Mission Mission

The always entertaining quest to find horrendous 1995-era websites for local Mission joints yielded some surprising results when clicking on Mission Hill Saloon. Instead of a link to their website (which presumably doesn’t exist) I was offered an amazing deal at Mission Hills Dongguan, a mere 10,000 km away!

After many months of waiting for the right moment, Allan and I finally got to tour supposedly the first bowling alley to open in SF in decades, Mission Bowling Club. We all know how much Allan likes ping pong, well my indoor drinking-with-balls sport has always been bowling.

Lane view from the mezzanine. [photo by me]

Back in high school we used to take the 22 to Japantown Bowl, with two floors of lanes and some of the worst food items in town. It was awesome. But it closed down around 11 years ago, and nothing has taken its place. Though I wait patiently.

Future bar view from the mezzanine. [photo by me]

Mission Bowling Club isn’t trying to be what Japantown was. With 6 lanes, a sit-down restaurant headed by neighborhood celebrity chef Anthony Myint and a full bar, they’re going after something different. Which is not to say that they want to restrict the crowd they attract. During our tour, co-owner Sommer Peterson was clear to stress that they wanted to be able to welcome neighborhood families as well as the 21-35 year old Mission nighttime scene, which they’ll have no trouble attracting.

[photo by me]

Future restaurant seating. [photo by me]

On the weekends they’ll be open for all ages, with weeknights reserved for the 21 and over crowd. Of the six lanes, three will be open for walk ins, the other three available for reserving by phone or website. You will pay by the hour, rather than game, to keep people from just hanging out in a lane all night. In addition to brand new lanes (brought in on two semi trucks in the middle of the night) they have all new bowling balls and shoes. The bar top will be made of a reclaimed lane from newly refurbished Morgan Hill Bowl. Sommer, who created the Divisadero Art Walk, will also be curating art for a large side wall, as well as rotating art installations for the huge wall above the lanes.

[photo by Allan]

Now, I know how excited I sound. Because I am. Because bowling is awesome. Yeah, it’s gonna be crowded, and cost more money then I wish it did, because I wish it was free, or as cheap as an old ass bowling alley. But there aren’t any around here, so we get a brand new one. So sure, there are plenty of things to gripe about (already well documented on this site) from the vocal minority, but I think we mostly want and deserve a bowling alley. One that isn’t a car. One where we can eat Mission Burgers in actual chairs. One that actually sounds welcoming. And I get the impression that these proprietors are sincere about really opening this up to the whole neighborhood. They know they’re going to make mistakes, so they’re open to reasonable feedback. As Sommer said, they’re opening three new businesses all at once, “I’m happy, proud and scared.” So I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt and I’m excited to see what happens.

Well, not exactly a ketchup gumball, but a gumball-sized container of ketchup.  Our pal Laurie explains:

i put in 25 cents into the gumball machine at Bender’s and got this little plastic thing full of ketchup. not the weirdest thing that’s happened tonight, but maybe the most fucked up

Perhaps this is their way of charging extra for condiments?  Regardless, that’s a lot of Leann Rimes songs available for karaoke!

Previously:

Start Your Own Mission Gumball Empire for $60

Gumball Empire Solution

Gumball Baby Head

Even though the general consensus seems to be in favor of bringing meals into bars to enjoy, sometimes it’s too crowded inside to make that a viable option. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean you have to settle for burrito breath before heading inside either (especially if you’re entering the Make Out Room)! Proper oral hygiene is essential anywhere.

This sign is great for reflections.

Although there still seems to be plenty of disagreement over whether it’s cool to eat food in bars, one place where you will not run into that dilemma is at the Blind Cat on 24th and Treat, home of the chilaquile bloody marys Mondays.  To help reinforce that fact, our pal Tom is posting up outside the door in the evenings to offer you some of the most delicious drunk food you can find.

Starting this past weekend, the Eagle Dogs cart is around most nights of the week (Monday-Saturday) from 6pm-midnight and features your basic no-nonsense, scrumptious, California beef hot dogs with heaping mountains of grilled (on pineapple) onions  and a fetching assortment of condiments to balance it all out.  Just what you need to sustain yourself for the inevitable whiskey binge that will be happening later that night.

Stay up to date on all the rock & roll hotdog news on his Twitter and Facebook page!

Local photographer Nick Fisher recently sat at the bar at Dr. Teeth and ate chicken wings covered in a sauce made with bhut jolokia, the ghost pepper.

Medjool has applied for a “conditional use authorization” for its controversial rooftop bar, which was shut down by the SFPD some time ago.

Reader tack sent us this picture and adds his piece:

Personally I’m not looking forward to the roof bar reopening. There was always drunken domestic abuse outside my bedroom window at 1:30am when it was running and when the fire department shut it down it magically all went poof. I’d hate to see the drunk yuppies chewing out and threatening their girlfriends/wives return to the neighborhood. It was disgusting and tragic.

Supporters of this cause (let’s just call them ‘roofies’) will be stating their case on Septemper 8th, noon at City Hall room 400 in case you want to give ‘em what for (even though you’ve never actually, like, been to that place.)

Finally, a real sign for the Make-Out Room, and a sparkly sequined purple one, at that! Gone is the top marquee sign, with its friendly reminder to show some lovin’ to your sweetheart.

As shown above in animated GIF glory, the sequins’ slight movements in the wind produce an impressive kinetic shimmering effect. Reminds me of the installation inside the SFO BART station entrance:

Or the backs of Alhambra water trucks:

Previously:

• Dirty Thieves renamed Blind Cat because owner lost a bet
• Taqueria Vallarta gets snazzy new signage
• The new Amnesia sign

Just as we were all getting used to the sticky trigger on the left-hand side of the machine, Bender’s went ahead and got a new pinball machine — Theatre of Magic.  It’s fast, it’s a little tricky, and the combos are aplenty. Also, no more complaining that you lost because of said sticky trigger (there goes my strategy).

Bonus: Benders is also now serving King Cobra for $3. Wednesdays will never be the same.