The San Francisco Citizen

Consider poor Michael Bauer, San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic, and executive food and wine editor. In his words:

“I had a brief panic attack as I stood at a colleague’s desk and leafed through the September issue of Food & Wine magazine.”

MB was so horror-struck, he forgot to link to the source of his consternation. But you can take a look here: ”Chefs Charles Phan and Loretta Keller: Recipes for Sustainability,” where magazine scribe Joshua Davis writes:

“The Academy Café, on the main floor, feels like an interactive exhibit showcasing cuisines from the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and Mexico.”

Actually, the Academy Cafe (press release here) feels like a construction site.  Here’s what it looks like over there right now, take a gander. Click to expand:

So let’s see here, Food & Wine says everything opens in September:

“The California Academy of Sciences, including the Moss Room and Academy Café, opens September 27. calacademy.org.”

And Bauer says everything opens in October:

 ”The museum and the restaurant aren’t scheduled to open until October.”

In reality, the museum opens in September and the dining places are skedded to open in October. Now we’re all set.

[UPDATE: As it turned out, both the Moss Room and the Academy Cafe opened on September 27th, so ten points for Gryffindor.]

Thus ends another dead-tree/Internet flare up.  Expect another one soon.

As of today, the countdown timer at the California Academy of Sciences website shows that there are just 36 days left until the Grand Opening in Golden Gate Park on September 27th.

Check out Renzo Piano’s original sketch of the shape of the building. This drawing started it all. 

And here’s what the roof looks like today - rolling hills covered in green:

Construction is still underway underneath - the Steinhart Aquarium, Kimball Museum of Natural History, and Morrison Planetarium are all coming along nicely.

Get ready - you don’t want to miss this. It’s going to be mega.