Foodie Updates: Plank Brings Bowling to Oakland, Incanto Says Goodbye, and More

Foodie Updates: Plank Brings Bowling to Oakland, Incanto Says Goodbye, and More

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This week in restaurant and bar news we have a new eating and entertainment venue coming to the former Barnes & Noble at Jack London Square in Oakland, the final bow for Incanto, and a few more details about Corey Lee's upcoming Hayes Valley bistro, Monsieur Benjamin.


First off, a new bowling alley, restaurant, and beer garden called Plank is on its way to 98 Broadway in Oakland, a.k.a. the former Barnes & Noble at Jack London Square with its 15,000-square-foot outdoor plaza. As the Business Times reports, the concept will be "a gastro-pub with 'coastal California cuisine,' bowling lanes, new and vintage interactive games, as well as a large outdoor beer garden with a long bar and bocce courts." They're aiming for a fall opening. [SF Business Times, Eater]

Incanto closed for good after service Monday night, making way for the more casual and family-oriented Porcellino, which may debut by late April. The twelve-year-old Noe Valley restaurant was a pioneer in the business with its emphasis on nose-to-tail cuisine; and celebrity chef Chris Cosentino remained at the helm throughout the restaurant's life, even after winning Top Chef Masters in 2012. Look for Cosentino to be popping up with an as-yet unidentified concept in the Zuppa space at 564 4th Street. [Inside Scoop, SFist]

Benu chef Corey Lee talked a bit more about his upcoming Hayes Valley bistro, Monsieur Benjamin (451 Gough Street), due to open later this year (maybe by summer?), with late-night dining until 1 a.m. The chef, as previously announced, will be former RN74 chef Jason Berthold, and Aidlin Darling Architects are doing the design. [Hoodline]

State Bird Provisions has switched over its online reservation system from Urbanspoon to OpenTable, thereby (hopefully) combatting the reservations bots that have been stealing all available tables out from under the rest of us. OpenTable has a Captcha security component that should, fingers crossed, force everyone onto a level playing field when it comes to grabbing those first available tables, albeit eight weeks out. [Inside Scoop]

And over in Berkeley, things are moving forward with an as-yet unnamed, 100-seat restaurant at 2635 Ashby Avenue from the owners of Comal. Neighbors came out in droves to a City Council meeting in support of the new concept, which will serve food later than most Berkeley eateries (midnight!), despite an appeal by a neighborhood group that was trying to kill the project. Expect it to open in early 2015. [Berkeleyside]

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