The past 24 hours in gossip, innuendo, and cold hard facts about the San Francisco food scene.
The Examiner's Ken Garcia catches word that La Cocina incubator business Chaac Mool will take over the nonprofit Dolores Park vending permit ― you know, the one La Cocina got under the same Rec and Park initiative that granted one to Blue Bottle, which turned out real, real ugly. But guess what? One of the NIMBY crusaders who painted Blue Bottle as a sort of Starbucks clone intent on destroying everything good and decent about San Francisco is at it again, this time suggesting that letting in the trailer run by Chaac Mool (a mom-and-pop business owned by Maria de la Luz and Luis Vazquez) will open Dolores up to some hyper-commercial food court. Garcia quotes "Chicken John" John Rinaldi, who writes a column for SFoodie's sister blog, the Exhibitionist: "It's like opening an auto parts store or a Walmart or a Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet." Seriously?
Grub Street makes the call to La Cocina's Caleb Zigas, who doesn't reveal when Chaac Mool will roll out in the park, though they'll be doing a sort of soft opening of the trailer at other spots around the city in coming weeks.
Oh, and Chicken John's Exhibitionist column? It's called Shut Up, Chicken. SFoodie rests there ― except to suggest that anybody who might want to boost, say, immigrant start-up food entrepreneurs of small means trying to get a foothold in this city, should consider launching a We Heart Chaac group on Facebook to rally support for the trailer's roll-out in Dolores. Just a thought. [Update: Somebody did.]
In other news: The kitchen at Mission lounge Bruno's has been dark since Ryan Ostler and Kat Zacher packed up their stuff and turned off the lights last year, but, reports Inside Scoop, things are about to get busy on weekends. Ryan Scott, proprietor of the 3-Sum Eats truck, is renting the Bruno's kitchen as commissary, and he'll serve weekend brunch there starting in June, a weekly thing called Brunch Drunk Love.
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