Mission Mission

Every week, photographer Joshua Cobos shoots a roll of film just for us. He picks the best 13 photos and we post them here, and it’s called “Bad Blood with Joshua Cobos.” Here’s what Joshua has to say about this week’s installment:

In the twenty questions of my life, these are the ‘animal vegetable mineral’ variants of the past week or so. A majority of these images were taken with an upcoming series of still lifes I’m doing in mind. Enjoy.

Thanks, Joshua! Ten more shots after the jump:

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24th St BART Escalator Update:

No escalating. But a new sign!

Hey, wait, July’s almost August. Aaahh, I see, this memo is actually from May.

Anyway, I’m guessing we’ve passed the point of a “minor” repair? I say we just skip this escalation and implement Futurama-style pneumatic tubes. Though if this continues, the flux could build up to such a level that some passengers might enter a vortex and find themselves back in an alternate 1960s where we had BART hovercraft.

UPDATE: Mission Loc@l reports that there’s an oversensitive sensor to blame:

The escalator is back in service most of the time but there is a sensor that stops the escalator if a certain weight is exceeded. Technicians have made some adjustments to make the device less sensitive. Hopefully, that will work and will keep the escalator in service.

Vic Wong summarizes this for us:

Woah, that was quick. Less that 1.5 months after we checked out the brand new Popo’s pizza on 24th, it has closed. I’ll bet most of you never even got to eat there. This comes from Popo’s facebook:

On July 10th, Popo’s Pizza was closed due to a disagreement between Charles Hopkins, creator of Popo’s Pizza, and San Francisco Ventures LLC, the company that owned and operated Pizza Di Mano. Moving forward, Mr. Hopkins will no longer be associated with San Francisco Ventures LLC, who will be operating the business at 3331 24th Street in San Francisco. All original recipes and staff have left with Mr. Hopkins.

Doesn’t exactly sound like a clean break-up, judging from an update from Friday:

So a little up date on whats happening to popo’s …..besides trying to keep all my equipment Harold (ted) hand president of San Francisco Ventures LLC..witch ran pizza di mano is now trying to sue me for $50,000.00 …. i guess some people just cant make $$$$ from there own ideas.. oohhh well updates soon thank you all.

Oohhh well.

Update 7/30: This comment was just left from “SF Venturese” who appears to be on the other side of the story:

As always there is two sides to every story but when funds are missing from the bank account and cannot be accounted for, it’s time to pull the plug on an idea or person. Yes we also told him to sell slices.

Sheesh. Remind me to never get into the restaurant business.

We’ve already heard quite a bit about this project, but I thought this official message, circulated this morning, might also be of interest:

****FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE****

ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE IS COMING TO SAN FRANCISCO!

Austin, TX— Wednesday, July 25, 2012—Alamo Drafthouse Cinema is pleased to announce its plans for Alamo Drafthouse New Mission in San Francisco, CA.  Alamo Drafthouse New Mission is slated to open during the fourth quarter of 2013 at 2550 Mission St. in the historic New Mission theater.

“With the possible exception of Austin, San Francisco is my favorite city in the world.  My parents met there, I was born in Berkeley, and my wife was working in the city before I begged her to come help me start my first theater venture in Bakersfield, CA,” said Alamo CEO and Founder Tim League.  “There is no accident that the first theater outside of Austin that my wife and I pursued is in San Francisco.”

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I’ve always thought Bryant was one of the prettier thoroughfares in the neighborhood, but I guess the southernmost end needs just a little more juice. They’re gonna remove some left-turn lanes and add medians and bulb-outs in an effort to make things prettier and safer. Mission Local reports:

One of the new medians will go up at Bryant and 26th streets, and another at Bryant and Cesar Chavez streets. The medians will be 8 feet wide, 110 feet long and filled with greenery planted by Friends of the Urban Forest.

Read on for testimony from neighbors and info on how this will affect parking.

24th St BART escalator update: still broken.

The estimated repair date is now IN THE PAST.

Also, if BART ever hits 88 miles per hour, you might end up at the Smile Awhile Tavern.

Holy moly. Okay, you know how Dear Mom‘s kitchen made that awesome French-style hot dog and a bunch of other French stuff? That’s all over. Fogcutter is taking over, and I’m hoping this means their savory Olive Oil Waffle (basically a big fluffy waffle with a big delicious salad and a couple of poached eggs on top, and bacon if you want it) will start making appearances outside of pop-up Sunday brunch. But I’m happy either way, because everything these guys do (including the “Chupacabra” pictured above) seems to rule.

I’m thinking the thinking here is that this stuff might prove more bar-friendly than all that serious French stuff, but here’s the official announcement from Dear Mom’s Jay Beaman:

Hey you guys. Y’all have probably noticed some changes in the Dear Mom kitchen lately and we figured it’s time to let everyone know what’s been happening and what’s gonna happen and other whatnots. After helping us launch the kitchen program, our pal and total all around french chef badass, Laurent Katgely is returning his focus to Chez Spencer and other projects. Our slice of the mission kitchen space is now being taken over by Guillermo Perez and Caroline Hummer; also known as the scrappy duo who stuffed your faces out of the Fogcutter food truck and various pop-ups at Dear Mom over the last year.

Perez has been working in restaurants for over fifteen years, most recently with Todd Humphries and Kelly McCown at Martini House in St Helena, and downtown at Hiro Sone’s Ame. Perez and Hummer have both been working in street food for the past two years. They helped open The Chairman food truck in 2010, and in 2011 launched their own truck, Fogcutter.

These two are bringing that street food mentality to Dear Mom, prepping a menu with full on fat man (big plate) dinner food and all kinds of items that can be eaten standing up. Think American, Asian and Latino bar bites. Start your lemon juice cayenne pepper fast now because August 1st you’re gonna want to go too far. And by too far, I mean just far enough.

Can’t wait!

P.S. R.I.P. awesome French-style hot dog

P.P.S. But yeah here’s a picture of the Olive Oil Waffle, oh man…

[Top photo by Fogcutter and bottom photo by C'mon Pony]

I worked at Fayes Video on 18th Street from the late 90′s into the mid 00′s. The woman who set herself on fire on Dorland Street last weekend, later passing away at a burn center, was a regular customer during that time.

You can read a bit about what happened as well as reflections by members of her family (in the comments) at Mission Local. After the jump, the co-owners of Fayes and I each share a few thoughts about Colleen.

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I love the Olympics. They’re campy and absurd, and they’re a glimpse into the superhuman race breeding amongst us. Synchronized swimming or rhythmic gymnastics, anyone? What about that one that involves running, swimming, fencing, riding a horse, and shooting a gun? I call that one “Survival”.

The London 2012 Olympics start this Friday. So which local bars can we watch them in? Tell me, and I’ll compile a list. Ready, set, go! USA!