A Documentary Episode Looking Back on 20 Years and Two Special Celebrity Episodes Featuring Current and Former Golden State Warriors and Prominent Bay Area Storytellers are Highlights of the 20th Season of the Bay Area’s Premiere Food Program
September 8, 2025; SAN FRANCISCO, CA — Check, Please! Bay Area turns 20 this fall and the beloved KQED television series is celebrating with a series of special episodes. Viewers will be treated to a pair of celebrity episodes featuring guest spots by current and former Golden State Warriors and prominent Bay Area storytellers, as well as an anniversary episode that gives a behind-the-scenes look at the program with highlights from the show’s history.
On October 30, Check, Please! welcomes former Golden State Warriors Festus Ezili and Adonal Foyle, along with current player Trayce Jackson-Davis. They’ll share some of their favorite spots where players and the team like to unwind and to celebrate. On November 6, the show will break from its traditional panel-style format with a documentary that looks back at 20 years. From casting to studio tapings to filming on location, the show’s producers spill the tea on what it takes to pull each episode together. Host Leslie Sbrocco and former guests, including Liam Mayclem, Lyrics Born and Sister Roma, share thoughts on the show’s most memorable moments, both controversial and hilarious. And on November 13, Check, Please! will gather three very different Bay Area storytellers at the dinner table — Adam Savage, former Mythbusters host and current editor-in-chief of Adam Savage’s Tested on YouTube; Ruby Ibarra, local rapper, producer and recent NPR Tiny Desk contest winner; and Glynn Washington, co-creator and host of the radio and podcast series Snap Judgment, and its spinoff podcast series, Spooked.
KQED launched Check, Please! Bay Area on November 3, 2005 with a simple premise: to welcome local diners — not professional food critics — to share about their favorite restaurants. Each episode Leslie Sbrocco joins three Bay Area residents who recommend their “can’t miss” dining destinations. After anonymously visiting each other’s restaurant recommendations, the guests come on the show to champion, celebrate and critique their experiences with humor, enthusiasm and sincerity. Over the course of two decades, Check, Please! has introduced viewers to more than 800 restaurants across more than 300 episodes.
Bay Area rap artist Lyrics Born, who was a guest on the show in 2013 praises the show’s format and honesty: “I think what’s really special about the Check, Please! format is it’s not critics sitting down taking one bite of 10 dishes and then leaving. It’s folks that have no classical training whatsoever, and they just want to eat. We don’t know who we’re gonna be sitting across the table from. And so, you know, you’re paired with people that you might not normally interact with. And so I don’t think it gets more honest than that.”
A feature on the show can elevate a local restaurant from obscurity to a “lines-out-the-door” success, earning the program a reputation as a kingmaker in the Bay Area food scene. “Folks find out about places from Check, Please! Bay Area,” says Dontaye Ball, owner of Gumbo Social. “It’s like being a celebrity.”
The key ingredient that brings all of the elements of the show together is Leslie Sbrocco. The grand dame of the Bay Area food and wine scene has hosted the show since its 2005 inception. Her unbridled passion for food, wine and–most of all–people, combined with a willingness to let loose with humor and candor, has earned Sbrocco a deeply loyal fanbase. “I couldn’t imagine a better job,” she says. “For 20 years I’ve been able to celebrate my love of food and drink with the community I love, while meeting and engaging with food lovers and some of the best restaurants on the planet each episode.”
Over the years, Check, Please! has hosted a number of stunt episodes, spin-offs and events to keep the program fresh and bring in new audiences. This includes Check, Please! Bay Area Kids, which brought together eloquent young foodies for two series of episodes, a pop-out series focused on the Monterey Bay food scene, and the immensely popular annual Taste and Sip event, which allows viewers to meet Sbrocco and the Check, Please! crew and enjoy small bites from many of the restaurants featured on the show. And with production of the show compromised during the 2021 pandemic, the show introduced the spin-off Check Please: You Gotta Try This! featuring a new segment Cecilia Tries It, hosted by coordinating producer/reporter Cecilia Phillips. For each segment, Phillips visits farmers markets, food trucks and other non-brick and mortar locales to explore the vibrancy of the Bay Area’s entrepreneurial food scene. The segment has since become a permanent fixture of the Check, Please! program.
Check, Please! Bay Area Special Episodes Schedule
“Golden State Warriors,” Episode 2009
Featuring Festus Ezeli, Adonal Foyle, and Trayce Jackson-Davis
October 30, 7:30pm | KQED 9
“20th Anniversary Special,” Episode 2010
November 6, 7:30pm | KQED 9
“Bay Area Storytellers,” Episode 2011
Featuring Adam Savage, Ruby Ibarra, and Glynn Washington
November 13, 7:30pm | KQED 9
Episodes are available to stream for free on demand using the PBS App or visiting kqed.org/checkplease after their broadcast premiere.
Support
Support for Check, Please! Bay Area is provided by IRG Stone, Water Heaters Only, Oakland San Francisco Bay Airport and Graham’s Port.
About KQED
KQED serves the people of Northern California with a public-supported alternative to commercial media. An NPR and PBS member station based in San Francisco, KQED is home to one of the most listened-to public radio stations in the nation, one of the highest-rated public television services and an award-winning education program helping students and educators thrive in 21st-century classrooms. A trusted news source, leader and innovator in interactive technology, KQED takes people of all ages on journeys of exploration — exposing them to new people, places and ideas. www.kqed.org