalizing clue about what's waiting inside. Enter the modern space, receive a warm smile and a broad gesture of greeting from the owner, and suddenly everything becomes clear. Sid Nouar is Deaf (along with all of his staff) and uses sign language to communicate, and he is the first Deaf person to open a restaurant in France...

Back in February, chef Joan Gallagher and the employees of her company, Nourish You, prepared about 400 nutritious meals a day for students at three Berkeley private schools. She took pride in her signature kale salad, chicken noodle soup and hearty stews. Now that all the schools are closed, Gallagher is still busy cooking. But now she is making more than double the previous number of lunches. But those 1,000 meals a day are destined for homeless, and disadvantaged...

With the shelter-in-place order extended, Bay Area restaurant owners are preparing for another month of takeout-only service. Tee Tran, the 34-year old owner of local Vietnamese restaurant Monster Pho, views this crisis as an opportunity to repay the community and country where he found a home.

In 1989, when he was just a young child, Tran and his family escaped from Vietnam by boat and endured two years in refuge camps...

While Café Ohlone, California's first Indigenous restaurant, is shuttered as we shelter in place, co-founders, Vincent Medina and Louis Trevino, take comfort in the fact that the protective measures we are all following have been practiced for many generations by their ancestors, the first inhabitants of this land.

Five beloved independent restaurants, all headed by immigrants, may be particularly vulnerable in our new restricted reality, since some have never had a website, done outreach on social media or used third-party delivery apps. Bringing in only 25-30% of their usual revenue, most are unsure how long they can continue, but they are determined to hang on...