Mission Mission

This post is completely unrelated to the Underground Railroad; however, you can click the above image to learn about these unique 19th-century slave escape routes.

Broke-Ass Stuart points us to ForageSF‘s Underground Farmers Market, tonight from 5-11 p.m. at 2755 Bryant Street.  Local vendors will be gathering to hawk their delicious wares.  Who’ll be there, per the site:

forageSF: Acorn flour, fresh wild mushrooms, wild fennel seeds, huckleberry jam, wild Blackberry jam, and CSF gift certificates
HeartBaker: Makes some amazing baked goods
Slow Jams: Great homemade jam
Will Schrom: Homemade sarsparilla (maybe the best soda you’ve ever tasted)
Captain Blankenship: Soaps and salves
Kelsey: Gingerbread houses
Garden Fare: Edible garden gift boxes
The Golden Crust: Pies, pies, pies
The Girl From Empanada:  Homemade empanadas
Lauren & Jon Bowne: Homemade Jewish deli fare (think corned beef, not gefilte fish)
Five Flavors Herbs: Wild foraged tinctures

Yum!  There’ll be homebrew, too, and some live music.  Sounds pretty decent.

Here’s the gchat Allan and I just had regarding tonight’s Mission Street Food menu.  We type in all caps like your Internet-savvy granny:

Kat: ALLAN HERE IS THE MENU FOR TONIGHT’S SHOW

http://blog.missionstreetfood.com/2009/12/vegan-night-for-western-addition-senior.html

PEAR SALAD IS OPENING

I DONT THINK CACAO AND BANANA HANDPIE WILL GO ON UNTIL 10 OR SO

Allan: I WAS REALLY INTO VEGAN BURGER FLATBREAD BACK WHEN I LIVED AT CLOYNE

Kat: I LIKE THEIR EARLY WORK BUT THEY SORT OF LOST ME LATER ON

GUESS YOU COULD SAY THEY FELL FLAT

Allan: BUT SERIOUSLY ANTHONY’S SESAME AVOCADO BROWN RICE IS LIKE MY FAVORITE THING ON EARTH

Kat: YOU HAD ME AT MUSHROOM DUMPLINGS IN MISO

P.S. We have no idea whether MSF is still cool, so please let us know.  Will tonight be a shit show?

The Chronicle published a piece on Bi-Rite’s business and expansions yesterday, which is probably why no one noticed.  I know the Creamery took over a neighboring space for an expansion, and we can all agree that having to wait a little less for some Brown Sugar is a wonderful thing, but being labeled as a “mini-empire” at Dolores Park makes our neighborhood organics aisle sound a little too much like a strip mall.  That said, the Chronicle does shed some light on some interesting facts on the Bi-Rite shops that I didn’t know, like it makes $4k per square foot (vs. $200-$300 at traditional supermarkets) and they have beehives on the roof.

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(photo by le)

Amber writes in with an update on Four Barrel’s business model and accompanying photo:

Four Barrel has returned to it’s roots and reopened the alley for coffee service!

In addition to the full cafe in the front, you can now get tasty espresso and coffee drinks to enjoy in one of SF’s picturesque alleyways, located around the back of the cafe/roastery on Valencia between 14th and 15th.

Enter off 15th, just east of Valencia, and walk down Caledonia alley.

Glad to hear the shop is keeping it real.  Looking forward to scoping out the new barista (or should I say BARKista, HELLO!) in person.

P.S.  If anyone can think of a pun that incorporates both dogs and coffee, PLEASE, for the love of blog, help a girl out.

Mind blown.

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Steven Seagal: Both bro and Buddhist

Laurie forwards a note from the Director of the San Francisco Buddhist Center, in order to provide us with “another side of the story.”  Read on:

Dear friends of the San Francisco Buddhist Center,
The SFBC wants to let you know about a situation that will potentially have a big effect on our ability to practice at the Center in the future (and for residents, to live in the building.)

Some of you are familiar with cafe Medjool which is just behind the Center, on Mission street. A couple of years ago they opened an unpermited outdoor rooftop bar. The reason I know this is because of the nights I spent feeling like my apartment was vibrating with sound, even with both sound windows shut, a pillow over my head, ear plugs in my ears. The blasting music and shouting from the bar also disrupted meditation classes. Over a couple of years the city was inundated with complaints from the neighborhood so the rooftop bar was shut down (the rest of the business is still happening) so things have been quiet again for several months. There is a Board of Appeals hearing this Wednesday that will determine if they can open the bar again.

Medjool has launched a “Save Medjool” campaign, claiming that the city has gone mad trying to revoke their permit for the outdoor bar (they never had one) and that neighbors and the SFBC are “whiners” since Medjool paid for the sound windows in the building (also not true.) (And their noise is far beyond the level of sound windows anyway).

“Save Medjool” signs have been cropping up in the Mission, as if it’s some kind of ‘power to the people’ thing. My guess is that people who like the bar do not know what the real issues are, that is is illegal and a hazard to the neighbors and the Center which by law has precedence because it is a religious community established here for 10 years before Medjool came into the scene. But the Save Medjool Facebook page has almost 1700 members! The page invites people to the hearing, with Save Medjool buttons to wear, and offers free transportation! So I think the meeting may be packed out with Medjool supporters.

If you want to help try to “Save the SFBC meditation hall” (from seeming like it’s in the middle of a rave or raucous cocktail party), PLEASE COME TO THE APPEALS HEARING WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18 AT 5PM.
Wear an SFBC t-shirt (or if you don’t have one, something light blue? Or whatever!)
Location:
City Hall, Room 416, One Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Suvanna Cullen
Director, San Francisco Buddhist Center
suvanna@sfbuddhistcenter.org

Fair enough.  Don’t forget to attend if interested, it sounds like the Buddhists may be outnumbered by the Medjoolites and could likely use the manpower.

Should we get some “Team Bro” and “Team Buddha” t-shirts printed up?

Aw dang, target audience alert!  I’m exactly the kind of bitch who goes apeshit over this sort of thing:

The World’s Smallest Postal Service!  I  kid you not.  Found out about this one in a bourgie ladynewsletter I subscribe to.

Postmaster Lea Redmond sets up shop and turns customer letters into the smallest li’l thing you ever did see.  Take a look at this video of her in action.  This shit is so precious, I’ve got a case of the heart eyeballs.

World’s Smallest Postal Service will be at the Curiosity Shoppe on 19th/Valencia tomorrow, from 2-6 p.m.  Get over there and SWAK it up.  They’ve got a pretty hefty SF schedule, too, in case you miss it.

From the HMS Beekeeper twitternets: “A 6 y/o girl and her 13 y/o brother just sold me their Dolores park ‘honey from the hood.’”

Damn, I wish I had been badass enough to milk bees when I was 6.

Broke-Ass Stuart with the scoop.

I was alerted to this Safewaygirl’s Safeway deals blog today, which consists pretty much entirely of what’s on sale at Safeway, with enthusiastic commenteary interspersed.   I was initially ready to write it off as a snooze, until I noticed the 40¢ mac & cheese.  Stoked!

Other good deals, too, and nicely categorized. I tend to forget there’s a Safeway in the Mission, but perhaps I’ll stroll in this evening after work and – - OH NO I’VE BEEN VIRALLY MARKETED TO!!!!!!!!!!!!