Remember the Hibernia Bank? (and other musings)

I was in San Francisco recently, and decided to walk the four miles from my hotel to Gracias Madre, a vegan Mexican offshoot of Café Gratitude, the transcendent northern California raw food restaurant chain.  (translated into a very loose quotidian Spanish, Gracias Madre means “Thanks, Mom!”)

If you want to see one of the most uplifting (and gastronomically creative) menus in restaurant history, check out Café Gratitude’s offerings at 
http://www.cafegratitude.com/images/Cafe_Gratitude/Posters_Fliers/menuhh4.10.11.pdf . 

And yes, I friended them on Facebook.

Anyway, I passed by the Hibernia Bank on my way to the Mission District.  Patty Hearst and the Symbionese Liberation Army made history here with a spectacular bank robbery on April 15^th, 1974.  I guess they chose Hibernia because it was on Market Street and probably provided an easy getaway path.  P.S. – Can you spot the two birds in flight?

While still in the high rent section of Market, (there are low rent sections, trust me) I stopped by a flower stand and took the obligatory sixty shots.  Here are two.

This is one bright spot in the Mission District.

This man was quite insistent that I take his portrait.

After an hour and a half of walking and stopping to take pictures, Gracias Madre appears, a shimmering oasis of vegan holiness in an otherwise bleak landscape.  (Hint: it is one door down from the 99 cent store, with the pumpkin-colored sign.  There is a lady wearing a pink blouse sitting on one of the two benches just outside the entrance) 

The restaurant is brand-new, and the food was outstanding, even world-class.  (It is vegan, but not raw)  I asked the waiter about the odd location for a somewhat upscale restaurant.  After all , the Mission District has a large population of people jettisoned for one reason or the other (mostly the other) from the American Dream.  He said some of San Francisco’s up and coming chefs are locating there because of the reduced rents.  He added that just across the street was an incredible restaurant that is mobbed every night, and not by the jettisoned set if you must know.

This is the wall mural in the covered patio dining area of Gracias Madre.  Notice how the blessed Mother of Vegan Cuisine arises seamlessly out of the sinless organic soil.  It is well known that people who eat a vegan diet have a certain aura about them; this has been proven scientifically.  However, having consumed a certain herb in my youth, (albeit 100% Tommy Chong certified organic) I cannot recall which studies, precisely, prove the vegan aura hypothesis.



Photoshop is my addiction, alas.  My stained, shaking hands can’t let go of the pixel-altering electronic crack pipe from Adobe.

Wow - I guess this area of The Mission also has its share of photographers! 

Believe it or not, this billboard for Adobe is only a block away from Gracias Madre, but on the other side of the street.  The ‘Citizen Soldier’ billboard is to be expected.  After all, war has been an incredible engine for job growth, helping to replace much of our manufacturing base now comfortably and profitably located overseas.  (these billboards are mostly absent in affluent neighborhoods, where a good education reduces the odds of relying on the military as an employer of last resort) 

I would expect an ad for cigarettes or beer on top, but I am really glad Adobe thinks it has an audience here among the pawn shops and heavy equipment rental depots.

Quick Survey: Does the Adobe ad, by being on top, prove once and for all that art trumps war?

À la prochaine!  (‘m learning French with a great podcast called Coffee Break French)