San Francisco Chronicle Food & Home - Spoken Edition

Thanks to a weeklong survey, an app that measures the noise level in bars and restaurants can now prove what some diners have complained about for years: Bay Area restaurants are too darn loud. In fact, they’re right up there, decibel-wise, with Midtown Manhattan’s. SoundPrint, an iPhone app founded by Oakland native Gregory Scott, incorporates a calibrated decibel meter as well as an interactive, searchable map of businesses with ratings (www.soundprint.co).

As the holiday shopping frenzy approaches peak levels, here are our dining picks if you’re planning to brave the crowds in and around Union Square. Akiko’s Whether you go with the chef’s omakase menu or order by the piece, there’s no better sushi in neighborhood. Try the deep-fried soft shell crab and yellowtail collar. 431 Bush St., 415-397-3218 or www.akikosrestaurant.com.

Brutti ma buoni — ugly but good — is a favorite Italian expression, and a pretty fair summation of my life as of late. But in spite of how messy my days look and feel, the season of beauty has arrived. It’s time for decking the halls, for cookies dressed in sparkling sugar, for beef Wellingtons crowned with golden caps of puff pastry. And in contrarian fashion I’ve concluded it’s time to tell you about one of the very ugliest recipes in my repertoire.

Christmas stockings hang on the wall near the entrance of Rob Ben’s, Marshawn Lynch’s new restaurant in Emeryville. Across from the stockings is a newly-built black bar surrounded by sleek wood and glass shelving. Above it all are new lights and a framed No. 24 Oakland Raiders jersey, giving the space a chic, sports lounge feel. In the parking lot is a barbecue smoker, so large it has to be carried on a trailer.

Less than a year after announcing its West Coast expansion plans, Shake Shack will open in Palo Alto on Dec. 15. It’s the first outpost of the famed New York burger chain to open in the Bay Area. Tucked away inside the Stanford Shopping Center, the restaurant will feature ingredients from local purveyors (read our original Shake Shack menu story here) in its straightforward menu of burgers, fries and shakes.

“It really feels like the lottery,” says Caitlin Williams Freeman, pastry chef and founder of feminist children’s clothing company Girls Up Front, when asked about the life circumstances that led to her current focuses of home and family. Last fall, her husband, James Freeman, sold a majority stake in Blue Bottle Coffee, the company he founded in 2002, to Nestle for a reported $425 million.

Shed in Healdsburg will shut its doors at the end of 2018, closing the book on a charmed five-year run for Sonoma County’s most ambitious combination restaurant, marketplace, event space and fermentation bar. Co-owners and founders Doug Lipton and Cindy Daniel plan to close the brick-and-mortar location on Dec. 31 and turn it into an online-only entity. It was a business decision for the owners.

If you follow Tacos Oscar’s Instagram feed (@tacososcar), which is how most of its fans would find its tacos before the pop-up opened a permanent spot in Oakland last week, you’ve grown accustomed to seeing smiling, often ridiculously attractive, people wearing TACOS OSCAR TACO STALKER T-shirts.

The San Francisco Chronicle has named Soleil Ho, a nationally recognized food journalist and trained chef, to be the company’s next restaurant critic. “We are thrilled to welcome Soleil to the team. She was a clear choice: she has a fresh and modern approach to food journalism,” said Audrey Cooper, editor in chief of The Chronicle. Ho is known for her insightful, thought-provoking commentary and deep culinary knowledge.

When you’re a wine writer, you don’t expect opportunities to watch NBA players like Steph Curry and Klay Thompson practice shooting after a day of training camp, especially while sitting on the sidelines to interview Draymond Green. But after months of trying to chase a story about why professional basketball players like Green have become enamored of fine wine — and having little luck during the offseason — that’s where I found myself.