I started writing these reviews with the goal of bringing under-reported, mom-and-pop/hole-in-the-wall places to the attention of new Missionites, so that they could appreciate what the Mission was, what its roots are and what it still means to its long-time citizens. And, of course, I’ve reviewed very new, hip restaurants too, because we all live here and we all eat....
Music, food, and a variety of family-friendly activities are headed to 19th and 20th streets between Bryant and Harrison streets tomorrow as part of the fifth annual 20th Street Block Party. The event, spearheaded by the music promotion company Noise Pop, runs from noon to 6 p.m. and features nearly a dozen bands and nearly 20 different food vendors. The...
What, another Vietnamese resto review? But wait – it’s not just any Vietnamese place… it’s Sunflower! Risen again from its oh-too-long hibernation! We’ve been going to Sunflower off and on for about 12 years now. Originally opened in 1998, it is well-known for having one kitchen for two restaurants that straddle Valencia and 16th Streets. The one on 16th was...
Mau’s website says it was conceived by a couple of families, one a San Francisco local with Vietnamese roots, and another who just wanted to open a restaurant with really good Vietnamese food in the Mission. It also defines “Mau” as slang for “to eat” – as in, “Let’s Mau Down!” (Not to be confused with vicious dictator Mao, who...
Casa Bonampak at 1051 Valencia St. and Fiestas Fridas will be hosting a Frida Kahlo look-alike contest and birthday celebration Sunday beginning at 11 a.m. It is also Sunday Streets so the whole of Valencia will be a fiesta. At Bonampak, anyone can participate in the categories of Fridog, Fridrag, Little Frida, Diego and Frida. The winner of the best...
Coletta Gelato’s Antonio Massimini and Henri Waltenspuhl have parked their custom-made gelato bike cart in the entrance to Harrington Galleries at Valencia and 17th, bringing the total count of ice cream stores in the Mission to a whopping 12. It’s one of several pop-up shops that will make appearances at the furniture store this summer, except, Massimini said, Coletta Gelato...
State officials seized the liquor license of Farina Focaccia & Cucina Italiana on 18th and Dearborn streets and sold it at auction to cover nearly $275,000 in back taxes and penalties owed by the restaurant, according to a Board of Equalization notice. The license went on sale July 11 with a minimum bid of $225,000. A spokesperson for the California...
A parking lot in Cesar Chavez street is home to a white truck flying Firepie banners. From afar it looks like any other food-truck but this particular truck is an oven. Within it is a traditional Naples oak-burning oven that can reach up to 900 degrees to cook artisan pizzas in 90 seconds. The Firepie truck, says its owner, is filling...
Immigrants who can’t afford to feed their families are facing hunger rather than accepting benefits that rumors tell them could put their hopes of becoming citizens in jeopardy, according to immigration attorneys and those who work with food benefits. “We have asylum seekers who are in homeless shelters and they haven’t accessed benefits because they’re afraid it’ll affect their case,”...
Listen Local is Mission Local’s biweekly radio program. We broadcast live online at BFF.fm every other Thursday morning from 9:30 to 10:00. Now in its new home at the Placita, the Mission Community Market has been around for seven years as the neighborhood’s farmers market. But it is more than just another place to buy produce. We talk with Jeremy...
Get ready to gain some weight with me… I can’t help but overindulge when I go to Garçon. I’ve been coming here regularly for the past seven years, but it’s been on that corner for almost 11 now. I’d gone a few times before, but found it hit or miss until Chef Arthur Wall came along, in about 2010. Chef...
People sometimes complain when I review new places, and I get it. The reason I started this gig was to highlight all the places in our neighborhood that don’t always attract attention the new places do, to make sure they don’t get lost in the Gentrification Shuffle. But for me, every restaurant in the Mission makes us who we are....
Kahnfections, which opened its doors on 20th Street between Folsom and Shotwell streets for the first time on Friday, May 6, serves baked goods that are “honest, not pretentious and not really expensive,” according to owner and baker Judy Kahn. Kahn started Kahnfections five years ago as an online business that catered to large parties and ran it out of a...
Bayou opened a little over two months ago, and I was drawn to it because I already knew Chef Arthur Wall’s food. Wall has been the executive chef at Garçon, the French bistro on Valencia and 22nd , for the last six years. When Wall started cooking at Garçon, I started going back to eat there, because the food just...
Taqueria La Cumbre, one of the pioneers of the Mission-style burrito, is celebrating 50 years of making burritos in the Mission. Mission Local recently spoke to owner Edward Duran on everything from the inspiration for their first burritos to doing business in an ever-changing Mission District. La Cumbre’s story began in 1967, when Mexican immigrants Raul and Michaela Duran opened...
