Where Did Mami Eat This Week?
And why I will never do another popup in Sacramento...
You can still see all past stories on my portfolio where I store clips.
https://eatgordaeat.blogspot.com/
If you want to contribute to mami’s f’ing expensive ass burgers.
The wildfire smoke gave us a little break and in that time, autumn gave us a sneak peak. The nights are cool and the mornings are downright chilly. I found myself reaching for my San Marcos 49er blanket that always sits on the edge of my bed. This is the time of year where I’d start thinking about my popups.
Above Image: Doctor’s Lounge Kitchen. San Francisco, 2016
My first popup was in 2016. I had taken over the full kitchen at the now defunct Doctor’s Lounge in the Outer Mission. Every Sunday for the month of November. It was a pain in the ass: schlepping all of those specialty items and ingredients in a storage tote. A night of serving from 5PM-9PM taking three days of preparation. It was awesome: instant gratification and feeling like you actually accomplished something at the end of the night.
Above Image: Doctor’s Lounge Kitchen. San Francisco, 2016
I continued to have popups, most of the time in acquaintances’ or affluent patron’s homes in the Bay Area. Most of the time I had them in my tiny one bedroom apartment! Tetris’ing six diners around my $40 Ikea table found on Craigslist. Beyond an intimate setting. And somehow, it worked for several years.
Above Image: Doctor’s Lounge Kitchen. San Francisco, 2016
Above Image: Pop-up Collage, Doctor’s Lounge. San Francisco, 2016
Above Image: Pop-up Supper. My one-bedroom apartment in Alameda, 2017
Last December I went all out. I decorated the casita with string lights and magnolia tree branches and glittering snow flakes. I made bottles of Coquito for patrons to share. I made pasteles, pernil and rice for a buffet family style dinner. And granitos de Humacao, you can see me blow torching some Raclette cheese on top. Don’t be distracted by my chins.
Above Image: (click here > Blowtorching raclette < click here) on granitos de Humacao, 2019
But, Ms. Corona put the kibosh on all of that.
The good news is, I was already thinking that the popup model in the casita wouldn’t work in the long-term. Coronavirus hit and I cancelled my popup in March, refunding everyone. This was during the time the nation was taking it week by week. Before you knew it, May happened. And I had completely forgotten that I had a popup. An influx of panicked emails came in, most having already known that the popup wasn’t going down because of shelter-in-place. But, there was this one Puerto Rican woman. She was actually the daughter of the woman who bought the tickets. The mother and I had already spoken online and I gave her a refund, but she must not have notified her daughter. The daughter left me a series of voicemails - each one more aggressive - claiming they were, at the time of voicemail, “driving around looking for the popup location.” Which is impossible because I don’t ever release the address until two days before the event.
This woman kept leaving voicemails until I finally called her back. Once I called her a liar, she blew a gasket and told me that I should have to not only refund them the ticket cost, but I that I also “owed” her money for gas and money for the time spent looking for the location. Can you imagine having this person on a residential premises? Dealing with this ratchet ass Puerto Rican lady gave me some insight on how dealing with the public and popups in Sacramento was gonna be. And that experience made me say, nope. This model is not gonna work for me in Sac. I had been doing popups (sometimes in my tiny apartment) in the bay since 2016 and never had an issue. I’ll never take the lead on another popup in Sac.
Sacramento has never liked me. And I have never liked it. And being gone for 15-years didn’t change that one damn bit.
Ooh, that rhymed.
Where Did Mami Eat This Week?
If you want to contribute to mami’s f’ing expensive ass burgers.
I realize it’s been almost a month since the last time we spoke about Mami’s burgers!
Above Image: Mami holding Patty Melt from Wise Sons Jewish Deli.
It had been 30 days since we had seen blue sky or could step outside without our masks. And people in the bay were saying the air quality was terrible, but we made a Hail Mary decision to take the risk. It was a good decision. We wanted to try Wise Son’s new Double Stack Pastrami Smash, only to find out they only served it at their Oakland location which closes at 2PM. We were at the 24th street location.
We opted for the Patty Melt, which is basically a hamburger. Right? It was a good move. Buttered and griddled rye bread with caramelized onions, Swiss cheese and a ground beef patty that has bits of pastrami in it.
Mami says, “I honestly couldn’t tell whether or not the patty had any pastrami in it. But, it’s good. I really like this toasted rye bread, it’s buttery from the placa. Even though it’s messing up the roof of my mouth. It’s flavorful. I’d eat this again.”
Mami‘s response, “Meh. Bueno.”
We had a little leftover from y’all’s contribution. And so…
Mami requested we visit a Dollar Tree in the city because “they might have different things than the other ones.” Newsflash: they didn’t.
If you have any qualms with us spending the remaining money on Mami’s Dollar Tree visits, we totally understand and we will send you a formal apology and will refund you in full immediately!
Love Mami's nails 💅 and hair❣️ Burger looks yum.