virginia@bayguardian.com

APPETITE San Francisco doesn't lack for comfort food. The last decade's wave of twists on hearty, familiar fare has insured most neighborhoods aren't without elevated burgers and grown-up childhood favorites. Two new restaurants, opened in September, continue and update the trend.

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HOLIDAY GUIDE True party pros know how to work the holiday season without going broke. The rest of us needs tips from people in the know — a designation which Amanda Womack definitely falls under. Womack is a store manager at of one of the town's best liquor stores, Cask (17 Third St., SF. (415) 281-6486, www.caskstore.com), and she graciously gave us her top picks for cheap-o merrymaking. The list includes some quality cocktail berries that Womack assures us fly off the shelves this time of year.Read more »

virgina@sfbayguardian.com

APPETITE Two unrelated seafood restaurants have quietly undergone chef and menu changes in the last year. I was less than impressed with both when they debuted; now they've taken a turn for the better. There's a low-key Mission seafood outpost with vegan accents, Weird Fish (renamed Dante's Weird Fish), and a Financial District restaurant catering to the FiDi set, Georges, with upscale-casual seafood.Read more »

virginia@sfbg.com

APPETITE Sushi bars proliferate around SF, with two more brand new spots opening on Russian Hill and down in the Mission.Read more »

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FEAST 2012 Fall arrives, daisy dukes disappear. This can only mean one thing: it's time to start eating again. Our guide to autumnal appetite will help you do just that, of course. Marke B. will get you hyped for crab season here in the Bay, George McIntire found some of the most useful local apps for finding haute plates (and goblets). Caitlin Donohue sussed out the Marin-Sonoma Cheese Trail, and Virginia Miller shares her knowledge on all things rum and chocolate. And more! Read on, get hungry. Read more »

AFFORDABLE

Aria Korean American Snack Bar (932 Larkin, SF. (415) 292-6914)

Cat Head's BBQ (1665 Folsom, SF. (415) 861-4242, www.catsheadbbq.com)

Craftsman and Wolves (746 Valencia, SF. (415) 913-7713, www.craftsmen-wolves.com)

Gioia Pizzeria (2240 Polk, SF. (415) 359-0971, www.gioiapizzeria.com)Read more »

caitlin@sfbg.com

FEAST "Comfort food for the working man," is how longtime Sunset Magazine food writer and Hakka Chinese daughter Linda Lau Anusasananan describes the food she grew up watching her grandmother prepare. Anusasananan spent years penning articles on everyone else's soul foods in her professional career, and finally decided that the earthy — yet at times incredibly complex — eats that have been developed by the diaspora sprung from her nomadic ancestors deserved a cookbook of their own.Read more »

FEAST 2012 This year, Dungeness crab season starts on November 3 — commercial fishing begins in earnest on November 15 — and soon, if the undersea crab nebula hasn't been environmentally disturbed, we'll see vast trawler hauls of legs and claws spilling over onto the piers and into local eateries. Get yours at Alioto-Lazio (www.crabonline.com) on Fisherman's Wharf or New England Lobster Co. (www.newenglandlobster.net) in Burlingame. Read more »

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