I lost a friend to a heroin overdose when I was in college. We met at the student newspaper, and he was a brilliant writer. We all figured he would go on to great things in journalism and probably literature. Instead, he died alone in an abandoned house in Detroit with a needle in his arm.

Worth the Hype? is a column by longtime food and drink writer Geri Koeppel, who will check out bars and restaurants (some new, others popular or exceptional in some way) on her own dime and tell you whether she thinks they’re worth the hype or not. The deciding factor: Whether she’d go back and spend money again. She might not be exactly broke-ass, but she’s definitely cheap-ass and doesn’t put up with a rip-off.

Following an article I wrote headlined, “Are There Any Affordable Places Left to Eat in Downtown SF?,” many of you gentle readers kindly took the bait and offered up helpful recommendations of where to go on the cheap. Thank you!

No one is going to mistake downtown San Francisco for a food desert, but lately, getting just about any meal at a remotely reasonable price in the area is becoming as rare as a condo for under a million bucks.

Worth the Hype? is a column by longtime food and drink writer Geri Koeppel, who will check out bars and restaurants (some new, others popular or exceptional in some way) on her own dime and tell you whether she thinks they’re worth the hype or not. The deciding factor: Whether she’d go back and spend money again. She might not be exactly broke-ass, but she’s definitely cheap-ass and doesn’t put up with a rip-off.