Riding is thirsty work: You know how it is: Sometimes you gotta pop a cold one just to get the smell of those greasy blue seats out of your nose. Read the blog Beer by BART and you can be tickling your nostrils with IPA foam within minutes of leaving a station. Bloggers Gail Ann Williams and Steve Shapiro have been mapping beer venues within a mile or so of Bay Area Bart stations since March 2007. They're suds enthusiasts and pub transport fiends, with a reasonable argument to fuse them: Why not let train operators be your designated drivers, since they're going your way anyhow? How did we miss this site till now?
Taco envy: At Squid Ink, our sister blog from LA Weekly, Diane Cu describes a street taco vendor who frequents L.A.'s Olympic Blvd. From a rattly cart topped with an improvised comal (a cookie sheet over a heat source) the unnamed vendor engineers serious taco love: Taco-hungry customers huddle around her little makeshift stall: a small, metal folding hand cart jammed with homemade salsas, chiles, masa for the tortillas, handmade fillings of fresh nopales, beef-potato and chicken-mushroom, all carefully assembled under Downtown L.A.'s sweltering summer heat. So why are we bothering? Because Cu's pics, especially, lay down a certain standard for street-food tacos all too rare in S.F. Damn you, L.A.!
| Mary Ladd |
| The former Suriya Thai on Valencia is undergoing a transformation. |
Suriya was an oasis of calm, offering delectable and balanced Thai dishes in an attractive yet comfy setting. Once Suriya left, the space sat empty for over two months. New owners have moved in -- they've announced plans for Pi Bar, a thin-crust pizza haven (heaven?).
Today's pics note progress on the remodel, and reports of an August opening are in, pending permit and ABC approval. Cheese slices will reportedly go for $3.14, salads are promised, and plans call for staying open late. The Mission's pizza scene keeps getting better by the day, even if only in anticipation.
Mary Ladd
A soon-to-be locus of thin-crust bliss?
The look is all pale gray walls and exposed trusses, pools of sun from myriad skylights, and a back wall clad in weathered barn wood (the massive doors slide open to receive projection images for parties and other events). Owners Horacio Gomes and Michael Greaney ar CEO and COO, respectively, of HeadQuarters, a Spanish-language advertising agency whose offices are down the street on Brannan (though they'll be moving to the still-under-construction-space next door). Ex-Sur La Table culinary director Kimberley Davis is manager.
The open interior is rustic modern.
Davis and exec chef Antelmo Faria told SFoodie dinner service is slated to begin August 1 (you can currently score breakfast and lunch from the order-it-yourself counter, Mon.-Sat., 7 a.m.-3:30 p.m.). They described the concept as comfort foods that hype Portuguese and "core Mediterranean" flavors (Spanish, Italian, North African). For the current menu, Faria -- previously of La Salette, the Portuguese café in Sonoma -- is drawing from the Portuguese food he grew up with: bacalhau á casa (salt cod hash), chicken with chile-laced piri-piri marinade. Future menus should emphasize other Med cuisines.
| Mary Ladd |
| Double the meat, double the delcious. |
With its hint of smokiness and double stack of beef patties (a blend of ground Kobe and regular beef), the Kobe Burger ($6.5) we tasted only needed a touch more melt on the grated cheddar cheese, please. The burger fared better in comparison to the Thrill of the Grill's Philly cheesesteak sandwich with grilled onions and Provolone -- like the skinny freezer fries, it was passable, if nothing extraordinary. Drinks are of the nonalcoholic variety only, and include soda, iced tea, and organic juice blends. In other words, get your drink on elsewhere before coming here, drunks -- and everyone else, too.
Thrill of the Grill 535 Valencia (at 16th St.), 776-7100
| sarahsuannecox via Flickr |
| Broken Record's Frito Pie |
| David Gallagher/Flickr |
| 7-how-7/Flickr |
Turns out we were wrong. In a voicemail message, Monsalud told us he has no idea who's sending out the Easy Kitchenette tweets, but that he loves them. "Somebody out there started it on their own, and is just basically simplifying or demystifying my sometimes obtuse tweets," he said, adding that he's "getting a big kick out of it." Monsalud said he's tried -- in vain -- to find out who's doing the phantom twittering. "I did direct-message them and basically said that they rocked, whoever they are."
