Mission Mission

For years, we’ve been wondering when you might be able to get a decent pierogi in the Mission. (Old World does a good job, but they’re a truck/pop-up, so you can’t always get it when you want it. They have a couple of Hanukkah dinners coming up btw.)

Now, perhaps the time has come. Grub Street last week broke the news:

A new pierogi restaurant called Stuffed is making its way to the small shop space that currently houses Mission Sub (2788 Mission between 23rd and 24th). Grub Street catches the news this a.m. and some further digging reveals that owners Dana Sacco and Andy Schoengrund have been developing their pierogi bar concept for a number of months now. We’ve reached out for some further details and an opening timeframe (it will obviously be 2013) and will let you know as soon as we know more.

And today they published a first look at the menu:

Traditional Pierogi
Potato, farmer’s cheese, cheddar cheese. Served with onions and sour cream. Bacon-wrapped option.

Veggie Pierogi
Potato, portabella mushroom, spinach, goat cheese. Served with parmesan cheese sauce or pesto sauce.

Pulled Pork Pierogi
Seasoned slow cooked pork with walnut butter sauce and fontina cheese.

Salmon Pierogi
Potato with cream cheese, smoked salmon. Served with butter and lemon juice sauce and dill.

Lamb Pierogi
Ground lamb with Mediterranean spices with a goat cheese center. Spinach dough, and served with hummus sauce.

Spicy Buffalo Pierogi
Potato with blue cheese, pan-fried in spicy Buffalo wing sauce.

Breakfast
Pierogi topped with eggs Benedict with plain potato or chorizo potato fillings.
Bacon-wrapped option

Daaaamn.

[Image via Eater SF]

It’s like French onion soup but in a sandwich, with roast beef that melts in your mouth! This is me eating one on Treasure Island yesterday (or… wait, what day is it?) (anyway…), but you can eat one everyday (and I think I’m gonna eat one everyday) at The Galley.

Mission Local broke the news and published this sample menu:

Baked Spanish Chorizo and Eggs: (served from 11 to 12) Roasted Poblano peppers, grilled red onions, salsa verde and grilled toast
Breakfast Sausage: Sage, ginger and bacon pork sausage  Fried egg and Sriracha
Bratwurst: Ginger and nutmeg pork sausage Sauerkraut, caramelized onions and spicy beer mustard
Hot Italian: Fennel seed, herbs and calabrian chili pork sausage Braised greens, spicy tomato sauce and pickled red onions
Boudin Blanc: Thyme and warm spiced chicken and pork sausage Shallot confit, arugula, mayo and preserved lemon
Chicago Dog: Smokey traditional beef hot dog Sweet celery and fennel relish, tomatoes, diced white onions, yellow mustard, pickled sport peppers, poppy seed and celery salt
Banh Mi: Black pepper, garlic, pork and pork skin sausage Pickled daikon and carrot, jalapeno, cucumber, cilantro, Sriracha and chicken liver pate
Eggplant Italian: Fennel seed, herbs and calabrian chili vegetarian sausage Braised kale, spicy tomato sauce and pickled red onions

Read on for more news and lots more pictures.

Chef’s Market Box is a weekly program, part of the Mission Community Market (that Thursday-evening thing behind the Alamo Drafthouse), which gets you a recipe from a local chef and all the fresh local ingredients you need to make it. This week’s looks bomb:

4505 Meats Burger and Summer Salad

Cook up Eater SF’s Best Burger in the Bay! 4505′s grass-fed, dry-aged beef, Gruyere cheese and 4505 secret sauce, plus a summer salad with lemon vinaigrette.

Your Market Box includes: The full recipe from Chef Ryan Farr, founder of 4505 Meats, and all the ingredients you’ll need.

Ingredients: All produce is organic! 1/2 lb. 4505 ground beef, special sauce, Gruyere cheese, onion, butter lettuce, buns, lemon, herbs, nectarines, fennel.

And since you’re making it yourself, you can totally make it animal-style!

IMPORTANT: You must order it today if you want it tomorrow.

The first couple times I went to Hog & Rocks, the schmancy joint on 19^th and San Carlos that bills itself as San Francisco’s first ever ham and oyster bar, I skipped over the namesakes and went straight for the entrees (and cocktails, their cocktails are outstanding.) Recently I discovered I was totally missing out. I’m not an oyster enthusiast and lots of places have oysters, but the meats at this place are really something special. Each mound of prosciutto, Serrano ham, etc. is paired with something to bring out the meat’s specific flavors, from pickled grapes to mozzarella. The other night we ordered the large sampler and tasted all the current selections. Here’s some specifics:

• La Quercia prosciutto with pickled grapes: subtle and smoky, smoky like a barbeque not a chimney fire. If you’re not into salty, this is definitely the best pick.
• San Daniele prosciutto with fresh mozz: Probably the saltiest on the menu but I liked it a lot. Dry and intense, like it’s 10% of the way to becoming jerky. The mozzarella doesn’t do much except maybe cut the saltiness a little.
• G&W Hammery with pickled onions: creamy and fresh tasting. The onions were pickled in red wine vinegar like the onions on fancy burgers, which are pretty clearly great.
• Redondo Iglesias Serrano ham with sun-dried tomatoes: Another salty one, also good. Not quite as intense as the San Daniele and the tomatoes were just okay, but still a good pick.
• Broadbent’s ham with Fresno chile syrup: gross, imho. The meat was bland and chewy. The syrup was overly sugary, and it didn’t capture the orange-bell-pepper-y deliciousness that makes Fresno chiles great (see Youk’s.)

Happy ham-eating!

[photo]

Remember Mexican jumping beans? Kids on the block used to come home from vacation with them. They’d bring them out to the street and everyone would stop hula-hooping or pretending to be a ninja turtle and gather around in wonder and amazement. Can you get those anywhere in the Mission?

In honor of Leap Day, I tried to think of a vegan food that conjures bouncy images, since obviously frog legs and kangaroo jerky are off the menu for me.

These beans obviously are not real Mexican jumping beans, which are neither beans nor vegan (discuss!), but they are spicy enough to give you a little spring in your step. The amount of chili in this recipe won’t make your life flash before your eyes, but if you tend to like things a little milder, count out 10-15 chilies and leave it at that.

Recipe after the jump:

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Noise Pop and American Tripps this weekend present a two-night Berlin-style ping pong extravaganza featuring THE RETURN OF THE MISSION BURGER. Chef Anthony is taking this opportunity to preview some of the fare he’ll eventually be cooking up at the forthcoming Mission Bowling Club.

And looky here, Eater SF just published an exclusive look at this weekend’s menu:

Menu for Friday (2/10)
Mission Burger (granulated patty, caramelized onion, monterey jack, caper aioli)
CA Spring Roll (fresh peas, radishes, cocoa butter, rice, nori)
Sopaipilla (roasted cauliflower, pickled apple, edamame, eggplant)
Buttermilk Pannacotta (chamomile brittle, spring herbs, mint oil)

Menu for Saturday (2/11)
Spring CA Roll (fresh peas, radishes, cocoa butter, rice, nori)
Jerk Pork Shoulder (smoked, with black beans, sour cream, plantain flatbread)
Vegan Sandwich (chickpea, kale & shitake fritter, topped with fennel and spicy avocado)
Babamisu (mascarpone stuffed baba with espresso bubbles)

Omg! Must… formulate… plan… for not… getting so stuffed… I can’t… play ping pong.

Anyway, as if that weren’t enough, this party will also feature two ping pong tables, one foosball table, TWO FULL BARS by Stoli and Trumer and Hudson Whiskey and Fernet, DJ sets by DJ Wesley Frazee and DJ PJ, party photography by Allison Donlevy, bacon-wrapped chicken and waffle sandwiches by Soul Groove — and it all takes place at the brand-new Bold Italic headquarters, which was expertly designed and furnished by Kelly Malone. Phewf! Don’t miss out! (21+ only, sorry.)

RSVP and invite your friends (Friday) !

RSVP and invite your friends (Saturday) !

Southern Pacific Brewing opens for real this Friday, but we were lucky enough to get a tour yesterday. Here’s the view from the mezzanine. Two trees inside, one tree out on the patio, lots of light, lots of space. Capacity is 175 seated, 300 standing, so, yeah, lots of space.

Long communal tables give it a classic beer hall feel for sure, and in addition to the beer there’s a well-stocked full bar:

Inside Scoop published a first look at the menu yesterday as well, and it looks good. Here are the sandwiches and burgers:

Sandwiches

Smoked Pastrami, rye bread, pickles 11
Confit Chicken salad sandwich 10
Bahn mi, ipa roasted pork loin, kohlrabi slaw, cilantro, black garlic aioli 11
Sandwiches are served with Fries or Yukon gold chips

Burgers

House Burger, crispy shallots 8
Black and Blue, chili rub and bleu cheese 9
Lentil Burger, spent grain, fontina, grilled onion jam 11
Add bacon, avocado, aged white cheddar, 1.5

Opening weekend they’re only open in the evenings, starting at 7, but come Monday they open at 11AM every day, and push through ’til 2AM Thursday through Saturday. It’s on Treat just south of 19th. Here’s a map in case you can’t quite visualize it:

[Map by Google]

All photography by Ariel Dovas. After the jump, pictures of the brewing setup, and the grain silo (to give you another idea of just how huge this space is):

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[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!

Stellar speller slice joint Galaxcy Pizza has begun its intergalaxctic takeover of the Mission, with their recent doorknob menu campaign leaving very few streets untouched. While no one is sure if the extra “c” is intentional, Galaxcy promises pies from our solar center to Uranus and beyond.

A quick glance at the menu and it is evident that ingredients and planets rarely align. The Neptune sort of makes sense, as he was the god of the sea (“anchovies, shrimps, green onions and fresh garlic”) but Mercury (“pesto sauce, spinach, green onions, and feta cheese (no red sauce)”) is a bit greener than one would think. Uranus is hodgepodge of uncomplimentary ingredients (“BBQ sauce, grilled chicken, bacon, and red onions”) and is tied for most expensive pie. Whether or not any planets make the cut for most heinous slice is up for debate.