San Francisco

San Francisco

Reason #19,076 to love San Francisco:  Every Easter The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence host the “Hunky Jesus” contest in Dolores Park. Basically it’s a search for the hottest Jesus impersonator. It pretty much fits in line with their Wikipedia entry, which notes that the organization “uses drag and Catholic imagery to call attention to sexual intolerance and satirize issues of gender and morality.”  Unhhhh hunh…… is that what the contest is about?

Now I’d heard about this contest before, but never actually attended due to weather, etc. This year Ryan and I wandered over, and the entire park was PACKED. The park was wall to wall full of drunk and high people partying in clothes that I can only describe as “Easter Ravewear”. Imagine if the Mad Hatter worked for American Apparel and was on his way to church. Due to winter weather I haven’t seen Dolores in full party mode in months, and this was a pleasant/obnoxious surprise. Pleasant because I love to see people having fun in the park, annoying because I’m not a huge techno person.

It was so packed out that I abandoned all hope of meeting up with friends. I also couldn’t get any decent shots from the drag/burlesque performances or the actual contest, but I found this really great synopsis video on YouTube.

This is one of those events you have to file under “Only in San Francisco.”

Art

Stumbling onto Street Art

Everybody in San Francisco knows the famous Clarion St. murals in the Mission. Today while running around with a friend of mine I stumbled across two more really great spots.

At Haight + Laguna, a relatively new corner of art has popped up, and is still being painted:

Very Donnie Darko, no?

Mmmmm sushi…

My personal favorite from the corner.

Later on in the day we wandered down to the Mission, where I had to get a picture of this laundromat:

We stumbled across a tour group checking out the Balmy St murals. Here are a few that I liked:

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It’s a Transformer made out of houses!
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Saved the best for last, LOL!

Food

Work Lunch of Note

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I’ve had a bit of a love/hate relationship with Urban Picnic (which used to be Chill Cafe, same owner, different concept). Very slow service, inconsistent food and a relatively high price ($7-9 for BANH MI???) were what originally deterred me. I’ve come back recently and found that they’ve really cleaned their act up. The wait has been much shorter, the food tastier, and the staff nicer, although they do still seem unhappy to be at work.

Gotta give credit where credit is due- I LOVE their kale and quinoa salad. Today they were sold out by the time I dragged my butt to lunch, so I took a chance and got the “Slaw”.

Here’s what’s inside, according to their website: green cabbage, watermelon (pomelo for this one), daikon, carrots, shaved red onions, Thai basil-mint-scallion-cilantro medley, topped w/ crispy shallots & peanuts, with a garlic lime vinagrette. For $6.75.

Seriously seriously great. It was light and fresh and actually “enough” food.

The banh mi continue to be what I consider expensive, but hey, there’s always Cafe Dolci for that.

Food

San Francisco Brewcraft

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San Francisco Brewcraft is like a portal to the South- that exists on Clement St.!!! Clement is basically San Francisco’s second Chinatown, so I had a momentary chuckle walking into the store. It was just so unexpected for the neighborhood.

The moment I stepped in I felt like I’d been transported to some tackleshop in rural Arkansas. It was cluttered, friendly, and craaazy in there. Okay, that doesn’t describe my experience growing up in Little Rock at all :). To be fair I only popped in for a second to purchase a capper, but wow, what a shop! I’ll be back soon I’m sure!