This week's tablehopper: the streets of San Francisco.
La Palma is back open! Pick up some of the best handmade tortillas in the Bay, and everything on their menu is delicioso! Carnitas to go, fresh salsas. Mexica-tessen heaven. Photo: © tablehopper.com.
Hello, dear readers and friends. It’s our seventh week of stay-at-home in SF. I know, it’s so intense right now. I’m thinking all the good thoughts for you. The best wishes. Sending love and strength and hope and good health vibes. We are all missing each other something fierce! All we can do is take it day by day, sometimes hour by hour. For me, the days have been flying. I’ll be at this computer for too many hours, and then boom, it’s suddenly 8pm and I haven’t made dinner. This afternoon, I am definitely going for a walk.
I will say last Friday evening was especially sweet—my friends and I had a shared meal from Canela together (but apart) over Zoom. I want to suggest this to any of my fellow single dwellers—order the same meal as your friends, and have dinner together! You can choose a restaurant to support for takeout or delivery, and maybe even get the same bottle of wine or beer or cocktail so you can compare notes. It felt halfway normal for a moment.
I want to thank you for all your support of my new podcast, On the Fly by tablehopper. It means so much to see your comments, feedback, downloads, and reviews and ratings on Apple Podcasts (thank you!). I also really appreciate all your kind contributions to my tip jar—you paid for my recording equipment and music and hosting fees, so thank you! I am so grateful. MWAH!
There are so many people in desperate need right now, and I know a bunch of us are strapped, so here’s a free way to help a hopper out: if you can please share my podcast, it really helps support the people and businesses and initiatives featured in these episodes! A tweet, an FB share, an Instagram story, anything is so appreciated.
Big thanks to my fellow SF publications for the great press: Hoodline wrote a very thoughtful piece, and SFist and Eater gave On the Fly nice mentions, grazie!
Since my last email to you, we now have episodes up with Kim Alter of Nightbird, Evan Kidera of Señor Sisig, Geetika Agrawal of La Cocina, and today’s is with chef Joanna Karlinsky. Each one contains inspiring and compelling stories of how they are navigating through this crisis and giving back to the community through some mighty initiatives. I also include some restaurant updates and tips in the Two-Top at the end of each episode.
Today’s episode with Jo is especially important to me. This powerhouse angel has been making meals in her home kitchen and directly feeding the unhoused a couple times a week, from taking care of folks on the streets in the Tenderloin to encampments around town. She talks about what she’s seeing, and noticing, and the most distressing thing I learned from her interview is the lack of access to water that is happening right now. This is seriously alarming.
Please listen in, look at some ways to help linked in the episode notes (including a link to her fundraiser), and I hope we can all think of how to help and act to get more water and support to our neighbors in need. There are so many incredible organizations offering assistance (including St. Anthony’s, Glide, Project Open Hand, Meals on Wheels, The City Eats, Food Runners, SF New Deal, SF-Marin Food Bank, and so many more), and our supervisors are pushing for more support and services from the city, but in the meantime, there are people on the streets who need water. They need a lot of things, but water is crucial.
I’m interviewing Fernando Pujals, the Senior Director of Communications and Clean Operations for the TLCBD (Tenderloin Community Benefit District) for the next episode of On the Fly, and am in touch with District 6 Supervisor Matt Haney and his team, so I’ll be back with further updates and ways to help from these folks who really know and understand the needs of the neighborhood and how to get things done.
In the meantime, I continue to push updates about restaurants that are open, places that are feeding the industry and frontline workers, initiatives, and special menus in my daily @tablehopper Instagram Stories and in my feed (check out this post about La Palma and other 24th Street businesses that are open). Take a look at my Insta highlights for recaps—if you’re looking for a restaurant to support, just whiz through the highlights for ideas. I have them grouped by geography (SF, 510, North Bay, 650), plus some F&B resources and posts with inspiring stores of people doing rad things. (Not on Instagram? I post a bunch on Twitter and Facebook too.)
Speaking of radness, I want to give a special shout-out to my fellow indie publisher, Broke-Ass Stuart, who I know loves this city as much as I do. His team has been doing a great job covering ways to help others and find resources, along with posting cool stories, like this one about artists who are painting plywood of boarded-up businesses around the city. Check out his new COVID tab on his website and join his email list! That way he can send you awesome freebies, weird events, local activism, incredible articles, and gold doubloons (note: one of these is not true). You can also support his team’s community-focused journalism by becoming a member through the BAS Patreon campaign.
Okay, that’s it for today. Like I mentioned in my previous column, I’m taking a break on news updates here while I focus my energy on my podcast for the time being. Thanks for tuning in.
Take good care, please. Keep giving and looking out for others.
XO ~Marcia
