Food and Drink

Paulie’s Pickling Featured on Glamorous Foodie TV Show

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

Bernal’s finest artisanal pickle merchant is savoring a moment in the media spotlight.

Neighbor Paul from the fabulous Paulie’s Pickling inside the 331 Cortland marketplace tells Bernalwood that his shop will be featured as part of Ryan Scott’s “Food Rush” show on the Live Well Network (Comcast channel 195, broadcast channel 7.2 or 7.3) on Saturday, September 8 at 4pm and 930 pm.

However, if you want just can’t wait to see our local pickle celebrities strut their stuff (and hear Neighbor Paul say lots of nice things about our neighborhood), check out the online clip:

Ryan [Scott] heads to Paulie’s Pickling in San Francisco’s Bernal Heights neighborhood to explore the place where he gets the pickles for his corn flake crusted fried chicken sandwich. While in the pickling kitchen, Ryan gets some pickling 101.

Congratulations to Paulie’s! Also: YUM! Here’s to many more celebrity accolades in the future.

The Alemany Night Market Was Fabulous, So Let’s Do It Again

/ Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

Alemany Night Market

Alemany Night Market

Alemany Night Market

As you can see, last Friday’s first-ever Alemany Night Market was a smashing success. And just as you’d expect, everyone there was soooooooo stylish and glamorous. Check out this group of hipsters:

Alemany Night Market

I was impressed by the woman wearing a drop-dead gorgeous haute-couture wrap. It’s Prada, I believe:

Alemany Night Market

Star Sighting! I also saw Miss Anna from Anda’s Piroshki:

Alemany Night Market

Naturally, the media was on hand to interview all the Bernal Heights celebrities:

Alemany Night Market

Yet amid all the glitz and great food, I kept thinking one thing: A night market is a fantastic use of the Farmer’s Market site. It’s a fun way to take make the most of the facility, and I really really really hope that something like last Friday’s event can become a semi-regular fixture there.

Until then, however, enjoy these photos, and kudos to La Cocina for orchestrating such a terrific (and inspiring) evening.

Let’s do that again sometime!

Alemany Night Market

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Tonight! Tasty Treats for a Good Cause at the Alemany Night Market

/ Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

Neighbor Arno reminds us that the Alemany Night Market, a benefit for the deliciously fantastic La Cocina incubator for food entrepreneurs, happens TONIGHT on the site of the Alemany Farmer’s Market:

More coolness coming to Bernal for Friday Dinner:
Night Market, August 17, 6p-9p at Alemany Farmer’s Market.

  • This event is part of the legendary San Francisco Street Food Festival this weekend.
  • There will be 27 vendors, each making one great thing, from all over the world. This event is a benefit for La Cocina, a non-profit incubator kitchen.
  • Entrance is a $25 donation, with tickets available here. All food and drink is priced under $10 from there. Come hungry and get ready to eat to your cart’s content.
  • Members and friends of Bernal Bucks get 25% off their tickets, if you use the registration code “bernalbucks”! (40 available)

Full details about the event right here. Also, Yum!

Foodie Wanted: Space Opening Up in 331 Cortland Marketplace

/ Todd_Lappin / 19 Comments

Neighbor Paul, of Paulie’s Pickle fame, tips Bernalwood that there’s a space opening up soon inside the fabulous 331 Cortland Marketplace. He passed along this email from 331 manager Debra Resnik:

Our retail culinary incubator (located at 331 Cortland, Bernal Heights, SF) is looking for an artisan food vendor to complement and enhance our current line-up. The ideal candidate is looking for a storefront location to grow their business, has never had a bricks and mortar presence, although experience producing and selling their product and a following is a must. They can be from the farmers market world, have done pop-ups, sold out of mobile kitchens and carts or catered events.

Please forward this announcement to any interested parties.
Thank you for any help you can provide,
Debra Resnik @
415.699.9059

Paulie adds, “Pickle vendors need not apply.” Fair enough, but what other flavor of gourmet yumminess should move into 331 to round out the foodie mix in Cortlandia?

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics

BHNC Hosts Meeting About Upcoming Alemany Night Market

/ Todd_Lappin

You might have heard about the upcoming Street Food Festival that will happen on Folsom Street and 22nd on Saturday, August 18. However, you may not have heard about the first-ever Alemany Night Market that will happen the evening before, on Friday night, August 17, right here in glamorous Bernalwood.

Brilliant!!! Such a great idea!!! Mark your calendars.

Rachel from the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center tells us there will be a meeting at 6:30 pm BHNC tomorrow to discuss the Alemany Night Market, and all are welcome to attend:

La Cocina, a non-profit incubator kitchen providing affordable commercial kitchen space and hands-on technical assistance to low-income and immigrant women entrepreneurs, is hosting the first ever San Francisco Night Market at Alemany Market on Friday, August 17th. Alemany has been the proud launching point of La Cocina vendors like Azalina’s Malaysian, El Huarache Loco, Sabores del Sur, Estrellita’s Snacks and several more. BHNC is hosting a community meeting for La Cocina on Thursday, 8/2 at 6:30 PM to make sure community members have a chance to get more information about the evening event, expectations and ways to get involved. Food will be provided by La Cocina business and Cortland business Anda Piroshki. For more information about the La Cocina Community Meeting, please contact caleb AT lacocina DOT org.

More details about the event in this spiffy poster:

It’s Official: Blackberry Season Underway in Bernal Heights

/ Todd_Lappin / 9 Comments

Bernalwood had been keeping the news to ourselves to suppress the competition, but the news is out now that @creativeholley posted the photo above from Bernal Hill. She says she’s “picking blackberries to make jam.” Yum!

Truth be told, Bernalwood’s cub reporter has been harvesting blackberries from our Private Reserve. The neighbors behind us have a blackberry bush, and its thorny tentacles reach over the back fence into our back yard. We do not complain.

PHOTOS: Top, @creativeholley. Below, Telstar Logistics

A Day in the Life of Bernal Sushi Sensei Tim Archuleta

/ Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

The foodies over at EaterSF recently went for an all-day ride-along with Bernal’s most glamorous celebrity sushi chef, Tim Archuleta from Ichi Sushi:

7 a.m.: Archuleta arrives bright and early at Pier 45, so he can hand-pick the best fish for the day at ABS Seafood. He runs into Henry Ichinose, the owner, who gives him a walk-through, while talking price and ordering. Archuleta sees a gigantic, deep rose slab of ahi. “Ah. Fresca!” bubbles out of his mouth. “I’ll take a quarter of it,” he says. A man in full apron, boots, gloves, and a warm hat slices through the meaty, rose fish like butter.

7:15 a.m.: Next they move on to the local albacore. Tim unpacks it from ice and inspects it thoroughly. He opens up the gill flaps. “Fresca!” escapes him again. “Look at that red.” Henry explains that not everyone gets to personally select their fish, like Archuleta does. But since they’ve done business together for 15 years, he trusts him to treat his fish right.

7:30 a.m.: After Archuleta is done picking out his AAA grade uni, the old friends joke around—a lot about fish and business, and a few minutes about that one time years ago when someone got caught stealing a case of uni.

8 a.m.: Now that the early chef caught the fish (or something like that), he heads back home to nap.

Follow along for the rest of Chef Tim’s day, right here.

PHOTO: Tim Archuleta, by John Storey via SFGate

Bernal Writer Hosts Tasty Event for New Cookbook at Heartfelt, Tomorrow

/ Todd_Lappin

Neighbor Juliana is a certified member of the Bernalwood Writer Corps, and she’s having an event at Heartfelt tomorrow to discuss her tasty new book, The Lazy Gourmet: Magnificent Meals Made Easy. She says:

I am very excited to be able to share with you, and hopefully my fellow Bernalwood readers, the news of this event that I’m doing at Heartfelt on July 21. I’m an SF native who moved to Bernal about 6 months ago, and of course I already love it and feel right at home.

My coauthor, Robin Donovan, and I will be at Heartfelt (436 Cortland) on Saturday, July 21st at 2pm. We’ll be talking about our cookbook, The Lazy Gourmet, and we’ll bring snacks, too. I’ve been wanting to do a Bernal event ever since my move and can’t wait to meet some more friendly neighbors.

PHOTO: Julliana Gallin (left) and Robin Donovan

Beer and Wine Now on the Menu at Progressive Grounds

/ Bronwyn Ximm / 1 Comment

To some, this will certainly represent progress: you can now enjoy a glass of beer or wine with your lunch at venerable Cortland Street cafe Progressive Grounds.

Technically speaking, you could enjoy the same with your morning bagel, starting at 10 a.m., but staffers say that hasn’t been happening. (Phew!) It’s been about a month since the cafe has been offering such brews as Blue Moon, Anchor Steam, and  Fat Tire, and the word is that it’s been a slow, gradual ramp-up in terms of actual consumption.

You gotta hand it to Progressive for covering its bases: coffee, food, Mitchell’s ice cream, a killer patio, and now this.

PHOTO: Bronwyn Ximm

Tonight: Mugsy’s Pop-Up Wine Bar at El Rio

/ Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

Granate from Mugsy’s Wine Bar asked us to pass along word of this oenolicious evening event tonight, at the dive-glamorous El Rio:

Mugsy’s pop-up wine bar at El Rio – a bar inside a bar

Friday, June 1st 5-8 pm
El Rio: 3158 Mission St. (at Precita)

There’s a lot of wine out there, and a lot of shmancy places to drink it. But there’s only one El Rio, your dive bar. Two nights a month leave the preciousness and head out to the patio to enjoy four stellar wines with Mugsy’s pop-up wine bar. Focusing on wines crafted by women, people of color, and urban winemakers.

Mugsy will pour “Betelgeuse” a 2009 Sauvignon Blanc from Napa’s Brown Estate. This wine is seductive, confident, and sexy. Three things we all like. Brown Estate is owned and operated by the Brown family, which has farmed the land for over three decades. In 1995 the Browns started producing under their own label and have become known for their rich Zinfandels and complex red blends. This Black-owned winery has emerged as an elegant presence in Napa. (The Connection: Mugsy’s Granate went to college with Cristy Chung, whose partner Ina went to middle school with Stefanie Kelly, Brown Estate’s Director of Operations. Oh me oh my we love San Francisco.)

There will also be a 2009 Sonoma Pinot Noir from Stomping Girl Wines, 2010 Dry Creek Zinfandel from Bayview-based Gratta Wines, and one (or two) more surprises to be announced soon.

Meet winemaker Barbara Gratta whose Zinfandel began in a garage and traveled to international heights as an award winner. Wines are $5-$10. Together with a finite batch of free oysters at 5:30 and homemade piadina (Italian flatbread) from La Piada Randagia, it’s time to leave your house again.

Lots of Mugsy’s mug shots on their Tumblr.

Sad Foodie Laments Closure of Los Pastores Restaurant

/ Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

Horror! Neighbor Otto (and friend) are moving through the Kübler-Ross stages of grief and loss, because Los Pastores, the 4.5 star Mexican restaurant on Mission near Cortland, is gone.

Otto mourns:

Los Pastores, the best Mexican restaurant in the ‘hood has closed. It is now becoming the Cave Grill.

Not much known about the Cave Grill yet, but Grubstreet anticipated Otto’s response. They tell us what there is to be told:

A beloved, tiny neighborhood Mexican restaurant, Pastores (3486 Mission Street) in Bernal Heights, has closed, and many a neighbor will be sad to find they can’t get their chilaquiles or chile relleno anymore. Owner Irma Caderon built a loyal following over the past six years for her homey food and reportedly excellent soups and huevos rancheros. She received some early assistance from La Cocina back in 2007, but it appears she may want out of the business — though Grub Street has not yet confirmed if she’s moved on elsewhere. The new owner of the space is Ana Flores, and the new business moving will be called The Cave Grill.

PHOTOS: Neighbor Otto

Back of Liberty Cafe to Become Bistro-Style Outdoor Cinema

/ Todd_Lappin / 19 Comments

Liberty Cafe

As you may recall, last fall the Liberty Cafe on Cortland was purchased by the owners of Vega, the Italian restaurant across the street. Now that the new owners have had some time to settle in, they’re preparing to make some changes to the bakery zone in the back. The food-obsessed Inside Scoop blog has the details:

The front cafe area isn’t changing. It will still serve the Liberty Cafe lunch, dinner and beloved brunch.

But in the back bakery area, there will be some changes. During the day, Liberty Cafe is working with nearby Sandbox Bakery for the baked goods. The bakery is still open with the same hours, but all the goods coming out there are Sandbox’s. (Sandbox’s Mutsumi Takehara is using the oven there for bread, too.)

During the evenings, the plan is to screen movies and serve thin-crust pizzas — almost like an extension of owner Vega Freeman-Brady’s pizzeria (Vega) across the way. They’re putting in heat lamps and new beer taps.

Innnnnnnnnteresting. Baked good from Sandbox during the day, with a smaller-scale Foreign Cinem-type thing happening after dark. All that sounds like a rather tasty combination.

PHOTO: Telstar Logistics