Dining
Cook’s Seafood suddenly closes Pleasanton location after just over a year of operation
By Katherine Langford
The Mission Welcomes an Arab and Japanese Crossover Cocktail Bar in November
Marcus Chen
Marcus Chen
Managing Editor · St. Paul, MN
Marcus manages the day-to-day editorial workflow across all brands, coordinating coverage assignments and ensuring editorial standards are met. He previously served as city editor at the Pioneer Press and holds a degree in Political Science from Carleton College.
More from Marcus →Managing Editor · Thursday, October 29, 2026 at 10:08 PM · 1 min read
The Hinajiku cocktail, with togarashi rim, at Yabani. | Yabani Yabani, a new cocktail bar mixing Arabian and Japanese flavors, is settling into the former Nihon Whiskey Lounge space in the Mission. Opening on Friday, November 6, it comes from the owner behind amaro-focused Bar 821, Tsunami Sushi, and the former tenant, Nihon. The idea, says beverage director Mohammed Zagha, is to bring an Arab bar to San Francisco, naming it Yabani after the Arabic word for Japanese. “We were playing with the idea because [owner Khaled Dajani] is Palestinian, I’m half-Jordanian,” Zagha says. “We both lived in West Asia, and we’re thinking about all the different flavors At the same time, we’re just thinking about how we still want to keep Nihon’s soul in it a little bit.” With that idea in mind, Zagha set about experimenting with the flavors and found throughlines in how the ingredients could work together. He’s turned that into an inventive cocktail menu that zigzags between cultural references a
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