IS IT TIME TO MOVE TO OAKLAND YALL?

Oakland's Latest Mac n' Cheese Spot Opens Today

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Looks fancy.

I've been on a mac n' cheese kick lately, so it's worth noting that the City of Oakland, aka the new Mission District, is home to a new mac restaurant, Homeroom.  Plenty of solid meat and meat-free options, reasonable beer prices despite a lack of canned beer for sale (!!!), and, naturally, Vegansaurus! is all sorts of pumped for their vegan mac:

Oh hellllll yeah. Finally some vegan mac and cheese action up in this joint! I know of only two other places serving vegan mac and cheese in the entire Bay Area: Souley Vegan (some people love it, some people leave it) and Herbivore (If you held a gun to my head and forced me to eat either Herbivore mac and cheese or Hazel’s dog shit, I’d think reallllllly hard. And then I’d eat the mac and cheese but GOOD GOD, it’s the funk). If you know of others, please let a fat vegan know.  Anyway, Homeroom (adorable name) is opening on 40th street in Oakland on Tuesday, Feb. 15

Thankfully, Homeroom is a mere 6 minute walk from the MacArthur BART station, so you can stuff you face cheese and carbs and be back at the 500 Club before the horrifying reality that you left San Francisco sets in.

(link)

Previously on Uptown Almanac: 

Disney Coming to the Mission?

— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

SF Weekly has some rumors that Disney Studios is trying to get ahold of the old 16th & Folsom Chocolate factory:

​Mission denizens received an odd, anonymous press release last week: “According to reputable sources, Disney Studios recently met with the SF Mayor's Office to plan its move to the former Hershey's Chocolate location at the corner of Folsom and 16th streets in the heart of SF's Mission District.” When we followed up, the author would only identify his or herself as an owner of the “property adjacent to the future Disney location at the corner of Folsom and 16th streets.”

Well, neither Disney Studios nor the mayor's office has gotten back to us. Mission District Supervisor David Campos hasn't heard a thing. But the property's real estate broker wouldn't deny the Disney rumor (though he said there are still no “signed commitments”) — and made the following none-too-veiled reference to a large, glove-wearing rodent.

SF Weekly goes on to ask if this is a “sign of the apocalypse,” but I'm not so sure this is a big deal.  For example, Kink.com is a few blocks down the road, yet the Mission isn't one giant bondage festival.  That said, the realtor told the Weekly: “I think they were drawn by the hip, cool, artistic vibe of the Mission, as opposed to some of the more sterile places they could go to that are probably cheaper, too.”  Maybe the next Hannah Montana will be a Mission alt?  That'd be awesome.

(link)

* Note: today's new picture of me wearing a Winnie the Pooh costume was purely coincidental.

Previously on Uptown Almanac: