As you might have heard, Rosamunde is opening another Mission Street-style sausage bar on Williamsburg's ever-popular Bedford Ave later this month.  While this news doesn't really seem to impact us here in San Francisco, Olu Johnson opines that this trend of bi-coastal urban neighborhood gems could be worse than the “endless drag of chain dining” found in bland suburbs:

When Blue Bottle, Mission Chinese, Rosamunde, (and to a lesser extent 826 Valencia) open up in Brooklyn and Austin, (and Detroit? Capitol Hill?, U Street?)- it creates a parallel urban universe of hip sameness. And worse, it means there is no more reason to travel. Why go to Billy'sburg or Red Hook if i'm just going to see the same bands, eat the same food, drink the same coffee, and be surrounded by graduates of the same 30 institutions, that I am when I'm in Lower Noe (aka Hayes Valley East aka the Mission)?

Maybe Olu's right—who needs Blue Bottle when there's Second Stop? Or Rosamunde when there's Bushwick Country Club serving complimentary Cheetos?  Brooklyn is obviously a world-class bohemian sandbox that doesn't need San Francisco institutions to make it worthwhile. (Although, as someone who recently spent a lot of time in Williamsburg, to say it's starting to look like the Mission because of a few restaurants is a huge stretch.  They still have a thriving street art scene, and warehouse parties, and a music scene.  Also, no one there wears messenger bags.  So, yeah, pretty different.)

But on the flip side, there's always that sameness, that comfort, people seek out when traveling.  Like how we gravitate towards the same 10 restaurants every time we pull off the highway, who wants to risk a questionable meal at some unknown Bedford hotspot when the tried-and-true Rosamunde is Right Down The Street?  If anything, Rosamunde is saving us from the risk and horror of experimentation while on the road, all while getting us drunk on “fun sausagey cocktails.”

[Butterfly Stories]