Mission Street Food
ByFor several months now, every Thursday night, a new chef moves into the kitchen at 2234 Mission St., where dubious Chinese take-out den Lung Shan usually operates. These evenings belong to Mission Street Food, an inspiring underground restaurant series conceived by Bar Tartine line cook Anthony Myint. A revolving roster of inventive guest chefs take turns creating and executing diverse menus. We’re almost exclusively talking talented non-celebrity chefs — without Food Network specials and cookbook deals — accustomed to toiling behind the scenes at lauded area establishments like Delfina, Quince, Range, and Zuni Cafe, not the marquee names you see etched on their front doors. Check the Mission Street Food blog to glimpse the menus in advance. As is often the case with such endeavors, there are rules.
Dinner is served from 6 until Midnight.
Corkage runs $5. I’m not sure if that applies to bottles of Budweiser.
Mission Street Food takes no reservations. Just show up when you can and hope the crowds are not too thick. After 8:30 or so, pickings can be slim. This is a popular destination at the moment and only becoming more so.
You cannot pay for your meal with your Discover card. You cannot pay with your Visa. You cannot pay with your American Express. Only cash will do. Thankfully, prices are not astronomical. No ones angling for maximum profits here; beginning tonight, what little there are will go to charities of the chef’s choosing.
Tonight’s meal should be deadly. Chef Ryan Farr, a veteran of the Fifth Floor and Orson, is unfurling a celebratory menu of slightly twisted American favorites in honor of the recent Presidential inauguration. The braised bacon sandwich with lettuce, baked tomato, and aioli should not be a tough sell, likewise, butter-fried cornbread with mint julep honey. And spicy buttermilk-fried chicken. And applewood-smoked macaroni-and-cheese.
You have one hour until the doors open.
Mission Street Food
Thursdays @ 2234 Mission St. (Lung Shan)
San Francisco, CA, 94110
