Mission Mission

Local Livejournal user Honey Jets tells us about a busy night out in a 2-block area of the Mission:

Elisa and Jane met me at Jono’s place at about 5:30. I put my shoes on while we watched Jojo’s video on Vimeo, and then we headed toward the Make-Out Room. Jane had to wait in line for a while to get her hand stamp, so Elisa and I walked around trying to figure out where to eat. Elisa didn’t want anything greasy or fried or containing dairy, so Wes Burger was out, Mission Chinese was out, Escape from New York was out, and F.O.B. Kitchen was out. We settled on Mateo’s. Jess met us there. I ran into Amy and a friend on my way to the salsa bar and we talked about meeting at Doc’s Clock after. On our way out of Mateo’s we ran into Omar and a friend, and we caught up for about half a block. At Make-Out Room Jonathan Richman was pretty good, and we ran into Joe. During the break, Joe and I talked outside about how he, me, Jess and Will had all been in Nashville recently. I told my “P.G. band” story, and he told me a cool story about how English people are different from Americans. After the encore, Jess and I headed for the New Mission. At the bar we ran into Mike and chatted for a minute, mostly about how good he is at his job. Upstairs we waved at Dave and Atousa who were in the row in front of us. Wild Beasts was as gnarly as promised, if not gnarlier. Terror Tuesday rules. After the movie we said bye to Mike, and then to Jess who went home to go to sleep. We joined up with Dave’s friend Brendan and went to Doc’s. Kevin was there already and we talked for a minute about how the new Doc’s is pretty good. Dave and company had gotten a table, so I joined them and we talked about the movie, at length. Dave and Atousa bickered a little (in a cute way) about fried chicken, we talked about plans for Friday, and then I strolled home, and ‘grammed an arty photo of the median on Guerrero in the moonlight.

I think it’s supposed to be a throwback to posts like this and this from July 2011, which in turn were I think some kind of homage to our dear departed Janebook.

Read on for a brief epilogue about the following morning. (And do go to all those restaurants, and do check out Amy’s blog about the Mission and Omar’s cookies and Mike’s Terror Tuesday lineup and new Doc’s Clock.)

We stopped by for a pint last night and it was pretty cool. A rare twist on one of the most classic (and consistent) tastes in SF (and the world).

[Photo by Bender's on Instagram]

Now please enjoy all these past Drinks of the Weeks…

[via The Fog Bender]

We’ve come a long way I guess? I dunno, vote for Tom Temprano!

[via The Fog Bender]

Broke-Ass Stuart last week published an in-depth interview with Bender’s co-owner and longtime SF bartender Johnny Davis. Here’s a peek:

BAS: Are you worried about dive bars disappearing in San Francisco?
JD: Well, it does suck that a lot of them have gone by the wayside. But it’s just the nature of change, the nature of progress, and there’s really nothing to be done there. Someone buys something, they want to make it their own, make it a little bit nicer. A lot of the time, the city forces them to make it nicer through ADA compliances and things like that. Yes, the classic dive bar is going to be a thing of the past at some point, but I don’t know. Some of us still enjoy that, some of us are still trying to run those.

[...]

BAS: What do you miss about bartending back in the ‘90s compared to now?
JD: It was a little more lawless, you know? There wasn’t— [laughs] you could scream at someone without hurting their feelings, you know? I don’t know. The town was a little looser. There were more wild things going on then, which meant the bars were a little wilder, the whole scene was a little wilder. There were better bands and more bands, really. It was more of a blue collar town back in the ‘90s, which meant folks could get by on a serious budget. You could find a place to live for 300 bucks a month. You could eat burritos every day of the week for you know, $4 a burrito back in the ‘90s. It was an easier town where you could get by without killing yourself working.

Read on for the whole thing.

Oh and also: the time Johnny Davis saved my life.

[via The Fog Bender]

And also, please enjoy our classic post “New trends in sitting“

[via The Fog Bender]

1. Get a hat or fanny pack by Amos Goldbaum already!

2. Get a jar of pickles by Inna Jam, man!

3. Hire The Fog Bender to do a mural or a tattoo or some shit!

4. Get a photography zine from Doc Pop for goodness’ sake!

5. Get a bunch of tickets to a bunch of movies at the Alamo (just opened) or the Roxie (still open, man).

6. Get my album! (I’m really proud of it, and my sister says it’s alright.)

UPDATE:

7. Join Bay Area Bike Share!

8. Get a few Pilates from Tru Pilates!

9. Get some weird booze at Royal Cuckoo Market!

10. Get some boobs by Laura Helen Winn, if you’re into boobs!

The Fog Bender, one of the greatest San Francisco artists of all time, has started doing tattoos. Hit him up.

Now please enjoy this list of posts we’ve done over the years highlighting epic Fog Bender originals…

[via The Fog Bender]