In San Francisco, there are so many excellent veggie burgers that there’s bound to be a great purging of frozen Boca pucks any day now. Classics in the city — true institutions like Bourdain’s favorite Sam’s, expanding newbies like the Hamburger Project, and labor-inducing mystics like the sandwich at Spruce — generally don’t care to cater to non-carnivores. But the ones that have alternatives make a compelling case for leafy cheeseburgers.
San Francisco, CA
Highly Opinionated: An Eater Editor’s Favorite Veggie Burgers in San Francisco
Many of the top vegan sandwiches in the Bay Area are outside the 48 hills. Toriano Gordon’s Vegan Mob is a powerhouse of combo plates, mac and cheese, and burgers from Vallejo to San Bruno. Oakland’s newcomer Hyphy Burger is a head-turner, the black bean patty blanketed in bright yellow cheese not to be forgotten. Let’s not even get into my raw, primal love of soon-to-be food truck Malibu’s. I’d weep.
Don’t get it twisted: There’s a rubric. The burger has to be well-composed like any meaty bedfellow. That means crisp lettuce, a splashy and firm tomato, plus whatever other topping may be applicable, done to the most outstanding quality. The patty, the main character, can’t be just an Impossible patty slid in, presto chango; if not adjusted for flavor, it can be bit metallic. Nor can the patty be crumbly, mealy, or cloying. A smart burger-aiolo makes their own handiwork, with dialed-in black beans (or other malleable legume) and veg, though more than a handful of these selects make the Impossible patty work.
Why you should trust me: Much to the chagrin of some readers, not every single one of my meals is an opulent Mughal Empire-esque spread of fine food. In fact, I’ve eaten quite simply since 2016 — and strictly vegan at home for almost 10 years, indulging in what I call “freeganism” once out and about. Unlike the dumpster diving version of that term, my version means that if a friend or family member makes me non-vegan food, I’ll dig in. Further, once going in-house at Eater, I began eating whole hog at restaurants, though my preference is still to err on the leafy side of life. I’m an old head on the plant-based burger front at this point — we’re familiar frenemies. Note that, while some of these burgers fit the definition of vegan, a few due include dairy and other non-vegan ingredients.
For the bougie bites: Roam
Few burgers in the Bay come standard with Umaro’s Berkeley-based seaweed bacon and Violife’s dairy-free cheddar. Marin County-raised Joshua Spiegelman’s upscale fast-food spot has one of the most impressive homemade patties in the scene. It’s comprised of quinoa, black beans, brown rice, and dates, amongst other things, making it a high scorer in my personal categories. At $15, it’s also not much more expensive than its competition. This restaurant’s veggie patty can be subbed into other sandwiches, too — a rarity. Roam Burgers (1923 Fillmore Street)
For the trend-chaser: Smish Smash
No one reading this needs a smash burger intro. For those looking to keep it crispy and thin, this recent Saluhall addition is a must. There’s a real meatiness to the smash burger that’s tough to oversell: The onions reduce atomically, the meat nearly dematerializing into all crispy edges, making for an oily, beefy delight that’s eaten as quickly as the magicians behind the grill can make it. Such unrefined joy can be made vegetarian with an Impossible patty for just $1 extra, and most of the burgers go for under $13. Keep it cheap and powerful with the Reggie Miller, a cheeseburger through and through for $11 total. Smish Smash (945 Market Street)
For the late-night: Om Sabor
Chefs Dhanistha Rivera and Luis Flores’s restaurant tucked inside Hayes Valley’s Phonobar is famous for diners routinely yelping, “This is vegan!?” like paid extras in a margarine commercial. Same goes for its burger: a $10 medley of Impossible meat, roasted onions and peppers, salsa macha aioli, and pickled red onions on a pretzel bun. Sized appropriately, the Impossible is paired with enough flavor to keep that metallic edge at bay. Plus, the kitchen stays open until 10 p.m. For this level of quality, and in an area not known for nightlife, that’s pretty late! Om Sabor (370 Grove Street)
• Aiso: The newest in the game is this all-vegan bar and restaurant that took over the longtime Lark location on 18th Street. Here, it’s the jerk slider, a tiny construction of Impossible patty, miso mayo, and pineapple slaw. Aiso, 4068 18th Street
• Gott’s: Gott’s is the new classic. I recommend going with the veggie patty over the Impossible, as you get less of that cloyingness that Impossible can impart, and it’s a cost-free swap. Try it on the Gruyere and caramelized onion burger if you know what’s good for ya. Gott’s Roadside, 1 Ferry Building #6
• Greens: It doesn’t get much more classic than one of the city’s oldest, finest riffs. This one comes in at $22 and is the most expensive of my long-list picks. That said, the lentil mushroom patty and avocado crema also make it one of the most iconic in the city. Greens, 2 Marina Boulevard
• Native Burger: This unfussy Geary Boulevard burger spot offers a straight-up Impossible patty with crisp lettuce and juicy tomato. To be clear, this is a straight-hamburger — no cheese in sight. Native Burger, 3420 Geary Boulevard
• Rad Radish: There are rotating specials at this relative newcomer Hayes Valley restaurant from the Back of House group. Try the Le Rad Royale Burger for $16 — crowned with vegan provolone — while you can. Rad Radish, 301 Hayes Street
• Whiz Burger: Like Beep’s on Ocean Avenue, Whiz is one of those San Francisco burger spots that’s held on through the many tech makeovers. The Impossible burger here goes for a cool $9.30, which is basically absurd. Whiz Burgers Drive-In, 700 South Van Ness Avenue
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Few things are more valuable in the Bay Area than real estate. In San Francisco, the median house price is now over $2 million. Last month, at least seven houses in the city sold for $1 million over the asking price, and buyers regularly offer to pay in cash or waive contingencies to stay competitive. Yet there is one thing that remains even more valuable than a house, and possibly more valuable than money itself: stock in Anthropic or OpenAI.
Last week, 160 Noe Street, an Edwardian home in San Francisco’s desirable Duboce Triangle neighborhood, was listed for sale at $2.9 million—or the equivalent amount in Anthropic or OpenAI shares, as based on those companies’ current valuations. Rachel Swann, the listing agent, says she was inspired to set these unusual terms after meeting several Anthropic employees at an open house for a different property. “These people have a lot of paper wealth, but they don’t always have the liquidity to do things they want,” Swann says. Some of these employees were expecting to come into as much as $50 million from their Anthropic shares, and wondered if they could use that as leverage to buy a house, according to Swann. “This kept coming up over and over again.”
Swann’s listing is unconventional, but not singular. In April, an investment banker named Storm Duncan offered to exchange his Mill Valley home and an adjacent parcel of land for Anthropic shares. And in May, Vijay Chattha, who owns an agency that does PR for tech companies, listed his Healdsburg home for $2.5 million, or $2 million in Anthropic stock. “I want to sell my house, and I want to invest in Anthropic,” Chattha says. “Why not combine the two?
Chattha’s house—a three bed, three bath with a pool and a bocce court in a part of Sonoma County that abuts some of the region’s most famous wineries—also comes with coveted short-term rental status, allowing the owner to list it on platforms like Airbnb. Only a handful of properties in Healdsburg come with that status, and only about a dozen come up for sale in a given year.
Chattha is offering a $500,000 discount to Anthropic employees because he believes the value of Anthropic shares will grow faster than any other investment, and his vacation home in wine country is the best bargaining chip he has to try to access them. “If you look at Anthropic’s growth last year, it’s insane,” he says, noting the $380 billion valuation the company claimed in February. “Now they’re raising at $965 billion. That’s three X in like three months.” He added that he was open to exchanging the house for shares in Anthropic, but not OpenAI, because he prefers using Anthropic’s products.
The real estate listings come at a time when investors are salivating at the record-high valuations of Anthropic and OpenAI, and even those considered wealthy by Bay Area standards are feeling FOMO about the affluence that could come from these companies’ debuts on the stock market. (On Monday, Anthropic submitted paperwork for its initial public offering; OpenAI is also reportedly preparing to file in the coming months.) Despite the unprecedented valuations of these companies, many people believe their stock prices will only go up, and that anyone who gets a piece now could win the jackpot.
People are clamoring to buy equity in OpenAI and Anthropic on the secondary market, leading to a frenzy of transactions that may or may not be legitimate. As a result, Anthropic updated its policy around “unauthorized Anthropic stock sales” this spring, which notes that “if someone purports to sell Anthropic shares without proper board approval, that transaction is invalid.” A spokesperson for Anthropic pointed back to this policy when asked about the possibility of exchanging company shares for real estate.
Welcome to our running tally of Election Night results. Or, as this is California, well beyond tonight, as results continue to trickle in.
The first batch of results should arrive at 8:45 p.m., with three more to follow tonight. The Department of Elections has the breakdown.
San Francisco is voting in three special elections, for District 2 and District 4 supervisors and for a Board of Education member. Both supervisor races are referendums on housing, especially District 2, while the main backdrop of the D4 race is all the hot feelings around the fate of the Sunset Dunes Park (nee Great Highway).
The winners of all three special races will have to compete again in November for their seats.
Keeping it local, SF is also voting on four ballot measures. Prop A is for a bond to pay for an emergency water-system. B is for term limits. C and D are dueling measures related to the “overpaid CEO” tax. (Links go to our reporting on each race or issue; or click here for our Election 2026 page.)
Vote local, think national: Which two candidates will advance to the November election to replace Nancy Pelosi?
Statewide races include the primaries for governor, education superintendent, lieutenant governor, and much more.
Polls close soon. If you haven’t voted yet, find your polling station here.
Tuesday, June 2, 5:40 p.m.
Two and a half hours until our polls close. Before we go down the local rabbit hole, a reminder that other states have primary action today: New Jersey, Iowa, New Mexico, South Dakota, and Montana.
Why does it take so long to get results in California? CalMatters has you covered on that story. We shouldn’t expect a call tonight on the governor’s race.
The last big election was November 5, 2024. (Remember?) Ten days later, there were still races to call in San Francisco.
So if you’re waiting for the pundits (and maybe even us) to tell you What It All Means, you might have to wait a while.
More from The Frisc…
San Francisco, CA
San Francisco voters to decide on dueling measures on Top Executive Pay Tax changes
San Francisco voters weighed in Tuesday on two competing measures that seek to change the Top Executive Pay Tax, with one of the measures also including a change to the Gross Receipts Tax.
Should both measures pass, the one with the most votes will take effect, according to the propositions’ legal text.
Currently, the measures state that most businesses with San Francisco gross receipts up to $5 million are exempt from the Gross Receipts Tax. And businesses that use more than half of their city payroll for in-house administrative and management services pay an Administrative Office Tax instead of a Gross Receipts Tax.
The Top Executive Pay Tax is a tax some large businesses pay if their highest-paid managerial employee earns more than 100 times the median pay of their San Francisco employees. Businesses that have city gross receipts up to $5 million and are not subject to the Administrative Office Tax are exempt.
Proposition C
Proposition C states it would increase the number of businesses that could be exempt from the Gross Receipts Tax and would stop any further increases to the “Top Executive Pay Tax” after a final rate bump.
The proposed measure says it would raise the Gross Receipts Tax exemption ceiling to $7.5 million. The $7.5 million ceiling would also apply to the Top Executive Pay Tax exemption.
As for changes to the Top Executive Pay Tax, Proposition C states it would implement the 2028 tax rate increase in 2027, but then stop any future increases.
Supporting Proposition C are Rodney Fong, CEO of the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, and Chris Wright, senior vice president of Advance SF, an organization of companies, which includes Bank of America, OpenAI, Waymo, the SF Giants CEO and others.
Fong and Wright, in their argument for the measure, say giving businesses more tax breaks would help keep more employees on payroll and would give companies the ability to “contribute to city services in a predictable and balanced way.”
Critics of Proposition C, such as the San Francisco Tenants Union, slam the measure as “billionaire-backed” and argue it would kill the Top Executive Pay Tax and would hand out more tax breaks to businesses at a time when the city is in a budget deficit and faces cuts to essential services.
Proposition D
Proposition D also seeks to change the Top Executive Pay Tax, which is collected from some large businesses where the highest-paid managerial employee earns more than 100 times the median compensation paid to other employees.
If approved, the measure would change the calculation of the tax using the compensation of all employees, not just employees based in San Francisco. Top Executive Pay Tax rates would also be increased for San Francisco gross receipts and payroll.
Supporters have billed the measure as a way to counteract federal cuts to Medicaid. A report by the City Controller’s Office said the measure could result in $250 million to $300 million in additional revenue.
“Proposition D is the solution to our budget deficit. It asks large corporations — not small businesses, not working families — to contribute a little more,” supporters said in the city’s official voter guide.
The measure has the backing of most of the Board of Supervisors, along with labor unions and Rep. Nancy Pelosi.
Opponents, including Mayor Daniel Lurie and state Sen. Scott Wiener, have argued Proposition D would negatively impact the city’s recovery following the COVID-19 pandemic.
“San Francisco is already one of the most expensive cities in the country to live and do business. Adding extreme and unpredictable tax increases risks driving employers away just as we are trying to bring jobs, workers, and foot traffic back downtown,” said Supervisor Matt Dorsey in the city’s voter guide.
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