The week in food headlines includes an awesome new partnership between Virginia Ramos, a.k.a. the Tamale Lady, and Uber; a new beer garden and restaurant project from Oakland chef-restaurateur James Syhabout; a new Union Square Thai spot from well known food writer and blogger Pim Techamuanvivit; and the quickly approaching new sandwich shop from one-time A16 chef Liza Shaw.
First up, we're pretty damn excited that the Tamale Lady is going to be giving out free tamales on demand via Uber tonight, now that she's no longer allowed to cart her rolling cooler through the Mission's bars. As Inside Scoop reports, it's all a promotional effort for her fundraising campaign, and for one night only, Friday, September 13, you can find her on Uber and hope she'll come your way. You see, she's still trying to raise funds via IndieGogo for her first brick-and-mortar shop, but she's only one-fifth of the way to her $50,000 target with a little over a month to go. So if you care about the Tamale Lady, throw her a couple dollars, will you? [Inside Scoop]
Coming soon to Union Square, to the Smooth Thai location on the ground floor of the Parc 55 Hotel (55 Cyril Magnin Street), is Kin Khao, which will undoubtedly be a sophisticated new Thai spot from longtime food blogger and baker extraordinaire, Pim Techamuanvivit. Bangkok-born Techamuanvivit is teaming up with former Manresa and Central Kitchen chef Michael Gaines, and she tells the Chron the menu will be short, focusing on the "really careful cooking, delicious things that I grew up eating, done with good fresh and local ingredients." The name means "eat rice," but it's an idiom that basically means "let's eat." Big bonus: There will be cocktails from the Trick Dog boys, so that's fun. They're aiming for a November opening. [Chron]
In SoMa, coming soon is the new sub shop from former A16 chef Liza Shaw, who's lately mostly been working up in Healdsburg. It's called Merigan Sub Shop, and since Italian is her specialty, you can expect some great meatball subs, as well as porchetta, house-made roast beef, and (!) zeppoles. Look for this spot to open in October at 636 Second Street, near Brannan. [KQED, Eater]
Heads up on the food truck scene: A new red sauce and meatball-focused truck has arrived, and it's called, um, Red Sauce Meatballs. Follow them on Facebook and look for them to appear every other Sunday (starting Sept 22) at Larkspur's Marin County Mart and every other Wednesday (starting on the 25th) at 5th and Minna, but you'll also occasionally seen them outside the Homestead and at the SoMa StrEat Food Park. Also, they're offering a hint to 7x7 readers: You can get the first taste of their chicken parm on September 25, which will be in limited supply. [7x7]
Over in Oakland, the big news this week is the planned partnering of Linden Street Brewery and chef James Syhabout on The Dock, which will be a new "public house" and beer garden attached to the brewery at 95 Linden Street. The Commis chef, who also owns Hawker Fare and the soon-to-open Box and Bells in Rockridge, says the food will play second fiddle to the beer at The Dock, with influences from Japan, South America, and elsewhere, and there will be cocktails too. The opening is TBA, but it sounds like next year. [Inside Scoop]
