“Francisca’s” restaurant opening in former Palace space
June 21, 2017
More than a year after a fire shuttered the restaurant and damaged apartments above it, the owners of The Palace are opening a new restaurant in the space.
Francisca’s, named after owner/chef Manny Torres Gimenez’s grandma, is expected to officially open around July 15, although a soft opening is going on right now. The restaurant is at 3047 Mission St., at Cesar Chavez.
Gimenez said the two-alarm fire on Dec. 10, 2015 gave he and his wife, General Manager Katerina De Torres, “an opportunity to build everything from scratch for the first time in our restaurateur career and reinvent ourselves.
“The year and a half that we were remodeling we got a chance to travel around the world and got inspired by many dishes and we decided to add breakfast, lunch, dinner to the menu,” he wrote in an email. In addition, there is also a tasting menu option, a la carte menu, and also family style option.
The restaurant’s website offers this description: “We are farm to table restaurant, Californian cuisine and we pair with international and local beers and wine for a reasonable price.” You can check out Francisca’s menu here.
[Photo by Eric D]
Doc’s gets clocked over sign
May 27, 2017
UPDATE 4 p.m.: In an email this afternoon, Doc’s Clock owner Carey Suckow said she has no idea what her landlord’s plans are for the sign but that something similar will be built at the new space. Suckow also provided some background on the fabulous neon marquee:
In 1951, The Clock Tavern began operating at 2575 Mission
Street with Angelo & JN Nichols listed as owners. In 1961, a dentist
named Ralph Mancuso bought the bar. He was the “Doc” and changed the name of the bar to Doc’s Clock. He created the marquee that lights up Mission Street today.
ORIGINAL POST: Doc’s Clock plans to move to a new location in July, taking its shuffleboard and dive-ish vibe along. But, sadly, its iconic sign won’t be coming with.
Bar owner Carey Suckow confirmed yesterday that the bar’s sign — a neon beauty with “Doc’s Clock,” “cocktail time” and martini glasses on it — will be staying at 2575 Mission Street with her current building’s landlord after the bar lost its fight to keep it. It’s unclear what plans exactly the property owner has for the sign — including whether “Doc’s Clock” will remain on the front of the building. In April, Inside Scoop reported that Leticia Luna plans to combine the space with a storefront next door and that it will have a restaurant tenant.
Still, Suckow was optimistic about her new space at 2417 Mission St.
“Unfortunately, we just learned that the sign will not be coming with us,” she wrote in an email to Capp Street Crap. “We are saddened by this loss of our history, but we will rebuild one and it will be even better.”
I have reached out to Suckow for more details. In the meantime, check out the bar’s Facebook page, which will have updates on their move. The bar will close at its current location on June 3, and, if everything goes as planned, reopen at the new location in early July.
[Photo by Thomas Hawk/Flickr]
Doc’s Clock moving forward — to new Mission Street digs
May 24, 2017
Time is ticking for the Mission’s beloved Doc’s Clock – in its current location, at least.
Mission Mission reported Tuesday that there were just 10 more days before the bar shuts its doors at 2575 Mission Street, a timeline that was confirmed in an email to CSC from the bar’s owner, Carey Suckow. Suckow said that the bar will close at its current location on June 3, and, if everything goes as planned, reopen at 2417 Mission St. on July 1.
The bar, which is moving because the owner of the current building decided not to renew Suckow’s lease, is already taking shape at its new location near 20th Street.
No word yet on whether Doc’s will take its iconic sign with it. When I emailed Suckow last month, she said she was still negotiating with the building’s new owner, who wants to keep the sign there. I sent Suckow an email Tuesday asking for an update on the sign issue but have not heard back yet.
[Top photo by Sean Davis/Flickr. Second photo via Doc’s Facebook Page]
Couching this in strong terms: Delusional.
May 23, 2017
If trying to offload your slobber-stained mattress through NextDoor wasn’t bad enough, a guy named Alex is hoping to sell his couch for a tidy sum after abandoning it at 15th and Dolores streets.
A sign taped to the furniture requests a mere $450 in exchange for the bright red sofa’s currently missing cushions. Friend of CSC Josh said the couch has been there for days before he added his own commentary on Monday.
Unbelievable offer aside, I’m going to guess the couch is still available – and properly seasoned.
[Photos by ellngsn]
See where this is headed
May 15, 2017
Capp Street is the worst babysitter. Seriously.
Nice rack! BART installing new system to thwart bike thefts
May 8, 2017
BART is considering high-tech means to ensure its riders’ locked bikes stay put.
The transit agency is getting ready to test out a new high-security bike rack inside the 16th and Mission station that will allow users to secure their bikes with a swipe of their Clipper cards. A solar-powered version of the system is also being installed outside the Pleasant Hill station.
Billed as better than u-locks, the Bikeep system is equipped with an alarm and an electronic alert, both of which are triggered if someone tries to steal the bike, as well as a galvanized steel bar that locks to the frame and wheel.
“We’ll get feedback from users and see how they perform in the field,” Steve Beroldo, BART’s manager for access programs, wrote in an email.
“Theft is a concern at all BART stations and pretty much anywhere else in the Bay Area where one leaves a bike parked for significant periods of time,” he added. “BART has a number of programs and policies in place to try and deter theft.”
The smart racks will have 10 spaces that are free to use but available on a first-come, first-served basis. Users will be required to first do a quick one-time registration online.
BART is still finishing up some signage, an instructional video and some electrical work, but the project should go live sometime before the end of the month, Beroldo said.
Window treatment
May 3, 2017
The writing is on the fence.
[Photo via Melinda]
Cock-a-doodle eww
April 18, 2017
Water wasn’t the only thing falling on Capp Street yesterday — it was raining dicks as well.
Hours after yours truly snapped the above photo near 17th and Capp streets on Monday morning, a reader spotted a wayward dong braving traffic outside an elementary school nearly two blocks away.
So many questions. Did one of the 17th Street dildos migrate north, and OMG WHY IS THIS HAPPENING? Suffice to say, this is hardly the first dicking around we’ve seen.
Look who’s back. Sunflower’s Valencia side reopened
April 17, 2017
Closed for more than three years, Sunflower’s Valencia Street space is finally back. A walk by the restaurant Friday night found 506 Valencia’s Street’s neon sign lit once again and the Vietnamese restaurant full of customers. One of the servers told me the restaurant reopened more than a week ago.
Sunflower shut its doors in September 2014 with no explanation, leading many to wonder whether that was it for the restaurant, a neighborhood favorite for cheap, good Vietnamese food. A few months later, ‘Pan Asia’ was added to the Valencia Street sign and the tinier, adjoining portion of the restaurant, which has its entrance on 16th Street, reopened about a year later.
Croak joke: Mission ‘frog sanctuary’ quietly dedicated
April 16, 2017
The fact that frogs — or maybe just one very noisy one — moved into the watery pit that was once a three-story apartment building and indoor shopping plaza at 22nd and Mission streets has been an endless source of neighborhood amusement. Now, one prankster has taken the comedy a step further — by placing a plaque to mark the so-called “Mission Memorial Frog Sanctuary.”
The plaque, which a neighbor tells me showed up on the fence surrounding the property at least a week ago, pays respect to the businesses and residents who lost their home in a January 2015 four-alarm fire. It also weaves an alliteration-laden tale about the frogs and their err, resurrection. Just in time for Easter.