The space at 2223 Market Street has seen many restaurants come and go over the years, including the memorably named 2223. These days it’s home to Izakaya Sushi Ran, a Japanese gastropub (no, I’m not exactly sure what that means either.)
The new restaurateurs placed a large rock — if not a small boulder — outside a window facing Market Street where there’s an overhang. Presumably this was to prevent homeless people from sleeping there, or it could be some strange experiment in collecting dog urine.
To celebrate the upcoming San Francisco Pride weekend, the restaurant owners had the rock painted in the distinct pattern of the LGBT rainbow flag.
Which got me thinking… there’s another, much more famous rock in the city that was recently painted with the rainbow flag.
The Bernal Boulder in Bernal Heights Park has been painted numerous times over the years, taking on identities from a slice of watermelon, to candy corn, and perhaps most memorably as a poop emoji. Around this time last year as seen above, it was painted in the colors of the rainbow flag.
Are “pride rocks” a thing now? are two instances enough to make something a trend? I don’t know, but something tells me this isn’t the last time we’ll see a rock painted like a rainbow for Pride.