From a fried chicken hootenanny blowout on the back patio of Ghost Mansion, the DIY house-show venue at the foot of Potrero Hill, to miniature sweetbread po' boys, fried okra, and spicy greens at a pitch-black yard dance party on 23rd Street close to Bryant, August presented the stomach with unanticipated delights. Bi-Rite butcher and 18 Reasons instructor Morgan Maki was the common ingredient at both affairs. The second party was his own; the first was a birthday celebration for a long-time Ghost Mansion resident.
Maki is no stranger to the big pink house on Utah near 25th Street. For over a year now, Maki (frequently assisted by his brother Spencer and sister Elizabeth) has curated the food element of Ghost Mansion's ongoing acoustic series. Local winners like Okay, Or, the Whale, Birds and Batteries, Two Sheds, Last of the Blacksmiths, and Tartufi have set up in the house's living room. Before, between, and after the bands, Maki cooks -- pasta with pork belly, paper cones filled with vegetable tempura, heaps of onion rings, bacon-laced potato salad -- and attendees eat -- and drink. The city sees plenty of house shows with decent food -- a bowl of chili here, a tray of garlic bread there -- but Ghost Mansion has upped the ante -- to the point where the food, appropriately informal and fun, is as much of a draw as the bands. Stay tuned for the house's fall show schedule.
Ghost Mansion maintains a Web site, but you're more likely to find out about shows via a wrinkled flyer tacked on a pole outside of Pop's or the proverbial grapevine -- meaning, here.
