Mission Mission

And only $15.

Okay, we all hope they get their fryer fixed soon.  However, more important than their ability to make donuts is this question: will they start selling a vegan version of their famed “Bacon Maple Donut”?  Man, I hope so.

UPDATE (Wednesday morning): Everything’s back on track. Go get some donuts!

It was kind of a shock when this Caltrans wrecker came barreling up Valencia toward its intersection with Market (and apparently Franklin) siren blaring, horn blasting, engine roaring.  Who knew Caltrans wreckers were equipped with sirens and piloted by expert high-performance drivers?

In any case, it screeched to a halt in the intersection there and the driver took to barking at motorists via loudspeaker to get out of the way. There was a long line of cars queued up in that little slot to make the left turn from outbound Market onto Valencia, and the Caltrans wrecker was stunned that this long line of cars couldn’t get it together to back up or reorganize itself so that he might pass through the slot the wrong way, so he kept barking.

Finally, somebody backed up correctly and the Caltrans wrecker tore ass through the slot, whipped around myriad befuddled motorists and cyclists, forced its way through another intersection and onto the freeway, and sped off into the night.

I wanted to end with WHAT AN ASSHOLE, but he was probably on his way to pull a schoolbus off a nun or something.

Map courtesy of Google Maps.

Today on I Heart Street Art, we hear from graffiti gurus Steve Rotman and Chris Brennan on the topic of why San Francisco’s scene is such fertile ground for characters like Ribity and Girafa. Lots of great pictures too (by which I mean I got stuff off Flickr instead of using my shite cell phone camera):

I Heart Street Art: San Francisco’s Character-Driven Graffiti

I don’t know anything about any of these bands, except that Leopold & His Fiction performed a pretty solid set at that McLaren park thing last week. Anyway I’m sure they’re all on MySpace. And in any case, I think the big draw here might be having an excuse to finally see the inside of the Verdi Club. Also on the bill, food and art.

To win a pair of tickets, please explain in the comments why you want to go to this thing. Best entry will be decided by Mission Mission by noon Thursday.

For full details, check out Regional Bias.

Also, Broke-Ass Stuart is giving away a pair of tickets too.

Coming soon: you failing to get some random play over a Tecate and slice of mushroom-black olive

In the post-American Apparel / Mr. Pickles era of Mission blogging, authors are desperate for controversial material to fill our lonely pages.  Luckily, the upcoming “Pi Bar” seems to be providing the necessary blogging fodder.  Since mid June, the new restaurant has had to endure a protest of vegans, a little bit of controversy surrounding the painted-over Suriya Thai mural, and even had to publicly address their neighbors (sounds familiar?).  And the general buzz?  3 posts on vegansaurus!, 3 on Burrito Justice, 5 on Eater SF, 3 on SFoodie, and countless other posts elsewhere.  If blogging was real life, you would have to wait 2 months to get a table.

Clearly, we are missing out on something here.

To bring you up the speed, vegansaurus! has been taking the investigative lead on this topic.  If you have not been acquainted with vegansaurus! yet, it is a quirky Mission-based food blog about eating cupcakes and calling people assholes in caps lock.  vegansaurus! recently placed a phone call to the new establishment to pressure them into making vegan pizza when they accidently uncovered a nefarious plot to open in a few weeks:

“Thank you for calling Pi Bar. We’re looking forward to a mid-August, early September opening; look for us then. Thanks for calling!”

That is pretty much verbatim with some license taken in the fact that we are lazy and didn’t want to call back to get it verbatim, you dig? (link)

(By the way, my post count about “Pi Bar” is now at 2.  I love being a part of something.)

Over at the SF Appeal today, Things San Franciscans Like: Fernet. Yes we do! (Although I can’t get with this ginger back B.S.) Here’s a snippet:

A quick Google search of Fernet will reveal that it is a type of Italian bitter typically served as a digestif after a meal. According to Wikipedia, it is also the national beverage of Argentina, and in a San Franciscan’s mind anytime you mix South America with Europe you get something that is totally street.

Snap!

Previously:

I Drink A Shit Ton of Fernet

Cooking With Fernet

Photo by wadem. (I turned up the brightness and saturation.)

Previously:

Mandala in Chalk

Broken Heart in Chalk

Mission Lake in Chalk

Sidewalk Cock

EPA and around the bay has put together a great collection of painted traffic control boxes around the district.  Also, if you haven’t put EPA on your reader, get to it.

(link)

Reader Kostis spotted this topless Muni car yesterday on Church and 24th:

Incredible. When I first saw this, I thought somebody had bought an old muni cable car and transformed it into one of those cheesy open-air tourist vans. Then I noticed the pirate flags and the hanging lights and figured it was someone’s Burning man project.

And THEN I realized it was actually not a van at all, but running on the muni tracks and it was an actual muni car, stopping at stops and picking people up! Insane. If anybody’s knows if there’s a story behind this, please let me know. I love SF.

If I had to guess, the Muni is starting to do duck tours to help raise money.

Be sure to click the images for a full-size version.  Thanks Kostis / khtoo!

Update: reader Mr. Read brings us the official story in the comments.  Turns out that the “boat tram” mainly runs along the tourist path, which explains why a few people were surprised to see it.