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Incredible!! Bernal’s Mutant “Mossquatch” Challenges Santa Claus Hegemony

/ Todd_Lappin

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Someone better call Fox News, because the “War on Christmas” has now become an insurgency.

Bernalwood interrupts your holiday preparations to bring you this important accouncement: Mossquatch, the mutant Bryophyta-Homo Sapien hybrid who lives inside a meter-reading hole on the corner of Bocana and Eugenia, has embraced some seasonal Xmoss cheer.

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Neighbor Allison reports live from the scene:

Looks like the man in a red suit has some competition. Mossquatch is back and doling out moss to all the good little children this holiday season. Seems he still may have something to learn from the real Santa Claus!

PHOTO: Top: Neighbor Allison. Exterior: Telstar Logistics

Young Photography Superstar Displaying Work at Cafe St. Jorge

/ Todd_Lappin / 5 Comments

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Neighbor David is the proud father of Neighbor Sarabeth Spector, who at age 13 has been dubbed the hottest new photographer in Bernal Heights.

So with understandable pride, Davis is spreading the word that some of Sarabeth’s photos are currently on display at Cafe St. Jorge on Mission near Cortland:

My Daughter Sarabeth has her first solo photo show from now until Mid-Jan 2014 at Cafe St. Jorge (3438 Mission St) Some very nice photos – please check ’em out … (and also, Andrea de Francisco has a great cafe – if you haven’t had a change to try it, please do: Good food, great coffee, great atmosphere and a friendly staff!)

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PHOTOS: Proud Neighbor David

“PizzaHacker” Opening in Bernal, Ending Our Pizza Deprivation

/ Todd_Lappin / 71 Comments

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Citizens of Bernalwood, our long neighborhood nightmare of subpar pizza has come to an end. No longer shall we have to venture beyond the cozy confines of our familiar Bernal terrain to enjoy pizza done right. Destiny and market opportunity have conspired to bring us some very fine pizza. Rejoice!

The PizzaHacker is setting up shop at 3299 Mission Street at 29th, in  the former bank building that was formerly home to Inca’s Peruvian restaurant after it was formerly home to a record store. The PizzaHacker is Jeff Krupman, and he’s not new to the pizza game, having spent the last few years doing pop-ups around town. Foodie critics love love love him, but now he’s planting roots in Bernal Heights, and I’m here to tell you, we are extremely fortunate.

The PizzaHacker will be open for a soft-launch tonight and tomorrow, Friday 12/20 and Saturday 12/21, but we’ll get to that in a moment.

First, let’s talk about the pizza…

Your Bernalwood editor visited the PizzaHacker last night to sample the merchandise. Apart from the installation of a new pizza oven, the old Inca’s space remains largely unchanged for now.

PizzaHacker Jeff was there, so I introduced myself and I ordered a straight-up Marinara pizza to-go. The pie cost $15, and apparently, I was the PizzaHacker’s very first paying customer in the new space. Whoohoo!

Bernalwood’s Cub Reporter was waiting eagerly when I got home, so we quickly began our taste test. The Cub Reporter spent a lot of time studying the pizza arts during summer sojourns on the greasy streets of New York and New Jersey, so her palette in these matters is impeccable. And after just one bite, we both declared our pizza from the PizzaHacker to be “OMG! INCREDIBLE!!”

Here’s the Cub Reporter conducting her taste test:

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And here’s why our pizza was excellent:

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No joke, that was by far the best pizza I’ve had in San Francisco in recent memory. Rejoice!

PizzaHacker business partner Jimmy explains the restaurant’s plan for the next few weeks:

Right now we are still working on the space and will be serving pizza here and there to test things out.  After the soft-opening on Saturday, we are going to shut down completely to build out the bar and work out any finishing touches. We hope to be fully open and servicing the Bernal Community by January 15th. All in all its going to be a pretty simple restaurant.  A few pizzas, a salad or two, beer and wine on tap.

So there you have it.

Run! — don’t walk! — to the PizzaHacker tonight and tomorrow night on Mission at 29th to taste a preview of the coming attractions. Then rest assured that Bernal will soon be home to a pizza place we can all be proud of… at last.

Thank you, PizzaHacker, and welcome to Bernal Heights.

PHOTOS: Telstar Logistics

Do You Recognize the Burglar in This Home Security Video?

/ Todd_Lappin / 26 Comments

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Neighbor Daniel shared these security camera stills that show a burglar in the process of trying to rob his home on Holladay:

I wanted our community to be aware of a home burglar. These photos were captured at 3:47 am Friday, Dec 13 inside my house. This guy jimmied my front lock and went in to my garage. He did not take anything, but he saw he was being filmed and left. I live on Holladay. It’s that time of year when people get burglarized, so if anyone sees this guy they should phone the police.

Let’s zoom and enhance to get a better look at the intruder:

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If you recognize the burglar shown here, please contact the SFPD Ingleside Station at 415) 404-4000 to help bring him to justice.

Tonight: Farewell Party for Neighbor Noah’s Electric Works Gallery

/ Todd_Lappin / 1 Comment

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Neighbor Noah lives on Norwich in Bernal, but he’s built a great name for himself around town at Electric Works, his combination art gallery and fine art press in SOMA. Except, after tomorrow, Electric Works will only be a fine art press, because Neighbor Noah is closing the gallery part of the business in the name of improved work-life balance.

There’s a party tonight to mark the end of the gallery’s glorious run, and we’re all invited:

GRAND CLOSING!!!

HOLIDAY PARTY!!!

Please join us in celebrating 7 years of our gallery program!

THIS FRIDAY, DECEMBER 13! 4—8!

FREE DUNCE CAPS FOR THE FIRST 10 VISITORS!

Catch up with artist friends, catch up with us, shop in the store! Can’t wait to see you all as we celebrate what was a truly wonderful chapter in our lives.

If you want to see what’s in our hearts as we embark on our new direction, click here.

Here’s more info on our plans…

After some long consideration, we have decided to close the gallery after the current exhibition by Dave Schubert ends on December 12th.

We reached this decision after looking at what it means to run a fine art press / multiple-making workshop AND a gallery at the same time. The time commitment was simply too much for us to do both things at the level we wanted to. We looked at both sides of the business and decided we had to stick with our roots in the printmaking and artist collaboration world.

With a lot of our friends and colleagues closing up shop for a variety of reasons, we wanted to let you know this is a choice we are making in order to focus on our first love: working with artists. We’re not the latest victim of commercial real estate rents skyrocketing, or of getting edged out of creative space. We have an opportunity to continue to work with artists and we are taking it.

We’d like to extend our thanks to the artists, collectors, curators, writers, and art lovers who have showered us with attention since we began this venture seven years ago. It’s been great working with all of you—and all of you will be included in our continuing activities on the printmaking and project front. Look for exciting updates.

So—what does all this good news mean? We’re having a party!

Please join us Friday, December 13th for our official gallery closing party!

4-8 PM
1360 Mission Street (between 9th and 10th)

PHOTO: via Electric Works

Neighbor Explains 45 Years of Bernal Heights History in 56 Seconds

/ Todd_Lappin / 6 Comments

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Neighbor Ralph lives a few doors down from me in Precitaville, and he’s been here for a long time. His father bought the house he lives in now back in 1943 with money he made working as a laborer at Fort Mason. 

Ralph remembers the years after World War II, when San Francisco’s population swelled with returning soldiers and sailors who decided to stay. Everyone had work, he recalled, particularly at the shipyards.”Hunter’s Point was going 24 hours a day,” he says.

Ralph worked for the SFPD as a policeman. He started on the beat, but then spent most of his career “inside” at the Hall of Justice before retiring.

He pointed to my house. “Sam lived there,” he said. That jogged my memory about the census records from 1940. Sam? Sam Piazza? “Yeah, Sam Piazza.” Ralph knew him.

In Ralph’s earliest memories, Bernal Heights was Italian and Irish. Then he remembers Mexicans and Filipinos moving in, and now Ralph notices that the neighborhood is changing again.

This is Neighbor Ralph’s thumbnail history of the last 45 years of Bernal Heights history:

PHOTO: Neighbor Ralph by Telstar Logistics

Thursday: Bernal Word People Invited to Ad-Hoc Holiday Drink-Up at Lucky Horseshoe

/ Todd_Lappin

Bernaltypewriter1 Liz Weil is a world-famous writer (and glamorous Bernalwood contributor) who lives in Cortlandia. Last year she helped organize a terrific little gathering for writers and culture mavens who live in Bernal Heights, and it was so much fun that it’s happening again this year.

Come raise a glass! Liz says:

Hey folks. Last year’s Bernal Word People Holiday Gathering was such a success we decided to do it again.

It’s on for this Thursday, December 12, at the Lucky Horseshoe on Cortland, at 8 pm.

Please interpret Bernal and word people liberally. Even if you just like Bernal, or words , or people we’d love to see you there.

Wednesday: Community Meeting to Review Home Construction Plans Below Bernal Hill

/ Todd_Lappin / 17 Comments

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Neighbor Alicia is spreading the word about a community meeting that will happen tomorrow, Wesdnesday December 11 at 7 pm at the Precita Neighborhood Center, to review a proposal to build two single-family homes on a patch of undeveloped land on Folsom near Chapman, on the south side of the hill just below Bernal Heights Blvd.

Here’s the meeting announcement:

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Wednesday: Bring Your Elves to the Winter Celebration at the Bernal Heights Library

/ Todd_Lappin / 5 Comments

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It’s time for the Annual Winter Celebration at the Bernal Heights Branch Library! It’s happening tomorrow, Wednesday, December 11 starting at 6:30 pm, and Miss Valerie, the children’s librarian, tells us:

Please join us for our annual celebration. The evening features the awesome Bernal Jazz Quartet playing seasonal selections, holiday craft making in the children’s room AND this year, our first COOKIE CONTEST & RECIPE SWAP! Celebrity judges are our own Stacie Pierce (Little Bee Baking) and Mutsumi Takehara (Sandbox Bakery.) Bring your favorite cookies with recipe, and maybe YOU will get a blue ribbon!

librarywinterPHOTO: Telstar Logistics, 2012

Some Seasonal Excitement Involving Fire Trucks on Coleridge

/ Todd_Lappin / 4 Comments

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Last night, Neighbor Laura heard a commotion outside her house. Fire trucks on Coleridge!

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Drama! But not too much drama. Just a little bit of drama. With fire trucks! And Christmas lights! So seasonal.

Neighbor Jeremy noticed the scene as well, when he snapped the photo you see at top and introduced himself to Neighbor Laura. That’s Engine 32, based at the fire station on Holly Park. Thanks neighbors!

So what was all the fuss about? @jcbeat reported:

And the satisfying conclusion:

Animated GIF Shows Very Animated Nighttime View of New Bayfront Mural

/ Todd_Lappin / 3 Comments

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Neighbor Joe Thomas  (Codename: Jobius) operates a Bernalwood Observation Post at an upper altitude on the east side of Bernal Heights. He also uses this location as an Animated GIF manufacturing facility.

All this means that Jobius now spends a lot of time looking at the new Bayview Rising mural, and he’s excited to see the mural’s ability to transform at night, once they turn the lights on. In fact, Jobius is so excited about this that he forged an Animated GIF of the mural’s three nighttime color modes to simulate his future views.

Behold, his Animated GIF of Our Future Skyline:

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PHOTOS: Mural renderings via the Port of San Francisco.

Thursday: Tis the Season for the 2013 Cortland Holiday Stroll

/ Todd_Lappin / 8 Comments

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Many many many moons ago, in the time of our Bernal ancestors, a joyous tribe of elves lived in the Dominion of Bernalwood. Each year, during the run-up to the winter equinox, these proto-Bernalese would gather on the street we now call Cortland to celebrate the arrival of the rains and the season of lights.

Today, many tens of thousands of years later, the Bernal Business Association has revived this ancient ritual, in the form of the  Cortland Holiday Stroll. The 2013 Stroll happens this Thursday, December 5, from 6 to 9 pm, and in addition to the neo-traditional sidewalk merriment, there’s also a new Holiday Marketplace happening inside the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.

Neighbor Michael Minson tells us all about it:

Our annual Winter Stroll is on Thursday, December 5th this year. Thousands of our neighbors (both in Bernal and beyond) will come to Cortland to kick off the holiday shopping season, Bernal-style!

This year, in addition to all the excitement on Cortland, the Bernal Business Alliance (BBA) is hosting a Holiday Marketplace in the Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.

Shoppers and their children will be entertained with music and food in the Neighborhood Center (BHNC) and along Cortland, while they check out what local merchants and artists have to offer.

The Bernal Heights Holiday Marketplace is open from 6p to 9p on Thursday, 5-Dec. It’s free to attend.

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PHOTOS: Images of Holiday Strolls from years past, by Telstar Logistics

New Purveyors of Warm Drinks Coming to Western Cortland

/ Todd_Lappin / 46 Comments

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If you are of the opinion that what Cortland Ave. needs is more places to buy warm drinks west of Bennington Street, then the gods have heard your prayers, because that stretch of Cortland will soon be home to two (2) new purveyors of fine warm drinks.

While walking on Cortland on Saturday, I noticed that the door was open at 317 Cortland, just west of the 331 Cortland food marketplace. Inside I met Joe, who let me snap some photos of his new shop specializing in the sale of loose Chinese tea. Joe hopes to open for business in the next few weeks.

A little farther west on Cortland, Neighbors Alex and Alexei tell Bernalwood that Pinhole Coffee, a new coffee shop, is preparing to open at 231 Cortland, on the corner of Bonview near Avedano’s. Pinhole Coffee already has a thriving Facebook page, and this note is posted in the window:

pinholeletterPHOTOS: Top, 317 Cortland, by Telstar Logistics. Middle, Pinhole Coffee interior renovations, by Pinhole Coffee. Bottom, note by Alexei Oreskovic.