The best restaurants of 2011 may not be trend setters, but they give San Franciscans more of what they love — gentle innovation, skillful cooking, local ingredients and moderate prices. There was, however, geographic groundbreaking with major openings in North Beach, San Mateo and a cornucopia of eateries in Oakland, which more and more resembles a new Brooklyn. BART makes them all accessible. Here’s my list of 10 to try in 2012.   Read More

Blame it on the penny-pinching tourists. Or the cheapskates who won’t tip on a post-tax tab. Or the bright young things with no more money than the bills in their pockets. San Franciscans can point the finger at whomever they want — Zagat co-founder Tim Zagat stands by the restaurant bible’s ranking of Bay Area diners as the worst tippers in the country’s 45 Zagat-rated areas. Read More

More than 80 percent of the money that companies set aside in special funds created by The City’s landmark Healthy San Francisco health care program apparently goes back into the bosses’ pockets without benefiting workers. During a discussion Thursday about a proposal to prohibit this practice in the future, The City’s Office of Labor Standards Enforcement released data indicating that 705 employers repurposed $50.1 million supposedly earmarked last year for worker health care. Read More