Mission Mission

SFist‘s semi-regular spotlight on vegan eating today recommends one of my favorite things, the mint chocolate chip cookie at Arizmendi:

The Mint Chocolate cookie from the brand-new Arizmendi Bakery on Valencia is basically a squished brownie with chunks of chocolate melting out of it. Like, imagine if someone took an entire bar of high-quality dark chocolate and placed it on top of a cookie before they baked it. Can we get a what-what for adult onset diabetes!? It’s the size of your face and worth every penny of its $2 price tag because it has the calories of 12 regular meals. Get it!

Yes, get it! You won’t believe it’s vegan. AND it’s so minty, you don’t even have to brush your teeth after.

Read the rest of SFist’s recommendations here.

Photo by Tory Stewart.

We thought Ramona’s blog was just a place to read good writing, but now it’s a place to look at good pictures too. These girls look PUMPED!

All of Them Witches has some buddy named Jantine, whose visits leave you with gum on your dimes. Because she’s such a force of nature or whatever. Gum on your dimes. Gum on your dimes.

Jantine also DJs at KUSF.

Gum on your dimes.

“I can never seem to make it all the way over there before they run out of food or whatever,” says my buddy Mike about Pal’s Take Away. To Mike, and any who feel the same, I say FIND A WAY.

Look at this sandwich I had today. I’m not always 100% into smoked things, but this fish was juicy and smoky and tender and delicious — epicly smoked (by Ryan of Katharine and Ryan fame). The bun was fluffy, the greens crisp, the tomatoes ripe as can be. Yummy. And they have Popchips and fancy sodas and everybody’s friendly, and there are a couple of nice tables out on the sidewalk. And they update their menu on their website every day.

Pal’s is located inside Tony’s Market on 24th Street at Hampshire. It’s a tiny bit off the beaten path, but it is always worth the journey. Find a way.

Artists’ Television Access wants to give you two passes to the program of your choice at this year’s ATA Film and Video Festival. Tonight is a shorts program called “Human Nature,” and tomorrow night is a shorts program called “Lo-Fi Future.”

Leave a comment below explaining which one you want to attend and why, and we will pick a winner based on merit. Contest ends at 5pm today.

Note that there’s a special hands-on workshop on Saturday, and special installations in the ATA window all month long.

View the trailer for the event below, and peruse the full press release after the jump:

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(file photo of MBC brunch)

According to Zagat Buzz the owners of Mission Beach Cafe (who successfully turned a retro furniture store into an upscale brunchy-dessert spot) are looking to turn the former Ebb and Flow (and Craig’s PLace [sic] before that, etc.) into a another brunchy-dessert spot.

Having an upscale brunch place on the corner of 18th and Guerrero seems to make sense – there isn’t a real brunch restaurant in that little area (unless you walk one whole block and go to Luna Park for your beer in a bag, that’s right, I’m still not over that) and people love to spend money on food there. But on second look, I’m not so sure. The new restaurant will focus on vegetarian food (sounds good, getting that Real Good Karma Cafe crowd back down the hill) and seafood (didn’t work out so well last time) as well as specialty desserts (across from Tartine??) on a corner that locals have long considered to be cursed. Who cursed it and what their motive may be is unknown (to me), but nothing seems to stay there very long. I guess we’ll see what happens.

In the meantime, what should they call it? Something boring/annoying like Guerrero Gulch Cafe? What about Cursed Corner Cakes?

This was the scene inside the Phoenix as the Giants won game 4 of the NLCS against those John’s Roast Pork-stuft, Pat’s vs Gino’s-arguing, Tacconelli’s (best pizza in the world) eating, Murray’s Deli frequenting, allegedly always-sunny Philadelphia Phillies.

Kind of reminds me of the scene at the Phoenix during the World Cup when Landon Donavon scored that awesome goal to propel the USA past Algeria in the group stage.

Where are you watching the Giants grab the pennant?

Approaching from behind I thought, “Oh hey, here’s one of those Chryslers that’s supposed to look like a Bentley.  How quaint.”  Then I got closer and realized it was a Bentley.  On 24th.

They must have been getting tacos.

UPDATE: Apparently it is in fact an undercover Chrysler (still quaint) and I should probably take my employer up on their free vision plan. I still hope they got tacos though.

Let’s get fucked up! Vegansaurus gives us the straight dope:

We have confirmation from one of the event organizers, Shana Ortman, that all curries will be vegetarian, some will be vegan! All the curry you can eat and all the wine you can drink for a $20 donation* at the door! DID YOU HEAR THAT!?

I heard, I heard! Full details here. See you there.

Some time in the next couple of months, Valencia Street will be getting its own boutique cheese shop (between 18th and 19th). It’ll be called Mission Cheese, and you can read all about the process of opening a new small business on the Mission Cheese blog.

Here is a post that talks about their location (pictured above).

I love cheese.

(Thanks for the tip, K.B.!)