East Sac Mercato shut down, new east Jay taqueria (but is it any good?), my thoughts on Bonds

Goodbye Luigi: So I went to the Mercato on Folsom Blvd. last night to get some pasta and red wine and--well shit--it was cleared out and shut down.

Above is the note on the door. "This small independent business can no longer survive." Sad.

I always thought the Mercato was too huge to sustain, and I figured when Trader Joes arrived a couple years ago that it would only be a matter of time until it had to close.

I'm not a huge TJs fan, so maybe I'll just stop going there altogether. Go try the Napoli sandwich at the other Mercato on J and 19th streets.

Goodbye Sidewalk, hola taqueria: Our goodbye's continue, but this one is by no means as bitter. Sidewalk Pizza on J and 37th streets is gone. In its place is a new taqueria, which has an OK-looking streetside patio. Anyone eat there yet?

UPDATE! The taqueria in question has a name: Mid-Town Taqueria.

I have three problems with this:

1. It's not located in Midtown. What are they, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim of taquerias?

2. It's not in the "middle" of "town" (which begs to ask where exactly is the middle of town?), so that can't be why it's called "Mid-Town."

3. If it's trying to be "Midtown," then it really bothers me that they hyphenate "Mid-Town." I mean, it really bothers me.

The only way to settle this is it eat there tomorrow night. Michel's new crepe place for lunch, the Mid-Town Taqueria of East Sac for dinner--kind of exciting, could be dangerous ...

756: Mainstream sports journalists are so fucking weak, what with their asterisks next to Bonds. CNN/SI's home page is particularly bad. My take: So what if Bonds used steriods! Everyone did, including the pitchers that Bonds had to face in his prime. You can juice all you want, but you still have to have the mad skill to put a 95mph some 400 feet out into the bleachers.

Bonds is a jerk, but he broke the record ... so shut the fuck up. If anything, blame the lame-duck media, who--whether it be Iraq or elections or sports--always give a free pass in the name of preserving American sanctity and tradition.

And thank Kubrick that he finally hit damn homer; I was getting sick of the Bonds overkill, what with shit like above (TV commercial in one box, Bonds in the dugout during the break chewin' seeds and grabbin' his balls). Thanks Fox Sports Net, thanks.

(Go A's, 2008.)