San Francisco, CA
One of California’s most famous chefs is coming home to San Francisco
“Why on earth would you want to open in San Francisco?”
This was my first question to Christopher Kostow, the Napa Valley-based chef, as we sat outside at a cafe table on the corner of Pacific and Montgomery in Jackson Square. Along with his wife and business partner, Martina, Kostow announced plans last week to open a third location of Loveski, the couple’s modern Jewish deli. By the beginning of March, they will take over the Postscript space. (In good news, the popular, bougie cafe (opens in new tab), which has been roasting coffee there since 2023, will continue to provide beans to Loveski and a small list of retail partners.)
My question was obviously loaded: San Francisco is expensive, full of red tape, and — for restaurateurs — famously unforgiving. It’s the kind of place chefs expand to once they’ve earned their stripes, luxuriating in the more forgiving burbs, at properties that have amenities like parking lots. What is not as common is the country-to-city trajectory. But in this and other ways, Kostow is different.
“Well, to start, in 2002, when I was 25, I had the good fortune of working around the corner from here as a line cook. Remember Elisabeth Daniel?” he asked. The restaurant, located where Ver Jus is now, was owned by the divisive chef Daniel Patterson, who went on to earn two Michelin stars at Coi.
“It was a fine dining restaurant with beautiful food. But I was a whipping boy,” Kostow laughed, recalling that cooks weren’t allowed to smoke cigarettes or drink coffee because it would ruin their palette. “You had to run down the alley and hide behind garbage cans to smoke or take a shot of espresso. It was crazy. I didn’t enjoy that work experience, but I loved this gorgeous neighborhood.”
Kostow’s rise to fame began in earnest after he left Elisabeth Daniel — and San Francisco — to take over The Restaurant at Meadowood in St. Helena in 2008. Meadowood earned a rare three Michelin stars before being destroyed in 2020’s Glass fire.
In 2022, the Kostows opened Loveski in an 800-square-foot space in Napa’s Oxbow Public Market. A year later, they opened a second location in the Marin Country Mart in Larkspur.
As the couple inched closer to San Francisco, they began circling the idea of returning to the city proper. Their daughters are older now, allowing the couple to travel from their St. Helena home more easily. “Another chapter of life unfolding, and I think it’s compelled us to start pursuing projects outside of Napa Valley,” he said.
And then, a few months ago, the Postscript deal dropped into their laps.
The timing and Jackson Square location were pure kismet. “With Jony Ive right here, it’s at the intersection of design, tech, and capital, and VC stuff,” Kostow says. “I don’t think we could have found a more dynamic place.”
Jackson Square is indeed enjoying a culinary renaissance. Michael and Lindsay Tusk, the owners of Quince, Cotogna, and Ver Jus, arguably made it what it is. But in the past few years, they’ve been joined by chef Brad Kilgore’s Ama, Cafe Sebastian, and MadLab in the Transamerica Pyramid. Peter Hemsley, who earned a star at his seafood-centric fine-dining restaurant Aphotic, is planning an opening on Jackson Street, in the space that used to house Kells Irish Restaurant and Pub.
Loveski Deli, which is in tribute to Kostow’s pre-Ellis Island family name, might not be catering to his younger self — the minimum-wage line cooks of the neighborhood. It will serve the hood’s well-heeled denizens fare the website calls “Jew-ish.”
Yes, there will be the signature sourdough bagels made with honey in the boil and matzo ball soup. But there will also be croissants, as well as smoothies, juices, and salmon bowls — things that famed Jewish delis like Canter’s in L.A. wouldn’t be caught dead serving. Kostow is also prepping items to sell in the larder, including miso made from day-old bagels, goji rice, water and salt; tamari made from that miso; and chile crisp made with everything-bagel seasoning.
The mini bagel-and-lox empire has kept Kostow busy, but, with Meadowood’s reopening date undetermined, it hasn’t quite filled the fine-dining hole in his heart. “I do want to work in that kind of focused environment again,” he says. “I was almost embarrassed by the fanciness of it, but it was built to create beauty every day — that was pretty cool. But the expectations out of the gate are going to be three stars, or it’s a failure. That’s going to be super challenging — but I enjoy that kind of challenge.” (At this, Martina, the CEO of their empire, piped up: “Yeah, that’s when I go on hiatus.”)
Loveski, meanwhile, is a personal, focused concept in its own way. Kostow’s not looking to make the deli into a “museum piece — a faux shtetl,” he said. He wants to keep it real. “We’re trying to do something that we feel enlarges the concept. We’re not trying to pin our hopes and dreams on a massive pastrami sandwich.”
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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