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Things have been changing so much in SF lately that the old laments are just getting boring. Tomorrow Lucca’s closes. Jardiniere just closed. God knows how many other places have done the same in recent months. And then there are the changes within institutions.
This past week we dropped into Cotogna partially because they made their name on great food and a $40 a bottle list. Of course that had changed in the interim. Now it’s well curated but the wine prices match everyone else’s in the city.
The idea that their prices were really strong dates back at least eight years, here’s the most recent SF Chronicle article from 2011 discussing that well priced list, so it’s not yesterday but recent enough. That time period coincides with the epoch where everything has gone sideways. It’s all about what the market will bear and all the crazy costs we keep hearing about. Quince isn’t exactly a stranger to dramatic transformations, they did it before with their move from Pac Heights to North Beach and then by splitting Quince into the high end place it continues to be with a casual place next door named Cotogna. They continued just recently when they opened Verjus which is not shy about pricing. And, hey!, everyone else is doing it as well so it shouldn’t exactly be surprising but still, it’s another indicator of where we are.