A BARBECUE RANT....AND YOUR WEEKLY DIGESTION OF FOOD NEWS TO CONSUME

Seems Franklin Barbecue decided to come to town with a pop-up event at Magnolia's Smokestack in Dogpatch. I was moderately enthused to see this, then I saw the price--$130--for a plate of brisket, 2 beers and a copy of their book. Tickets were to go on sale Friday April 24th at 9 am. Me and the SO discussed whether it was worth it or not--that's a lot of money. It's not like this is Lazy Bear where you get a 12 course meal or something. It was one shot deal. Then the price oddly dropped to $70 and no longer included a copy of the book (which you can get on Amazon for $18). Strange, but okay, and me and the SO just decided to suck it up and pay the money. Sort of a doing to be doing it kind of thing. I was up early Friday morning and had the Eventbrite page open 15 minutes before sale time. At 8:57 am I began hitting the refresh button over and over till suddenly at 9 am the tickets got listed. I clicked the date, add 2 tickets (a pop-up told me there were 31 tix available) and hit the buy button. Instantly I got a message that tickets were now no longer available for this event. I looked at the clock on my computer and it just tripped over to 9:01 am. ARGGGHHHH!! That's right, somehow, every ticket (for both days of the event!) sold out in less than a minute! I was pissed (and yes I know I wasn't the only one to miss out). Granted I was ambivalent about going but to get so far as to decide to go and be shut out so quickly was beyond irritating. It reeked of suspicious ridiculousness. You were limited to 2 tickets per person and I'm guessing there were probably 30-40 tickets available for each day and in some mysterious computer generated way they were all gone. As of now, no tickets are showing up on the secondary market like StubHub or Craigslist, but I say give it time. I'm sure someone has gamed the system (they usually do) and they will show up at some point before the event in May at an exorbitant price. And for that I say f**k you Eventbrite, Smokestack and Franklin Barbecue for making something so difficult for the regular folk to get in to. After some quiet reflection (and some time to calm down), it's fine by me--NORTH CAROLINA BARBECUE IS AND ALWAYS WILL BE WAY BETTER than that texas stuff anyway. And that is something you can't take away from me. Whew! All good now--how 'bout some food news.

• It's coffee shuffle time in the Bay Area as some big moves were announced this week. Sightglass will be the coffee purveyor in the new SFMOMA expanded building. But not to fret for Blue Bottle and Tartine are now one and will grow together. Coffee wars are really heating up like rent prices in this town. 
• Tony's Slice House has opened in the old Ironside spot in SOMA, just in time for baseball season. I've already checked it out so be on the lookout for my review soon. 
• Fort Mason will be getting a new restaurant. Hopefully it will be the complete opposite of Greens--you know, affordable, though I doubt it.
• Cider, cheesesteak, burgers and more.
• Marlowe's burger has it's own spin-off with--Marlowe Burger--in the previous location of the restaurant. Catch all that? And they opened just in time for baseball season! Funny how they all do that.
• SOMA StrEat Food Park is expanding and working on a space somewhere "near" Mission Bay and 4th Street. Plans are definite yet, but for this, I am excited. Welcome to the hood!
• As a side note--Monday April 27th is free burger day at all Super Duper Burger stores in The City. The first 100 in each location will get a free burger. Plus the first one in line gets a gift card or eternal shame, I can't remember. 
• A new restaurant is heading to Russian Hill from a wife and husband chef team.
• The Sinbad's saga goes on and on and on and on.....
• Wait, Ike's Place has a secret menu? Aren't there already enough choices on the regular one? 
• Southern food in San Francisco continues to be the new trend as Buttermilk Southern Kitchen has now opened along with Rusty's Southern. We'll see if they stack up to home.