Mission Mission

Muralists Jet Martinez, Bunnie Reiss and Ezra Eismont have recreated the ancient and hidden Ohlone mural of Mission Dolores. In case you missed the kickstarter campaign (and it looks like most of you did), a hidden mural was uncovered behind the church altar by Ben Wood and Eric Blind in 2004. It was painted by Ohlone Indians under the captivity guidance of Spanish missionaries in 1791.

The new piece resides at 22nd and Bartlett on the Mission Market building and will be unveiled tonight during the opening night of Mission Community Market, a not-a-farmer’s-market farmer’s market in the Mission. Stop by from 4-8pm for the festivities, music, food, and a pre-requisite David Campos appearance.

The listing doesn’t seem to want to post the real name, defaulting to “Landmark Nightclub/Restaurant & Hostel,” but looks like Medjool bar is for sale.

For a cool $7.25 million, it could be yours to do as you please. Maybe you could help it fulfill it’s Yelp destiny as an “intimate” “hipster” bar by putting in some old couches from Cloyne Court, serving Hamm’s, and having an in-house rare 45s soul DJ. Or you can continue it’s tradition of being the only spot with a rooftop bar and the butt of everyone’s transplant Marina douchebag jokes, despite never actually having been there (guilty, here!).

The owner, Gus Murad, also recently put the neighboring Giant Value dollar-and-up-store up for sale, but is hanging on to the New Mission Theater for now. Is this the end of an empire?

[via CurbedSF]

Tortas El Primo has been shut for a while and it looks like they’re tearing everything out inside.

No signs or anything. I searched around a little bit but haven’t found anything… anyone know? Remodel? Something entirely new? Chain pizza coming soon?

They’re getting kicked out of their current spot, but all is not lost:

As we approach our 20th year in this space and our 40th year as the Mission’s community bookstore, we have some unfortunate news to share: our landlord has decided not to renew our lease at 888 Valencia and has given us until April 30th to vacate our current space.

While this is sad, and happening more abruptly than any of us thought, it also offers us an opportunity to become a smaller store more focused on the needs and interests of our core customer base.

What a kickass silver lining! Read on.

[via SFist]

[Photo by Steve Rhodes]

Thing I like about about Valencia: how a dance party can break out when you least suspect it.

This Saturday! Here’s the deal:

The event is one day designated as Shop For Japan. Businesses register as supporters on the site (www.shopforjapan.com) and are placed in a supporting business database, they also pledge to donate a percentage of their revenue on that day (Saturday, March 26) to a charity that fits their values and feelings regarding the situation in Japan.

There is a participant kit package download available from the site where business owners can print out an event poster to put in their front window both announcing their participation as well as the % and charity they will be supporting.

On the consumer end, people can access the site to see which businesses are a part of this event. Supporting local business, supporting Japan.

Businesses, sign up now!

Shoppers, pencil this in! (See here for a list of participating businesses.)

Mission Local reports:

The potential tenant, a Mission resident who asked that his name be withheld, said he signed the lease nearly two weeks ago and is in the early stages of planning; he wouldn’t disclose the type of business that might occupy the space.

He will apply for a conditional use permit, meaning the business he’s hoping to open on 24th Street isn’t automatically allowed in this zoning district but may still open after the tenant goes through several steps, including sending out neighborhood notifications and undergoing a public hearing before the Planning Commission. The business must also be deemed “necessary and desirable to the neighborhood” in order to get a permit.

Read on for discussion of the signage problem. And be sure to read the comments.

You find cool stuff clicking through to our commenters’ web sites. Case in point: T.C.’s Don’t Go Changing SF, a blog that finds an old picture of a SF building and shows it right next to a current one from the same angle.

Remember Kay Jewelers on 21st and Mission?

No? Weren’t you around in 1953? What are you, 27 or something? Maybe you know it as this:

I’ve always wondered about the origin of those weird Romanesque pillars in that particular building. No answers here. I guess they really didn’t care for them in 1953 and covered them up with that sign.

But look, if you can afford the lease, that could be your windowsill! On the downside, you’ll probably have to hear Medjool patrons every night.

[via Don't Go Changing SF, check it out for more great historical photos]

Just so everyone knows, Walgreens at 23rd/Mission is your one-stop shop for all your birthday poster needs.

In the aftermath of the shootings at El Tin Tan last night, reader Alicia recalled a Mission Local piece from a couple years back which details the bar’s very special standing in the Mission and abroad:

When Pedro Ruiz arrived here twelve years ago, his only possessions were a bag of clothes and a slip of crumpled paper: “El Tin Tan, 3065 16^th Street, San Francisco,” it read.

Ruiz had come from Yucatan, Mexico and El Tin Tan—a dusty bar between Mission and Valencia Streets where Spanish and Tecate are on everyone’s tongues and mournfulrancheras howl on the jukebox—was his only contact in America. But he didn’t come for a cerveza. He came for a job.

Informal meeting places where immigrants gather and hear about job opportunities have always been vital to settling in America. Despite its humble appearance, El Tin Tan is one of these places, famous throughout Pedro’s home state of Yucatan as a key stop in the United States for Latinos hoping to escape poverty in their home countries.

Read on.

P.S. El Tin Tan, not to be confused with El Tim Tam.

[Photo by Mission Local alum Armand Emamdjomeh]