Distillations: Big Rec Tap Room a study in contradictions. With beer.

Nov 15, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

Ihad expected the Big Rec Tap Room at 24th and Treat streets to be big. An amateur mistake. Both...

Aditi Indian Cuisine replaces an old French favorite and does so with verve

Nov 15, 2019 | Featured, Food, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission

Aditi was a surprise opening for us. Garçon, the long-time and beloved French bistro on the corner...

Dancing Yak: Nepalese in the Mission

Nov 2, 2019 | Featured, Food, Front Page, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission

Dancing Yak opened about a year ago. I purposely didn’t go before, because the location it sits in...

Distillations: Alone together at Lolinda … in the dark

Nov 1, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Inequality, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

We were in Lolinda, talking about loneliness. “I’m told that I lack a sense of emotional object...

Distillations: Virgil’s Sea Room is a bar that won’t sink itself

Oct 25, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

We ended up having an especially intense conversation, so maybe it was for the best that we were...

Restaurant Review: Great Gold – what’s in a name?

Oct 14, 2019 | Featured, Food, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission

Chef/co-owner Brandon Kirksey told me that “Great Gold,” the name of his newly rewired restaurant...

Distillations: Barrel Proof is an odd hybrid, with dozens of TVs … and super high-end cocktails. And it works. Sorta.

Oct 11, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

“Hey,” I said, before he went to make it. “So, I’m trying to figure this place out, and here’s the story I’m telling myself about it. This bar was founded by two guys, business partners, and one of them wanted to own a sports bar that would show all the other sports bars up, and the other guy wanted a chill-but-hip whiskey cocktail lounge. And instead of not making a bar together they just each did what they wanted to do, and this is the result.”

The bartender thought about it. “I like that story,” he finally said.

Distillations: Café la Boheme, an oasis of chill

Sep 27, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Trouble

Café la Boheme is one of my ringers for “chill” any day, any time. Alice said she wanted to drink...

World of Noodles and Banh Mi: A Little Too Much to Swallow?

Sep 21, 2019 | Featured, Food, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission

Along the short 22nd Street corridor between Mission and Valencia, there has been a flurry of new...

Finding Mission District pupusas that take me back to my mother’s kitchen

Sep 15, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Food, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Restaurant Reviews

The sight of freshly cooked Pupusas warms my soul. I’m the child of Salvadoran parents, so pupusas were served for every occasion. Breakfast, lunch, dinner—pupusas are an all-day kind of food. Mexicans and Hondurans make pupusas too, but El Salvador is credited with creating the beloved disk-like treat.

Distillations: At Royal Cuckoo, dark and mysterious, you can expect the unexpected

Sep 13, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

Every time I’ve met a woman at The Royal Cuckoo, something unexpected has happened. I don’t think...

Two family-owned businesses arrive in the Mission: District Tea and Eterna Primavera

Sep 11, 2019 | 24th Street, Featured, Food, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

Two family-owned businesses owned by first-generation immigrants opened this summer in the Mission District – District Tea, a Boba tea shop on Mission Street and Eterna Primavera, a Guatemalan bakery in the spot on 24th Street that was once occupied by Dominguez Bakery.

AL’s Deli: Mash-Up or Mish-Mash?

Sep 7, 2019 | Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission

AL’s Deli is the offspring of AL’s Place – yes, that AL’s Place, the one voted Best New Restaurant...

Distillations: At Bond Bar, every day is casual Friday

Aug 30, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Instagram, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

A moment later, Gena stepped over and put shots down in front of them. They stared at her, surprised.

“I heard about the break-up,” she said, and walked away.

It’s one of the most awesome things I’ve seen in a bar in a long time.

Troje: a silo of good eats

Aug 24, 2019 | Featured, Food, Front Page, Instagram, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission

Efram has been in the industry 17 years, and Troje is his first restaurant. But unfortunately, it’s not in a great location, as Nayarit learned. However, along with his wife, who hails from Cuba, and who served us, and their adorable daughter Maya, this is definitely a family affair.

Distillations: At the Rite Spot, the sum is greater than the parts

Aug 16, 2019 | Eating Now, Featured, Front Page, Mobile, Newsletter, Restaurant Reviews, Today's Mission, Topics

“So do you want to hear my story about painful personal growth?” I asked Stuart. “No!” he said,...

Restaurant Reviews

Finding Mission District pupusas that take me back to my mother’s kitchen

What To Do

SOMArts Cultural Center: Murphy & Cadogan Pecha Kucha and Digital Magazine Launch

Brava Theater: Indómitas: Live Podcast with guest Leila Salazar-López

Manny’s: Senator Scott Weiner & Jackie Fielder State Senate Debate hosted by Manny’s

GLBT History Museum: Podcasting LGBTQ History, Part I

Community Music Center: MusicLab Workshop Series with Oscar Hernández: 50 Years of Iconic Latin Music