4 posts tagged “bullshead”
Well, 3 old Briefs, actually. During my period of blog-silencing "extreme exhaustion" I had 3 columns come out which I never linked here. If you always turn past the news directly to the escort ads and you didn't see the articles online, here is a rundown of the topics that I covered:
- Gustofino Fine Foods opened on Church Street in the spot previously occupied by the Just Desserts;
- Mr. Martini's popular "Behind the Bar Show" podcast helps to promote his private bartending business;
- The Industrialists, a home furnishings shop which salvages industrial equipment, opened on Market Street;
- Too Much Fun Halloween Headquarter brought its seasonal store to the old Tower Videos spot, just in time for the Castro's canceled Halloween non-celebration;
- The SF LGBT Center sponsored a job fair for LGBT job seekers.
- Given, on the site of Harvey Milk's old camera shop, commissioned a mural of the civil rights pioneer;
- A new bar opened on the site of the old Metro, on the second floor above 16th and Market -- at publication time it was as yet unnamed, but it has since been christened Lookout; (not The Lookout, just Lookout)
- A delegation led by Sidney's daddy Bevan Dufty will be representing San Francisco at sister-city Sydney's 30th anniversary Mardi Gras celebration in March, 2008;
- Local, troubled, homophile company PlanetOut sponsored a short movie contest;
- The GGBA held their monthly mixer.
- Under One Roof announced plans for their holiday store in the old Tower Videos location;
- Urban Bread cafe and bread distributor (gosh that sounds appetizing!) opened where Bean Here Brew That! was previously located;
- Castro Cafe was preparing to move into the old Bull's Head spot;
- A rundown of Thanksgiving choices, both dine-in and take-out;
- Orphan Andy's turned 30 (just as I will soon);
- Lookout (just Lookout, not The Lookout) announced its winning name.
Quite suddenly last week the restaurant Bullshead, located across the street from Delano's IGA, shut down and vacated its space. The sign posted in the window blamed the closure on a lost lease, but gives no further details on the sudden closure.
This was a shocker for us, since Bullshead always seemed to have a good flow of customers in to sample its buffalo and non-buffalo offerings. It had the advantage of having more than one San Francisco location, theoretically giving it some of the advantages of a (mini) chain. Another point on its side was that it was one of the few restaurants in the Castro dedicated to red meat, making its closure just one week before the Hairrison Street Fair even more ironic and poignant.
So during my years visiting and living in the Castro this location has now seen 4 restaurants:
- Bullshead
- Tallulah
- Due Ragazzi
- Ristorante Incontro
Is this another cursed location for small businesses?
Finally, the title of this post is a reference to my little bit of idiocy dating back from when this restaurant opened. I saw the sign, and in my mind read it like "Bull-shead". Never mind that "shead" isn't a word, I guess I just have a profane mind.
Bullshead, we're sorry to see you go, and we're curious what brave soul is going to give this odd space a try next.
President's Day weekend sees the first of the big bear events of the year in the Bay Area, the International Bear Rendezvous, and this year's activities start Thursday evening, February 15th. The events are not centered in the Castro -- for example, the host hotel is the Holiday Inn on Van Ness -- but even a casual observer will notice an uptick in the average BMI of Castro visitors for the next week.
So to welcome the bears I thought I'd whip up a quick "Bear Guide to the Castro." I'm not a bear myself (although I've been known to admire a bear in my time) so I can't really claim to be an expert, but here are some ideas for the ursine visitor:
No bear visit to the Castro would be complete without a pilgrimage to the Starbucks on 18th, known affectionately (or contemptuously) as "Starbears." I don't know how this place became the gathering place for the bear set, but it was bear-central even back when it was Pasqua, before that chain was snarfed up by Starbucks.
I always used to call this place "the tank top club" because the uniform of choice is jeans or cargo shorts, baseball cap, and a tank top, and the southern-facing seats out front are one of the few places in the neighborhood that you can sit in the sun and not freeze your bare shoulders off. Come to think of it, a thick mat of fur is necessary to wear a tank top in San Francisco.
For a "real" bear bar you need to go South of Market, but The Edge at 18th and Collingwood is the closest you'll find in our neighborhood. Here you can see that they are already decked out with the bear flag ready for the IBR Castro pub crawl.
Joe's Barbershop on 19th (across the street from Spike's Coffees and Tea) is not strictly for bears, but they specialize in the rough and ready masculine cuts that you usually associate with the leather or bear crowds. Their clientele certainly represent those populations well, as do most (all?) of the barbers here.
If you can't quite read the awning in my picture, the motto of the store is "just a little off the top," positioned underneath the cutely flat-topped logo. It's one of the best signs in all of the Castro, IMHO.
This is another somewhat oddball choice, but I had to include P.O. Plus on Castro because there seems to be some sort of requirement for employment here that you have facial hair. In general it's a great store with super-friendly staff, much more convenient that the USPS around the corner, but in addition if you are a bear fan there is probably at least one (and maybe more) person behind the counter that you will find to your liking.
If you get tired of the effete California cuisine which takes pains to differentiate the vegetarian menu items from the vegan ones, then head over to BullsHead on 18th which specializes in buffalo meat, as well as good ol' beef. The burgers are quite tasty, and if the menus are to be believed, buffalo meat will cure pretty much anything that ails you.
And not to generalize that all bears are obsessed with food, but I felt like I couldn't close without mentioning the Joseph Schmidt store on 16th and Sanchez. This is one of the more famous boutique chocolatiers in San Francisco (which was sadly bought by Hershey's, although it continues to operate as before), and the chocolates here are works of art. Their chocolate bowls in particular are spectacular, and would make an excellent souvenir from SF. The truffles are as big as golf balls and come in a huge variety of flavors. Outstanding.
I apologize for the lack of a "real" photo. The storefront itself is pretty unassuming and easy to miss if you are driving by, so I'll try to add a proper photo later.
Well, hopefully that is enough to occupy you between the IBR events. Welcome to SF and the Castro in particular!
A little more than a month back, the Bullshead restaurant moved into the space across from Cala Supermarket at 4230 18th Street. The Bullshead is a local mini-chain, with its original location on Ulloa Street at Claremont, and it might finally be the business which can stay alive at this presumably poisonous location.
When I first came to the Castro about 10 years ago, there was a quiet, little Italian restaurant at this location called Ristorante Incontro. That name apparently means "hidden restaurant" in Italian, and the label was quite apt as many people didn't even realize that there was a business here. The awning and trees screened the storefront from the street, and the sign and the interior were understated (read, bland). We liked the place because it was so quiet and the food wasn't bad, but frankly I'm surprised that it lasted as long as it did because it seemed empty most of the time.
After a few years Incontro finally went under, and the next entrepeneur, seeing that an Italian restaurant had failed in this spot of course did the natural thing to do ... and opened another Italian restaurant in the exact same location! The next incarnation was Due Regazzi, and the restauranteur at least had the good sense to remove the obscuring trees and awning, brighten up the interior, and put up an eye-catching sign on the large panel windows. The owner was obviously very proud of the place, but it turns out that he was not a chef himself and probably for that reason the food was never very good and the restaurant never clicked with diners. We gave it two chances but the place disappointed us both times, and left us sure that it was ultimately doomed. It closed after less than a year.
Next up was Tallula, an Indian Tapas place. Tallula was actually around for a couple of years, and I thought it was going to survive in spite of the mixed reviews I heard from friends. The place was redecorated into a subcontinental-chic date restaurant, with exotic star-shaped tables and fabrics draped everywhere. One comment I heard from multiple people was that the place was expensive and the portions were small, but still I thought on style alone the place would be able to last. But sure enough, a few months ago the Tallula sign came down and a real estate sign and butcher paper went up.
Finally this summer Bullshead arrived, and immediately was crowded with customers. I was pretty shocked at first, but then found out that the original Bullshead is apparently very popular, so this restaurant came with a built-in client base.
The most notable thing about Bullshead (aside from its bold choice of orange for its color scheme) is that a good part of the menu is devoted to buffalo meat. The place calls itself a steakhouse, so there is of course a lot of beef on the menu, but the standout items are the buffalo burgers. Take a gander at the Bullshead website and you can see this lovely bit of propoganda about the presumed beneficial aspects of buffalo meat:
• Buffalo meat has fewer calories and less cholesterol than chicken, fish, or ostrich.
• Buffalo has 40% more protein than beef and contains much less fat.
• It is the only red meat that is non-allergenic.
• It is the only mammal not to contract cancer.
• Buffalo was the main diet of the Plains Indians who: never had cancer, never had heart disease, and lived to be 85 to 90 years old AND would have lived to be 125 with adequate dental care. * Eating 5 oz. of buffalo, 3-4 times a week can help most people reduce LDL cholesterol 40-45% over a 6-month period.
• It does not taste like wild game meats. It does taste like the finest quality beef you remember from your childhood.
Reading this you would imagine that doctors should start prescribing buffalo burgers to their angioplasty patients. Who knows if it's true, but in a city of vegans, it's refreshing to find a place so in love with the idea of digesting meat as a pathway to health.
