We regret to inform readers that we have recently learned that the two main cooks at Bender’s Bar & Grill have moved on. After I stopped crying into my PBR, I tried every piece of fried and tacoed seitan on the menu from the new cook, Justin. Here is the breakdown:
- The beer-battered seitan is still the best dish you can order anywhere in the Mission.**
- The tacos are still delicious but not nearly as gluttonous.
- The Buffalo girls sauce recipe seems to have changed (or, at least, it tasted different). The panel of drunks feasting on the girls were pretty mixed on the new product.
** Only maybe an exaggeration. Let’s face it, everything tastes better with Jameson and PBR.
We appreciate the effort it took to do this research. In re: the starred statement: as there is to my knowledge no other beer-battered seitan commercially offered in the Mission, it can stand without qualification.
Did you happen to find out why these artists abandoned us?
Lukas is tattooing full time now at that place around the corner from The Corner. Wowee that last sentence will have you going in circles.
This is a good old fashioned boom, what we are living through right now in the Mission. Don’t hate me, but I have been here one way or another, off and on, since 1978. I know this hood. What we are seeing now is, second only to the dot.com boom, the most extraordinary transformation of a neighborhood you could imagine. We are on fire here, so no good chef with any gumption would stand 60 hours a week in someone else’s kitchen. They will open their own. That’s what “on fire” means. And frankly, I’m all for it. Until my weekend trek to the Castro exceeds its current 30 minutes (up 300% from 10 minutes since 2003) I will continue to be all for it. Then, when I can’t get from point a to point b for the hipster stampede, then… I will become a NIMBY. Lordy.
As long as I get to eat some seitan, I’m all for it. I think it would be rad if Bender’s was a launching pad for up-and-coming Mission chefs. We always need more deep-fried vegan goodness.
We’re going to have to build a crosstown Muni / BART to keep up with this food boom.
Dogpatch – 22nd St. Caltrain – Potrero – 16th – Castro. would be sweet.
And a Presidio – Divisidero – Castro – Noe – 30th/Mission – Potrero – Downtown sure would be nice too. What’s a few dozen billion amongst friends?
i’ll put in $5.
At least the fried pickles remain. At least there’s that.
I’m indeed so sad. Fires and walkouts… what’s next?
It’s also clear that the full extent of the tragedy has yet to hit you all. Either that, or you are all vegetarians: no one has yet mentioned the pulled pork and burgers, or the cubano, which sometimes graced the menu. Indeed their meats where quite tops. I’ll have to go by and test the new wares with fingers tightly crossed.
Justin has been rockin it even before he was cooking at Fulton Street.