After all the fuss and cranky backlash, Neighbors Christian and Elizabeth have finally found another location for their proposed pinball spot in Bernal Heights.

As you may recall, Neighbors Christian and Elizabeth are proud denizens of Bocana, and they’d originally planned to open their pinball center at 1000 Cortland,  in the site of a former hair salon on the corner of Folsom. That plan, alas, foundered in the face of opposition from a few nearby residents, leaving the proposed pinball palace in search of a new location.

Happily, they’ve found one: Under the new name Outer Orbit, Neighbors Christian and Elizabeth now plan to set up shop on Mission Street in Bernal Heights, near the intersection of Valencia, in the storefront that’s currently home to Bel, the Belgian restaurant.

Neighbors Christian and Elizabeth tell us:

For all of you who’ve been following the trials and tribulations of us trying to get our little pinball spot off the ground, we are delighted to announce that we’ve found a location and signed a lease! We tried mightily to open a place on Cortland Ave, but we fished through all the prospects and instead found our oasis on Mission Street (where it meets Valencia), so we will still be able to serve the families of Bernal Heights.

We expect to open in early spring after doing some light renovation. Our plan is to have nine machines ranging from vintage (EM, for those in the know) all the way to brand new games, while providing a fun and inviting atmosphere to match the pins.

In the evenings when the kids have settled off to La La Land, we’ll have plenty of beers and wines to keep the evening exciting. And the big reveal: Hawaiian-inspired eats! I grew up in Hawaii and have been dreaming of bringing well-executed novel touches of Hawaiiana to accessible dining.

So thanks again for all the interest and support you kind folks on Bernal have shown us. It’s been the fire that’s kept us going.

So that means family-friendly pinball, drinks, and Hawaiian food, all just a convenient bumper-bounce away all the other fabulous restaurants and bars in the delightfully vibrant, delightfully low-key Nano-Tokyo District and La Lengua Nightlife Zone. Game on!

Of course, Bel has a lot of fans in the neighborhood too, so it’s sad to see them go.  According to MissionLocal, Richard Rosen, the chef and co-woner of Bel had a motorcycle accident recently, after which it became more difficult to operate the business.  Rosen and his partner and co-owner, Jennifer Garris, also own the excellent Pi Bar on Valencia near 25th. We wish them all the best.

PHOTO: San Francisco pinball game, photographed at the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda by Telstar Logistics.

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.)

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

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.

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.

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

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

Neighbor Abraham Nunez has created some new yum for your tum. Neighbor Abraham is also Chef Abraham, and he’s opening a brand-new restaurant in the former (good karma) Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack space at 18 Virginia Ave, just across from our Taoist Safeway. Neighbor Abraham’s restaurant is called Chicano Nuevo, and it offers food from the borderlands, right here in our metaphorical front yard. Chicano Nuevo’s grand opening is scheduled for tonight, Wednesday October 28, and Bernalwood is told:

In the location of the old Emmy’s Spaghetti Shack, right around the corner from tequila bar mainstay El Amigo, arrives the new So-Cal inspired Chicáno Nuevo.

Chef and owner Abraham Nunez brings his family’s recipes from Chula Vista to Bernal Heights, and recreates his childhood— from the border taco joints to the traditional holiday meals— in the form of Ensendena style “Baja” fish tacos, three-cheese tamales with an infused chile masa, and queso fundido served in authentic  casuelitas de barra, sent here straight from Tijuana.

Nunez, a Bernal Heights resident and enthusiast, is an alumnus of Emmy’s, where he designed and managed its cocktail program. He is also well known in the neighborhood as one of the former lead bartenders at St. Mary’s Pub.

“I’m still in denial of it actually happening,” said Nunez about opening the place. “There really isn’t anything else like this in the city, and I am just really excited to share this kind of food with my friends and neighbors.”

Chicano Nuevo opens to the public Wednesday Wednesday Oct 28, with plans to serve late-night fare on weekends, staying open until 3am.

UPDATE Oct 28, 7:30 pm: Neighbors Susie and John where first in the door at the grand opening tonight with their son Eddie, and they shared this photo of Chef Abraham with Eddie. Neighbor Susie says:

We came to Chicano Nuevo based on the Bernalwood post. We’re their first customers. Potato taquitos! Everything was very delicious, especially the fish tacos w yummy soup on the side!

PHOTO: Top, Neighbor Abraham Nunez