Mission Mission

This Friday and Saturday (10/23 and 10/24) the weirdos over at The Secret Alley are bringing together the most glorious music, movies, magic, art and street food in the immediate area. (I should note that I am one of these weirdos)

Friday night the doors open at 5pm with performances starting at 6pm. (early birds get the prime seats in the tree house) Saturday the doors open at 2pm and we go into the night.

You can listen to bands like Dot Punto, The Yellow Dress, Boyz IV Men, Queen Victoria and Commissure play music.

You can watch short movies by people like Ashley Lauren Saks, Casimir Fornalski and Tom Little.

You can enjoy art by people like Alfonso Kellenberger, Brian McDonald and Sonya Derman.

You can get food from vendors like Pizza Hacker, Sexy Soup Lady, Soul Cocina and Smitten Ice Cream.

A full list of participants and a schedule appears on our website. It will be a super fun two days and we’re really excited to show you all what we’ve been working on for the past few years. Please come by and say hi.

We will also be raffling off either a filmmaking class or a day of studio time at the impressive studios of The San Francisco School of Digital Filmmaking.

It basically went down like this:

• I crashed some house party near Homestead
• My friend showed up with a mason jar full of whiskey sour
• Fashion tip: mason jars are the new hip flask
• He claimed there was half a bottle of whiskey in the jar, but I figured he was just exaggerating and went to task
• The next thing I know, it’s 10a.m., my laundry is washed, most of the dishes are clean, and I feel like I drank half a bottle of Seagram’s.
• I decided to bike to Muir Beach rather than wallow around the city
• I found the goddamn Tonayense truck on Highway 1

These are going to be on sale tomorrow. I struggle to think of anything I would rather eat.

Peep this: there are going to be 60 bakers selling sweet, sweet baked wares to make you fat from 11am-4pm tomorrow (Saturday) in front of Ike’s Place to benefit the Give Me Shelter Cat Rescue.  Best of all, there are going to be real-life kittens OTS to play with and maybe take home.  Kittens, people.

On a side note, the San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines is also going to be there collecting money and relief goods to help the victims of Typhoon Ondoy.

Full Disclosure: I’ve been to one of these bakesales before and they’re delicious.  I’ll be eating the shit out of some pie tomorrow.

They made some really cutesy post that I somewhat disapprove of on the ground it made vegans look like virginal middle schoolers, so here is the doctored poster I made them:

Every day this taco truck parks here. That’s just what happens. This day was different. There was another car there. This car had less tires than required. (corny sighing sound) Life in the city.

Shotwell at 16th. The shot is crappy because I was running for the 22.

Whenever I want to kick it like a Kennedy, I always order a dark n’ stormy.  The problem is this: much like how no one outside of the Bay Area has ever drank fernet, it is a rare day in hell you meet a bartender in SF that actually knows how to make one.  I finally ordered one of these from Latin American Club the other night and it was fucking delicious!  Like all L.A.C. drinks, it was super strong, but they have Black Seal and cold, bottled ginger beer.  Topped off with a big chunk of lime, and I was stumbling out of there after a couple drinks.

I was alerted to this Safewaygirl’s Safeway deals blog today, which consists pretty much entirely of what’s on sale at Safeway, with enthusiastic commenteary interspersed.   I was initially ready to write it off as a snooze, until I noticed the 40¢ mac & cheese.  Stoked!

Other good deals, too, and nicely categorized. I tend to forget there’s a Safeway in the Mission, but perhaps I’ll stroll in this evening after work and – - OH NO I’VE BEEN VIRALLY MARKETED TO!!!!!!!!!!!!

SFoodie is better at journalism than I am.

Mission Mission wasn’t too far off, actually — at least as far as region goes. Instead of Vietnamese noodles, Magic Curry’s Brian Kimball confirmed the possible November debut of a new menu offering of Vietnamese-style rice porridge (cháo), an item he will make in collaboration with Mai Le of Banh Mai. And while he would not announce further menu ideas or plans yet, we get the feeling that you’ll be seeing a fun expansion of the Magic brand pretty soon.

Previously: Rumormonger: Magic Curry Man Starting New Vietnamese Noodle Venture

It’s not every day that you can stuff your face with delicious pie without looking like a total piggy, but Sunday provided the perfect opportunity. October 11th marked the 3rd annual pie baking contest hosted by our fave pie shop, Mission Pie. This year’s contest was decided by a panel of distinguished judges; Ruby – Mission High student, Anthony – Anthony’s Cookies, Jessica Appelgren – last year’s winner, and Krystin & Karen – owners of Mission Pie.

The competition was fierce this year, but in the end Finch Linden walked away with “Best Looking Pie” (apple), Lauren Nilson won “People’s Choice” (salmon/ potato), Emily Montgomery grabbed “Best Savory” (tomato/ corn) and “Best in Show” went to Kurt Gross (apple/cranberry). Congrats to the winners!

But the big news of the day was that our state senator Mark Leno swung by and presented Mission Pie with a business of the year award. Well done guys!
Can’t wait for next year, I’m already drooling in anticipation!

See more pics of the pie madness here

-Ashleigh Cole

Since when does the Mission have lines?

When I walked by this scene Saturday night, I saw so many popped collars I figured that Kelly Clarkson was throwing a a last-minute show and the promoters were giving out free lines of blow with complementary subscriptions to the Wall St. Journal.  Turns out it was just world night with a cover charge.

I couldn’t help but see the irony in the fact that the homepage for The Blue Macaw was “Suspected Malware.”  Places like this have certainly had the collateral effect of ruining once-awesome neighboring spots.  Doc’s Clock, previously awesome via shuffleboard, $2 Olympia, Connect Four, and support of dogs, is now frat-house overflow.  Latin America Club is inundated with girls in heals that clearly cannot handle a pint full of tequila.

Getting past the security warning, the about section (written in Comic Sans) tells the story:

Smart, exotic with a bit of the flamboyant thrown in. That’s the ambience at the Blue Macaw, soon to be San Francisco’s most stylishly urbane night club. If you want to see or be seen, or mingle, experience the DJ parties Saturday nights and take in the diverse shows the rest of the week.

This Yelp reviewer nails it:

It’s sad that this was the heir to the 12 Galaxies’ legacy.  In this Bizarro landscape,  world music is the new noise rock.  Mojitos are the new Fernet & Pabst.  The North Face polar fleece is the new hoodie.  Take your faux-deco and drive it back to Concord.

American Apparel was the wrong fight.

After feasting on Mai’s delicious Banh Mi, I was pretty pumped to try the Banh Mi sold from a Cushman.  Tragically, once I made my way over to Dolores Park, I discovered there is no veggie option (and one of the proprietors gets really testy when you start talking veggie options).  Luckily, one of my friends (thanks Josh!) does not care about our fowl friends and gave the sandwich a once over:

On first approach all looked good but soon I questioned how this was going to turnout. All the ingredients looked great but the attention to detail when constructing the sandwich came up short.  I soon noticed the awkward use of a huge knife when spreading the pate and mayo on the french baguette.  It was like making a pb&j sandwich but spreading the jelly on only part of the bread.  The sandwich had no consistency and several bites consisted of huge, overly flavorful bites of pate.  They also forgot several items such as the pickled carrots, daikon and cilantro. The upside is that the chicken was great and its always nice to have people bring food to DP.