Mission Mission

I can’t tell if this Smart Car was tagged or decorated.

Just posted: the route map for the (first of two) Mission Sunday Streets on June 20th. Biggest difference — this year, Harrison gets carless, and it runs to 3pm instead of 2pm.

Not yet on their web site, but some details on Facebook.

As a reminder, here’s 24th St last year:

Don’t forget to move your cars this time around, OK?

Valencia and 22nd. I know it was a nice this weekend, but have some pride people.

(Unless there’s a keg in the center of that thing. Then that’s a different story entirely.)

Are they slaves chained to it like a greek trireme, prowling the Mission for targets to ram?

Or tourists that were told “hey, everyone in the Mission rides like this.”

Is Muni’s new cost savings plan?

MrEricSir saw another group of victims on 18th.

I simply do not think my brain could handle pedaling in a direction different than my velocity.

Preliminaries will be held this evening in Dolores Park.  Singing and swimwear competition tomorrow at Benders and Zeitgeist.

from Sweet Melissa’s video voter guide (via generic)

Tablehopper reports that Valencia Street’s Zaytoon (the restaurant with a gestational period resembling that of an elephant) is set to open next Tuesday.

Groundhog Day

What will we see in this former Rub’ al Khali?

This casual Mediterranean place from owner Christopher Totah will serve falafel wrapped in lavash ($6.95, or $7.95 with potatoes and eggplant); chicken or lamb shwarma ($7.95)—the meat will reportedly be “natural” but not organic…

Er, halal?

It’s due to open on Tuesday June 1st but call first before heading over—delays could still occur.

Any bets?

I’ve been seriously jonesing for a pulled pork BBQ sandwich for the past few weeks, and today what do I see (and smell) at Alemany Farmer’s Market but the Good Foods Bay Area Urban BBQ tent.

Their pulled pork sandwich was very much awesome:

And the salmon burger ALSO was worthy. (I have been bitterly disappointed by salmon burgers at other lesser establishments in the past).

While I didn’t get one, the “New BLT” was being seemingly ordered by everyone other person, so I’d certainly gamble on it.

So it’s no wonder they won the SF Weekly “Best Roaming BBQ” competition.

“Ball, who’s cooked at Delfina, Spork, Contigo, and Google, told SFoodie that this pillowy and tender offering is smoked for eight hours and cooked for an additional six, equaling 14 hours of love you can taste.”

More SF Weekly Dontaye Ball BBQ coverage here.

But there’s even better news for lovers of billowy and tender offerings — Dontaye and company will be at the Bayview Sunday Streets on 3rd St tomorrow. Just look for these SF Weekly and SF Food Wars award winners (silver pig and golden statuette may or may not be present):

And like any roaming food dispensary, he’s also on Twitter.

Something is happening in the Un-American Apparel space at 988 Valencia.

Mission Mission agents took this shot at a distance as not to arouse suspicion. Applying CSI style zoom:

Blue Fig? Hmm.

Nothing on Google (though it certainly seems to be a popular restaurant/hooka name in Ohio). Lots of permit activity at 988 Valencia via SFGov that closed on 4/23, but no specifics other than “Retail Sales”.

Blue is certainly becoming a popular prefix for Mission establishments: Blue Plate, Blue Macaw, Blue Fig. And there’s the blue Mission Cycling jerseys:

And the Mission Blue butterfly, which is making a comeback:

However, this is in direct conflict with Mission history, specifically the Mission Reds, who 80 years ago played ball a half dozen blocks away at Rec Park.

Do we require a series of red-themed establishments to keep things in balance? Or are the megaliters of tomato sauce and salsa consumed daily in pizzerias and taquerias mean we need more blue?

@johnxorz sends us this Bay to Breakers costume honoring transportation lost. (I think you could fit a lot of beer in there.)

I miss that bus.

Any other Muni-related outfits? Maybe Nate Ford holding a giant axe and burning money?

Discovered by MrEricSir on Valencia near 16th.

But MrEricSir suspects Ivan Reitman’s involvement, and I concur — note the proximity to the Slimer Tree that Ariel discovered on 15th St.

If only the meters were a series of pastel colors, then we could blame Warhol’s ghost.

UPDATE: Perhaps someone is protesting, as Chicago saw last year?

Maybe it’s the shut-down-Valencia-to-cars movement embodying Burnham’s ghost — his 1905 plan for SF had two long, giant parks, one down Capp and the other along 23rd:

Brainslip paints a sobering alternate history of a Mission under the influence of LA foodstuffs. Carne asada fries are a slippery slope, my friends:

First it started with the dreaded droopy carne asada fry invasion.

Then they took pizza. How could we lose pizza? Well, we did, to a cardboard tasting menace called Dominos, which began to infiltrate the Mission block by block from 30th to Division, Guerrero to Potrero. Heroes fell one after the other – Papa Potrero, Serrano, Cybelle, and perhaps remembered most fondly- Zante.

You can take my Indian pizza from my cold, dead hand.

Next up: tacos – soon deep fried was all they tried – Baja style. No more boiled chicken, shredded pork, sauteed fish, etc.

Scared?  You should be.  It gets worse:

After a year of sensory dullification we lost the only thing that mattered: burgers. In-N-Out opened at 20th @ Valencia. A bikes only drive-thru , how could we resist? Free air, free water, valet bike parking: all so delightful.

First they came for the pizza. And I didn’t speak up because there was too much bufala.

Then they came for the taquerias.  And I didn’t speak up because there was too much pollo asado.

Such SoCalized medicine flooded the streets. Everywhere were carts, huts, & shacks – all shaped in the like of their foodstuffs. A nonstop barrage of fried chicken, chili fries, and pastrami became too much for neighborhood morale. Defeated, they gave up what mattered most, and signed over the rights to their BART tube for conversion to a freeway tunnel.

Oh dear.  Food has consequences. The Great War of the Californias indeed.