Mission Mission

Looks yum! Mike Chino reports, “Bi Rite has kumquat tangerines! What!?” Link.

In response to last night’s pipe violence story, an anonymous reader wrote in with the following:

I saw another one last night. I biked down to Weird Fish/The Corner last night to get some food with my girlfriend, only to find that both were closed. We were sitting on our bikes discussing where to go next when I saw a smallish Latino walk intently past me with a metal pipe in his hand. I watched him run across the street, just north of the corner of 18th and Mission where he proceeded to start barking like a dog and then ran up on a group of dudes standing outside of the Hip Hop Clothing Smoke Shop. One of the guys immediately ran inside, while others stayed out on the corner and ducked and dodged swings of the pipe. I got the fuck out of there after that, but it didn’t seem like anyone was seriously injured – not sure though.

Fuck yeah! The Mission dominated this year’s 7×7 2010 Big Eat SF with 26% of the 100 recommended restaurants. Take that, Hayes Valley! I’m not going to bother calculating that number for the other ‘hoods because who cares about them right?

Here’s the goods:

2. Coffee-rubbed pork shoulder at Range
3. Carnitas taco at La Taqueria
8. Morning bun at Tartine Bakery
11. Pork sugo with pappardelle at Delfina
21. Pizza margherita at Pizzeria Delfina
23. Beer sausage with sauerkraut, grilled onions at Rosamunde Sausage Grill
25. Loaf of bread straight out of the oven at Tartine
32. Pupusas at Balompie Café
35. Salted-caramel ice cream at Bi-Rite Creamery
39. Pierna enchilada torta at La Torta Gorda
45. Secret Breakfast from Humphry Slocombe
46. Chips and salsa at Papalote
50. An obscure Belgian beer at The Monk’s Kettle
52. Coconut buns from King’s Bakery
54. Spiced-chocolate doughnut at Dynamo Donut with a Four Barrel coffee
56. Nuevo Paloma at Beretta
60. The Little Star at Little Star Pizza
64. Paper masala dosa at Dosa
65. Cookies-and-cream cookie and milk at Anthony’s Cookies
78. Super burrito at Taqueria Cancun
83. French fries at Universal Cafe
86. A cheese slice at Arinell Pizza
88. Buckwheat crepe and a French cider at Ti Couz
92. Bacon-wrapped hot dog from a cart in the Mission
97. Lamb schawerma at Truly Mediterranean
98. Bloody Mary with brunch at Foreign Cinema

Uptown Almanac reports:

Nicolas King, an aide to Supervisor Dufty, has confirmed that Dolores Park will be “entirely closed during its renovation.”

This renovation is expected to begin some time between August and December of 2011 and last for most of a year and a half. Link.

Snapped this up on 20th/Guerrero this morning.  It’s as if the Mystery Machine was shrunken down and decided to park too close to a DeLorean.  They are both interested in leaving present day. 

Or it’s just a wacky meter maid chillin’ by a clunker.  Either way, a mystery is afoot!

San Francisco’s Mark Growden is finally back from months of touring and he’s playing at the Porto Franco Art Parlor on Liberty and Valencia this Friday. The last Mark Growden show of this type sold out pretty quick, so only advance tickets are available. Grab them here.

Mark is an amazing songwriter and musician who plays the chromatic button accordion, an instrument that is pretty damn rare in the states. You pretty much have to walk into an accordion shop, glaze over the bountiful piano accordions, and say, “fuck it, I want to play the harder one”. I guess the added bonus is that no one will ever ask to play it during your set break. If only I had a nickel for every time some dude walked up to my guitar and said, “hey dude nice axe, hey can I show my friend this RHCP tune I just learned?”

Oh, have you seen that video of Mark Growden playing bicycle handlebars? It’s outta sight!

BTW if any of you musically-inclined cyclists are into collaborating on an all bike parts band (“bikestra”), he’s totally down.

Fashionist spotted this combination of gray palette and gradient tights on 18th Street recently, lucky for us. It’s like a Tumblr theme you can wear! Link.

The great thing about Critical Mass in Sacramento is that with only 14 people on the ride, if you get a flat, the entire Mass will pull over and hang out while you patch it up.

The terrible thing about Critical Mass in Sacramento is there’s this dude who thinks he’s the leader. Gives a welcome speech (he actually says “Welcome to Critical Mass!”) where he explains how Critical Mass works, cautions you not to break any rules, gets all serious if you make a joke about throwing bricks at cars, and informs you in which direction he’s decided we’ll be starting off. And then he barks orders at everybody the whole time: “LIGHT!!” “JOIN US!!” “IT’S CRITICAL MASS; JOIN US!!” “LIGHT!!” Gag me!

Sacramento is beautiful though. It’s a nice place to bike.

Previously:

Critical Mass Halloween

Critical Mass Seattle

Critical Mass at Ocean Beach

Critical Mass Louisville

Says reader Marcus P.:

So we were rounding out a Jersey Shore themed bar crawl with a few slices and whole pizza at Katz pizza/bagels. A group came in, presumably from Double Dutch, didn’t seem to find what they were looking for, and left. One of them was a transvestite. We grabbed our pizza and headed out to find that same transvestite bleeding from her face with a group of 10 people or so attending to her. She was conscious and moving her head, but didn’t look too good.

The cops came and some little guy ran into the street yelling “I told you guys! I fucking told you guys!” at the cop car. The car stopped in the middle of the intersection and the driver got out and yelled at the little guy to get out of the way or go to jail, something to that effect.

I didn’t want to rubberneck or take photos or anything, but some onlookers across the street said that the transvestite had some words with a guy, who then pulled out a metal pipe and hit her in the head. The assailant took off in a car. The cops got a description (black hoodie) and sent a squad car after the suspect.

Sounds like a hate crime on a full moon.

UPDATE: Another incident right around the corner.

Does this work? I’ve tried and failed a few times, but these bros look pretty comfortable. What’s their secret?

Photo by Brolores Park.