Mission Mission

Well, as far as we can tell, La Rondalla isn’t any closer to reopening since the last time we checked. It’s clear they missed their projected “by June at the latest” launch date.

However, they are continuing their long tradition of putting up mysterious signs with vague references to current events in order to demonstrate that they are still alive:

But wait, are these really elaborate clues about the fate of the restaurant? Let’s analyze:

“Summer time blues”: Well it is summer, but why the blues? Are the blues about acquiring the necessary permits to tack up dangerous amounts of tinsel throughout the interior as they did in the past?

“No kid hungry”: Is this alluding to some kind of after-school meal program that they plan to offer?

Just in case you find yourself needing a baby stroller or some used LEGOs, our downstairs neighbors in Bernal are having a hill-wide garage sale today until 3pm. There are over 70 houses participating. Details here, mega-map here.

Dang, and you thought Mission rentals were bad. In Nob Hill, you gotta pay $450 a month for half a bed:

________ Looking for a full time male employee or student who is a currently working or studying professionally,clean, responsible, respectful and trustworthy ( prefer morning shift ) ideally someone with less belonging and less stuffs

*** Perfect location for business traveller / short term visitor / new commer / someone needs a temporary place before moving on / or who currently work and study closed by financial district / someone travelling locally or around downtown San Francisco

At least there are some partition pillows to enforce stay-on-your-side, but ‘cmon. The guy could at least get his shit together and get a bunk bed.

[Craigslist via CurbedSF]

Congrats, you scored a sweet $500 rent-controlled room in a pre-1970 building on 22nd and Valencia. Now all you have to do is put it up on AirBnB for $150/night, crash at your girlfriend’s place, and join San Francisco’s elite class of weekday-Dolores-Park-hangout-ers, right?

Not so fast. Dave Crow tackled this very question on the latest installment of Tenant Troubles on SFAppeal. Mr. Crow gives an informed and thoughtful answer, per usual, and rants a bit more about endlessly greedy landlords, per usual. Go Dave!

Short answer: if your landlord is willing to give his/her blessing in writing (good luck with that one), then “yes”. Otherwise, you had better hope he doesn’t have a computer with an internet connection. But do read on.

[via SFAppeal, photo via despairbnb]

This is the stuff that awesome neighbors are made of. A local bartender needed the engine fixed on her 1965 Ford Falcon, so her car geek neighbors (possibly capitalizing on the free-beers-for-life potential of the situation) got together and rebuilt it for her.

They even made a time lapse video of the process, paired with Yakety Sax (naturally):

Moral of the story? The next time your car breaks down, walk into Wild Side West and have a loud conversation with your companion to the effect of, “Boy! Too bad I just blew a head gasket and don’t know how to fix it! Guess I’m just out of luck until I can afford to hire a mechanic! Oh well!”

Oh, and do cool stuff for your neighbors.

[via Bernalwood]

Our pal Carlos saw someone who looked like Woody Allen in front of Esperpento at 22nd and Valencia. Turns out it was him, along with his wife Soon-Yi Previn, confirmed by the NY Post (whose logo font kinda looks like ours… coincidence?).

I smell field research for Vicky Cristina Barcelona II: Vicky Cristina San Francisco.

Update: Woah, Esperpento owner Carlos Muela, who’s apparently a good sport about my gratuitous “overpriced small plates” jab, just sent us this:

If there’s any good time to throw the devil horns, it’s when you’re taking a picture with Woody Allen.

Update 2: According to tablehopper, he’s in town filming a new, untitled movie with Cate Blanchett, Alec Baldwin, and Louis C.K!

Countdown till a “Cate Blanchett having a beer at Zeitgeist” post.

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.

Looks like we just got some more lunch options at the park. This guy was spotted slinging slices, to which spectator wbtc remarked,

I’m not saying that selling slices of pizza in the park is a terrible idea, but Costco pizza, dude? Really?

Say what you will about Costco pizza (although I know people who swear by it), if he’s picking these up for $9.99 a pie, it’s clear that his business model is sound.

Now that the Costco seal has been broken, what’s next, microwave burritos, boxed corn dogs, and Otter Pops?

Update: P.D. Bird has more on the slice slinger:

Once [cold beer, cold water] got busted, this guy tried to sell “cold beer, cold water” and was warned (CBCW James never got a warning) for selling beer, the next day he showed up with Pizza and has been at it ever since. He is a nice enough guy, has a great brooklyn italian accent and even wears the vest and cook jacket that is in the photo. Costco pizza is what it is, but to have it delivered, without having to move/bike/walk anywhere is priceless at 2 pm on a saturday. I think this is great,and he even gives u credit if you are a park regular.

[via wbtc]

Yesterday afternoon, when I read that the 24th St. BART escalator had been repaired, I was thrilled. It had been broken since March 22nd. That’s four damn months. Four damned shit-ass months.

On my way home, I felt something I had never felt before: excitement about riding an escalator. I haven’t felt this kind of anticipation since I waited in line at Disneyland’s Star Tours ride cerca 1989. But at 6pm, mere hours after its return to service, it was broken again. As of this morning, it was still out of service. Here was the scene:

Yeah, I know taking the stairs has its health benefits, and I feel them. I really do. But maybe that has more to do with riding a rusted Murray bicycle that’s stuck in the highest gear and not so much the three flights of stairs. Still, after 8 hours of being zombified in a half-cubicle in Oakland, sometimes you just want to relish that 45 seconds where you can enjoy the blissful miracle of machine-aided ascension.

Let’s hope for a speedy re-recovery.

Update (4pm): Our prayers have been answered! Burrito Justice tweets:

Now we can all resume checking our phones for the duration of that short ride to the surface! Please stay operational for the next hour, escalator. I am on my way.

[top photo via Mission Loc@l]

Reader David Gallagher of the Western Neighborhoods Project sent us these 1985 videos of a young Mr. Lucky interviewing some inebriated patrons of  Original McCarthy’s, which you may now know as Cha Cha Cha. Original McCarthy’s opened on Mission street in June of 1933.

[part 1] [part 2] [part 3]

Nothing too exciting in the videos, but it’s an interesting snapshot of the era. Before the Mission was known as a Mexican neighborhood, it was largely populated by German and Irish immigrants until the ’60s. McCarthy’s was one of the last original Irish bars in the Mission. Even at the time of filming this, McCarthy himself remarks, “I’m close to 70. It’s about time to clock out.”

The interviewer, Mr. Lucky, still croons around town with his retro-jazz group the Cocktail Party. You can catch him at the Lucky Horseshoe in early August.

[thanks David!]