Mission Mission

Medjool has applied for a “conditional use authorization” for its controversial rooftop bar, which was shut down by the SFPD some time ago.

Reader tack sent us this picture and adds his piece:

Personally I’m not looking forward to the roof bar reopening. There was always drunken domestic abuse outside my bedroom window at 1:30am when it was running and when the fire department shut it down it magically all went poof. I’d hate to see the drunk yuppies chewing out and threatening their girlfriends/wives return to the neighborhood. It was disgusting and tragic.

Supporters of this cause (let’s just call them ‘roofies’) will be stating their case on Septemper 8th, noon at City Hall room 400 in case you want to give ‘em what for (even though you’ve never actually, like, been to that place.)

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]

Looks like Medjool’s Gus Murard has been falling behind on payments for the dilapidated New Mission Theater and GIANT VALUE building and is possibly facing foreclosure from the City College of San Francisco Board of Trustees.

According to the article, Murard planned to eventually convert the site to “affordable housing”. If this is true, he’ll totally save money on signage by just slapping “APARTMENTS” under “GIANT VALUE”.

Get the full scoop at the über-1337 M!$$!0n L0c@l.

Steven Seagal: Both bro and Buddhist

Laurie forwards a note from the Director of the San Francisco Buddhist Center, in order to provide us with “another side of the story.”  Read on:

Dear friends of the San Francisco Buddhist Center,
The SFBC wants to let you know about a situation that will potentially have a big effect on our ability to practice at the Center in the future (and for residents, to live in the building.)

Some of you are familiar with cafe Medjool which is just behind the Center, on Mission street. A couple of years ago they opened an unpermited outdoor rooftop bar. The reason I know this is because of the nights I spent feeling like my apartment was vibrating with sound, even with both sound windows shut, a pillow over my head, ear plugs in my ears. The blasting music and shouting from the bar also disrupted meditation classes. Over a couple of years the city was inundated with complaints from the neighborhood so the rooftop bar was shut down (the rest of the business is still happening) so things have been quiet again for several months. There is a Board of Appeals hearing this Wednesday that will determine if they can open the bar again.

Medjool has launched a “Save Medjool” campaign, claiming that the city has gone mad trying to revoke their permit for the outdoor bar (they never had one) and that neighbors and the SFBC are “whiners” since Medjool paid for the sound windows in the building (also not true.) (And their noise is far beyond the level of sound windows anyway).

“Save Medjool” signs have been cropping up in the Mission, as if it’s some kind of ‘power to the people’ thing. My guess is that people who like the bar do not know what the real issues are, that is is illegal and a hazard to the neighbors and the Center which by law has precedence because it is a religious community established here for 10 years before Medjool came into the scene. But the Save Medjool Facebook page has almost 1700 members! The page invites people to the hearing, with Save Medjool buttons to wear, and offers free transportation! So I think the meeting may be packed out with Medjool supporters.

If you want to help try to “Save the SFBC meditation hall” (from seeming like it’s in the middle of a rave or raucous cocktail party), PLEASE COME TO THE APPEALS HEARING WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 18 AT 5PM.
Wear an SFBC t-shirt (or if you don’t have one, something light blue? Or whatever!)
Location:
City Hall, Room 416, One Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place.

Please let me know if you have any questions.
Suvanna Cullen
Director, San Francisco Buddhist Center
suvanna@sfbuddhistcenter.org

Fair enough.  Don’t forget to attend if interested, it sounds like the Buddhists may be outnumbered by the Medjoolites and could likely use the manpower.

Should we get some “Team Bro” and “Team Buddha” t-shirts printed up?

Went to Medjool again last night. My third visit and my second visit on a Saturday, “International Night.” I made a movie about this experience, during which I was not drunk or high at all, obviously. In the included movie, you can see that we walked for-EV-uh to get there and got distracted tobogan acuatico hinchable along the way quite a bit. In fact, most of the story consists of the Walking to Medjool Adventure. Finally we arrived to find, as suspected, douchebags galore. The movie includes a psychologist’s analyzation of douchebags, security douchebags specifically.

The Trenchcoat Patrol security guards at Doucheb Medjool are on a collective power trip. I felt at any given moment, no matter what I was doing, that it was wrong. That I shouldn’t be standing/sitting/dancing where I was or talking to who I was or recording what I was. I was approached by security guards no less than five times over the course of two hours and told that whatever I was doing at that moment was not allowed. At one point, they actually broke up a hug.

There was pretty good music this time due to DJ Cairo spinning but the crowd was as douchey as it was last Saturday night. My findings are that Medjool is clean, well decorated, and high-end, which means that douchebags are attracted to it.

Previously on Mission Mission: Medjool: Light on the Douchebag, Please

Medjool sticks out in the Mission like an oasis in the desert. Hip, but not filled with hipsters. Crowded and sweaty, and yet it manages not to smell like urine. It has a nice roof, but SF tends toward arctic extremes at night so enjoying the view requires one to be very brave or very drunk.

There was plenty of both of the above Saturday night, the publicized “international” music night. The place was filled with douchebags, and pretty soon it was apparent why. The type of music they consider international was just enough on the ethnic side to make the crowd feel adventurous and exotic, but just enough on the white American side to feel familiar and comforting.

It’s 1999 and Carlos Santana has just made his big return with an album finally tailored to the masses. He mixes his soulful Latin guitar style with white American pop vocals. Rob Thomas singing “Smooth” made us feel like we were a part of the browner crowd while giving us something to identify with. Likewise with Dave Matthews, Everlast and the racially ambiguous Eagle-Eye Cherry. However, normally we did not like to listen to this music in front of actual Latin people, because deep bouncy castle for sale down we realized they would expose us for the posers we were.

This is what Medjool’s “international” night is like. Except you are surrounded by people as white as, or whiter, than you, who are dancing badly to embarrassing music and reminding you with every second that this is exactly what you look like. It makes you want to leave before you are seen by anybody not white.

To worsen the white factor, 9 out of 10 dudes are douchebags of the frat boy or former frat boy variety. They are all dressed exactly the same, with exactly the same hair, and utilizing exactly the same dance moves. But the most characteristic quality of the frat boy douchebag is how he treats his woman. He alternately gropes her and ignores her. Up on the roof, there were several heaters set up. In general, the men congregated in circles around these while their women huddled in the cold outside the circle, suffering because they are wearing the sort of minimal clothing that their boyfriends require to show them off in.

What I do find comforting about the Medjool experience is that for two days afterward, when asked how Medjool was, I responded with some variation of, “Douchebaggery abounds” or, “Sooo many douchebags.” And everyone nodded enthusiastically–there was no doubt what could be meant by this answer.