Polls are open for our 2026 Best of the Bay! Vote here now, and enjoy our Editors’ Picks of our favorite Bay Area things, which we’ll be posting throughout the month and beyond.
20-year-old weekly food and drink newsletter Tablehopper remains a consistent innovator to watch in Bay Area independent publishing. Reporting from an insider’s perspective, Marcia Gagliardi routinely scoops billionaire-backed outlets on restaurant openings and closings, analyzes and predicts trends with scary accuracy, and highlights the places that have rightfully earned longevity in a competitive culinary region.
Gagliardi recently celebrated two decades in business for herself with an exclusive preview of 15 Romolo, the 114-year-old North Beach bar that’ll soon reopen after being dark for six years. The party highlighted her deep support of family-owned restaurants and bars, how she’s made her home in the Bay Area’s queer community, and her ability to world-build. There were Champagne towers, steak sandwiches, and Stella’s Sacripantina cake. Juanita More did a surprise performance. Wigs were tousled. She’s planning more memory-making soirées, including a steak dinner at Nightbird, to mark her anniversary.
Without Gagliardi’s personal mentorship over the past 16 years, I probably wouldn’t be a food editor who gets to write this pick today. She was the first person I turned to when researching my fall preview. We’ve seen major corporate-backed local ventures and regional institutional memory come and go, and are both hungrier than ever to share information—and meals sitting on the street—and serve our local readers. Let this be a hopeful sign for 2027!
