Mission Mission

[This is the debut of our new veganism correspondent, Caroline. She's good fun and writes a blog called OVOO (One Vegan, One Omnivore) about how she's a vegan and her husband Reese is an omnivore but they love each other anyway.]

As my first contribution to Mission Mission, I bring you this review of a new neighborhood eatery! Announcements of its imminent approach were made here in the past, but I thought I’d go check it out for all y’all.

Tacolicious is not a taqueria, of course, but it is a restaurant that serves fancyish California-style Mexican food. My ol’ man and I got there on Friday evning around 6:30 and were told by the cute hostess that there was a half-hour wait, and we could wait at the attached tequila bar, Mosto. NBD.

Drinks at Mosto:

The bar was packed—yes, with people who look like they work for and shop exclusively at Banana Republic—but the bartenders were nice and let us hang out by their station. They didn’t even make us move when they went in and out of the bar—they ducked under it. Just for contrast, see if you can picture the bartenders at Zeitgeist doing this. (I can’t either. Not that I don’t love the surly barkeeps at ZG.)

I had a glass of red wine on tap, while the man went with a michelada.

Micheladas are rad, and since Mosto makes theirs with tomato juice (not Clamato—gross!), Tecate, Tapatio, lime juice, and this weird Latin wheat gluten sauce (not Worstershire), they are totally vegan (yay!).

Guess what they charged for the above-described concoction. Guess.

$9.

The drinks on the Tacolicious menu are cheaper, so if paying $13 for a glass of wine (yep) or $9 for a michelada annoys you, stick with the $3 Tecates while you’re waiting and then upgrade at dinner.

Dinner at Tacolicious:

Our waitress was nice and was knowledgeable about which menu items were vegan and which weren’t. This was reassuring, since I’m often in the position of needing to ask taquerias to hold the butter on my veggie burrito. (I’m looking at you, Buen Sabor!) We started with chips (okay), salsa (minty!) and guac (fluffy!). They had a $3.95 vegan taco on the menu—butternut squash with swiss chard and onions—so I got that. I also had a side of Rancho Gordo beans, which I love. With the tacos, we got 3 more kinds of salsa to try: mild, medium, and spicy. The medium, chipotle-based one was my favorite; it had that smoky taste that we vegans go crazy for.

The main problem with the food: Not. Enough. Salt. And there were no salt shakers on the table. Why? why? (And no Tapatio orCholula, btw.)

The verdict?

Go if you want Mexican-esque food and are entertaining a valentine or fancy visitor, like a well-off aunt, especially if he/ she lives in the Marina or Orange County or something. What you lose in street cred by patronizing this establishment you can regain by discussing the inconsistencies in the perspective of the admittedly-pretty mural of the park.

Don’t go if you love salt or are a taqueria purist.

See you next week!

Beloved DJ Jonathan Toubin was injured in a freak accident in Portland last month. Tonight, DJ Primo and a gang of local bands and DJs perform at Mezzanine to raise money for Toubin’s recovery. Here’s the full lineup:

TY SEGALL

SHANNON AND THE CLAMS

HANK IV

LENZ (members of the Cuts)

DJS Primo (Oldies Night) & Brown Amy (Hard French), “Okie” Oran Scott (teenage dance craze) and Wam Bam Ashleyanne (KALX)

Should be hot! RSVP and invite your friends! Get tickets here.

Tree pile! (But how to keep the sap off your seat?)

[via Austin Kamps]

As mentioned before, Stuart has been holding down a Wednesday evening bar tending shift at Dear Mom. To make things a little more interesting, starting tonight, he’s making picklebacks:

The Pickle Back is a shot of whiskey with a shot of pickle juice as a chaser.  I know at first it sounds gross, but really, it’s amazing!  The pickle brine cuts right through the whiskey making even the most rotgut stuff totally tolerable.  But I’m not feeding you that rotgut shit; we’re doing Dickle with the Pickle Back.  And it’s even fancy pickle juice.  I’m getting the stuff  from the fine gentlemen ofWise Sons, who are already famous for the food truck and will be even more so when their new deli opens up on 24th St.

Stuart also implies that he’s the first to bring this concept to SF, but that’s erroneous because I’ve had many picklebacks at Mission Hill Saloon, and a few at Beauty Bar. But Stu’s are made with care and are still only $4, so who gives a shit? Let’s get drunk!

[Mission Hill Saloon pickleback photo by Rumback]

You may have noticed that many of your favorite websites are blacked out today in protest of SOPA, the epicly-clueless internet regulatory legislation currently making the rounds in Congress.  If this insanity somehow ends up passing, then any site that has comments, a forum, video streaming, or user content in any form could be blocked in the US, removed from search engines, and thus effectively destroyed on the basis of a single errant comment left by a reader.

That means that any one of you comment trolls (you know who you are) could inadvertently get Mission Mission shut down for one of your typically vile statements!  Lucky for us, MM reader Joey concocted this handy dandy flow chart to help explain all you need to know and what you can do about this business.

Check it out here.

Says our pal Mike:

After three weeks in Europe, that was pretty much the one souvenir I brought home.

Now that is a great shirt.  But do you remember the first time?

[Excellent photography by Josh from Shine On]

Previously:

• New Benders Shirt Best Shirt Ever
• Sexpigeon Muni Shirts
• Titty tee
• Is my Fuck Columbus shirt offensive?

The whole thing, gone in 60 seconds! (Okay, apparently it’s in the shop for cleaning or refurbishment and it’s due back probably in a couple weeks.)

Note to motorists: they forgot to screw the parking meters back on the parking meter posts, so you can park here for free for basically forever.

At Thrift Town.

SFist this morning published a list of reasons you might be a bandwagon 49ers fan. Topping the list? You live in the Mission:

Once a bastion for Latino families, introverts, and homosexuals, San Francisco’s Mission District is now home to long lines of beards in black Giants caps waiting for ice cream, bread, groceries, Chinese food, and evenhaircuts at a fucking barbershop. Is it because The Mission has the best the city has to offer? Hell no. You can find the greatest of anything all over this unparalleled city of ours, not just on Valencia and Mission streets. It is because nowhere more in San Francisco do people love to be a part of something, to be a part of organized fun than in The Mission. If the shocking rise in baseball fans among the PBR set during the 2010 Giants World Series is any indication, we could see double that with football fans provided the Niners win Sunday’s NFC Championship.

Fair. Read on for lots more astute analysis.

[Photo by C'mon Pony]

Photojojo explains its new product:

Ahhh, the Mission District. The Burrito Capital of San Francisco. It’s a little known fact that Photojojo HQ sits smack dab in the middle of said capital and have we got a burrito for you.

Feast your eyes on the Photorito Lens Wrap!

Only $20. Read on.