Mission Mission

The fine folks over at PianoFight invited our theater reviewers, Katie & Brittany, to a shindig in the space their working to convert into a theater with a bar and restaurant, here’s what they had to say:

We love supporting local theater. Invite us to the latest theater thing opening up, and we’ll be there with bells on, if we can find our bells. We may not always like what we see, but we write this blog because we think theater is important, and everyone should see more of it. We just hope to direct you to the more of it that’s worth seeing, so you don’t have a bad experience and then never want to go again.

We’ve been super excited to hear about the development of PianoFight’s new theater venue opening up in the TL (hopefully) in March. “An 8,000 square foot creative playground containing two theaters, a full restaurant and bar plus cabaret stage, rehearsal space, office space, and a film studio. PianoFight will be a landmark entertainment venue, a creative meeting place, somewhere to have a drink, see a show, or create art at the spur of the moment…”

On Tuesday night they hosted their first party in the nearly-complete venue, to launch their final Kickstarter. Free booze, fun sketch comedy and a new SF theater venue? Of course we went.

Our First Reactions:

Brittany: It looks like it’s going to be really awesome, and it’s a lot more space than I expected. It will be really neat to see what ends up getting created here.

Katie: It looks like they still have a lot to build, but I think it’s going to be a cool space once it’s finished. I don’t know how they’re going to manage acoustically with the bar/restaurant right next the theater. Let’s hope it means there are going to be some rowdy fun shows.

The Drama Talk & Drinks: There was PBR on tap, and the wine flowed freely. Once this space is completed it seems like it has a lot of potential, not just as a place to see theater, but as a place to create. The PianoFight crew has a little over 30 days to raise the last $120k they need to finish construction. Check out their Kickstarter if you’re interested in supporting them. Afterall, who doesn’t want Californicorn swag, and another cool theater and art space in the city.

[Not actual sign design by Steven Weinberg]

There’s some healthy debate going on in the post about the movement to keep Jack Spade out of the Mission, but there’s no doubt that our buddy Leef Smith, owner of Mission: Comics & Art, is the real deal. A San Francisco native, Leef is dedicated to maintaining a community space to show art, create art and of course talk about, read, discover and buy comics. Now he’s asking for our help to raise some funds to build a new sign so people can spot the store more easily.

He’s looking good on getting his goal, but if you really want to kick this starter into gear you can sign up for your own event at the store!

As much as I admire Portuguese soccer teams, I can’t recall if I’ve ever actually sampled any of the cuisine from the colorful coastal nation. Apparently, I’m not alone in this, which is something that Andrea de Francisco wants to change by bringing Cafe St. Jorge to the Mission:

Named after my favorite Açorean Island and birthplace of the majority of my family, Cafe St. Jorge is a Portuguese-inspired cafe and bakery located in San Francisco providing organic locally-sourced fare, delicious freshly baked breads and pastries, and exceptional coffee that is real and unpretentious in a place where people can gather, relax, and enjoy some wonderful and friendly service.

There’s some neat rewards on the Kickstarter as well, like free Stumptown coffee for a year! Check it all out here.

One of our favorite bands to ever come out of the city is finally ready for you to hear all the songs they’ve been writing for the past year on a brand new full length LP, and they could definitely use your help!  And the rewards for this Kickstarter are pretty rad too.  I mean, imagine Social Studies coming out to play your house!  Check out all the details here!

If you’ve never heard Social Studies, they’re kind of impossible to describe, so just settle down and listen for a second:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRIG-TAC_30

Previously:

• Social Studies on Backseat Beat

As you heard last week, Mission Street Food is working on moving out of their oh-so-classy classy Lung Shan digs and becoming a full-time non-profit restaurant. Their initial $500 investment option was a bit steep for most folks, so they moved over to the kickstarter.com model which allows you to donate arbitrary amounts of money anywhere from $1 and up.

If you donate $50 and up you get a gift certificate to the restaurant for that amount, so it practically pays for itself if you were planning on going there anyway. More details on their blog or just hop over to kickstarter page here. They have to reach their $10,000 goal before May 5th for the funding to happen.

If you aren’t aware of what Mission Street Food is all about, this documentary covers it pretty well.