Bayview Dishcrawl a Success

Last night, about forty intrepid foodies ventured down to 5800 Third St for the first ever Bayview Dishcrawl!  What's a Dishcrawl, you ask?  It's a progressive dinner from one restaurant to another.  The event saw us start out at Smokin' Warehouse BBQ, then a bus (that seemed like it would never arrive) took us to Radio Africa & Kitchen, and then we headed back to Limón.

Smokin' Warehouse Owner Bill Lee talks to Dishcrawlers

I'd never even heard of Smokin' Warehouse (1465 Carroll Ave) before, but there, we were treated to pulled pork sandwiches, corn bread, and their famous steak chili!  I could have eaten that steak chili all night.  Owner Bill Lee, an electrical contractor, licensed locksmith, and ordained minister who also loves to cook, told the crowd how he got started in the restaurant business by giving away food to friends and colleagues.  He affably told us how he has the best corned beef in the city, his prime rib was better than House of Prime Rib's, and some of his dishes were so hot they'd "make your butthole quiver" when you ate them.  He said that no one ever leaves his restaurant's order window hungry, even if they can't pay.  He believes it's better to give food to someone who needs it than to deny it to them or to throw it away at the end of the day.

At Radio Africa & Kitchen (4800 Third St), diners seated at their tables were shocked to see a crowd of forty come in to disrupt their evening, but I think we managed to chow down on the shrimp, edamame hummus, and mushroom dishes without too much fuss.  Restaurant owner Eskender Asaged was his usual personable self, and told diners of the local organic garden he uses to grow many of the vegetables he uses.

Ceviche at Limón

At Limón Rotisserie (5800 Third St), we ended the evening never having to come down off the high-note that it started on.  The dishes at Limón never disappoint, and so the ceviche, empanadas, lomo saltado, beets, and other (sorry, can't remember all we had) were delish as usual, as was their wonderful sangria!

All in all, a wonderful night and a great introduction to the Bayview for the twenty or so people who'd never been.  The rest of the crowd were locals who were excited to see our neighborhood put into such a positive spotlight.  A great many thanks to the organizers for a fun evening so close to home!

Un Poquito de América Latina en Dogpatch

From SFGate,

Photo: John Storey, SF Chronicle

Latin American tapas and cocktails are front and center at this Dogpatch delight. Owner Richard Vila's spilt-level restaurant features the bar and all its associated trimmings up front and the main dining room up a short flight of stairs. Sit high or low, and indulge in food and drinks that hail from Ecuador to Peru.

The vibe: Festive and casual. This isn't a place for dressing to the nines, but rather to unwind after that 9-to-5 workday. Meet friends for happy hour or get a group together to properly sample the long list of finger foods, hand foods and, if you're really hungry, dinner-size plates.

The crowd: Expect a mostly local crew, as with most Dogpatch establishments.

Best seat: Grab one of the spacious high tables on the upper level for a bird's-eye view of the bar.

Killer app: Too many to count, but we especially loved the crispy and creamy patatas bravas ($5) and the shrimp tacos ($9), light and refreshing thanks to its ingenious jicama wrapper. If you're a burger type, the chorizo sliders ($7), with gorgonzola cheese and caramelized onions, are a must.

Signature drink: Get your dose of holiday cheer year-round with the Calabasa Spice cocktail ($9) - reposado Tequila with pumpkin, lemon, maple syrup and cinnamon. Not your thing? There are about 15 inventive cocktails to choose from, as well as the trusty Poquito's Signature Margarita ($7).

Also on tap: Red and white sangria, both by the glass ($5-$6) or pitcher ($18-$21). Plenty of wine and beer. On the non-alcoholic front, a dozen fruit smoothies and juices, including the hard-to-find but oh-so-good Lucuma smoothie.

Bonus: Happy hour runs every night from 4 to 7 p.m. and features a $4 draft beer and $5 cocktail. Food specials include arepas ($2) and llapingachos ($2), which are cheesy Ecuadoran potato pancakes.

Poquito: 2368 Third St., S.F. (415) 643-3900. www.poquitosf.com. 4-10 p.m. Mon.-Thurs., 11 a.m.-11 p.m. Fri., 4-11 p.m. Sat.

More pictures at SFGate

Bayview Supper Club Provides Inspiration

With all the new restaurants opening in Bayview, this blog is turning into a food blog!!


From SFGate,

The corner of Third Street and Palou in the Bayview isn't just troubled. It's dangerous.

"We had homicides on this corner in 2009, 2010, and a fatal stabbing a month ago," says Bayview Station Capt. Paul Chignell. "In the last 10 months we've had 17 firearm arrests on this corner. Things have improved, but there is still an unacceptable level of violence."

So obviously what's needed is a jazz/supper club.

Read more at SFGate and book your table online at Old Skool Cafe.

Radio Africa & Kitchen gets more press

Wow,  I have never seen so much buzz and press about a single restaurant before.  It's already tough to get a reservation at Radio Africa & Kitchen, at 4800 Third St., and this isn't helping!  Just kidding.  I love to see positive news and reviews for what's becoming a local hot spot for dining.  With a rise in the mid-priced restaurants in the area, including Old Skool Cafe and Limón, I hope there's also a rediscovery of restaurants and businesses that have weathered the storm that construction of the light rail caused.  Hopefully others decide to join those already there, like Auntie April's and Las Isletas, and take a chance on the Third St corridor as a viable place to do business.

From SFGate,

Eskender in his community garden

Aseged, known for his nomadic African-centric dinners over the last five years, finally has a permanent home, a sparkling new restaurant in San Francisco's redeveloping Bayview district.

Combined with the expected reopening of Moya, which burned down in a SoMa fire last May, the Bay Area's Ethiopian and Eritrean food scene is getting a jolt.

Whether concentrated along Oakland's Telegraph Avenue, with stalwarts such as Addis and Asmara, or scattered about San Francisco from Assab in the Lower Haight to New Eritrea in the Inner Sunset, there's now African food to be found in a variety of settings.

The upscale Sheba Piano Lounge in the lower Fillmore pushed the envelope in 2006 with Ethiopian-inspired cocktails and fusion fare like Drunken Chicken Drumettes glazed in Tequila, berbere and tejj, a honey wine.

Now comes a permanent Radio Africa Kitchen, where Aseged is serving "modern African cuisine" that celebrates the bold flavors he grew up with while spinning them forward.

Read more at SFGate

San Francisco's first 'za trailer

All Good Pizza

Trailers are usually used to haul around a bunch of crap. Oh, and horses. And now 'za (!), thanks to the brick-oven-equipped All Good Pizza, soft-opening tomorrow and permanently parking in a 7000sqft, Hey Dude-ified beer garden w/ cacti, wooden picnic tables, and dozens of painted horseshoes -- so even though you’re stuffing your face, you still might get lucky.

Run by a guy and a girl whose very meta job is as CEO of a business that helps women start their own businesses, All Good will unleash 650 gas-powered-degrees on hyper-locally sourced eight-slicers featuring ingredient groupings like pesto, red potato, and roasted garlic; Louisiana hot links, mixed peppers, and fennel; or thyme, grana, garlic, truffle salt, and mixed mushrooms, or why the paramedics had to take Luigi to Dr. Mario. Using an attached 8'x4' smoker, they'll also be making their own sausages (i.e. those LA hots, chicken chorizo, and Italian garlic), and they'll be pressing paninis like the Nola Muffaletta (Genoa salami, ham, housemade olive salad, fior di latte mozz, provolone) or their take on the Cubano, which's topped with gruyere, house pickled onions, cornichons, aioli, and smoked ham, which, after Darvin shattered that backboard, all the Texas Tech cheerleaders probably did.
Soon-ish, they'll also be adding Straus Family ice cream, which they'll use for floats and a grape-soda'd Purple Cow, also the unfortunate nickname of the Williams College co-ed your face-stuffing managed to attract. Lucky you!

Read more at Thrillist

Tuesday Lunch Specials in the Bayview

The city is finally turning its attention to the Bayview as a dining hot spot.  Check out this week's Tuesday Lunch Specials:

Frisco Fried at 5176 Third St
- $2 Chicken Tacos

Let's Eat BBQ at 5130 Third St
- $5 Special (ribs, pulled pork sandwich, or chicken drummettes)

La Laguna at 3906 Third St!
- $1 Tacos

All Good Pizza coming to Bayview

I just received this happy news from the folks at All Good Pizza, at the corner of Jerrold and Newhall:

We are excited to tell you that we should be open in the next week or so... we have our final health inspection on Wednesday morning and should be able to start serving by Friday, April 6th!  Check out our website allgoodpizza.com and Facebook for (hopefully) better details.


We want to thank everyone for their support and encouragement- it has been an incredible project to work on and we have felt so inspired by all of you.  Our desire to make our business neighborhood centric already feels fulfilled- so many people have stopped by, helped and offered great suggestions that we love to hear.


So far, we have removed over 10,000 pounds of garbage from our lot, lifted the three standing violations, acquired over 200 plants from Craigslist, and heard (literally) dozens of warnings about the fifty pound raccoon that apparently lives on our lot.  We've yet to see him, btw, even when we are out there planting dead flowers at midnight.  

We're really excited and feel so fortunate to be doing this and we would love your opinions and criticism on what you want to eat and see on our lot.  We are committed to providing the best possible quality and value for our neighborhood and hope that you will love to eat the food we love to cook.


Our ultimate goal is to have a community garden and shared spaces that involve sustainable agriculture, art, kids, and good times.  We have an amazing neighborhood and while we are all accustomed to the very real and difficult problems that exist here, I feel like we often forget to talk about the amazing opportunities that we have just by living in such a diverse and wonderful city (and more importantly neighborhood.)


I was talking with a woman who came by All Good today about my job in Guatemala (which I have been doing for the past 6 years) and expressing the incredible gratitude I have for being able to do a project like this at home- albeit out of a trailer, on a blighted lot surrounded by chain link and chicken/barb wire, and in a neighborhood where sirens are our background music.  However, we have (clean) water! We have electricity!  We have the ability to democratize!  We have a lot.  (We literally have a LOT). And I think more times than not it's about what we do with it.


We get lemons, so let's make some damn lemonade.


Hope to eat with you all soon...I think you're gonna like it.  And if you don't, tell me and I'll listen.

And come snip some succulents if you like- I suddenly have thousands.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed people can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has- Margaret Mead

Dishcrawl through the Bayview

Alert! Dishcrawl in the Bayview Apr. 24!

Tell your friends – that uber-cool, café-cruising, foodie happening called Dishcrawl (made famous in NYTimes, NBC TV etc) is coming to the Bayview!

What? Never heard of it? Well the anointed restaurants they've chosen are a secret til 2 days before the event, Tues Apr. 24, but that's the whole idea…trying new places that Dishcrawl's 3-year-old program has anointed as great food and great fun for the 30-or-so people who sign up.

Hint: One of the locations will be very near 5800 Third St!

Sign up!

http://www.dishcrawl.com/dishcrawl/228

Here's what Tracy and Raj-Ann at Dishcrawl are saying: Just like the Mission District in the 90s, and the East Bay of the past decade, now San Francisco's Bayview seems to be attracting young, talented and visionary chefs. Join us for an adventurous Dishcrawl of exciting new foods and flavors in the Bayview just south of Mission Bay and Dogpatch, with chefs who are balancing their unique backgrounds from Ethiopia, Peru, Mexico and…the Bayview! … with the demanding tastes of San Francisco's palate. The Bayview's food scene is evolving into a well-rounded foodie destination with devotees from across the Bay Area -- just check the Yelp Reviews, SF Chronicle, Eater, InsideScoop, SF Magazine, etc.

What Have You Done for the Community Today?

From Scoutmob,

True story: The Bayview, San Francisco's redheaded stepchild of a neighborhood, boasts one of the best gardens in the city. Stop thinking gangs, start thinking greens.

Eskender Aseged, owner and executive chef of the Bayview's Radio Africa & Kitchen, grows sea kelp, kale, and herbs you've never heard of before. So, the chard and spinach on the side of your leg of lamb with couscous came from directly right across the street; and you should feel good, not scared, about it.

The city of San Francisco appointed Eskender Johnny Green Thumb to make a positive impact on the community in 2010. He started clearing out broken bottles and mattresses from the garden, mostly by himself, and still somehow finds time to be in the garden 4-5 days a week while running his brand new restaurant.

With the garden in full bloom, he takes veggies to teen moms at a nearby high school, exposing them to healthier options for themselves and their babies. "They've never heard of some of these vegetables, but they get excited when they see how easy they are to prepare," Eskender said. "Where I'm from (Ethiopia) is community oriented and we take care of all the children, whether they're our own or not." The garden also serves as a way young people in the Hunters Point Family and Old Skool Café organizations to make money, helping Eskender with the garden. He painted a large wall white for summer projector-movie nights and will build a deck to make the garden an "edible hang out place for the community."

Eskender, if you were a boy scout, your patch game would be ridiculous.

Front Cafe on Mississippi

150 Mississippi St

A reader has tipped me to an application for a new beer & wine eating place at 150 Mississippi St.  The space is currently home to "Bot & Dolly", a "design and engineering studio focused on the advancement of film production technologies. With a unique understanding of automation, robotics, and film making, we are advancing the art of commercial and feature production."

Owners of Bot & Dolly, Jeffrey Linnell and Randall Stowell, have applied for a liquor license to open a cafe, to be called "Front Cafe", on the premises.  For those wondering exactly where this is, just look for the awesome "no parking" sign on their garage door.

h/t T. Rogers

Bayview food hotspots: Radio Africa & Kitchen and All Good Pizza

All Good Pizza, Newhall at Jerrold

There's a Bloomspot for Radio Africa & Kitchen (4800 Third St) today!

Also, coming in April at the corner of Newhall and Jerrold (near Flora Grubb), mobile pizza maker All Good Pizza.  They'll be offering catering and serving lunch.

Speaking of Dining out in Bayview - Limón is OPEN!!

I just have to give a plug to our newest dining establishment, Limón, who are now open at 5800 Third St.  We've eaten at the new location a couple of times already, and the food it every bit as yummy as at their Rotisserie location in the Mission.  Take the T-Third to Carroll Ave and enjoy!

Michael Bauer loves his Frisco Fried...

Yes, there's a lot of Southern-style cooking going on around Third St. these days.  And, yes, they're all pretty darned good.  With Queen's Po'Boy on San Bruno Ave, the soon-to-be-opened Brown Sugar Kitchen, Frisco Fried, and Auntie April's, it doesn't seem necessary to go all the way up to Hard Knox Café in the Dogpatch anymore!

From SFGate's Inside Scoop:

Frisco Fried

Waiting for the chicken to be prepared at this 21-month old Bayview restaurant is pure joy. You know at the end of 20 minutes you’ll have juicy meat just out of the fryer. Every piece is cooked to order, so in the time between placing the order and digging into the four-piece dinner ($11.99) you can smell and anticipate what you’ll eat. It’s some of the best chicken I’ve had in San Francisco.

Each dinner comes with excellent corn bread and two sides; I’m partial to the macaroni and cheese and the greens that have just the right amount of vinegar to cut the delectable grease from the chicken.

Owned by Marcel Banks and his uncle, Gregory Banks, the restaurant also specializes in chicken and waffles ($7.99). I’m sure it’s good, but it’s a pairing I’ve never quite warmed to.

In season you can also get caramelized garlic butter crab, so I’ll look forward to trying that in a couple of weeks. Still, it will be hard to resist the chicken dinner, served in a dining room awash in Giants orange and other sports memorabilia.

5176 Third St. (at Thornton Avenue), S.F.; (415) 822-1517. friscofried.biz. Lunch and dinner daily.

More than pizza in store at Piccino in Dogpatch

From SFGate,

It feels like a wondrous discovery when you first walk into Piccino, the Dogpatch pizzeria that recently moved to a corner building a block from its original space.

The entrance on Minnesota Street leads diners not only to the restaurant but to Dig wine bar and a MAC clothing store. If you walk around to 22nd Street, you'll also find the little Piccino coffee bar.

They've created their own little salon-like collective in this bright yellow 1850s-era house. The arrangement feels fresh and vibrant, and it connects and lifts the neighborhood.

Read more at SFGate

Food Carts in SF

How freakin' awesome would it be to have the section of Mendell St that terminates in the plaza at Third and Palou become a food cart/food truck destination? With the opening later this year (or next year?) of Radio Africa across the street, we could have ourselves a real dining mecca right in our own backyard!

Read more about proposed changes to local permitting requirements in today's Chronicle. Vendors can currently get help navigating the permit process at the SF Cart Project. We should also look to getting Off the Grid to come to our part of the city next year.