The San Francisco Standard’s reporters and editors get a lot of reader emails and responses to our stories. Not all of them merit deep consideration, but some of them enlighten us, illuminate new issues, or just make us laugh. Here’s a collection of responses from the past week that sparked joy and puzzlement.
An SF supervisor with a lobster to grind
Regarding ‘Sinking ship vibes’: Dining at California’s worst-rated Red Lobster, I would take the negative reviews of the San Bruno Red Lobster with a grain of salt. Cranks and trolls love to complain about everything online. What you witnessed in real life—a restaurant “buzzing with diners” on a Wednesday night—demonstrates why the Red Lobster closest to residents in San Francisco and San Mateo County is beloved.
I have a connection to the San Bruno Red Lobster because I worked there 20 years ago as a server. Then and today, the restaurant was a place where families go for special occasions. Mother’s Day and Easter were among the busiest days of the year.
I convince my husband and friends to go with me to the San Bruno Red Lobster once or twice a year. I had a great birthday dinner there last year. Red Lobster is nostalgic and fun. How can you not smile when ordering a ‘Lobsterita’ from the bar?
It’s not a Michelin-starred restaurant, but the food is great if you know what to order. Walt’s Fried Shrimp always delivers, as do the stuffed flounder and crab legs.
About those famous biscuits: Your server will certainly notice when a fresh batch comes out of the oven. Be extra nice and they’ll bring piping hot biscuits to your table.
— San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio
A protip from a pro gamer
I enjoyed your piece Super Smash Francisco: Recasting the city’s icons as classic Nintendo characters.
Nice mix and matchups of San Francisco Bay Area personalities with Nintendo game characters.
Kudos to Scott Alan Lucas and Jesse Rogala, when knowingly or not, they infused a nice, particularly astute OG gamer’s vibe by adding a ‘protip’ at the end.
The term has a San Francisco connection. It was first coined and popularized in 1989 by GamePro, a Bay Area-based video game magazine.
As a founding editor of GamePro, I recall when the creative team spawned the term ‘protip’ to add a sort of hands-on, insider tips, players’ vibe to the magazine’s video game reviews and help brand the then-fledgling publication. Used it in print and online forever. It’s a crack-up that it transitioned from old-time video game publishing to popular culture.
‘Protip’ is ubiquitous these days, so it was a kick to see it used in an article with an allusion to its original context. I’m betting that former editors, copy editors, writers, staff and maybe some grown-up readers of good ol’ GamePro can’t unsee ‘protip’ whenever and wherever it happens to pop up now.
Wish we had figured out a way to copyright it.
—Wes Nihei, former editor-in-chief, GamePro magazine
A faraway reader revels in memories of SF food
What a lovely article on San Francisco’s omakase restaurants and sushi in general. As a San Franciscan turned expat (I now live in a village in Moravia in the Czech Republic) you had me all but literally drooling.
I figure if I ever come back to the city for a visit I’ll probably overeat and happily explode there. San Francisco has changed enormously from the days of my wonderfully misspent youth there—not necessarily for the better—but what remains and what I do miss by not being there is the plethora of gastronomic choices.
I tell people that in San Francisco when people say ‘Let’s go eat,’ and someone answers ‘Great, where?’ they don’t mean which restaurant, but which country or cuisine.
— Charlie Cockey
Crime drop? Not in my neighborhood
Regarding Crime drop is fake news, say businesses. They’re trying to help the cops prove it: My household has given up on reporting crimes to the police for at least two years now. We’re not the only ones. Our neighbors were the ones who said it was a waste of time.
The San Francisco Police Department Park Station couldn’t send anyone when we had prowlers and online reporting doesn’t really close the gap.”
— Luke Lucas
+1 for keeping the Great Highway from my perch
The Standard’s opinion piece arguing for a full-time park to replace the Great Highway falsely states that the road “only makes space for people using cars,” when it’s a multiuse area with a paved promenade for pedestrians, a path for runners and joggers, trails for dog walkers and wide shoulders that bicyclists safely share with thousands of vehicles per day.
When the road is closed on weekends, beach rescues are delayed when emergency responders stop to open gates, negotiate around pedestrians and bicyclists and maneuver through heavy traffic. Air and noise pollution from thousands of trucks, big rigs, construction vehicles and motorcycles diverted to narrow streets in front of homes where children play and cars back out of driveways are endangering residents and visitors, as all attempts to mitigate that traffic have failed.
It’s too important as an essential artery to permanently change its shared use into something else.
— Judi Gorski