After 90 years of business on 24th, Roosevelt Tamle Parlor has some new owners taking over and giving it an “upscale spin.” Grub Street reports:

Partners Aaron Presbrey and chef Barry Moore (a longtime head chef at Emmy's Spaghetti Shack) took over as of November 1, and they're only beginning to make changes, including a tweak to the official name, which will be The Roosevelt — though the much loved neon Tamale Parlor sign isn't going anywhere. Presbrey tells Grub Street that he and Moore were on the hunt for a restaurant space for several years before settling on this one, so they're now trying to adapt their own ideas to fit them in to the well established restaurant and menu. “We're preserving the rich history that is The Roosevelt Tamale Parlor and enhancing it with some new and interesting things,” he explains.

First off, the existing, 150+-item menu has gotten paired down to the essentials, with tamales still front and center, and your standard Mexican combo plates, etc. And the character of that food won't change too much, though they are trying to use higher quality ingredients than the previous regime.

Read on for some history of the place, what they'll be doing with the old foot soldiers in the kitchen, and a preview of what you can expect.

[Grub Street | Photo by Telstar Logistics]

Photo: Maren Caruso/Modern Luxury

My absolute favorite column on Mission Local is their “Weekly 'Conversation With Campos.'”  Each and every week, the staff at Mission Local comes up with a smart series of questions about the civil and political issues that impact our neighborhood and serves them up our Bold and Visionary Leader, Supervisor David Campos.

But there's a twist! Instead of answering the questions in any meaningful way, Campos finds new and inventive ways to say “I don't know” and “maybe.” Whether it's supporting a recall Sheriff Ross Mirkarimi (A: “Maybe”), why 16th and Mission is so disgusting (A: “I don't know, not enough trash cans?”), or if he supports Lyft/SideCar/Uber and other taxi apps (A: “I don't know, but there's an app for gays!”), Campos consistently illustrates how shamefully out of touch and passionately indecisive our city's progressives have become.

This week's bummer Q&A dodges the issue of putting a temporary ban on new restaurants along Valencia, an issue that has struck a real nerve with the community since the Valencia Corridor Merchants Association voted in favor of the 1-year moratorium four weeks ago:

ML: Similarly, there are concerns by merchants in the Valencia Street corridor about future incoming businesses on the street. Some are asking for a moratorium. Would you support one?

DC: [In reference to The Examiner article that ran this morning], The Examiner article raises a larger issue. And that’s what we are focusing on. We’re working with Supervisor Scott Wiener’s office because Valencia Street basically is shared by two supervisors. One [part] is District 9 and one is District 8. Whatever we do, we do it collectively, something that makes sense for both districts.

Some of things that have been raised, that we’ve been looking at including, are raised by some merchants. Some merchants in that corridor have asked for a moratorium. We are in discussion in my office and with Supervisor Wiener’s office about that, trying to figure out if that’s appropriate.

ML: Does the Merchant’s Association support a moratorium?

DC: To be honest, I don’t want to speak for them. That might be their position. Those conversations just started. There are merchants on Valencia Street that are saying we should have a restaurant moratorium.

ML: Would the moratorium apply to all business on Valencia Street? What is your opinion?

DC: [It would be for] restaurants only.

I haven’t taken a position yet. I would like to see what they have to say. I want to see where Supervisor Wiener is on this. Both are positions right now that we are open to what people have to say.

I don't want to speak for the Merchant's Association either, but they have been on the record for a month now having voted in favor of a 1-year moratorium followed by a Special Use Permitting process for future restaurants, requiring new establishments to receive community support.  But I understand why you wouldn't know that, despite it having been reported on The Huffington Post, a litany of food blogs, and even Mission Local.

Anyway, your swift and decisive action is appreciated, as always.

[Mission Local]

The DeLano's on South Van Ness closed exactly two years ago yesterday, striking a blow to anyone looking to buy Fruity Pebbles or days-old bagels past 9pm.  Things were all good within six months, when the British supermarket chain Fresh & Easy (not to be confused with the Mission-based garage rock, produce-free band The Fresh & Onlys) announced they were taking over the space, saving us from the nightmare of walking to Noe Valley to satisfy our not-so-late-night breakfast cereal cravings.

But after 18 months, almost nothing has been done to the space, save a few murals painted along it.  SocketSite got the heads up a few weeks back:

I LOVE [Fresh & Easy] but they just announced last week that they're stalling almost all of their US store openings due to the chain's inability to gain traction and likely won't open more than a couple more in the next year. I think the proposed ones (such as this and the South Van Ness location, which they still haven't begun work on) are unlikely to ever open.

Today, The Chronicle confirms the entire chain is likely to go away:

British supermarket chain Tesco is considering closing down its 200 American Fresh & Easy grocery stores - 19 in the Bay Area - after they failed to deliver acceptable shareholder returns, the company announced Wednesday…

Officials are not giving a timeline for the review, but have hired a private firm to assist them with the study and hope to announce some of its findings in April. In the third quarter this year, Fresh & Easy's sales fell 2 percent, according to the company.

Turns out spending $1.6b to open 200 stores near lousy housing developments before the subprime mortgage crisis hit ended up being a bad investment. Crazy.

Anyway, considering it was taking Fresh & Easy over two years just to get through the permitting process to open, we could see a real grocery store open in the neighborhood as soon as 2016.  Maybe that Rainbow Annex everyone has been dreaming about?

In addition to all the flooding that deprived us of morning buns for 4 hours and forced us to wear “definitely not cute” boots until, like, noon, the supports of Mission Pawn's historic (?) signage were ripped right out of their brick wall and are now dangling over the street.

With damage like this, it's a miracle we all survived The Great #superfrankenstormageddonocalypse of 2012.