Mission Mission

If you’ve ever wanted to meet the likes of some of the city’s most popular chefs like Michael Gaines of Flour + Water or Bar Agricole’s Brandon Jew, now’s your chance as they happen to be getting together with some other notables at the Commonwealth Club next Thursday to dish on current trends and styles in a rowdy panel discussion.  Of course, it wouldn’t be fair if you didn’t get to try the food as well, so the fun continues the following Monday as they each collaborate on a special 5-course pre-fixe dinner for you and the rest of the guests!

Check out all the details here.

[Photo via Eater]

Previously:

• Steve Jobs at Flour and Water

Here’s the reason for the distorted ratio of food trucks to people who would eat at food trucks in the Mission:

Currently, food trucks aren’t allowed to park within 1,500 feet of a middle school or high school — as several members of his working group have pointed out, that’s 500 feet more than the limits imposed on medical marijuana dispensaries. “This puts off limits huge swaths of the city, including most of the Mission,” Wiener adds, encouraging what he calls “overconcentration” of trucks downtown.

The quote is from Supervisor Scott Weiner, who is working on legislation that will open up more of the city. Personally, I’m conflicted, since food trucks are so tasty but have long lines of people wearing hats and terrible graphic design. Still, senseless laws are senseless, especially when they interfere with someone making a buck. What do you think?

Read on at SF Weekly.

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Burrito Justice snapped this pic of the golden phonebooth out front of what used to be the International Club. (Tiffany is that diagonal street cyclists and pedestrians use to get from lower Valencia out to Mitchell’s and the Front Porch and San Jose Avenue and points south.) Now it’s gonna be Rock Bar, a cocktail place with a bunch of fancy cocktails named for rocks and stuff.

Note that there’s a menu in the phonebooth too. I’m looking forward to trying a “Fire in the Hole” (which consists of a beer, a shot and some charcuterie). Burrito Justice has a shot of the full menu here.

And I love it too!  Perhaps it’s the location and delightful panaderia aroma wafting out every time I pass by on my way home from work, or maybe it’s the fact that there’s always a bunch of dudes watching soccer in there, but there’s something about this place that gets me.

What’s your favorite panaderia spot?

(Thanks, Rob T.!)

What’s with people and their toys at Flour + Water? First there was that iPad tennis thing, and now Beth Spotswood shares the story of some ladies at the communal table accosting her and her friends with memes on an iPhone:

The photo was of a little Asian boy. And across his forehead were the letter, “HERRO.” Big Chris, who is half-Asian, politely laughed. He doesn’t give a shit. And Brittney, who was the farthest away, couldn’t really even see. But I did not politely laugh. I said, “I never thought I’d see someone show a stranger a racist photo at flour + water!”

One of the women said, “It’s okay, I’m half Korean!”

What’s with people? Read on.

Reasons to love rosemary:

1. It smells amazing
2. It tastes great
3. It grows all over the Mission so you never have to buy it
4. Picking it makes you feel like you are getting back to the land in a pioneery sort of way/ winning at Oregon Trail. Pick rosemary when your oxen are drying off after fording the river!

Personally I prefer to borrow rosemary from the Friends School on Valencia between 14th and Duboce, but if you go for a short walk, you should be able to find tons of ample-sized bushes at a theater near you.

Blend some culled rosemary with a few other ingredients and you have a gorgeous pesto that would give Bi-Rite a run for their money.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup firmly packed rosemary (1 handful 4-6” sprigs)
• ½ cup walnuts (traditional pesto uses pine nuts but those are expensive!)
• 1 cup firmly packed basil
• Juice of 1 lemon (about ¼ cup)
• ¼ cup olive oil
• ¼ cup water
• Salt to taste

Blend ingredients in your blender! Easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy, as my friend Liz from New Zealand says. It will only take a second, and then you’ll have a sauce that will fancify anything from pizza to salad to burritos, and is equally good on vegan and omnivorous dishes.

Okay, now let’s all promise that our future-tense selves will plant rosemary bushes in front of our houses to karmically absolve our present-tense selves. Pinky-swear?

It’s like a Long Island Iced Tea but also contains Hennessy and Sprite. Tastes like Oakland!

Its origins date back to last night at Dear Mom, inspired by guest bartender Devon’s custom Mad Libs (as filled out by our pal Lindsey), and ultimately created by non-guest bartender Oliver. We also consulted noted Oakland celebrity Ryan Christopher Parks, but he wasn’t much help:

(Special thanks to Stu and Jess too.)

Zak from the Doc’s of the Bay food truck explains:

Our brand new DPW permit is for 22nd at Mission every Saturday night, and 16th and Valencia every Sunday night. We will be using the 22nd St. location every Saturday night 6pm-1am starting next Saturday, and will be using the Valencia location starting late summer. We serve quality American comfort food on a bun, with a menu focused on what we honestly believe to be the best burger and black bean burger in the city (pictures attached), as well as our original recipe ketchup. On top of this we rotate in a classic American sandwich (right now it’s a crabcake), chocolate chip cookies, fries, and an Arnold Palmer.

Can’t wait!

I don’t know even know what’s appropriate to leave outside anymore. I mean, I can understand furniture and pots and things like that, but leaving your secondhand pantry out on the sidewalk for adventurous souls to test their gastronomic fortitude?

YUM!!!