Food and Drink

Saturday: Rock the Guac at the 5th Annual Guacamole Competition!

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2015 Guac-Off Champion Elle "Monster Guac" Garcia clutches her victory trophy

2015 Champion Elle “Monster Guac” Garcia clutches the coveted Guacamole Glory Trophy

It’s that very special time of year for guacamole fans in Bernal Heights.

Once again, the annual Guac-Off guacamole competition is coming this weekend. It’s free, and it’s happening on Saturday, September 10 beginning a 1 pm at the glamorous Farmhouse Mansion, at 3340 Folsom near the top of the hill at Ripley.  That means if you you want to compete, there are a few days remaining for you to beg your abuela for her secret recipe.

Here are all the guactastic details, courtesy of guacMC Luke:

Look, 2016 is a complicated time, but in a complicated world eating guacamole with your friends and neighbors is the best of all simple pleasures. As the saying goes, San Francisco is 49 square miles surrounded by reality, so for one delightfully warm Indian Summer afternoon we invite you to forget all the complications of 2016 and bask in the fact that you are not surrounded by reality, you are surrounded by avocados. Lots of avocados.

So join us on Saturday, September 10th, 2016 at 1pm at The Farmhouse Mansion for the 5th Annual Indian Summer Guac-off!

  1. Your guacamole must use at least 7 avocados.
  2. If you don’t bring a guacamole, you’re encouraged to bring beer.
  3. No matter what you decide to bring, bring your friends!
  4. We’ll provide the chips, the Guacamole Glory Trophy, and the mystery prizes.

If you’re thinking about coming we’d love for you to check out guacamole.expert (our new site!) and take 15 seconds (seriously, that’s all it takes) to fill out our totally non-committal sign-up form so we can know how many pounds of chips we need to buy.

If you’re reading this it means you understand the sacred power and magic of spending a warm afternoon with friends, neighbors, cute babies, cuter dogs and maybe even the mailman. It means that you know the delight of being shaded by lush trees in the garden of a large mansion while being surrounded by whimsical interpretations of the holy avocado.

So use this information carefully — and by use it carefully we mean tell anyone you’d like.

Guacamolingly,
Chris, Luke & Josh

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Old Devil Moon Beer Restaurant Now Open on Mission Street

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It took a lot longer than expected (which is what we always expect), but this week Old Devil Moon, the brand-new, beer-obsessed restaurant at 3472 Mission Street at the foot of Cortland Avenue, finally opened for business. Welcome!

As you no doubt recall, Old Devil Moon was co-founded by former La Lengua resident Chris Cohen, who lived for a time on fashionable Tiffany Street, next door to the owner of La Terrazza, the bar that was previously at 3472 Mission. The two got to talking, and the owner of La Terrazzo eventually said “I’ve actually been thinking about retiring for a couple years, I’d love to sell you my place.” Thus, the torch was honorably passed from La Terrazzo to Old Devil Moon.

So what’s Old Devil Moon all about? InsideScoop explains:

Old Devil Moon [is] the new beer-focused restaurant from Chris Cohen (founder of the SF Homebrewers Guild), along with business partners Will Marshall, Andrew Kelley, Ericka Schell and Carson Beker. (Kelley, Schell and Cohen are all certified cicerones.)

Located in the former La Terraza space on Mission Street, Old Devil Moon takes its inspiration from other local beer-focused restaurants, like Oakland’s Hog’s Apothecary and Monk’s Kettle in the Mission. However, the vibe and food for the space will be New Orleans-inspired.

The project has been in the works a couple of years and took longer than originally thought because the team ended up having to completely gut the space and rebuild from the ground up. The delay was worth it for Cohen, since it allowed the team to build out a new draft system exactly to their specifications that includes a large walk-in cooler behind the bar that can hold 19 kegs, as well as three smaller coolers to store different styles of beers at different temperatures.

In addition to the 19 draft beers, plus one hand-pump cask ale, the bar will offer about 30 easy-drinking canned beers, as well as a large selection of larger format barrel-aged imperial stouts and sour beers. Some of the breweries the bar will be showcasing include local and domestic offerings from Sante Adarius, Freewheel Brewing Co., Fieldwork, Modern Times, Almanac and Craftsman, as well as some from further afield including Rodenbach Grand Cru from Belgium and hard-to-find Switzerland brew, Samichlaus.

Apart from all the beer, Old Devil Moon also offers a list of signature cocktails, while the food menu is built around New Orleans-style favorites such as Po Boys, gumbo, and fried oysters. (Insert Pavlovian Response here.)

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Old Devil Moon opened for business on Monday night, and the place was reportedly packed. Chris Cohen from Team ODM tells Bernalwood:

There were a few moments from our opening night that meant the moon to us.

Like the guy who said, “I’ve lived in the neighborhood for decades – I’m so happy this place has an unpretentious, friendly vibe. I’ll be back.”

And the other who said, “We’ve lived in Bernal Heights for 30 years, and me and my wife are both beer lovers. I’m excited there’s a place I can go to with great beer just down the hill from my house.”

A third customer asked for help choosing some beer. Sure! Then he asked for a fortune. Sure! Two patrons told us our menu board was magic (it is!) and then sang Old Devil Moon and everyone clapped.

It felt like our vision come true: We want this to be a neighborhood place with destination-worthy beer where magic can happen. We want to get to know you, so it made us so happy to see our friends and neighbors meet. Thanks to everyone who came down the hill for a great beer, thanks for a great welcome for Old Devil Moon to the neighborhood, and if you haven’t been down yet, welcome! Come raise spirits and make some mischief with us.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Old Devil Moon

Anda Piroshki Closing This Weekend After Kitchen Rent Increase

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Big bummer: After learning about a big commercial kitchen rent increase, Anda Piroshki, the tasty purveyor of Russian food at 331 Cortland, will be closing permanently after this Sunday, August 28.

Anda Piroshki as has thrived since founder Anna Tveliva first opened in 331 Cortland during 2011, and over the years the business grew to include a second outpost on Haight Street. Along the way, Anna herself became a familiar fixture in the Bernal community, as well as a US citizen.

In a message for Bernalwood readers, Anna writes:

Dear Bernal friends,

I need to share with you a sad news. Anda Piroshki’s commercial kitchen lease is up, and the new offer we got is almost 3 times higher. Unfortunately it is killing the business.

Considering the short notice I was given (I have to leave the kitchen by 9/1) and some family issues I am currently dealing with, I made a hard decision to close the business at the end of this month.

I dearly love Bernal, our customers, our landlady Debra at 331, folks from Paulie’s Pickling and Anusha from Mae Krua. Going to miss all very much. I am so grateful to be able to serve Bernal with my motherland food all these years and get so many fans!

Our doors will be open till 8/28. Please stop by to get your last Anda Piroshki fix and say goodbye 😦

Sad. Heartbroken. Truly yours,

Anna Tveliva

She also made this video:

Sigh. Truth be told, it’s hard to imagine a bigger fan of Anda Piroshki than Bernalwood’s own Cub Reporter, who insists we stop by Anda Piroshki every time we visit Cortland Avenue together. Literally: Every time.

As a parent, I’ve been happy to indulge the Cub Reporter’s piroshki obsession, not just because Anda’s food is delicious, but because I like to think my kid’s love of Anda Piroshki was hardwired into her DNA by her great-grandfather, an immigrant from Russia who died two decades before she was born. Savoring one of Anna Tveliva’s piroshkis may be his way of speaking to Bernalwood’s Cub Reporter through the generations.

Anyway, Bernalwood’s Cub Reporter was really sad to hear Anda Piroshki is closing, so  we stopped by 331 Cortland last weekend to load up while we still can.  This morning, the Cub Reporter asked me to put an Anda Piroshki in her lunchbox. So while all the other kids eat peanut butter and jelly or grilled cheese in the cafeteria today, Bernalwood’s Cub Reporter will be excited to dive into this:

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Thank you for all the delicious memories, Anna, and best of luck.

PHOTO: Top, Anna Tveliva at 331 Cortland for Halloween, 2011. Courtesy of Anda Piroshki.

 

Front Porch Celebrates 10 Year Anniversary With Street Party

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Yesterday, the Front Porch restaurant on 29th Street in the La Lengua Autonomous Zone celebrated its 10th Anniversary. Blessedly, even after a decade, neither the primal forces of time nor fire have been able to stop the southern-fried deliciousness that is the Front Porch.

Rebel propagandist Burrito Justice was on the scene for the festivities, and he reported:

The back yards of La Lengua [are] echoing with the sounds of horns and drums and cheering from the Front Porch… Whatever you want to call it, this neighborhood does not suck.

So true. Check out this little video to get a taste of the scene:

Big congrats to Team Front Porch on the anniversary, and thanks for all the good food and warm community you’ve brought to 29th Street.

PHOTOS AND VIDEO: Courtesy of @BurritoJustice

Nutes Noodles Seeking Permanent Place at 903 Cortland

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Pastafarians and multicultural noodle-freaks, rejoice! Nute’s Noodles, the Asian-infused  noodle soup and ramen restaurant that has long been doing pop-ups inside the space at 903 Cortland, now plans to become a permanent restaurant at (you guessed it) 903 Cortland.

Sarah Fritsche from Inside Scoop got the inside scoop:

Inside Scoop reached out to [chef Nute] Chulasuwan, who confirmed that she is indeed in the process of buying the Bernal Heights space from [former Sandbox Bakery owner Mutsumi] Takehara. (Also listed on the ABC license are partners Makiko Nakagawara and Supreeya Pongkasem.)

Chulasuwan says that the new incarnation of the space will be a continuation of her popular noodle pop-ups, which currently run four nights a week. For more details on what to expect from the forthcoming restaurant, check out Chulasuwan’s menu, which feature Thai noodle dishes, including a promising version of Northern Thai coconut curry noodle soup called Khao Soi, as well as Japanese-inspired ramen.

Chulasuwan says that the transfer will take a couple of months, but she hopes to open the restaurant by September.

IMAGE: 903 Cortland by Telstar Logistics

Tonight: First Anniversary Celebration at the Old Bus Tavern

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Wow. It’s been a year already!

Tonight, Monday, Aug. 1, the critically acclaimed and positively delightful Old Bus Tavern at 3193 Mission (@ Valencia) celebrates its first year in business . Co-owner Bennet Buchanan brings news about the festivities:

Opening a neighborhood restaurant/brewery has allowed us to meet so many cool people in this city, many of whom live right here in Bernal. Also, despite all the warnings, we’ve learned that it is in fact possible to go into business with your best friends and remain as close as ever.

We want to invite all our neighbors to our combined Old Bus Tavern’s First Anniversary + Jerry Day Party on Monday, August 1st. We’ll be open from 5-10pm with live, Grateful Dead-inspired music from The Incubators (regulars at Terrapin Crossroads in San Rafael) from 6-9pm.

We’re going to offer the following Dead-inspired menu:

  • Grateful Bread………Buckwheat Cornbread with salted honey-miso butter and chives
  • (Green and) Brown-Eyed Women………Marinated Olives with rosemary, garlic and lemon zest
  • New Potato Caboose………Steak Fries with beef salt and garlic aioli
  • Fire on the Mountain………spicy Chili with pequin
    The Pizza Tapes………Cherry Tomato Salad with brioche, burrata and charred pepper vinaigrette
  • Just Noodlin’………Spaetzel with brassicas, maitake mushrooms, whole grain mustard cream and Aztec Fuji apples
  • Homemade Cherry Garcia Ice Cream Sundae………slightly “Sugaree”

PHOTO: From left, Old Bus Tavern partners (and still friends) John Zirinsky, Jimmy Simpson, and Bennett Buchanan. Courtesy of Old Bus Tavern.

El Buen Comer Is Now Open for Dinner (and It’s Amazing)

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guisado

Last week, your Bernalwood editor visited El Buen Comer, the much-acclaimed new restaurant at 3435 Mission Street (@Kingston) in the La Lengua Autonomous Zone. El Buen Comer is now open for dinner, and our meal there sent us into a state of guisado-induced rapture.

What’s a guisado? Well, think of it sort of like a Mexican version of a Thai or Indian curry. Anna Roth from the San Francisco Chronicle had a similar moment of guisado rapture at El Buen Comer recently, and she explains:

The plate arrived with six pieces of stewed pork in a sea of green sauce. I’ve never been one to forgo pork products, but the mole verde, not the meat, wholly captivated my attention. It was richly layered and bright-tasting from fresh cilantro and epazote, with just a whisper of heat from green chiles. As I sopped up the last of the sauce with a house-made tortilla, I realized that I’d be doing the same thing with naan at an Indian restaurant; mole, like curry, is just a complicated stew.

Puerco en mole verde is just one of several remarkable dishes being turned out by Isabel Caudillo at her 6-week-old Bernal Heights restaurant, El Buen Comer. The daily changing menu centers on guisados — stews from Caudillo’s native Mexico City, where they can be served at home for weekday dinner or spooned into tacos for workers on the go.

Guisados have recently become trendy in food circles north of the border, but Caudillo has been serving them in San Francisco for more than a decade. She began selling comida corrida, simple fixed-price lunches of soup, tortillas, rice, beans and guisados, out of her Tenderloin apartment in 2001.

Bernalwood ate at El Buen Comer a few days after Anna Roth’s article was published, and the resulting crush of customers who flocked to the restaurant threatened to overwhelm the staff, which is largely comprised of chef Isabel Caudillo’s family. But we hardly cared, because teething pains are to be expected, and everyone was friendly, charming, and attentive.

Most of all, the food was revelatory and delicious.

Welcome to Bernal, El Buen Comer! We’re very lucky to have you here.

PHOTO: Puerco en mole verde at El Buen Comer, by Bernalwood

New Neighbor Lives Near Barebottle Brewing, Highly Recommends It

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barebottlebeers

It’s here. The predicted Golden Age for Beer in Bernal Heights is here.

Barebottle Brewing Company at 1525 Cortland has been open now for about a month, and it’s an impressive addition to our local drinkosphere. Neighbor Todd H. is a new Bernal resident who lives very close to Barebottle, and he shared these impressions of the place with us:

A month ago we lived in SOMA — 440 feet away from the Cellermaker brewery. It was hard to leave SOMA. How would we live without our darling neighborhood brewery? Imagine our delight to discover that a new brewery, the Barebottle Brewing Company, was opening a mere 213 feet from our new house right in Bernal, right after we moved in! Only two questions remained: 1) is the beer going to be good, 2) will it be a nice place to hang out and socialize?

The answer to both questions: Yes.

The Beer
Katy had the California Cologne, a Kolsch-Style lager, and it was light, fragrant, and smooth. I had the Scurvy Fighter, a pale ale with strong citrus and lots of hops. A neighbor shared his C’s Bees Honey Brown, which is made with honey from one of the brewers own bees. Barebottle is adding more beers and a number of standards, each with an intriguing twist.

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The Place
The sipping area is large and spacious, clean and bright. It’s dog- and kid-friendly, with games like cornhole and a side room where people were already playing board games. The brewing area is separated from the patrons by a small fence, perfect for who love gazing upon gleaming steel tanks and industrial equipment while sipping beer.

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More
In addition to serving beer, Barebottle will teach you how to brew it. There will be regular lectures and classes on homebrewing. While they don’t serve food themselves, a rotating cast of food trucks will be parked in the driveway right outside, with gorgeous custom picnic-style tables inside. My wife and I are debating the merits of starting a small grill cheese cart to offset the substantial tab we’re going to invariably run up.

The beer is great, the atmosphere friendly and bright, and it’s close enough that we can still see our Wi-Fi signal.

PHOTOS: Courtesy of Todd Huffman

3300 Club Badly Damaged, But Owners Vow “We’ll Be Back”

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Shukry Lama is a co-owner of the much-loved 3300 Club on the corner of Mission and 29th. The bar was heavily damaged during the June 18 Cole Hardware Fire, even though it managed to avoid the flames.  Inside, the water damage was extensive, but the good news is that the building — which also contains the Graywood Hotel SRO — has been deemed structurally sound, so it won’t require a teardown.

Shukry shared some thoughts with Bernalwood after visiting the 33 to assess the damage:

Going into the bar and seeing how much stuff was damaged, was very depressing

There was a lot of water bubbling all over the ceiling and walls. Cracks in anything plaster, and the drywall is still soaked. ABC says all of our booze is gone; we can’t resell it or return it. We have a lot of pictures from the 30s and 40s that were damaged, mostly of my grandfather who grew up in the neighborhood. We were able to save some of the old paintings we have from an old bartender who passed away a few years ago, but some were damaged. All the original art that we had on the walls from him is damaged and will have to be replaced

My jukebox guy came in, he thinks his jukebox is shot. Hopefully our insurance covers his stuff. Anything electronic is dead.

The building owner has been awesome, he and our building supervisor have been there every day and keep checking up on us. First thing he said, when the fire was still going. was, “tell your grandma not to worry, we can fix it.” He’s been sharing resources, giving advice, and generally helping talk us through the process.

It’s going to take a lot of work to come back, but we’re willing to do it and everyone has been offering their help. It will take a while, but we’ll be back.

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PHOTO: Top, 3300 Club interior, photographed by Evan Sernoffsky on June 19. Below, Shukry Lama (right) with his Aunt Chris outside the 3300 Club, shortly after the fire.

 

ALERT! Special Sneak Peek Opening Party at Barebottle Brewing TONIGHT!

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ATTENTION NEIGHBORS!

Bernalwood has been informed that there’s a special sneak peek opening party at the brand-new Barebottle Brewing Company happening TONIGHT, Wednesday June 15 from 4-6 pm at 1525 Cortland (@Peralta).

Michael Seitz from Barebottle says:

Howdy Neighbors!

We’ve been working on renovating the old granite cutting warehouse, which needed a lot of TLC, into a production brewery and tasting room. We (Mike, Lester, & Ben) started out as homebrewers & certified beer judges, and our specialty is making beers inspired by local places & ingredients and using a competitive process to brew the best beers.

We’ll have a Bernal Saison free fermented at Bernal Heights temperatures, a Muir Woods-inspired IPA, a Honey Brown using 120-lbs of our head brewer’s wildflower honey (he’s also a local beekeeper), and many more.

Please stop by for a pint tonight! (We’re also hiring bartenders!)

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Wednesday: A Special Hillside Supper for Fans of Fungi

/ Todd_Lappin

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Chef (and glamorous Bernal neighbor) Tony Ferrari from the Hillside Supper Club on Precita Park is spreading the word about a special dinner series he’s hosting at the restaurant, with the next installment happening tomorrow, on Wednesday, June 15:

So every third Wednesday of the month, we;ve started doing producer dinners. Its 68 dollars for a set four course meal, with optional wine pairing at 39. Every course will be highlighted and include the product from the producer.

We did the first one last month, with a duck dinner with Liberty Farms. The producers are always part of each dinner, walking around meeting people and talking about the product etc. Its fun to meet them and for us to play around with different ingredients and menu changes. Its been going great and turns into a fun time.

Next, on Wednesday, June 15th, we’ll have a mushroom dinner with King of Mushrooms.

King of Mushrooms is a huge supplier for us, as mushrooms are almost always on on of our items at Hillside. Todd Spanier founded King of Mushrooms in 1996, and has been providing the entire Bay area with some of the best supply of mushrooms since. We will be serving a four course tasting (with an obvious highlight on ‘mushrooms’), plus an optional beverage pairing.

Reservations are normal though Open Table or call-in. Next month, on July 20, we’ll have a wine dinner with Bro Cellars

Hillside Supper Club has been going on for three and half years now. Things have been great, and we love our ‘hood!

PHOTOS: Chefs Tony Ferrari (left) and Jonathan Sutton, Courtesy of Hillside Supper Club

Finally! El Buen Comer Now Open for Lunch, with Dinner Coming Soon

/ Todd_Lappin / 5 Comments

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It’s been an intense journey for Isabel Caudillo, the founder of the new (and long-awaited) El Buen Comer restaurant at 3435 Mission St. (@Kingston). After years of cooking up her signature guisados in her home kitchen, she got a boost from the fabulous La Cocina incubator to begin the process of opening her own restaurant. Then came the fundraising, and the build-out, and the navigating of our City’s maddening permits and bureaucracy. And now, at last, El Buen Comer is open for business.

Our friends at EaterSF map out the opening schedule:

To start out, El Buen Comer will be serving lunch only for the month of June, relying on the daily-changing comidas corridas which include a beverage, appetizer, and guisado, or a bigger entree with a guisado. When dinner starts in July, it will be family style with guisados, tortillas, and entrees like mole, albondigas (meatballs), and chiles rellenos. Eventually Caudillo will start a Sunday buffet, too.

For now, El Buen Comer is open Tuesday through Friday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Starting July 1, hours will include dinner Tuesday through Sunday from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

You can check out the menu, right here.

PHOTO: Grand Opening party at El Buen Comer, by Stefanie Tuder of EaterSF

 

Sunday: Eat Bagels to Benefit San Jose Ave. Fire Victims

/ Todd_Lappin / 2 Comments

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Ellen Black from Shegetz Bagels invites you to a bagel benefit this Sunday morning, June 5 to benefit local residents displaced by fire:

Eat bagels, drink coffee, help victims of last April’s San Jose Ave. apartment fire.

This Sunday, June 5th, Saint Frank Coffee and Shegetz Bagels will be participating in an event to raise funds for the victims of the apartment fire in the Mission that displaced more than 20 residents. All proceeds will go directly to those who lost their homes.

Stop by PizzaHacker on Mission for freshly boiled and baked bagels (and cream cheese) by the Shegetz crew and coffee from Saint Frank, available for $5-$10 (or more!) donation. Some of the residents displaced by the fire will be helping to bake and serve.

Details:

  • What: Fresh bagels and coffee to benefit displaced residents of the San Jose Ave fire
  • Where: PizzaHacker 3299 Mission Street
  • When: Sunday, June 5th 10am – sold out (probably about 1pm)
  • Why: Because you want to help out your fellow neighbor during a tough time.

Misc:
The beneficiaries of this fundraiser will be helping out and working with us on Sunday. If you can’t make it, you can still donate here:

One note: This is not a full Shegetz pop-up, as we will be offering a simpler menu of bagels/cream cheese and coffee instead of the additional smoked fish and veggies.

PHOTO: Courtesy of Shegetz Bagels