Mission Mission

And nowadays we just take it for granted.

[via Alamo Drafthouse San Francisco on Facebook]

That’s my official review. Last night was awesome. Try to go tonight if you can. Or get tickets for their August dates at GAMH when they go on sale tomorrow.

[Photo by Cosmic Amanda]

I mean, if you want.

Just remember, there’s more to San Francisco than just Pop’s Bar and St. Francis Fountain and Dolores Park.

(Just another friendly reminder, like that post Those times when you realize you still love this place.)

And I’m seeing the new Oh Sees tonight!

In our lengthy, pictorial profile from back when they first opened (more than 3 years ago, wow!) we reported that Cervecería de MateVeza, the little corner brewery at 18th and Church, had a big fridge full of all kinds of interesting to-go beers. 

Not no more.

Instead — we’re happy to report — they’ll can any of their house drafts, on the spot, just for you. One customer, one can. 

It’s high-quality beer, and 32 ounces of it, so it’s pricier than a can of Foster’s. But Foster’s tastes like shit.

(Also, the 32-ounce thing comes in handy when you’re sitting up on the hill and it tips over and spills — you may lose several ounces of beer, but you’ve still got like 27 ounces of beer.)

From a certain news source:

Palestinian Man Marvels At How Much Childhood Refugee Camp Has Changed

AL-SHATI, GAZA STRIP—Saying he hardly recognized some of the makeshift buildings and piles of rubble he played in as a child, Gaza native Ramzy Abu-Dhubah told reporters Tuesday he was struck by how much the refugee camp he grew up in has changed over the years.

As he walked through his “old stomping grounds” in Al-Shati, a 0.3-square-mile camp currently home to 87,000 displaced Palestinians, the 36-year-old remarked how the whole area seemed more bustling and crowded to him now than it did when he was a boy.

“So many of the spots where I used to hang out are gone, and they’ve all been replaced by new homes—I guess this place has really been growing,” Abu-Dhubah said as he pointed out a demolished concrete structure filled with improvised mud-brick shelters that had not been there when he left Gaza in 1999. “This used to be an empty lot where I’d play soccer, but there’s got to be a few dozen families that have moved in here now. They put in one of those big ration-distribution centers, too. My buddy Ibrahim was telling me that’s where pretty much everyone goes to eat these days.”

Read on for lots more.

[Photo by Google Maps]

I’m sitting on the hill in the park just now when a guy comes barreling down the walkway behind me yelling about how mad he is and how nobody better turn around and look at him or else he’ll get violent. 

A couple of high schoolers get in his face and call his bluff and they both end up socking him. (And then they grab their shit and disperse quickly.)

The guy continues down the hill toward the intersection of 18th and Church, and he somehow ends up with a picket sign. (It was not Frank Chu.)

He’s letting out these shrieks of pain or dread, and once in the intersection, he hurls the picket sign at an oncoming car, and then continues on to the sidewalk where he shrieks again, throws a female pedestrian to the ground, and then runs off up Church Street.

Update: The picket sign was one of these…

Trenches and rubble — it’s like a warzone.

Should be done any day now.

Meanwhile:

It’s like 90 degrees out here, where is everybody?

Somehow I ended up eating at four brand-new restaurants here in the neighborhood over the weekend:

1. Off the Beaten Path — The new perma-popup in the kitchen at Bruno’s, Wednesday-Saturday. It’s in the main bar area of Bruno’s, not the little side room where KronnerBurger was, which means that if you’re there later in the evening on Friday, the staff starts moving you out of the way so big groups of club people can start ordering bottle service. Which is kind of cool. Two kinds of wings, both great. Get: THE LAMB GRINDER.

2. F.O.B. Kitchen — The Filipino popup that’s been popping up down at Doctor’s Lounge in the Excelsior. This past Saturday, they did their first brunch popup at Cease & Desist (fka Buffalo Wild Wings) here in the Mission, on the same block as Bruno’s. It seemed pretty slammed, so hopefully they’ll be back. Everything was awesome. Get: ONE OF EVERYTHING.

3. Buttermilk — This is the oldest of the bunch, but this was my first visit since they’ve been hard open. (Tried to go to the even newer Spice Jar across the way, but it was real slammed.) This is really solid southern food, and there’s sidewalk seating, and the weather’s been pretty perfect for it. Get: THE GUMBO. (It’s an appetizer, not too big, just right.)

4. Old Bus Tavern — New brewpub in the old El Patio space, out near El Rio. The brewing isn’t fully operational yet, but they’re open for business and doing some cool stuff. The burger (pictured) was hella good. The spaetzle was really different and really good. Get: THE BUCKWHEAT CORNBREAD WITH HONEY-MISO BUTTER

[Photo by PizzaHacker]

UPDATE: Check it out, Old Bus’s publicist just sent us this official photo of the burger (by Karl Mollohan)…

After the classic ’08-’13 Oh Sees lineup played their final show (at Great American Music Hall in December ’13), I spent a lot of time lamenting their demise. They’d been my favorite band, the best live act I’d ever known, and they were calling it quits.

Here on Mission Mission I posted a lengthy but obtuse collection of Oh Sees-related photos I’d taken over the years.

I changed my Facebook profile pic:

But within a couple months, before I even had a chance to fully process this loss, frontman John Dwyer came back with a new Oh Sees album and a new three-piece touring lineup. The album (“Drop”) was good, and I got tickets to the new band’s first club date, down in their new home of Los Angeles.

They opened with one of my favorite songs, but without Mike on drums and Brigid on synths and backing vocals and Petey being Petey — it just sounded hollow and sad and I went and sat in the back for a while and then left the show before they were even done.

And then I lamented that for a long time. And I walked out on their headlining set at Burger Boogaloo last year, for the same reasons. And I skipped their most recent residency at the Chapel entirely. And my friends were like, “Why can’t you just chill out and try to enjoy yourself?”

They’d been my favorite band! I’d seen them 60+ times and loved every single show, and now I couldn’t stand to watch this new incarnation for more than 30 seconds.

Wellllllllll, now there’s yet another lineup (two drummers, both of them new additions to the group!), and they’re doing 3 nights at the Chapel starting tomorrow, and it’s been sold out for weeks already, and the new album “Mutilator Defeated at Last” is really killer — so I’m gonna go, one of the nights, and just chill out and try to enjoy myself.

(Meanwhile, more casual fans than me may not have noticed any difference at all; they’re still selling out 3-night residencies at a place as huge as the Chapel; they’re clearly still awesome, so if you haven’t had the pleasure, you should get on StubHub asap.)

Here’s “Web,” the new album’s opener: