With the start of the new year, Bay Area favorite Tartine Bakery announced the impending opening of its first international location—not in pastry-loving France or any North American neighbor, but in Seoul, as in South Korea, just in time for the 2018 Winter Olympics.

The move to Seoul may sound far flung, but Tartine is actually a late adopter of an emerging trend: San Francisco restaurants have been taking their game overseas, especially to Asia, for several years now. The Marina's popular Italian eatery A16 may have been the first—the restaurant opened in Tokyo's Mitsubishi building back in 2009—inspiring other local foodie purveyors, especially of the coffee and pastry variety, to dip their toes in Asian waters.

And just as San Franciscans are willing to wait in line for Blue Bottle Gibraltars and Tartine's morning buns, so too are foodies in Tokyo, Seoul and in Mexico's San Miguel de Allende (all cities that are now home to well-known SF businesses), where a growing understanding and appreciation for the sustainable food movement makes pioneering SF somewhat of a food world hero.

"The food culture in Korea is really amazing, [as is] the way they take Western food influences," says Chad Robertson, Tartine's James Beard Award–winning mastermind. "I'm very excited about the exchange of culture and collaborating with the team there."

So take a peek at exactly just what is going on in our favorite restaurants across the world.

A16

(Courtesy of A16)

A16 brings a cozy neighborhood vibe to Mitsubishi's corporate headquarters in Tokyo.

Known for dishing out southern Italian comfort food from her Marina and Rockridge restaurants since 2004 and 2013 respectively, owner and wine mistress Shelly Lindgren took her A16 game to Tokyo back in 2009, blazing the trail for the others who have followed.

Housed on the ground floor of Mitsubishi's sleek building in the central Chiyoda district, A16's garden-facing restaurant represents for its home state, pouring a California-centric wine list curated by Lindgren herself. Chef Takayanagi churns out pizzas noon and night, but you'll find no wood-burning ovens here—they were deemed unsafe in the Japanese locale. And while Tokyo's A16 still carries a torch for authentic Neopolitan cuisine, the Bay Area philosophy of cooking with local, seasonal ingredients remains. So, you'll find fresh caught Japanese seafood getting an Italian spin in dishes such as garlicky squid ink tonnarelli and octopus stew with grilled bread.

The restaurant's beloved meatballs and signature pies, like the ever-popular Margherita, hang tight on the menu, because good pizza is always in high demand, everywhere. // a16pizza.com, giraud.co.jp