SFBG Blogs Archives — Page 332 of 597 — San Francisco Bay Guardian Archive 1966

Dive In: Toro-not-a-dive-bar

-

November 30, 2009

Bar reviewer Kristen Haney seeks to separate hipster wannabes from real-life dives in this weekly column. Check out her last installment here.

I know Toronado’s not a dive bar. I knew before I went, based on hazy recollections of a trip there last spring. But God help me, I wanted a lot of good beer with minimal bullshit. It’s been a rough week, and sometimes a girl needs a fiendishly good I.P.A in a place where everyone leaves her to her own devices.

But let’s give credit where credit is due for the more divey aspects of Toronado. Let’s start with general atmosphere. I’ve been searching high and low for a gnome, and I was seriously envious of the little pointy hatted friend shooting me a mocking smile from high above the bar. The wall is littered with photos, some aged and from what appears to be like decades ago. “Behind Blue Eyes” played, and my severely mopey countenance and increasingly inebriated ass identified with the selection, in a way that made me think these were my people.

My musings were briskly interrupted by the questioning yell of “Steve?!? Nick?!?” The half door by the entryway makes the ideal platform for Rosamunde, the hot dog joint next door, to try and pinpoint its wandering customers. The “no dogs allowed” sign is entertaining in an ironic way, given not only the frequency with which patrons eat their sausage at the bar, but also that there were two furry critters inside taking turns emitting piercing howls.

Prison report: The county jail transfer scam

-

November 30, 2009

4

By Just A Guy

Editors note: Just A Guy spent more than two years as an inmate in a California state prison. He was recently released and is continuing to comment on news and trends in the prison-industrial complex.

Been out for about a week and half now and things are going really well.

I am very fortunate to have been able to get out of California and go home for the holidays, very fortunate that I have the means and support to do so — and to stay the fuck out of California.

I think of all the men and women that are going to get out to nothing and wonder what will become of them. I wonder how well spent our taxpaying dollars are being utilized to ensure the safety of the public. How can the situation that currently exists in California promote public safety? How can a system that allows parolees to live on the streets possibly protect you from someone who wants a warm bed and something to eat?

What is going on out there? Where is the money going? Already, before I got out, they were starting to shut down a lot of the programs that were supposed to enable a person to transition back into society more effectively, that made it easier for a person to get work, to stay off drugs/alcohol, to live.

Here’s what’s going on now:

The state, in its brilliance, wants to send a good portion of people to county jails to ease prison overcrowding. It’s completely unconscionable that the state try to pass the buck to the counties. If you think there are no programs for California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation inmates in the prisons, ha! Wait till you see how fewer there are in the county jail.

Remember, all of this is done in the name of public safety, yet they fail to tell you the full story of what will happen in the future when these people get out with even less rehabilitative programs. All of this is to cover political asses. It’s political wrangling, and there are no plan plans that will save butts across party lines — because they will blame the feds if Willie Horton happens (it will).

What really needs to happen is for the public to wake up and realize the self-fulfilling prophecy of recidivism is a result of 70,000 families being dependent on CDCR for their livelihoods (not to mention vendors etc…). That California is a state that is dependent on its prisons for its sense of self. Yeah, really, most people are, disgustingly defined by their occupations, so California is defined by its.

Ya’ll have fun now getting unburied from your mess.

Resist the Afghanistan escalation

-

November 30, 2009

1

By Steven T. Jones

President Barack Obama has reportedly made the decision to send at least 30,000 more US troops to Afghanistan, a move he will explain to the American people in a speech tomorrow evening. I’ll be curious to hear how he justifies an escalation that many experts say will only make things worse, as well as what his exit strategy and financing mechanism will be, which the White House says he’ll announce during the speech.

The escalation is being opposed by everyone from progressive political leaders to soldiers, as well as Afghanistan experts such as Rory Stewart, who was a guest on Bill Moyers Journal in September. You can read or listen to that fascinating broadcast here. Stewart said the escalation will be terrible for both the US and Afghanistan, and that we need to be more realistic and smart about our goals.

“My message is: focus on what we can do. We don’t have a moral obligation to do what we can’t,” Stewart said. But he also correctly predicted that Obama would ignore his advice and escalate anyway: “I’d say President Obama has no choice. If he’s not going to send the troops, he should have stopped the General from sending in the report. He’s now completely boxed in.”

The problem is how Obama framed the decision as a presidential candidate, and one he has compounded as president by not fully repudiating the former regime’s imperial designs. So now is the time for progressives and other opponents of war to redefine this country’s role in the world and put the brakes on a policy that is likely to prove disastrous – to, in essence, save Obama from himself.

Street Threads: Look of the Day

-

November 30, 2009

0

SFBG photog Ariel Soto scoops SF street fashion. See the previous Look of the Day here.

Today’s Look: Eva, Haight and Masonic

Tell us about your look: “I like pretty things like dresses, but it’s too cold today so I’m all in layers.”

Dick Meister: We need jobs! Now!

-

November 29, 2009

0

The most sensible job creation program comes from the AFL-CIO and a coalition of civil rights and other organizations

By Dick Meister

(Dick Meister has covered labor and politics for a half-century as a reporter, editor, author and commentator.)

Of all the ideas out there on how to pull us out of the economic mess we’re in, none makes more sense than the program laid out by the AFL-CIO and a coalition of civil rights groups and other organizations.

Marriage by fire: Grooms find the joy

-

November 28, 2009

0

grooms 112809 sm.jpg

GROOMS
Rejoicer
(Death by Audio)

By Kimberly Chun

Grooms is a slightly better name than Muggabears, the moniker of vocalist-guitarist Travis Johnson’s original teenaged bedroom recording project — it errs on the side of blah-blankness rather than cute-grotesquerie. Regardless, **Rejoicer** makes me want to look for Johnson in the future.

Sonic Youth and its **Speed Trials** ilk are the touchstones here — from the refined, sensuous use of carefully controlled noise blasts to Johnson’s smudgy, adolescent yowl — while the addition of drummer Jim Sykes conjures thoughts of his former combo Parts and Labor. It’s as if the threesome were on a treasure hunt for junked beauty among the grunge era’s corroded metal salvage shop — with breaks for twanging, seductively supple guitar torture — and listening to this thoughtfully assembled collection of songs, I’d say they’ve found what they were searching for.

Hey is for Horse’s Ha: English folk meets backcountry bossa

-

November 28, 2009

0

horses ha 112709 sm.jpg

THE HORSE’S HA
Of the Cathmawr Yards
(Hidden Agenda)

By Kimberly Chun

Sidestepping the gutbucket ‘n’ gritty, tear-in-my-beer country of Freakwater and the solid indie psych of Eleventh Dream Day, Janet Beveridge Bean takes a whole other route — toward the music of the English folk revival — with the Horses’s Ha, a collaboration with Brit ex-pat James Elkington. Working with such talented players as cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm (Wilco, Jim O’Rourke), bassist Nick Macri (Euphone), and drummer Charles Rumback (L’Altra, Via Tania), the pair have dreamed up a series of songs and sounds that lightly touch on the C&W soundtracks of ‘70s American cinema, the immaculate vocals and folk-rock orchestrations of Fairport Convention, and the agile southwestern fusions of a sleepy Calexico (Martin Wenk of the group contributes trumpet). Wryly named for the fictitious Welsh graveyard in Dylan Thomas’ zombie short story, “The Horse’s Ha,” Of the Cathmawr Yards is far from a carrion-chomping critter. Bean and Elkington and ensemble make English-folk bossa the most natural thing in the world to pick up and artfully play with.

SF cops shouldn’t seize DJs’ laptops

-

November 27, 2009

7

By Steven T. Jones

Going into another weekend, I find myself thinking about our story on San Francisco Police officers seizing DJs’ laptops as they raid house parties. The SF Weekly got on the story about the same time we did, but their music columnist got it into the paper a week before us. We furthered her reporting by naming the main cop culprit and showing the Chief’s Office knows about it, but it’s frustrating that the policy isn’t being addressed more directly, given the level of concern. Our story is getting a few comments and I’d love to hear others weigh in here on a tactic that seems punitive and perhaps unconstitutional.

That’s what I called it when SFPD spokesperson Lyn Tomioka wrote an e-mail to me defending the practice (I was the editor for our story, which was written by freelancer Joshua Emerson Smith). She wrote: “Our primary focus is always public safety. In the past we have seen over crowed [sic] events that the Fire Department would not have been able to rescue all of the people, in the event a fire broke out. Under age drinking is another concern and the serious issues that have been associated with that. There are other public safety issues that concern us.”

To which I responded: “I understand your concerns about fire and underaged drinking, but I’m still not clear what those things have to do with laptop computers or how their seizure proves anything. Playing music is not a crime, nor is having it on your computer. Frankly, the policy seems punitive and perhaps unconstitutional. We hope the SFPD will review this tactic, allow the public to weigh in on it, and consider modifying or rescinding it.”

What do you think?

Black Friday indeed

-

November 27, 2009

1

By Steven T. Jones

Whether you mark the day after Thanksgiving as Black Friday or Buy Nothing Day (I tend toward the latter), the color of San Francisco today does seem colored by the darker hues on the spectrum. Maybe part of that is the fact that Black Friday this year falls on the anniversary of the assassinations of Harvey Milk and George Moscone.

Nonetheless, I just pedaled past our downtown shopping citadels a little while ago to take in the mood. The shoppers definitely outnumber the protesters of hyper-consumerism or fur, but neither side seemed particularly animated by their missions. Maybe it’s the gray day or the tryptophan hangovers.

But if you just want to go with the somber motif, you can join the march marking the Milk and Moscone deaths, which starts at 6 p.m. at Harvey Milk Plaza at Market and Castro. Speakers include Milk and Moscone relatives and two of Milk’s old allies on the Board of Supervisors, Harry Britt and Ruth Carol Silver.

Or if you’re feeling a bit more spirited and mischievous, Critical Mass starts just after 6 p.m. at Justin Herman Plaza, at the base of Market Street. Nothing says “thank you for shopping in San Francisco” like being blocked by bicyclists on the drive back to the ‘burbs.

DeLong: Why Are Good Policies Bad Politics?

-

November 27, 2009

1

J. Bradford DeLong is Professor of Economics at the University of California at Berkeley and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. This column is from the Project Syndicate news series.

Why Are Good Policies Bad Politics?

By J. Bradford DeLong

BERKELEY – From the day after the collapse of Lehman Brothers last year, the policies followed by the United States Treasury, the US Federal Reserve, and the administrations of Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama have been sound and helpful. The alternative – standing back and letting the markets handle things – would have brought America and the world higher unemployment than now exists. Credit easing and support of the banking system helped significantly by preventing much worse.

The fact that investment bankers did not go bankrupt last December and are profiting immensely this year is a side issue. Every extra percentage point of unemployment lasting for two years costs $400 billion. A recession twice as deep as the one we have had would have cost the US roughly $2 trillion – and cost the world as a whole four times as much.

Memo to Obama on Afghanistan

-

November 27, 2009

0

Scroll down for an excellent analysis of Obama’s predicament by Center for American Progress.

I find most troubling President Obama’s statement that the Bush administration didn’t have the resources nor the
strategy in Afghanistan and that he will now finish the job.

I also find most troubling that his generals leaked their need for more troops to the press, so the hawks and the Republicans could start the Vietnam-style drumbeat for more troops and more war and in effect more occupation. That advice should have been presented in confidence to Obama and his military advisers.

I am more interested in hearing how many U.S. servicemen heading for Afghanistan will be on their second, third, or fourth tours? How many families in how many communities will be wrenched by this yet another war-by-surges policy? How many returning servicemen will be properly treated for their war wounds, physical and psychological? How in the world can Obama, taking on one of the world’s toughest assignments, finish the job in a country and with a government that is the most corrupt in the world behind Somalia? How can he bypass the more sensible advice from his vice-president and plunge further into the Big Muddy and once again endanger the strong reform agenda of a Democratic president? How can he put more billions into this country that nobody, from the Mongols to Alexander to the Brits to the Russians, have been able to tame? How can he spend more blood and treasure in Afghanistan when faced with the terrible job and economic problems back home in the U.S.?

We started out chasing Al Queda and we are now fighting the Taliban in a vicious civil war seemingly without end. As we should have learned long ago, it’s easy to put the troops in. It’s hell to get them out.

That is the big challenge in Obama’s speech: to show us the way out with as little collateral damage as possible. Here is one of the best analyses I have seen, from the Center American Progress.

Stmt on Obama’s Upcoming Afghanistan Decision & Press Call Monday

Center for American Progress

Statement on Obama’s Upcoming Decision on Afghanistan and Press Call Advisory

CAP Experts Brian Katulis, Lawrence Korb, and Caroline Wadhams are available for comment on this statement over the weekend, and will be hosting a press conference call on Monday, November 30th, at 12:30 p.m. More information on the call below.

Getting small at the Lab’s postcard sale

-

November 27, 2009

0

By Caitlin Donohue

Small Works: Michael Campbell’s resin cassette tapes and drawing by William Denton Ray

My grandma trained as a pilot in World War II, had the world’s most lyrical name and painted prolifically. In her death, Rosetta Byrd left us a mountain of her creations- most of them views looking out a window onto Texas hill country. They are beautiful and we love them. But in my family’s nomadic existence, Rosetta’s lifework has proven a bit difficult to transport. Currently, I’ve got one of her pieces- the only canvas that I could possibly swing as carry-on luggage.

Which is why, particularly if you’re looking for a creative gift for one of these cramped apartment city animals, I fully support attending The Lab’s 13th annual showing of postcard art and small works. (Apparently I’m all agog for the tiny things these days.) They’ve been holding open submissions for the exhibit, so the creations on offer should be a bewildering wilderness of miniscule artistic gems.

My interest is perhaps most piqued by Geoff Hick’s “digital antennae” (I’m a total Luddite, do digital things need antennas?), but I’m also excited about seeing Linda Laird’s fabric and sequined creations, which I hope come postal service ready. These things would be perfect for a friend that lives far away- slap a stamp on one of these extravagant postcards, mail out and check another buddy off the list of people to honor this holiday season.

Will you “hand” me that Plesch Renate postcard?(Sorry I’m really “reaching” for a caption here. Ha!)

Oh, and should a man tap you on the shoulder, interrupting your gleeful romp amidst the tiny things, be not alarmed should he ask if you want to see what’s in his pocket. He is but a representative of the Museum of Pocket Art, a gallery on the go that “leaches” other art exhibits to give individual showings of its mini sized masterpieces on the premise that everyone should carry a bit of beauty around on their person. Or the guy’s being a bit forward. You’ll just have to go with him to see. Ah art…

The 13th Annual Small Format Art Sale
Opening reception, Fri/4, 6 p.m.- 9 p.m. (continues through Sun/6), free
The Lab
2948 16th St., SF
(415) 864-8855
www.mopaonline.com

Judge partially lifts SF bicycle injunction

-

November 25, 2009

29

By Steven T. Jones

San Francisco bicycle riders finally have something to be thankful for.

Judge Peter Busch today issued a ruling lifting much of the three-year-old injunction against bicycle-related improvements in San Francisco, allowing city workers to immediately begin installing new bike racks and “sharrow” road markings, as well as working on the 10 bike lane projects that will have the least impacts to automobiles.

Pending a hearing next year on a legal challenge to the adequacy of the Bicycle Plan’s Environmental Impact Report – which the city completed earlier this year after the court said it was required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) – Busch wrote that “the City may proceed with those projects within the Bicycle Plan that are least intrusive and most easily reversible should it turn out that the City has not satisfied its CEQA obligations for some reason.”

The bike lanes projects that city officials say they plan to soon construct, and which Busch is allowing, are on Beale, Howard, Otis, Scott, Mississippi, Kansas, and Clipper streets, JFK Drive, Claremont Boulevard, and 7th Avenue. There are another 35 bike projects that have been approved by the city that the judge is not allowing to move forward yet.

While I immediately couldn’t reach bike community leaders or plaintiff Rob Anderson, City Attorney Dennis Herrera issued a statement saying, “This is an important step in the right direction that enables the City to enact significant safety improvements for bicyclists and pedestrians in San Francisco.”

UC students continue to press demands

-

November 25, 2009

0

By Sarah Morrison

UC students still hope to meet with UC President Mark Yudof, shown here in a controversial interview with New York Times Magazine.

Just days after dozens of students were arrested at a UC Berkeley occupation to protest increased tuition fees and staff layoffs, approximately 60 UC Berkeley and community college students stormed into the lobby of the University of California headquarters in Oakland on Monday, Nov. 23, demanding to speak with UC President Mark Yudof.

He was out of state and unavailable to meet with students when they entered the property in the afternoon, but what happened next was hailed as a “huge success” by the students. They spent an hour and a half sitting on the floor of the marbled lobby in conversation with two UC officials.

“We just kept on saying that we should have done it a long time ago,” said Xander Lenc, a third year UC Berkeley student who was one of 40 students arrested for occupying the second floor of Wheeler Hall last Friday in protest of the 32 percent fee increase that will take tuition at UC Berkeley to above $10,000 next fall. “UC officials have been completely absent from any efforts that students have been involved in until now when we have finally brought it to their front door step.”

American Legion on its gay post

-

November 25, 2009

1

By Ryan Thomas Riddle

Guardian photo by Luke Thomas/Fog City Journal. You can see more images from the bingo night held by Post 448 and the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence here.

When we called the American Legion’s national office for comment on Post 449, the Alexander Hamilton post, the nation’s only gay Legion post, the director of public affairs didn’t even know such a post existed. Just as our story in this week’s edition was going to press, we received a call from someone else at the national office.

Sean Sparks, assistant director for internal affairs and membership, told us it was also the first time he heard of a gay post. He said each individual post can determine its membership so long as it adheres to the national bylaws. However, Sparks went on to say whatever they do outside the legion is their business.

“We worry about nothing dealing with sex, gender, or sexually orientation,” he said. “We don’t have any opinion on that, so long as they served honorably.”

Book Review: When nature calls

-

November 25, 2009

0

By Molly Freedenberg

This may seem like a strange time of year to get nostalgic about camping, but the truth is, much of my adult backpacking adventures have been in winter. Most of those trips were with my college boyfriend, and we scheduled our outings around October and November’s breaks and long weekends before the second semester’s term papers and thesis craziness kept us campus bound.

So while the sun and heat of summer might remind most people of climbing mountains and forging across rivers, it’s the crisp clearness of fall and winter that reminds me of Gore-Tex and GORP. Which is perhaps why this week I finally reached for a book that’s been sitting on my shelf for almost two years: Michelle Waitzman’s Sex in a Tent: A Wild Couple’s Guide to Getting Naughty in Nature (Wilderness Press, 2007).

The premise is exactly what you’d think: how to get it on in nature. How much about this topic isn’t entirely intuitive, you might ask? According to the book’s author, the answer is “a lot.” In fact, it seems this book is mostly geared towards novice campers and the mountaineers who love them, and also assumes both parties are a bit naieve when it comes to sex.

Newsom’s Shakespearean indifference

-

November 25, 2009

3

By Rebecca Bowe

Here’s what Mayor Gavin Newsom told the Chronicle after yesterday’s 8-3 vote by the Board of Supervisors to temporarily save city workers from the bitter sting of job loss during the holiday season:

“As mayor, I don’t have to spend the money, so this is much ado about nothing.”

He also said the Supes who voted to allocate less than $1.9 million to temporarily preserve the jobs — representing approximately three hundredths of one percent of the city’s total $6.6 billion budget — are living in a “reality-free zone.”

Brits look into Iraq, blame US for dwindling Afghanistan support

-

November 25, 2009

0

Text by Sarah Phelan

There’s an interesting report in today’s UK Guardian about a British inquiry into the Iraq war that is examining the period from the summer of 2001 to the end of July 2009, including the run-up to the conflict, the ensuing military action and its after math.

Called the Chilcot inquiry, because the chair of the committee conducting the inquiry is called Sir John Chilcot, the committee was reportedly told today that, “ the government had intelligence days before the invasion in 2003 that Saddam Hussein might not be able to use chemical weapons.”

This inquiry marks the third attempt in Britain to look into the Iraq war, but while the committee has been given a wide mandate Chilcot’s allegedly close relationship with military and government figures has provoked accusations that the inquiry will be a whitewash.

But apparently a parallel Dutch inquiry could pressure Chilcot to question whether controversial British legal advice may have influenced the Dutch government to get involved, the left-leaning UK Guardian suggests.

Meanwhile another British paper, the right-leaning Telegraph, has a story in which the current British defense secretary Bob Ainsworth is reportedly blaming Obama and the US for a decline in British support for the war in Afghanistan. Hmm. It’ll be interesting to see if the British inquiry into Iraq or Ainsworth’s blame game gets any air time in the US, as Obama prepares to announce his plans for Afghanistan in a speech at West Point, this coming Tuesday, December 1.

Hot sex events this week: Nov 25-Dec 1

-

November 25, 2009

0

Compiled by Molly Freedenberg

Monday’s Hubba Hubba Revue celebrates the sexiest squeezebox queens on the San Francisco scene.

————-

>> Sex and Memory: Writing from your own experience
Whether documenting amazing experiences for your lover or your history for posterity, award-winning writer Carol Queen can help you bring your erotic writing to life.

Wed/25, 5:30pm
$10-$30
Center for Sex and Culture
1519 Mission, SF
www.sexandculture.org

————-

>> Stuffed
Grab your bird at this special Thanksgiving underwear night, featuring pajama and underwear specials all night. (No contest this evening.)

Thurs/26, 6pm
No cover
Powerhouse
1347 Folsom, SF
(415) 552-8689
www.powerhouse-sf.com

————-

>> Red Hots Burlesque
Dottie Lux brings a different show every week, promising seductive, spicy, absurd, and amusing burlesque from local and visiting talent.

Fri/27, 7:30pm
$5-$10
El Rio
3158 Mission, SF
www.redhotsburlesque.com

————-

Thread Fashion Show

-

November 25, 2009

0

Photo and text by Ariel Soto

Fashionistas flocked to Fort Mason in search of the perfect outfit during a weekend long fashion event called Thread, held November 21 and 22. There were not only innovative designs and luscious accessories but also four runway shows to ogle over. At one of the runway extravaganzas, designers Arka Clothing, Nicacelly, and WHERE were featured on the catwalk. A live singer accompanied each set of models, which sounds cool, but honestly was rather distracting and made it difficult to enjoy the clothes being showcased. Beyond the clothing, there was also live painting and printmaking and yummy homemade food, creating an event that had a little bit of something for just about everybody.

They Might Be Giants: Fact-based rock

-

November 25, 2009

0

By Dan Abbott

Music journalism is a little awkward for me. As a musician, most of the artists I like are those that I have a personal connection with. So most of the articles I’ve written on music have necessarily been prefaced by some sort of full disclosure statement. But though I have never met them, They Might Be Giants has had a disproportionably huge impact on me as both a musician and a lifelong nerd. Is it possible to be objective about them? Of course not! But a full disclosure about TMBG would be longer than article ought to be.

So when I heard the smart-alecky Brooklyn, NY-based duo-cum quintet would be playing two shows in San Francisco promoting their latest record, Here Comes Science, an epic battle ensued between the TMBG fanboy and the intrepid journalist that lurk within me. I’d like to say the journalist won, as my phone interview with guitarist John Flansburgh proceeded with minimal squealing. Thank you, whiskey.

But it is hard to deny the rabid devotion that TMBG inspires, as evidenced by their sold-out Nov. 13 show at the Fillmore. The night before that, a line stretched around the block to see their free six-song performance at Booksmith on Haight, where they signed copies of another release, Kids Go!, a children’s book with accompanying CD. The extraordinarily prolific group has put out three children’s albums in recent years, prompting a bit of head-scratching among fans of their more experimental and gloomy early works.

Sonic Reducer Overage: Toots, Vic Chestnutt, White Pee, Dizzy Balloon, and more

-

November 25, 2009

0

Why succumb to the post-turkey day l-tryptophan lethargy? There’s music to see and hear when you’re not deleting your funds at the sales. (Anyone else notice that odd, oft-aired Sears commercial — an attractive black couple ask a salesperson about Black Friday and proceed to kinda-sorta flirt with him?)

Toots and the Maytals
The well-sampled combo had a recent brush with Amy Winehouse backing-band greatness. Fri/27, 9 p.m., $26. Fillmore, 1805 Geary, SF. (415) 346-6000.

Hatebreed
Does thrashsome, so-called groove metal get any more poppy yet menacing? With Trivium, Cannibal Corpse, Chimaira, Unearth, Whitechapel, Born Of Osiris, Hate Eternal, and Dirge Within Fri/27, 3 p.m., $26-$30. Warfield, 982 Market, SF. (415) 421-8497.

South San Francisco’s Jo-Ann’s is a meal that takes flight

-

November 25, 2009

1

Text and photos by Caitlin Donohue

Whoever Jo-Ann is, she just scored a big one for South San Francisco

I’ve been having a fairly rough time of it at the airport of late. Baggage fees, forced surrender of my toothpaste and even some self-inflicted woes (I scheduled my flight for the wrong month, who does that?). It almost makes a lady want to stay home for Thanksgiving. But family q.t. calls, and luckily I have a South San Francisco breakfast nook that makes the slog out to the airport more palatable; Jo-Ann’s.

Jo-Ann’s is a funky throwback to an old country diner, if those things ever existed. There’s something satisfying about finding the place, unassumingly located in a strip mall on one of South SF’s larger thoroughfares. But upon entering, it becomes clear you’re not the only one who’s made the discovery- effusive praise covers the walls, from stellar newspaper reviews to carefully typed letters of appreciation from happy customers. The first thing that greets you is an attractive glass case of baked goods. Selections varies, but if its in the case the day you go you gotta try the carrot muffin, which has walnuts and raisins sprinkled about it’s hearty, sweet interior.

Why have a hostess at the front door when you could have a muffin case?

Service is friendly from the get-go, and being an inverterate people watcher I appreciated the open kitchen space behind the counter seating. There’s something about watching a guy push a pile of home fries around a grill that really gets me in the eating mode.

The menu is breakfast-classic interspersed with Mexican dishes and has great selections for people that aren’t big into eggs. Prices could be considered a tad high for the location, but won’t be oppressive to those used to paying inner city tabs. We tried the spicy migas ($8.95), a massive heaping of tomatoes, tortilla strips, cheese, egg and beans with a happy side of corn tortillas. Amazing, even if it bordered on tomato overkill. We found another Mexican-inspired winner in the Esmeralda ($8), a breakfast burrito served with eggs, avocado and cream cheese.

I’m an amiga of the spicy migas