Mission and CC: Same As It Ever Was

December 11, 2009

Looking north on Mission at Cesar Chavez (the heart of La Lengua) at the new facade of the 3400 Cesar Chavez building, soon to be apartments and a Walgreens:

Here’s the same intersection in 1931 via SFPL:

Even the Palace Steak House was there! (kidding).

I rather like the reestablishment of the rounded building corner. A bit different from 2 years back, with an abandoned paint store on the left that was once a car dealership.

Here’s the Sanborn map of the intersection in 1915. It shows a saloon on the NE corner, (though it looks more like a produce store in the 1931 shot — I’m slammed right now but feel free to dig around the 1927 and 1938 city directories and post in the comments if you find anything interesting.)

Click for PDF of a wider map.

Per TK’s request, red are saloons, yellow are liquor stores. In fact, the North Star Brewery was on Capp between Mission and 26th:

Here’s the same intersection in 1930-1950 — the building in the black and white photo was torn down and turned into a used car lot.  (Green are car-related businesses — dealerships, repair shops, gas stations.  Mission and Army seems to have been the Richmond Auto Mall of the day.) Click for a PDF of a wider slice of the area:

(If you are running Firefox, you may see the above animated PNG that blinks back and forth IN TIME showing the rather dramatic widening of Army Street as noted by Gillian in the comments.  But you may need to click and open it in another window. And unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to work in Safari, no idea in IE. I used the APNG editor in Firefox, and I do know Safari can show animated PNGs, so if anyone has a clue, pipe up.)

UPDATE: I just discovered a detailed site history in the city’s Preliminary Mitigated Declaration for 3400 CC:

Historically, the building has been used for both new and used automobile sales and service until about 1990, when it was briefly used as a furniture rental business. From 1991 until early 2006, it was used as a Kelly-Moore paint store. Previous uses included “Jesse C. Lanning Autos” (1930s), “Phil Frates Plymouth” (1950s), “Jim Wessman Lincoln Mercury” and “Auto City Wholesale” (1960s), “K&C Chrysler/Dodge (1969 – 1982) and “Rent-a-Center” (1990). There is no documentation indicating that 3400 Cesar Chavez is associated with any historic event, especially since the building was built in a more modern style and in a more outlying neighborhood than other historic Beaux-Arts style auto showrooms located along Van Ness Avenue.

And 80 years later we get apartments again.

Hey, does anyone know if the Walgreens will move from 30th and Mission?  Or will there just be two in four blocks?


Ironic Beers

December 3, 2009

Much is made of PBR as the ultimate hipster beer.  But TK over at 40 Going on 28 presents us oldsters with a quandary. While we like our microbrews — Sierra Nevada and Anchor Steam — those calories do stack up. TK points to a treasure trove of beer calorie data and a quick glance is sobering shocking:

Beer calories
Sierra Nevada Pale Ale 175
Anchor Steam 153
PBR 153
Coors 149
Budweiser 145
Miller Lite 96

However, alcohol content varies more than you would expect. I have taken the time to plot this very relationship.

We can obviously cast aside all the beers above the best fit line as they serve little purpose.  There are a considerable number of outliers to consider.  Olde English 800 (5.9%/160) and Rolling Rock (4.5%/120) are certainly contenders. But the “ice beers” seem to serve us well — Keystone Ice (5.9%/142 calories) is followed closely by Milwaukee’s Best Ice (5.9%/144) and may prove sufficiently ironic for the Mission.

But rather than eyeballing this, if we list the alcohol % per calorie ratio (bang for the buck) a surprising trend develops: the lite/light beers actually prove most potent.

And through scientific study I have determined that for a beer to be truly ironic it must break 3.5 — sorry PBR and Hamm’s, you just don’t cut it.

Beer %/c
Anchor Steam 3.20
Sierra Nevada 3.20
Hamm’s 3.26
PBR 3.27
MGD 3.29
Bud 3.45
Red Hook 3.46
Colt 45 Malt Liquor 3.51
Olde English 800 3.69
Rolling Rock 3.75
Bud Light 3.82
Milwaukee’s Best Ice 4.10
MGD 64 4.38
Miller Lite 4.38
Anheuser Busch Natural Light 4.42
Milwaukee’s Best Light 4.59

Behold Milwaukee’s Best Light (4.5%/98), the new ironic beer!

At 4.59, Milwaukee’s Best Light simply crushes the rest. PBR and Sierra Nevada fail by over 1.2 points! Sadly this finely crafted brew is not available at BevMo.

UPDATE: Sadly, it turns out that MBL is merely Miller’s ‘economy label‘.  But Beer Advocate gives it a D!  This clearly means we will see it in Dolores Park in the very near future.


Sleeman’s Honey Brown

April 30, 2009

sleemans

Warmer in Victoria than in SF right now — this fact is deserving of a towering beer.


Can You See in 3D?

April 15, 2009

So, for reasons still mysterious to me,  I was asked to moderate at the SPUR Blogging-In-SF meeting last night.  On the panel were such diverse elements as Plug1, Mission Loc@l and SF Streetsblog.

(I highly recommend moderating a panel.  You get to listen to everyone’s answers and then sound really clever by repeating what they just said, but using different hand gestures.  Make sure everyone has a beer though, and that you are taller than them.)

In all seriousness, a great event.  I met many blogs for the first time –  NJudah, MuniDiaries, SFist, EveB, MeganAllison, Bikes and The City, just to name a few. All were as witty and attractive as their writing indicate, and the evening was an interesting discussion on the future of blogging and journalism.  Number one point — we need to have a better word than “blaaahg”.

However, the most shocking revelation of the evening was that Allan Hough of Mission Mission CANNOT SEE IN THE THIRD DIMENSION.  (At least using that cross-eyed method, a la my upside-down traffic cone experiment of yesterday.)

Below is another 3D sample — behold the Shmaltz RIPA I had after finishing my taxes this afternoon.

ripa-3d

Can you see my Shmaltz in the THIRD DIMENSION?  Answer in the poll below.


Brisket, Beer and Latkes at MSF

March 11, 2009

Mission Street Food may be closed this Saturday, but next weekend, man oh man…

I can’t wait to see what else is on the menu. This could be epic. I am drooling on my keyboard. So everyone show up at 7:30 after I’m done eating, OK?

Mmmm, latkes. I don’t think it’s possible to eat too many latkes. I am going to have to fast that day to fit in all that brisket, latkes and BEER ICE CREAM. And beer.

For the record, I finally got my hands on the Origin Pomegranate Ale. That is one fine beer, as is Lenny’s RIPA. Do yourself a favor and hit up some of the chosen beer BevMo or Whole Foods.


Beer Ice Cream?!

March 6, 2009

In a quadruple-epic alignment of the planets, Humphry Slocombe will be making BEER ICE CREAM using Shmaltz He’brew or Freak brews for Jesse’s beer dinner at MSF on Sat, March 21st.

But which beer to use? Coney Island Lager? Lenny’s Double Rye IPA? Messiah Bold? Origin Pomegranate Ale?  Indicate your desire below!

Note — you can buy these finely crafted Shmaltz brews at BevMo, Whole Foods, and City Beer.  Use this as an opportunity to try a brewing company born in the Mission, right in La Lengua!


Negra Modelo con Sal

March 5, 2009

This is the fanciest Negra Modelo I have ever had.


Mission Bar Review

October 21, 2008

Nice Mission bar review by Bay or Bust.

Elbo Room *is* pretty dark but I’m OK with that. My European friends LOOOVE it when they are in town. The upstairs is decent, but good god does it get ridiculously hot up there. Time for some roof fans, Elbonians.

Food at the Phoenix is surprisingly good. 500 Club and Make Out Room are solid. This Inner Mission Beer Parlor intrigues me.

I also like Latin American Club, especially if you can get the table at the little stage in the back. Rather tasty (and deadly powerful) margaritas there, plus they are cool if you bring in a burrito from El Faralito. And of course there’s The Knockout.

But you can’t beat sitting outside with beer in hand at Zeitgeist on a nice day. I am a big fan of the outdoor beer. It’s half the reason I have a backyard.