— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Up until last week, Parkmerced was known for absolutely nothing. It's still known for nothing, but now it's home to Taco Libre, the latest venture from Nombe chef Vincent Schofield, which apparently means something to foodies. And while I'm certain I'll never bike out there and navigate through the resident rat population, the interior murals by Sirron Norris sure are fine.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Apparently so! Admittedly, I don't go to Dynamo very often due to my fiscal opposition to paying two-plus smacks for a doughnut, but they had the back open for their new-flavor release party and it sure is nice back there. Plus, they're hoping to get wifi in the next month or so, so you'll soon be able to distract yourself from doing real work while hanging out in one helluva beautiful garden:
Oh, and their new peanut butter and banana honey donut? Delicious.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Dynamo Donut launches their newest donut flavor – a fusion of Project Open Hand’s homemade peanut butter with a banana honey glaze.
To celebrate, Dynamo will give away FREE donuts and FREE Stiegl Goldbrau beer while supplies last. Guests are also invited to name the new donut to win a gift certificate for a dozen donuts.
I'm trying to think of good names, but everything that comes to mind involves dogs licking peanut butter off of phallic objects. Anyway, tt goes down from 4-6pm today, so brave the rain, hail, and afternoon tornado warnings to get yourself some fresh donut action.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Terrible news, guys! According to CBS, there was some earthquake in Japan and now San Francisco sushi chefs are worried about delays in shipping fish to Potrero Hill:
At Umi on Potrero Hil, owner and executive chef Stewart Chen has a large variety of fish from the Japanese markets. […] But he’s already starting to see the impact of the earthquake on overseas deliveries.
“There are a lot of delays, especially the fish that might be a special request. They have been saying, we don’t have that,” he said.
Umi is one of several sushi restaurants in the Bay Area that is expecting long-lasting effects from the disaster in Japan.
Well, that just fucking sucks.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
It's some math holiday today, so that means nerds and gentrifiers alike get to eat and drink for cheap today. Mission Pie is charging $3.14 for every slice in the shop and Pi Bar (surprise, surprise) is offering up a pint of any tap beer for the same price. Plus it's Monday, which is generally reason enough to self-medicate your unemployment-induced depression away with fat slice of Walnut. Do it.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
I generally don't care about Michael Bauer's restaurant reviews because he talks about places that wouldn't appreciate it if a customer walked in the front door wearing jorts. However, Mickey B. occasionally goes slumming and talks about some “dive” that regular people can eat at. Take his latest review, tackling neighborhood-favorite Mission Chinese Food. Predictably, he dug the food, calling MCF the “poster child for alternative dining scenarios.” No doubt that's some high praise for a pair of worthy chefs, but what got me was his take on the restaurant's interior. “Ignore the decor,” warned Bauer:
Clearly, Mission Chinese Food wins the award for the best food served in the worst surroundings. There's no ambience, the service can be slipshod at times and the beverage list consists of soft drinks, four beers including Blue Moon ($4) and house red and white wine for $4.
No ambience? Dude, no. I can get behind complaining about Blue Moon, but that dragon hanging from the ceiling is one of the most badass decorations found in any of San Francisco restaurants. The only thing MCF could possibly do to make that place better is get a second dragon, if for no other reason than to let me watch two dragons fight for an hour while doing acid and eating szechuan pickles.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Wendy MacNaughton, illustrator of the killer “Meanwhile, Mission Bartenders” that appeared in The Rumpus, just published a bunch of b-sides to her blog, including this sketch of the front step into Zeitgeist. Like Wendy, I've always been curious about what “Lally's” was all about, but figured the bartenders' time would be better spent blowing off another customer's question. Wendy, on the other hand, got the scoop:
this is the doorstep of what is now Zeitgeist, but was once ice cream shop that doubled as a speakeasy during the prohibition years. ice cream was served upstairs, booze down below. the original tile entry remains.
Not that I don't enjoy a good tamale in a buck with my pint, but ice cream with an speakeasy in the basement? Sounds like my dream come true.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Serious Eats recently went on a walking tour of the 24th taquerias in a search to find the best tacos in the Mission. While I'm sure we can all agree how pointless this exercise has become, they did come across an interesting pattern:
What I find most interesting here is that beside from the two best taquerias, which are clear outliers, the rest of the taco joints follow a very strong quality trend: the further east you go, the better they get. This makes a lot of sense, seeing as west of Mission Avenue [sic] is much more heavily gentrified (read: gringified) than East, which still has a large and vital Mexican population. It's just neat to see it in an actual graph.
I think blaming gentrification for this pattern is a stretch, but I do have to agree with the overall point. Plus, props to Serious Eats for bucking the myth that Mission St. alone is the ultimate destination for Mexican fast food.
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |
Wendy MacNaughton over at The Rumpus has put together a solid pictorial of mission bars from the eyes of bartenders. While the whole thing is worth checking out, one of the best parts was the segment dealing with regulars never staying at one bar. I've done that fourth dance a few times myself, only sub Delirium for another bar that isn't a perpetual nightmare.
[The Rumpus, h/t Mission Mission]
