Mission Mission

You’ve read one restaurant review, you’ve read them all, right? Well, The Bold Italic‘s Jessica Saia today is blazing a new trail: she took a little kid named Desmond to Mission Chinese Food and took photos of his reactions to everything they ate. Excellent reading! Have a look!

[via C'mon Pony]

About 4,700 people temporarily lost power on Tuesday.

Just got a autocall from @pge4me on Mission / La Lengua power outage, ETA 6:15 for restoration.

— Burrito Justice (@burritojustice) April 23, 2013

Then a reader, Geoff, sent us this pic, saying:

I was on Valencia st when the power went out, so I went back home. On the way I saw this at 21st and Alabama. A Mylar balloon shorted out the wires, and it looks like it took out most of the district.

Thanks, Geoff!

The SF Appeal has the official story:

[PG&E spokesman] Molica said the balloon “caused extensive damage,” and he reminded people to keep metallic balloons weighed down and away from power lines.

Here’s a pic with the balloon highlighted, in case it wasn’t clear above.

There’s a mom wall currently in progress at Dear Mom. Look at all these great moms! To add your mom to the fray, just drop off (or email them) a pic.

It’s hard to tell whether or not the author is just trolling all of us:

Morning yoga in the Mission district followed by frangipane croissant and a cappuccino at Tartine Bakery, watching the hipsters heading to Dolores Park for a day of sunshine snoozing — and another perfect San Francisco weekend has begun.

I don’t even know anymore, so you might as well just go read it yourself.

[Photo via Vogue, also on SFist]

Welcome to the “Drama Talk & Drinks” number three. This time our friends Katie Cruz and Brittany Janis went to see a burlesque show at the place that replaced the place that came after the place that was named for Frank Chu. Here’s their report:

[photo via Balançoire on Facebook]

It was Brittany’s birthday last Thursday, and we were looking for a place to get drinks. We heard that a new bar and performance venue was opening in what was most recently The Blue Macaw on Mission, Balançoire: “A full service restaurant, bar and nightclub featuring a French/Creole inspired menu, two dance floors and bars & a performance stage perfect for a variety of events”. The 18th was opening night, and their in house Burlesque company, Le Chat Roux, was performing. Since nothing says birthday more than pasties and tassels we had a bunch of friends meet us there for after-dinner drinks and, of course, drama talk.

Brittany: So I want to start off saying, I did have fun. Anytime you get a big group of friends together to drink, dance, and watch ladies take off their clothes it ends up as a good night.

Katie: True, but if I wasn’t with our group of friends I would have been like “WTF”. The place doesn’t quite have a clear identity yet. The inside had a poorly thought through chair and table layout, cheesy strobe lights, and bad music…something was just really off about the vibe. It also would have been great if they had a cocktail waitress.

B: I’m sure part of it was opening night jitters, but in burlesque the taking off of the clothes is the show. Instead, a few of these girls just danced all cray and at the very end were like “oh shit, guess I need to take this dress off” then they struggled with the zipper, pulled it off super quick, and then bounced up and down with their tassels twirling in a panic because their music had already ended.

K: The only performer who I really liked was Eva D’Luscious – she really rocked those large white fans of plumage.

B: I’m just happy I avoided getting birthday spanks, unlike the other birthday party that was there. Although the hostess Kittie Von Tittie was actually really fun, so I would have let her spank me.

K: I think our friend August said it best: “The show wasn’t amazing but I fully support courage in all it’s forms, especially if it could potentially piss off a republican”.

The Verdict: We probably wouldn’t go again, but if you have a big group and need a place to go that will provide plenty of space and some sort of entertainment then keep this place in mind. We can’t speak to the food but the menu was limited and definitely not cheap ($20-$28 range). Hopefully this place pulls it together, but due to it’s current bizarre atmosphere, bad drinks, and mediocre service we wouldn’t be surprised if they don’t last very long.

The Drama Talk: If you want to see girls struggle to take off their clothes, make sure you sit close to the stage. The space is oddly structured at the moment so the stage view is blocked to most of the bar by a row of tall bar tables.

The Drinks: BAD, but at least for cheap for opening weekend. A gin gimlet is not served in a pint glass on the rocks, enough said.

Balancoire just completed their Grand Opening Weekend, but they have lots of events on the horizon. Check out their Facebook Page for the latest.

SF Magazine has the scoop on what’s happening with the roof space above Lolinda:

No one has been up there since Medjool closed in early 2012, but we’ve known for a while that Paganini had something special in store. Late last week, he revealed that the roof will be called El Techo de Lolinda, offering a new menu of Latin street food and classic Latin cocktails like mojitos. El Techo will be open for dinner every night of the week, and for brunch on Saturday and Sunday. The whole space has gotten a major overhaul—apparently with some rather fancy and amazing Australian heat lamps. [link]

Street food! Mojitos! Brunch! Aussie lamps! Epic view! Coming in May! Can’t wait!

[Photo of the deck back when it was part of Medjool by Kevin Hahn]

Goodbye old, smelly, dirty friends.

(Okay, so it’s really the sunrise, and they’re coming from the direction of The Sunset)

Save KUSF!

[via Emily]

Our pal Abby, who, believe me, has had her share of misadventures in the park, had some stories to tell after spending some of 4/20 in Dolores Park, so here she is telling them to me and Kat:

[Graphic by ashleyisachild] (Thanks, Mikey!)