Mission Mission

First she came up with the idea for coconut water (as you can see in the “Man Down” video below), and now she’s hanging at Zeitgeist. Rihanna is cool.

UPDATE: I think it’s true, based on how badly this guy wants us to think it’s not.

Ever since the legendary Bike Basket Pies folded up shop last year, I figured the heyday of bike-powered anything in SF was over. Not so. The Bold Italic last week profiled a handful of locals who do business on their bikes, such as Brad from Boozely’s:

Brad began his pickle peddling two years ago in the street food scene, with his DIY goods laid out on a blanket for passersby to stumble upon. Soon SF-dwellers caught on – as Boozely’s products started flying off the shelves (blanket, rather), Brad commanded the attention of some major SF institutions. Zeitgeist now features his pickled green beans in their infamous Bloody Marys, and Bi-Rite, Cheese Plus, and Tony’s Market have picked up his signature cukes, green beans, okra, and Brussels sprouts.

Read on for coffee, banh mi, flowers and curry!

A 2 alarm fire is raging at Valencia and Duboce, at a multi-story apartment building across the street from Zeitgeist.

I can smell it from 22nd and hear the sirens. I hope everyone’s OK.

Update (1:35pm):

It was upped to a 4 alarm fire. Witnesses reported an explosion prior. The blaze is under control now. 37 people will be displaced and there were 5 injured including 3 firefighters who were victims of a collapsed staircase. Scary stuff. Read on at Mission Loc@l.

[photo by nancymancias]

From our pal Plumpy:

I was doing laundry on 14th & Valencia, when I walked out and there were about 100 Occupy kids in face masks and bandanas marching down the middle street without a cop in sight. I was waiting on the corner to see what was going on when they just started smashing windows. The Taca Airlines place on the corner and few businesses next to it got their windows obliterated, as well as the new condos across 14th. Eventually I noticed they were being followed by three cop cars, who apologized for being too outnumbered to do anything.

They headed up to Zeitgeist and stood outside, seeming to briefly ponder smashing the windows of a busy bar before thinking better of it. They headed down Duboce, smashing car windows, throwing trash in the street, and spray painting anything that seemed interesting. After breaking Brick & Mortar’s windows, the riot cops finally showed up on 14th & Mission, right outside my apartment.

The cops were shoving them back towards Duboce, but when they got there, a cop car ran into another private car. I think in the chaos the anarchist weirdos mostly got away into SOMA, presumably to wreak havoc on more undeserving people.

Then, I guess, a silver lining? A small coalition of neighbors and the local homeless joining together to pick everything back up. Yay, community? But ugh.

UPDATE: I’m pretty sure this was not an Occupy action. I apologize for the misleading headline. Plumpy wrote it in the heat of the moment, and I posted it in the heat of the moment. More on the origins of the demonstration here.

They played Soft Bulletin in its entirety, fueled in part by at least one trip to Zeitgeist.

Rolling Stone was on the scene:

Before launching into it, [Flaming Lips frontman Wayne] Coyne invited Noise Pop’s producers onstage and presented them with a certificate that came directly from San Francisco Mayer Ed Lee, declaring February 21st- 26th Noise Pop Week. As if local music fans hadn’t known that already, for the past 20 years.

Read on for the full review.

[Photos by C'mon Pony and Drew Beck]

[pic by Wayne Coyne]

Not sure what the “BAHMA” part means (either they misspelled Barmah or they misspelled their own Etsy name), but I’m taking the “KANGAROO” part as a celebration of Australia Day, which was last Thursday. (Go drink a Cooper’s at Zeitgeist if you’d care to celebrate belatedly.)

[This is the debut of our new veganism correspondent, Caroline. She's good fun and writes a blog called OVOO (One Vegan, One Omnivore) about how she's a vegan and her husband Reese is an omnivore but they love each other anyway.]

As my first contribution to Mission Mission, I bring you this review of a new neighborhood eatery! Announcements of its imminent approach were made here in the past, but I thought I’d go check it out for all y’all.

Tacolicious is not a taqueria, of course, but it is a restaurant that serves fancyish California-style Mexican food. My ol’ man and I got there on Friday evning around 6:30 and were told by the cute hostess that there was a half-hour wait, and we could wait at the attached tequila bar, Mosto. NBD.

Drinks at Mosto:

The bar was packed—yes, with people who look like they work for and shop exclusively at Banana Republic—but the bartenders were nice and let us hang out by their station. They didn’t even make us move when they went in and out of the bar—they ducked under it. Just for contrast, see if you can picture the bartenders at Zeitgeist doing this. (I can’t either. Not that I don’t love the surly barkeeps at ZG.)

I had a glass of red wine on tap, while the man went with a michelada.

Micheladas are rad, and since Mosto makes theirs with tomato juice (not Clamato—gross!), Tecate, Tapatio, lime juice, and this weird Latin wheat gluten sauce (not Worstershire), they are totally vegan (yay!).

Guess what they charged for the above-described concoction. Guess.

$9.

The drinks on the Tacolicious menu are cheaper, so if paying $13 for a glass of wine (yep) or $9 for a michelada annoys you, stick with the $3 Tecates while you’re waiting and then upgrade at dinner.

Dinner at Tacolicious:

Our waitress was nice and was knowledgeable about which menu items were vegan and which weren’t. This was reassuring, since I’m often in the position of needing to ask taquerias to hold the butter on my veggie burrito. (I’m looking at you, Buen Sabor!) We started with chips (okay), salsa (minty!) and guac (fluffy!). They had a $3.95 vegan taco on the menu—butternut squash with swiss chard and onions—so I got that. I also had a side of Rancho Gordo beans, which I love. With the tacos, we got 3 more kinds of salsa to try: mild, medium, and spicy. The medium, chipotle-based one was my favorite; it had that smoky taste that we vegans go crazy for.

The main problem with the food: Not. Enough. Salt. And there were no salt shakers on the table. Why? why? (And no Tapatio orCholula, btw.)

The verdict?

Go if you want Mexican-esque food and are entertaining a valentine or fancy visitor, like a well-off aunt, especially if he/ she lives in the Marina or Orange County or something. What you lose in street cred by patronizing this establishment you can regain by discussing the inconsistencies in the perspective of the admittedly-pretty mural of the park.

Don’t go if you love salt or are a taqueria purist.

See you next week!

Says our pal Teddy:

He was on his way out when I noticed unfortunately. I was just outside the door and heard a girl say “I love your movies!”, then caught a thin black mustache curled up in a charismatic smile pass by, and he was gone.

Well, if he comes back again tonight, we’ll know he’s there for DANCING.

UPDATE!!! Perhaps he was there to see Micro Mtns play that night:

Previously:

• John Waters Says You Should Be Able to Have Sex in a Theater
• John Waters Does San Francisco
• John Waters Drinks at Zeitgeist

They have authentic German-style picnic tables instead of big dumb American picnic tables, which is nice. The bathrooms are really nice, which is nice. Beer comes in big ol’ steins (or little steins if you’re a pussy), which is nice. The horseradish is some of the best we’ve ever had, which is nice.

It’s nice during the day, and it’s nice after dark:

Overall it’s pretty nice.

Just a couple of problems:

1. Discrimination. On the way out, the gatekeeper offered to remove our wristbands. I was in a hurry so I said no thanks, and then he shouted after me, “Just don’t throw ‘em on the ground around here. You can throw ‘em on the ground when you get back to the Mission.” What! How’d he know?
2. Pronunciation. Nobody seemed to know how to pronounce “Suppenküche” (the name of Biergarten’s parent company) right. Here’s how you don’t do it:

How not to pronounce ‘Suppenküche’ by Allan Hough

3. Violence. See for yourself:

But overall it’s pretty nice.

[All media in this post produced by Vic Wong.]