Hey there, San Francisco. 

Good to be back. I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. 

Now, it’s Hanukkah already. And Cyber Monday. Catch any good deals? 

If you haven’t found the right present for that special, San Francisco-based someone, consider giving them the gift of local news with an SF Minute Membership. 

Memberships give readers full access to everything we produce and invites to all the live events we host. They also go a long way in making this newsletter happen. 

You can gift an SF Minute Membership here!

And with that...onto some news… 

Catch up quick: Some stuff we missed while on Thanksgiving break 

A week after the Union Square looting, shoppers returned downtown for Black Friday sales. The Examiner’s Sydney Johnson had a good report on how it went: 

Just like every other Black Friday, the Westfield San Francisco Centre, Macy’s and other department stores were decked out in holiday decor. But this year, the area was pockmarked by boarded up storefronts, and police officers milled about on nearly every street corner. Cars poured into city-owned garages, which are offering two hours of free parking through the end of the year as part of a campaign to revive the neighborhood.

By mid-morning on Friday, sidewalks started to fill, and lines began to form outside of designer stores. Still, some shoppers were taken aback by the scene.

“It makes it feel like things are still kind of shut down,” Aaron Hanibal, a visitor from Oregon who was waiting to ride the Cable Car, said of all of the boarded up windows. Others noted that it was hard to know which stores were open and which were shuttered.

But tourists still enjoyed themselves. Eva, a visitor from Germany who gave only her first name, said San Francisco is “much nicer than LA. There are lots of stores and nice neighborhoods to walk in.” She wasn’t aware of the thefts last week, and thought the boarded up windows were due to construction or recent protests. (Examiner) 

Also…

• San Francisco’s Department of Police Accountability is investigating a November 16 incident at a cannabis dispensary near Divisadero Street after video surveillance shows police standing by while an apparent burglary takes place. “[The police officers] don’t do anything, they just watch,” said Anisa Alazraie, president of the Divisadero Merchants Association. The SFPD did not immediately respond to my request for more information on the matter. (Chronicle)  

• Ajmal Amani, the man shot and killed by the SFPD earlier this month at a SoMa-area residential hotel, had previously worked as an interpreter for the U.S. Navy Seals in Afghanistan, the SF Standard’s Michael Barba reports. Last week, the SFPD released video footage of the shooting during a virtual town hall meeting. (SF Standard / Mission Local) 

Top story: One thing you should know 

At Kezar Stadium on Thursday, the Balboa Buccaneers defeated the Lincoln Mustangs 21-0 to capture the 2021 San Francisco high school football championship. The win gave Balboa High its first football city title since 1984. 

“It hasn’t hit me yet,” Balboa coach Fred Velasquez said during Thursday’s trophy presentation. “It hasn’t hit our alumni or kids, either. But it will soon and it’s gonna be great.”

The Bucs will now move on to play Taft High School (the LA Section champs) for the CIF State 7-A title. That game will be played on December 11 at 1 pm at Balboa High School. 

Food news: Bite-sized food and drink stories from across the city 

• 🍝 The group behind the two-Michelin-star Acquerello is set to open a more casual, “sister” restaurant on Wednesday called Sorella. It’ll be located on 1760 Polk Street and serve fresh pasta, along with Italian wine, beer, and cocktails that almost all contain amaro, Chronicle reporter Elena Kadvany writes. (Chronicle) 

• 🍣 Ninety-one-year-old Japantown restaurateur Lena Turner opened a new omakase sushi restaurant last Friday called Sushi Aoba. The cost: $165 per person. (KQED) 

• 🍔 For the next few months, food trucks will be on the Great Highway on weekends when the road is closed to car traffic. Viva Vegan, a plant-based burger truck, will be on the Great Highway near Judah, while California Kahve, an espresso and matcha trailer, will sit near Taraval. (Hoodline) 

• 🌯 The SF Standard had a good story late last week about The Burrito Project, a group that’s distributing burritos once a month to neighbors in need. So far, since 2016, its San Francisco chapter has given out nearly 30,000 burritos. “Who doesn’t want a burrito?” said SF chapter organizer Billy Lemon. “Easy to travel, easy to pass out, and they’re also damn good.” (SF Standard) 

What else I’m reading: Links to browse at your leisure 

Life inside a century-old SRO hotel in San Francisco's Tenderloin (SFGATE) 

‘Nobody will understand’: In Klay Thompson’s silence, an unforgettable moment (Chronicle) 

SF’s Budget in 4 Charts: The Pandemic Effect on City Finances and the Prospects for Recovery (SF Standard) 

Is this cheese lesbian? How a feta at S.F.’s Rainbow Grocery turned into an unlikely queer icon (Chronicle) 

And finally… 

Have you ever been to the Lincoln Park Steps? I haven’t. But after reading this recent SFGATE story about the tile setter behind the steps, Riley Doty, I really want to check them out. 

“Before Doty helped with the Lincoln Park Steps, he said the space ‘was pretty dumpy’” SFGATE reporter Michelle Robertson writes. “Tile, in other words, has made the Lincoln Park Steps a San Francisco destination.” 

That’s all for today! Thanks so much for reading y’all and I’ll see you back here tomorrow. - Nick B.