Mission Mission

Ok, so this is meme-y, but it was filmed in Four Barrel:

While we’re on the subject of coffee snobbery, anyone know how to get cafe-quality microfoam at home without dropping $500 on equipment? I wanna pour me some latte demon spawns.

[via sprudge]

Good news for you non-cable-having freeloaders (self-included):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kp2TzxDWa0k

Yeah yeah yeah, it’s old news. But I haven’t seen this episode yet and just found this link. Watch in horror as Anthony Bourdain transforms your favorite hidden gems into perpetual shit-shows before your very eyes. See him go from “figs on a plate” to “two-fisted, meat-loving drinking town”. Quickly, before Food Network Travel Channel takes it down.

Local designer James T. Edmondson has created a new font based on the lettering found on laundromat windows in the Mission, aptly named Lavanderia. Fancy!

Here’s what James had to say about his font:

Laundry is an incredibly tedious task—the antithesis of glamour, so I have massive appreciation for the guy that decided to letter the window with a script that captures all the essence of what a laundromat lacks. Excitement, passion, love. It’s all in that script.

How nice it is to create something beautiful, where boring, stagnant lettering would have easily sufficed! My latest typeface Lavanderia is a celebration and a tribute to the enthusiasm that influences those who go above and beyond to create beauty where there is none.

Inspiration came from San Francisco’s Mission District, a vibrant and at times foul smelling part of town, rich with dive bars, taquerias, and unemployed twenty-somethings who look extremely creative but actually do very little. It’s a magical place.

Download Lavanderia here, and consider leaving a donation. Making fonts is hard!

At Thrift Town.

[via Unemployed Full-Time]

Congrats to Lost Weekend on funding their community screening room! Seems like a smart move to provide an experience you can’t get on Netflix, and a good place to meet babes. Follow the link for a quick video explaining the project, in case you missed it.

HT: Katie C. [Photo]

It was nearly twelve years ago that a Mexican political activist declared, “I would shoot my son and daughter if they ever order a green burrito.” At long last, El Farolito has caved to the times and has started offering spinach and whole wheat tortillas.

[via Lindsey]

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.

Bonus: it’s been blessed by the Lucky Cat.

This morning I saw that Caffeinated Comics on Mission and Valencia had shut down as of Dec. 29 after almost 3 years in business. Major bummer. I never got a chance to visit myself, but I was looking forward to getting my fix there since moving to La Lengua last month. Anyone here know what’s up?

Maybe if they would have embedded some holograms and foil plating into the coffee cups and labeled them with “Cup #1, Limited Edition” they could have improved sales. Of course, then no one would drink the actual coffee, they’d just leave it in the polybag.