Mission Mission

Attention fans of this notoriously poorly distributed Japanese Stout dark lager : you can consistently find it at Ken Ken Ramen, the semi-new ramen joint on 18th and Capp. Unlike most locally produced dark beers, Asahi Black is smooth and easy to drink, like a crisp, less creamy Guinness. Enjoy it at the bar with some edamame, or better yet, the karage (Japanese fried chicken), which is outstanding, especially at $4.50 a serving. Kanpai!

Drink of the week is brought to you by Poachedjobs.com.

American Tripps was born here in the Mission, but it’s been away for a while. Here’s the deal:

Before winter gets fully upon us, we figured we’d better throw one last Saturday-afternoon back-patio party! And lucky us, we got the world-famous Wam Bam Ashleyanne (http://wambamashleyanne.com/) back to spin us some soul records!

We’ll have El Rio all to ourselves, with Berlin-style ping pong in the main room, out on the back patio AND in the concert hall! Rocky slingin’ frybread too, so bring your appetites!

RSVP and invite your friends!

Lovely! Also available as a t-shirt, girls’ shirt, tank, etc. Get any of it here. And follow Amos on Twitter for future updates.

Who would’ve guessed that before Nate Silver was using his “witchcraft” (ahem, math) to forecast election results with uncanny precision, he ran a burrito blog? In true Nate Silver form, he evaluated burritos and Mexican restaurants across Chicago and ranked them using a bracket system. Math and burritos?! Man after my own heart!

And thanks to Nate Silver, we can finally settle this age-old question:

Our pal Doug from Ice Tubes got jacked:

I was enjoying some after work drinks on Election Night when I decided I had one too many to safely ride my bike home. I put my bike on the front rack of an outbound #71 at Market and 2nd, and took a seat on the front of the bus. I was on the sixth seat back, and had a decent view of my bike. The next stop was Stockton and we pulled up to a red light. As people were boarding the bus I had my head down until the driver called out that someone was taking my bike. By the time I stood up my bike was gone. I ran off the bus and headed back down Market assuming the thief was riding off in that direction but I couldn’t see anything among the lights of Market Street rush hour traffic.

Read on. And never take your eye off your bike. And if you see Doug’s bike, please let us know.

Our pal Sweet T (who shot the photo and wrote the above headline) explains:

This photo was shot yesterday around 2pm. A bus pulled up and dropped off all these elderly folks at Tacolicious. There are a couple theories floating around that might explain this: 1. They got lost on their way to Tartine OR 2. They’re filming the third installment of the Cocoon trilogy right here in the Mission.

Eater SF‘s “The Gatekeepers” series this week sits down with Mission Chinese‘s Greg Wong:

What have you been bribed with? Mainly money. Usually if someone brings stuff it’s gifts for the kitchen anyways, and people bringing gifts tend to be very relaxed and willing to wait. It’s almost the opposite of what you’d expect.

What is the most outrageous request you’ve received? One time a lady walked past me and was like, “I’m here for Mission Chinese.” I was trying to tell her, but she said “no” and acted like she knew what she was doing. She stormed through the restaurant saying “I’m here for the other restaurant.” She grabbed her whole family and stormed through all the way to the kitchen. I think she was looking for this fancy other restaurant and she ended up at the bathroom. She must have read there was a restaurant in a restaurant, and we get that question a lot. But I’ve never had anyone dismiss me and then act like she had been here before.

Read on to find out about Greg’s favorite customers, favorite dishes, VIP treatments and more.

[Photo by Aubrie Pick via Eater SF]

Do:  When staying at a nice hotel, using some of that aromatherapy shampoo and conditioner on your mustache so you’ll be smelling sweet things all day.

Don’t:  When making a delicious warm pot of tom kha gai, accidentally spilling a little fish sauce into your mustache so that no matter how much you wash it, it will continue to smell like butts until you shave it off in reluctant desperation.

[Photo by Katie C]

[photo by Doc Pop]

Here in the Bay Area many of us are probably feeling good about last night’s main election result. Obama won. (Spoiler?)

I think it was an exciting night for our country. Especially that it was decided and not dragged out and brought through various legal möbius strips. Personally though, I’m feeling dismayed by the overall results of the state propositions. We really want to keep the death penalty? We don’t think that consumers should be able to have questions about what’s in their food answered? Well, at least 30 passed and it’s not all on George Lucas’s shoulders to save education.

Yet I’m excited overall that our country generally seems energized to head in a direction that I think is best. It was a good night for LGBT rights, people overcame voter suppression and intimidation to get their voice heard, and we re-elected a president who best represents the majority of the people in this country, not just the most privileged. If this sounds like very careful, faint praise, it is. In last night’s acceptance speech, President Obama once again set the standards perhaps impossibly high for what we’d like to expect from his presidency. He mentioned really taking care of our returning veterans, LGBT equality, a lot of feel good things that I really wanted to hear. Does he believe in those ideals? I think he does. But how much will he actually do? How much can he do?

[November 3rd, 2008]

Four years ago our neighborhood exploded with joy and celebration when Barack Obama won the first time. This time around, not as much. While I think most of us are grateful that we didn’t see the chaos that followed the recent World Series win, maybe we were still a little underwhelmed by the relative quiet. The Castro partied. And why not. But the HOPE and CHANGE that we felt four years ago feels a bit more like PERSIST and SUSTAIN at this point.

And keep hoping.

Anyway, the rest of the internet has much better election breakdowns than you should expect to find here. I’m just rambling. Elections are big and broad and complicated and it’s all still sinking in for me. Feel free to ramble on in the comments. If you haven’t yet, check out Mission Local’s great coverage of our neighborhood’s experience of voting day.

For now I’m hanging on to the little things, the things immediately around me. Things like the picture at the top of this post, taken this morning. Doc explains:

It was an extra gloomy walk down Market Street this morning until I reached this Muni stop full of schoolkids cheering along every cyclist that came their way. Perfectly lined up along the bike path, the kids started reaching out their palms for some extreme high five action. Even the most serious bikers popped a smile at the scene. Perhaps in a post election world, this is a sign of pedestrians and bicyclists finally coming together .

Delightful.

Okay, well I was bummed to announce that last weekend’s Haçeteria would be the last Haçeteria at Deco because of Deco’s impending closure or whatever, but now I’m stoked that the owners of one of my perennial favorite places are gonna be doing something new. Here’s what our tipster tells us:

Here’s some news… the four main owners of Benders have just bought a new bar, its called Deco Lounge now in the TL, it changed owners this week and it’s being taken over by Benders.

It’ll have a different name.

The Deco space is great. There’s an entertainment license, three big rooms on the main floor — and I think there’s an upstairs AND a downstairs. I’m sure the Bender’s team will deliver something killer.

[Image by Google Maps]