The San Francisco Citizen

The Victory Garden at San Francisco’s Civic Center has a new lease on life due to today’s mayoral reprieve:

“Today Mayor Gavin Newsom announced his intention to keep the Slow Food Nation Victory Garden at Civic Center Plaza in place until November. The garden was originally scheduled to be disassembled and moved to a more permanent location on September 21, three weeks after the conclusion of Slow Food Nation.”

Now the whole idea of this garden smacked of Marie Antoinette’s L’Hameau de la Reine from the get-go and the fact it was supposed to be undone in September was met with some criticism, but having this thing around for another three months seems like a good idea.

Of course SFN was well-attended, with lots of coverage from the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, SFGate and Eater SF.

Now on with the show.

This voter registerer got cuffed by a Park Ranger right next to the Civic Center Windmill. Some rich hippies took offense and questioned the necessity of this detention. Apparently, the very same man was asked to leave SFN just the day before.

People, people, people, have you no respect for the DPT? Just one Parking Control Officer had the opportunity to issue scores of tickets to those in too much of a hurry to get to Slow Food Nation. It’s as easy as (slow) pie to park for free all day in this area.

See you next year!

Consider poor Michael Bauer, San Francisco Chronicle restaurant critic, and executive food and wine editor. In his words:

“I had a brief panic attack as I stood at a colleague’s desk and leafed through the September issue of Food & Wine magazine.”

MB was so horror-struck, he forgot to link to the source of his consternation. But you can take a look here: ”Chefs Charles Phan and Loretta Keller: Recipes for Sustainability,” where magazine scribe Joshua Davis writes:

“The Academy Café, on the main floor, feels like an interactive exhibit showcasing cuisines from the Mediterranean, Southeast Asia and Mexico.”

Actually, the Academy Cafe (press release here) feels like a construction site.  Here’s what it looks like over there right now, take a gander. Click to expand:

So let’s see here, Food & Wine says everything opens in September:

“The California Academy of Sciences, including the Moss Room and Academy Café, opens September 27. calacademy.org.”

And Bauer says everything opens in October:

 ”The museum and the restaurant aren’t scheduled to open until October.”

In reality, the museum opens in September and the dining places are skedded to open in October. Now we’re all set.

[UPDATE: As it turned out, both the Moss Room and the Academy Cafe opened on September 27th, so ten points for Gryffindor.]

Thus ends another dead-tree/Internet flare up.  Expect another one soon.