Latest posts by Peter Lawrence Kane

Virtually every place in San Francisco that serves flour tortillas sources them from the inimitable La Palma Mexicatessen, the 66-year-old establishment on 24th Street that rightly has something of a lock on them. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for variety, especially when venturing out of Mexican food proper and into the realm of […]

The eternally vacancy-addled Castro just got an appealing new opening in the form of Willkommen, a beer garden from Black Hammer Brewing, a craft firm whose main tap room is on Bryant Street in SoMa. Sometimes, food businesses housed in lots of poured-concrete construction can feel soulless and sterile, but this one — on Market […]

Coachella makes you drink beer inside designated alcohol zones that feel like those free-speech quarantine areas from the height of the Bush administration, and the only thing edible at Lightning in a Bottle were the giant “Killa Dillas” that you have to wait a long time for. Outside Lands, by contrast, has really good food, […]

This morning, Sup. Aaron Peskin introduced legislation to protect The Punch Line, the 40-year-old comedy club that will have to vacate 444 Battery St. after owner Morgan Stanley terminated its lease. It was probably the funniest press conference on City Hall steps in a while. Starting off with local comic Nato Green, several other comedians […]

Remember the Chief from Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego? The one who would always task you and your fellow gumshoes with finding the warrant and the loot and with all the “Do It A Capella”? Her name was Lynne Thigpen, she starred in the 1973 film version of Godspell — and she plays a sultry, […]

Before there was Dirtybird Campout or anything like it, there was Sunset Sound System. Founded on the spring equinox in 1994 as a free, outdoor party at Berkeley Marina, it’s become an institution and a staple of Sunday afternoon partying. Established by one DJ Galen — who was quickly joined by a fellow Marin native […]

Driving down Interstate 5 last Thursday night, Lightning in a Bottle attendees got to witness something you don’t often see in Central California any time of year, let alone mid-May: thunderheads.  Held at Buena Vista Lake outside of Bakersfield after three years at Lake San Antonio near the town of Bradley, L.I.B. saw a few […]

It’s a bit drizzly out there today, so the original launch date has been pushed back a week, but Presidio Twilight will return for the season on Thursday, May 23.  Described as the “sultry” older sister of the much-loved Presidio Picnic, this partnership between Off the Grid Markets and the Presidio Trust is full of […]

Pulitzer-winning TV critic Emily Nussbaum once called the Emmy-winning Drunk History “sweet, filthy, and forgiving.” Comedy Central’s intoxicated yet historically accurate take on pivotal events you learned about in social studies has run for six seasons so far, with some offbeat casting (30 Rock’s Jack McBrayer as Andrew Jackson) and impressively slurred dialogue. Both it […]

If you want to move like Jagger, you have to maintain your health — even if you are Jagger. The Rolling Stones were initially supposed to play at Levi’s Stadium tomorrow night, but Mick Jagger had to cancel because he wound up needing heart surgery. (Also the tongue that sticks out of the mouth of […]