Greg P.
Yelp
This, Loyal Pie Holers, is more about my recent adventure in The Mission, than the bar in which it actually began. Yet, we will give it it's due.
Sandy S and I, arrived at Civic Center Bart Station, having met in Fremont in order to avoid driving in The City. Our original plan was for Ma Megabyte and The Captain to meet her there, but this was partially foiled by Ma not feeling well, so Sandy and I soldiered. on with Ma attending, only in the spiritual sense. (Ma Megabyte is The Captain's Spouse, Partner in Crime, and Chief Tormentor)
After arriving at Civic Center Station, and walking for what seemed miles, we finally took a Muni trolley bus, and stepped off in the heart of The Mission.
Being windburned and craving libations, we noticed next door to El Farolito Taqueria, a bar of the same name. It looked like the dive it is, but being thirsty and tired, we entered beneath a crudely painted, inoperative neon sign which surely dated back before WWII, bearing the joint's name, and found it was doing brisk business on this Friday afternoon. Sandy and I felt lucky to find two unoccupied adjacent stools, and we were promptly greeted and served.
Being partial to Margaritas, Sandy had one, and remarked it was good. The Captain opted for beer as usual, and enjoyed a Modelo Especial, but was saddened a bit because they lacked tap beer. Hence, four stars, not five.
The place seems to be a neighborhood nerve center of sorts for soccer fans. The wall, back of the bar, is also festooned with the usual bunch of placards which preserve popular jokes for posterity. Being hardly fluent in Espanol, The Captain could understand only a few, but the ones he could decipher were funny.
After resting and drinking, then drinking some more, whilst discussing the affairs of the world, and it's inhabitants, as well as debating the mysteries and adventures inherent in yelp.com, then drinking some more again, we left the bar's cozy environs to walk (perhaps a tad unsteadily) next door in order to dine at the taqueria which bears the same name.
After loading up on the savory comestibles offered therein, along with at least one more libation... or two, either of which were not sucky by any measure, we took a short stroll about this neighborhood and drank it in as readily as we had imbibed in the aforementioned venues.
The Mission has a history as dynamic and fascinating as any district in Frisco. (Hee hee. Sorry natives, The Captain just couldn't resist!) It is dominated by the towers of SF's oldest building, Mission Delores, from which the neighborhood takes it's name. Sadly we lacked the time to explore it on this visit.
This enclave was well established as a place where Northern and Eastern Europeans could settle and prosper, and where many more businesses and families in this ethnic category relocated after the 1906 quake.
After WWII, and on through the 60's, Latin immigrants from all over Central and South America, of which most, were primarily Mexican, were attracted by low rents and moved in, while whites. flush with savings from lucrative wartime jobs, fled to the suburbs. During the 80's and 90's Asian Immigrants, many of them South East Asian refugees, began to move in as well, and are now firmly established.
The inevitable, and some would say, pernicious gentrification was well underway by the late 90's, with an influx of "yuppies" during the Internet boom. Fortunately, or unfortunately depending on one's point of view as well as one's stock portfolio, or even whether one had said portfolio or not, the boom went bust.
The displacement of blue collar families was markedly slowed, and the neighborhood's flavor and diversity, was at least, somewhat preserved, yet newly augmented with a strata of college degreed and prosperous professionals who are now included in the mix.
This has left it a terrifically colorful place to dine, shop for "objectose de artose" being sold by street vendors and small shops, or for just walking around, smelling the smells, and seeing the sights. Street food is well represented here, and The Captain saw varieties hitherto unknown to him. Next time he and his entourage go there, we might just eat our way up one side of Mission Street and down the other.
A Bart station pops up right in the heart of the place, so getting there is a snap. Because Sandy and I were to attend a yelp.com UYE that evening, we couldn't spend nearly enough time as we wanted to here enjoying the eclectic tumult of this fascinating neighborhood.
In the pompously immortal words of General Douglas MacArthur, "I shall return."
Captain Pie Hole, the Hash House Avenger.
This and all other reviews posted on http://yelp.com by "Captain Pie Hole" are copyrighted 2009/2010 by Pie Hole Publishing. All rights res