Mission Mission

Reader Jason tipped us off to the new restaurant taking the place of Siam Saigon at 29th/Mission. And it’s another Thai restaurant! Just what this city needs, right?

The new place, slated to open on July 1st, is called Thai Idea and is vegetarian/vegan only, and I’m excited because I love me some fake meats (please, save your ammo for taggers). The menu includes exciting offerings such as “Wing Bomb” (crispy veggie chicken and homemade sauce topped with crispy basil) and “Firedcracker Balls” (sic) (veggie Ahi tuna roll, panko deep-fried, mayo mustard & spicy sauce). Sounds fun!

Here’s the deal, straight from Flavorpill:

Join us at the Elbo Room on Thursday, June 14 from 7-9pm when we team up with arts nonprofit Root Division and Southern Sandwich Co. for a Food Truck Happy Hour, and that’s exactly how you’ll be getting your grub on. Better yet, Sapporo Premium beer is on tap, so you can whet your whistle while you chow down and get down to a DJ set from Water Borders.

But you must RSVP here!

I’m glad the guy behind the “average neighbours” sign posted what can only be described as a long-winded artist’s statement (with an inexplicable Young Jeezy shout-out) because it led to some new light on the original “bad neighbors” saga. To bring you up to speed, Schmidt’s moved into the corner a couple of years ago, the upstairs neighbors didn’t like it and posted a “bad neighbors” sign, and the guy across the street didn’t like the sign, so he posted his own sign last week.

But first, here’s a snippet of the “average neighbour” guy’s comment:

I posted that sign. It is in response to the bad neighbors sign, which apparently exists as a means to establish a new status quo of sign/neighbor/relationship commentary.

Every night I look out my window at what used to be a beautiful view and is now a snarky, insipid, whiny symbol of everything that is passive-aggressive about our city and it’s typical inhabitants. I can no longer watch a simple sunset without being forced to reflect on how babyish the members of my community constantly are. For two years now.

Victims.

…

I urge all of you to view the Smitzs’ ‘bad neighbors’ sign not as a perfectly ugly window into the most entitled and obnoxious voice of a truly ugly-on-the-inside person, my neighbor. See it as a commentary on the nature of advertizing and it’s divine, invisible power over our…

(more)

You get the idea. Now I don’t know whether to smile at what I thought was a light-hearted gag or to punch a wall.

Revisiting the original “bad neighbors” thread, I discovered that the roommate of what we all probably assumed to be a crazy person told a lucid side of the story 6 months ago. I don’t know if they ever got their fair shot after the Mission Loc@l article, so here ya go:

The Mission Local blog post linked in this article is biased and one sided. They didn’t even attempt to get my roommates side of the story, yes I live with the “bad neighbors lady”.

We lived in beautiful harmony with the El Faro market for years. They cooked in the back and there was never any problem. One day the landlord decided to take a stab at running a restaurant and evicted our convenient little market/ take out food place downstairs. He got some partners to front for him and open a beer bar in it’s place. We protested and got the neighborhood together to sign a letter, we successfully put a hold on the beer and wine license.

About a year went by and we were contacted by David Peirce and his wife, believe her name is Christine Schmidt, about how they wanted to take over the space but our hold on the license was still in place. Should have smelled a rat there. They promised us that they cared about the other people in the building and that they’d be good neighbors. they said we could always talk to them about any problem and that we’d always get a healthy discount when we ate there. I love beer and German food so I was falling in love with these guys. I talked my roommates into retracting their objection to the alcohol license.

Within a week Schmidt’s installed some loud equipment on to the roof of our building that made our whole flat shake like a bus was going by non stop for 16 hours a day…

(more)

There are two sides to every story. Looks like they tried to work it out in person and when they ran out of options, resorted to creative stationary. The tenants have allegedly been there for over 10 30 years and probably enjoy some baller rent control, so I doubt the building owner is too interested in conflict resolution in lieu of waiting to see if they get fed up enough to move out.

We’ve all had noisy neighbors before, how much should you be expected to put up with it? I used to live in a great, cheap 1-br apartment on Fell and Van Ness next to the Rickshaw Stop. I tried to accept the thumping bass and folks pouring into the street at 2am as city flavor, but in my 2+ years there I never got used to it. Eventually, I just got up and moved. Not everyone has that luxury.

In any case, it’s sad that a lot of people in this city don’t pay attention to their neighbors until they hate them. Go leave a fruit basket next door tonight.

Update: Mission Loc@l did a follow up with the tenant that we missed a few weeks after the original story. Here it is. (thanks Rigoberto Hernandez)

Tumblr user woolfshirt has been impacted by Muni’s rerouting of buses onto SVN:

If you live in the Mission, you’ll also know that they’ve temporarily rerouted the 14 (and the more benign 48) to a mostly residential strip of South Van Ness. One of the stops happens to be right in front of my door. My stoop is now a bus stop. I didn’t think this would bother me until the Popeye’s bags, melted popsicles and cans of King Cobra started showing up on my stairs. Next, we found empty wallets and purses. A few weeks later, a crack smoker decided to take up residence on our stoop. And lately, some creeper* has taken it upon himself to sit on our steps as he waits for his morning ride and make disgusting comments as I’m leaving my apartment.

[...]

So in short, fuck you Muni. Fuck you litterbugs. Fuck you creeper. Fuck you purse snatchers. I know this bullshit is temporary, but I’m soooo tired of it and I needed to vent.

Read on for further details and a relevant photo.

[Map by Mission Local]

Tumblr user stupidexcited (not pictured) shares a fascinating problem:

I’ve observed a local phenomenon and am wondering if anyone empathizes: 2/3 times you order a super chicken quesadilla at Cancun, there will be crispy wonderful chunks of bacon goodness in there. Just, little bacon crunchies that you didn’t ask for but somehow appeared in a miracle of animal cross-pollination. BUT 1/3 times, it’s just a chicken quesadilla with a side of disappointment. If you specifically ask for bacon on your quesadilla the guys behind the counter will act flustered, feign confusion, and sometimes outright deny the existence of bacon in one or even two languages. !?!??! whyyy? why introduce me to the bacon-dilla in the first place if you’re just going to toy with my heart’s stomach like this? [link]

Troublesome! What’s the deal?

[Photo by C.R.E.A.M.]

Laura from Ragabond tells us about her business:

We are an upcycled, vintage, and handmade clothing company with a showroom in the mission district. We are indie, small business, environmentally friendly and in the mission! We open our showroom to the public on the First Friday Art Walk in the mission from 630-930, offer shop by appointment, as well as sell in our etsy store.

Browse their online selection here. To win a $50 gift certificate, tell us in the comments section below about your best vintage find ever. Winner will be chosen based on merit. Contest ends at noon next Wednesday.

Here’s the showroom:

But seriously, who actually goes to the chiropractor? Let these sham doctors crack your back once and it’ll feel good for a week, but then it’ll act up again and you’ll just have to keep going back. And back. FOREVER.

Disclaimer: I’ve never been to see a chiropractor.

Local humorist Jon Skulski just published a fucking trippy-ass piece of Frasier fanfic:

Fraiser 3000 is a futuristic reimagination of the popular Cheers spinoff, Fraiser.

Set in the distant year 33,000, Fraiser finds himself in a bleak dystopian future ravaged by war, disease and terminator robots.

Tired of mistreatment and abuse, the robots have turned the tables on their masters, the humans. Self-organizing at an incredible rate, the terminators have driven humanity to festering cities, deep underground. Who can help those that  long for the sun and choke on the fetid air?

Humanity’s last hope: Dr. Fraiser Crane!

Read on, please.

P.S. In all seriousness, seriously, the Frasier finale was fucking good. I hadn’t watched the show in years, but I happened to tune into the final few minutes of the series because it aired right before something else I wanted to watch, and it slayed me. Give it a try.

Hey guys, don’t forget to go to Uptown Almanac‘s locally-sourced stand-up comedy show tonight. It’s all local comics! Sure, these folks might not be interviewed on WTF in the near future, but they will probably tell more jokes that are specific to your San Franciscan sensibilities, like “what is the deal with gum on the sidewalk” and “why are people in their mid-to-late 30′s in love with Sutro tower?” Plus, bragging rights. In 10 years you can say you saw them all before they had failed sitcoms.

It’s only $7 at the door and if you’re not ready to laugh the cover includes enough free PBR to make anyone funny.

Edit: It wasn’t my intention to trash these comics or Uptown Almanac, if that’s what came across. I was making some probably poor-taste jokes about careers in stand up comedy in general (too much listening to Mark Maron). I sincerely apologize if this was taken that way. We have supported these comics and this event before and think they are great. I will be there. Needless to say, I will not be performing comedy.