The long-shuttered Cafe Petra finally has some action, with a new sign promising a second outpost of the Inner Sunset’s popular Curry Village Indian buffet.
It remains to be seen if this particularly quiet stretch of Guerrero can support a restaurant, or how this tiny storefront can house a full buffet. With Pakwan, Gajalee, and Alhamra all a stone’s throw away, there’s increasing competition for Indian restaurants in the area — great news for those of us who love Indian food.
I’ve never been the type to fear clowns. But the clown on this package of knockoff Cheetos at Walgreens makes me want to grab a flashlight and hide under the covers.
I imagine if this clown were a real person, his day to day interactions would be something like this:
“Psst, hey kid,” the clown muttered in his gravely, tobacco-strained voice. “You want some hot Cheetos?”
“Those aren’t REAL Cheetos!” the kid replied indignantly.
“What, you’re too good for store brands?”
“Let me go!”
“How about you come outside with me, I have real Cheetos in the back of my van.”
Yikes! In spite of the price difference, I think I’ll be sticking with my trusty old pal Chester Cheetah.
The hard working scientists at local Pokemon-themed Venezuelan eatery Pica Pica have developed an IRL Facebook wall that somehow transcends the physical/cyber barrier with a painted board and a mineral-based writing utensil.
Although the Facebook wall does not appear to be refreshing from Facebook, I assume this is just a minor hiccup in the code. You know how the Facebook Graph API can be (and if you don’t, consider yourself lucky.)
The former Thrill of the Grill on Valencia has closed up shop, and is now a Nizario’s Pizza, part of a small local chain apparently owned by someone named Nizar.
While I was never a huge fan of Thrill of the Grill, and their “whenever we feel like it” operating hours couldn’t have been good for business, it was admittedly a perfect spot for those times when you were too drunk to wait in line at Arinell.
The good news is that all three of Nizario’s SF locations claim to stay open until 2am and (according to their Yelp reviews) all sell pizza by the slice. Those are two things we could use more of in this city!
New signs at the Church and Market location of Safeway urge customers to “Help us keep the streets of San Jose clean.”
Since it’s hard to believe their employees wouldn’t know what city they work in, this can’t be a mistake; Safeway is trolling us on purpose. And what better way to troll San Franciscans than to confuse our wonderful city with that overstuffed suburb in the South Bay?
Good work, Safeway — successful troll is successful.
This new mini-piece on Clarion Alley shows Raphael of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles complaining about gentrification to a man with a rather unusual tongue condition.
Gentrification, according to this mural, is embodied by ice cream, condos, and “another boutique.” Who knew that food, shelter, and retail were to blame? Apparently can battle gentrification by starving ourselves and sleeping on the street — it’s that simple!
Of course, Raphael has more reason to complain than the rest of us; the city has been busily ripping out his home (i.e. the sewers) and replacing them with newer sewers, which one assumes are not protected by rent control.
My apartment building dates back to the early 40’s, and in many ways it’s a throwback to another era. Fuse boxes, steam heating, garbage chutes… it’s all very quaint.
But sometimes it’s sad to see how things have changed — the doorbell pictured above was actually manufactured right here in SF. Same with the sewer drains in the parking lot. All of these things would be made outside the country today, let alone San Francisco.
Today, the term “made in San Francisco” typically means “prepared in San Francisco.” There are no real factories here anymore. That bike or messenger bag that says “SF Made” on it might have had some customization work done on it here, but it certainly wasn’t manufactured within city limits.
Ever had a lucid dream? If you’re not familiar with the term, it’s a dream where you are fully conscious and can exert influence over the dream. (Yes, you can be asleep and conscious at the same time.)
As this squid points out, looking at one’s hands is a good way to check if one is in a dream or not. In waking life, one’s hands look like, well, hands. But in a dream one doesn’t have hands — it tends to be a dead giveaway that one is dreaming when one look at one’s hands and they disappear or are unstable.
Just to be clear, however, this is not a lucid dream. The squid is messing with your head.
(Spotted at 18th and Valencia.)
16th Street’s Adobe Books, as you may recall, has been in trouble for some time. But now their rent has been raised, pounding the final nail in the coffin for this chill neighborhood bookshop.
Adobe Books has always been an unusually free, open and artistic-minded spot. Retirees and homeless people often hang out in the front seating area and shoot the shit. The back room often hosted art exhibitions, and one bookshelf featured a hidden compartment containing a secret diorama of the bookstore.
My favorite experience at Adobe: on asking if they sold calendars they told me: “We don’t believe in time.” Sadly, it looks like time believes in them. Stop by for a book or three before it’s too late.
Sadly, the big tree at 16th and Dolores was chopped down recently, making the corner bright and sunny (queue vampire hiss sound effect.) But now the stump bears a message reminding us of the circle of life. Yes, one day the stump will rot, and eventually a new tree will grow. Or the stump will be removed by a tree service and Friends of the Urban Forest will be commissioned to plant a new tree. One of those.
Cheers, tree stump!
Travel, movies, comedy, tech, and whatever I find on the streets of San Francisco.
Contact: mrericsir “at” gmail.com
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