Mission Mission

Coming down from a burrito high is the worst. If you find yourself in NYC needing quick fix, there are apparently options.

When a bartender heard that we were from San Francisco, he raved about Dos Toros in Union Square.

Another staff member who claimed to be from Berkeley (and later proved this by knowing intricate details of student co-op living) confirmed that it’s pretty awesome, so I checked it out. This is a taqueria modeled directly after the bay’s own Gordo Taqueria by two fellows from Berkeley who wanted to bring bay area burritos to NYC.

Here’s what their carnitas burrito looks like:

First of all, the pierced and tatt’ed young lady who wrapped my burrito really didn’t know what she was doing. Her end folds were way too big pushing all the contents to the middle. She tried to cover things up with an exaggerated triangle fold to bring the edges in, but this just resulted in burrito contents shooting out of the tip at a higher velocity after the second roll. The whole structural integrity of the burrito was therefore compromised, as you can see from the cracking of the overloaded bottom half:

This was a far cry from the burrito wrapping mastery one would see at any taqueria here, but I was in a forgiving mood. Maybe she was new here.

Anyway, when I could keep the burrito from spilling everywhere I thought it tasted really good. The carnitas meat was moist and flavorful. If I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the humidity and tourist swarms outsides I probably wouldn’t have thought twice about this being a bay area burrito. It’s really hard to be objective on the matter, of course the Mission in me wanted to hate it, but honestly I didn’t.

One of the guys working there must have picked up on my SF-ness because he asked, “did we pass the test?” Yeah, I think so. In any case, you’re definitely better off there than the Chipotle Mexican Grills that seemed to be everywhere.

One takeaway from this experience is that NYC is clamoring for a good burrito. Just about every NYC resident I talked to had heard of or eaten at Dos Toros. Other SF businesses are opening franchises in the area, so it doesn’t seem out of the question for taquerias to follow. Here’s to El Farolito East in 2011.

Whoa, check out this photo of some buds in an alley Troy Holden took a while back. What a shot. Epic as can be.

Peep it large here.

He made the announcement this morning to members of the “I Wanna See Paul F. Tompkins in San Francisco!” Facebook group:

So that’s it: Paul F. Tompkins, September 17th at the Elbo Room, thanks to hundreds of folks joining a Facebook group.

You’ll recall (or perhaps you won’t) Iron Davy Cole’s official Mission Mission interview with Mr. Tompkins, in which this whole effort was first discussed.

SFist has the story, with updates to come (hopefully), here.

Careful opening your front doors.

Eater SF readers reacted skeptically to news of Mission Street Food’s becoming Mission Chinese Food, so Chef Danny wrote in to clarify his mission:

We want to make delicious, frequently spicy chinese food, besides what everyone already gets delivered, without m.s.g., with responsibly sourced proteins and vegetables. Seven days a week. All day long.

Lots more here.

Previously:

Mission Chinese Food

Cultural anthropologist David Enos is about to let us in on a vision of modern romance. And it starts, like many a great modern romance, at everyone’s favorite ’80s-hip-hop-themed dive bar:

Bryn Cowlsey: “He took me to Double Dutch and we were having a really great time, he seemed totally into me, you know, giving me the eyes?”

Samantha Wheatley: Ooooooooh

Bryn Cowlsey: “Then he was like, ‘Let’s go to my place.’ And I’m like, ’Yes please’ because I know he really loves me, and he sent a text that said “I miss your eyes” yesterday.  So that’s all totally game changer.”

Samantha Wheatley: Mmmmmm-hmmmmmm

Bryn Cowlsey: “So anyway, we get to his place and he’s like, ‘Want to watch the world cup?’ And I’m stoked because I love the world cup too.  I’m like, ‘Goooaaaaaaaaaaal’, and like ‘Vuvuzela’.  So he gets out a bottle of wine, super expensive wine, and I’m waiting for him to pour me a glass, you know, to be a gentleman and like, pour my glass.”

See how the drama unfolds here.

Photo by Cirne.

But we’ll give it to you if you want it.

After countless delays and a near two year gestation period, Middle Eastern sandwich shop Zaytoon is finally ready to meet the neighborhood.  We happened to walk by the spot on Valencia between 22nd and 23rd tonight as they were celebrating their grand opening (that’s one of the two Palestinian owners sitting there on the left) and managed to sample a bit of their falafel.

The texture was perfect, with a slightly crispy outer shell coating a soft yet firm center.  Both the falafels and the tahini are made in-house every day, and are featured on a menu along with lamb and chicken shawarma, available on either pita or lavash for $7-8.  Give it a try yourself to see how it compares to Truly Med and Old Jerusalem!

Previously:

Soon, Zaytoon?

Something is Going on in Zaytoon

This many!

[18th St between Dolores and Guerrero]

Previously:

How Crowded Was Dolores Park This Past Weekend?