Mission Mission

We were walking down Valencia this past Saturday evening when someone passed us from the other direction carrying a fairly standard ordinary metal chair.  Not too odd, until someone further behind yelled “CHAIR!!!” quite loudly, which caused the first to drop the chair and hurriedly walk away.

The voice turned out to belong to a waiter from Grub down the street who collected the chair and started walking back to the restaurant.  When asked what had caused the commotion, he explained that someone had simply grabbed the seat from an outdoor table as they were strolling by and tried to walk away with it.  They had gotten about a block and a half away before getting spooked by the pursuing waiter and dropping the loot.

Does this sort of thing happen often?  I also remember sitting in the Gracias Madre front patio area eating an overpriced but delicious nopales taco when a person who looked like late ’80s/early ’90s Robert Smith passed by on the sidewalk, then doubled back and into the patio to nab a few of the decorative blankets piled before the front windows.  All I did was chuckle that time, and the waitstaff didn’t seem to notice.

A blanket I can understand given San Francisco’s schizophrenic weather, but this begs the question:  Who steals a chair?

Get ‘em while they’re hott! Available now at Pushbike.

[via Pushbike on Facebook]

Here in the Mission we saw the scene from afar, but it looked a bit gnarlier up close, as you can see — and it displaced a bunch of nice people. Thankfully, a bunch of other nice people have set up a benefit tonight at Peacock Lounge:

$10 at the door. Music, food, beverages all donated to support the Relief Fund for our neighbors.

FEATURING…

- Food by Memphis Minnie’s, Wing Wings, Chilli Cha Cha, Rotee, Rosamunde, and more

- Beer courtesy of Mad Dog in the Fog, cocktails from the Peacock Lounge bar

- Three Twins Ice Cream, back doing what they do best — scooping the cold stuff

- A raffle of amazing prizes, slated to include:

• Gift certificates to Animal House, Blackbird, Idle Hand Tattoo, Merch, Three Twins, and Uva Enoteca, as well as acupuncture treatments and massages from Thriving Life Wellness

• A pack of clothes and accessories from D-Structure

• A gift bag of chocolates from Nosh This

• Bags of fabulous cleaning products from SF-based Method

• A longboard and vintage-style cooler from our friends at Pabst Blue Ribbon

• An expertly-curated selection of books from Booksmith

• Top-shelf beverages from Danny Coyle’s

• A gift certificate and invitation to a soft-opening party for upcoming Lower Haight restaurant Maven

• And more!

That’s TONIGHT, October 4th, 7pm-10pm at the Peacock Lounge. Bring lots of friends (and cash), and we’ll handle the rest.

Most importantly, it’s at the PEACOCK LOUNGE. How often do you get a chance to party inside that mysterious place? RSVP and invite your friends here.

[Photo by Devon Chulick / SFist]

Local band Windham Flat have a rad new Mission-based music video directed by Robin Moore (whom you may remember from that The Lonely Island-esque jokey bike rap video) of their song Keep Comin’ Back Around, from the EP of the same name. If you’ve played ping pong with us before, you may recognize their performance room.

An urgent request, via our Tumblr ask box:

So, how about it, readers and friends? Where’s some chocolate mousse?

P.S. Follow Mission Mission on Tumblr if you want in on a lot of obtuse behind-the-scenes posts and stuff.

Lesson learned. From now on I’m keeping my bike under my pillow while I sleep.

This bike belongs to SFist summer intern Andrew Dalton! Bummer! I think he lives above the Popeye’s on Divisadero, so keep your eyes peeled if you’re up thataways this afternoon? (Or if you’re anywhere, really?)

Things you can buy for $3:

• Jimmy Buffett’s greatest hits
• This zine
• A gallon of gas, and then some, sometime soon, maybe

Enticing options indeed, but none of these things will satisfy your stomach like two quick and dirty street-style tacos from Taqueria Vallarta. The 24th Street shop may be closed for pigeon debugging, but that hasn’t stopped the neighborhood establishment from opening a fresh new squab-free spot on Mission next to the 16th Street BART, and they’re slinging tasty $1.50 taco treats like nobody’s business.

The toppings are simple, straightforward, and to the point — all you get are two tortillas, a heap of meat, and all the cilantro, onions, and salsa you care to pile on top. Shown here are the al pastor and carnitas, but if you’re feeling adventurous go for the cabeza, lengua, or crispy deep fried tripitas — they’re all tasty as hell and worth a try.

Seems like everybody takes a picture of the slime time van every time they see it, but does everybody know about its epic theme song by Portland rockers Mean Jeans? Well, everybody should. Here it is:

[Photo by The Minutes]

It may not be the absolute best Herzog t-shirt they’ve ever sold out of, but Ruby here sure lucked out:

YAY FOR LOST WEEKEND SELLING ME THEIR LAST AMERICAN APPAREL WERNER HERZOG SHIRT SO I COULD CUT IT INTO A CROP TOP. [link]

Anyway, this one might be sold out, but Lost Weekend‘s line of film-directors-as-rock-bands shirts is fairly extensive, so you should stop by and peruse, and maybe rent a video.

Our pal Jen just finished up this mesmerizing ink on paper depiction of San Francisco that I simply cannot stop staring at! Every block in the city is represented by a different color, separated by every street.  I think my block is lime green.  This may well be the raddest map of the city ever.

See it bigger right here, and be sure to check out the rest of Jen’s amazing stuff here!