After the Department of Public Health left Zeitgeist no choice other than kicking the Tamale Lady to the curb, Supervisor Campos' staff scrambled to find Virginia Ramos a permanent home.  The result of that effort is now taking place in the form of a $155,000 Indiegogo fundraising campaign for a permanent shop.  The details:

Because Virginia has been saving money for the last 20 years she will be able to pay for the majority of the Tamale store. Supervisor Campos is helping her find a vacant store front but she will need $150,000 to help build out a commercial kitchen in her new restaurant.

If everyone in San Francisco who has eaten one of Virginia’s tamales donates what they are able we will help Virginia’s dream come true!

Unlike the usual form of gift-for-donation scheme employed by almost every other Kickstarter/Indiegogo campaign, there will no rewards, gift certificates, thank you notes, or other such alt ROI offered up—this is just a donation to Virginia's beloved tamale business coming from your heart (we can only assume Supervisor Campos' splashing of his name all over the fundraiser comes from the heart as well).  But, lest you forget forget who this is you're donating to, the campaign offers up a reminder:

In early 90s Virginia realized that her day job as a domestic worker cleaning houses was not earning enough money to send her 7 children to college.

Virginia learned to make Tamales from her Grandmother when she was growing up in Mexico – so to make extra money she began cooking tamales in her kitchen after her house cleaning work was done. During the evening she would fill an insulated cooler with her delicious tamales and travel from bar to bar selling a hot home cooked meals to hungry folks all over San Francisco.

Virginia is often referred to as an angel, a saint, or our Lady of the Tamales not just because she seems to miraculously appear when nightlife patrons need something to eat the most – but because she is known for her hugs, a shoulder to cry on, and her role as a surrogate grandmother to the people of the Mission – in fact she often wears a t-shirt that says “I don’t know you but I love you”.

[Indiegogo | Photo by Chris Brennan]

If you haven't read Jules Suzdaltsev's illustration of the “horrible childhood memories” the so-called food and beverages at Butter conjure up, get on it:

Mac 'n' Cheese + Latchkey Tea (Long Island Iced Tea and Strawberry Soda)

Mom and Dad are gone for the night, and you’ve masturbated so many times that nothing’s coming out anymore, so it’s off to the kitchen where Mom’s left half a pot of starchy macaroni topped with mild cheddar cheese sauce, bubbles of unmixed powder floating around. You consider spooning it into a bowl, but you don’t because you’re not a sociopath. On the way to the TV, you do a double-take as you pass Dad’s liquor locker. Ding, ding, ding—it’s slightly ajar. So it’s back to the kitchen so you can fill up your dinosaur mug with one of everything. Dad’s got vodka, rum, tequila, gin, and triple sec, but when you taste it, your testicles zip back up into your body, and you run right back to the kitchen to dilute your dirty Long Island iced tea with as much strawberry soda as you can find. Three hours later, Mom and Dad find you passed out, dino mug knocked over, and a half-eaten pot of mac 'n' cheese upside down over your genitals. They’ll never forgive you.

Read on to find out how this sad young man grows up (hint: not well).

After preemptively apologizing for looking to bring an indoor mini golf course to the Mission, Urban Putt owner Steve Fox is moving forward with his project to do just that.  And ahead of tomorrow's Planning Commission hearing, which will decide the future of the project, Fox submitted his plans for the conversion of an abandoned mortuary on 22nd and South Van Ness into the neighborhood's latest alcoholic playland:

[Steve Fox] proposes to establish a restaurant and miniature golf course (d.b.a. Urban Putt) with extended hours of operation of 6:00a.m. to 12:00a.m. Sunday through Thursday, and from 6:00a.m. to 2:00a.m. Friday and Saturday. The approximately 2,100 square foot miniature golf course would be located only on the ground floor. The restaurant would occupy a portion of the ground floor and the entire smaller second floor, and would use the basement for storage, totaling approximately 7,400 square feet. However, that 7,400 square feet includes bathrooms for both the restaurant and miniature golf patrons, a large amount of circulation space, and approximately 2,200 square feet of storage in the basement.

The proposed use is an independent business that is not a Formula Retail use. The proposed operation is anticipated to employ 55 people; 7 of those employees will be salaried and 48 will be hourly.

With a 6am opening time, it seems Urban Putt is aiming to unseat Clooney's as home to the most strung-out afterparty in the area—a lofty goal, if we do say so.

Of course, with industry backing from the likes of Trick Dog, Mission Bowling Club, and a “well-known restaurant group” prepping kitschy classic California comfort food, it seems doubtful many will be able to swing the cost of teeing off (including this blogger, who lives just a few doors down the once hooker-lined street).  But as we said before, we remain nevertheless stoked to see a local bar doing something rad and unique in the neighborhood.

Below, some additional designs:

Argh, the incorporated a drum circle into this.

The main hall/

Capacity for 375 people!

[h/t Socket Site]

Just four days after Bacon Bacon was forced to close their Haight cafe for making an entire city block reek like a pan-fried slaughterhouse (allegedly), Brick & Mortar Music Hall was effectively shut down by an incredibly shady Entertainment Commission ruling that found the club to be too loud for neighbors.  But with new soundproofing installed and an appeal of the Entertainment Commission's ruling on file, Brick & Mortar must be feeling pretty confident about their future, as they recently invited the smelly lepers from Bacon Bacon to open up in the club:

In the coming weeks, Bacon Bacon is going to return to a brick-and-mortar setting — appropriately, within the friendly confines of the Mission’s Brick and Mortar Music Hall.

On June 12, Bacon Bacon will be offering lunch on weekdays from 11am – 2pm. Beginning July 1, Bacon Bacon will be doing all the bar food for all Brick and Mortar events; the menus will be very similar to the Bacon Bacon truck menu. Perhaps just as importantly, Angelus will be able to use the kitchen at Brick and Mortar to do prep work for the truck.

I'm sure this outcome is exactly what the neighbors had in mind when complaining.  Nice.

(But, really, how many people are going to want to see a show in a sweaty club that stinks like a pork pit?)

[SFGate]