A Profile of My Street

After six months of walking the streets around my new pad, I’ve decided that I live on some pretty happening turf. Fulton Street between Masonic and Central has all the comforts an active college student like me needs. First and foremost, the smells of strong, rich, espresso waft down the lane toward my door from a little shop know as Starbucks. Thinking about a hot Americano before class helps me spring out of bed each morning, a few slurps of the dark liquid wipes the glaze off my eyes and energizes me for the walk up Fulton hill to school.

When I come back starving from the gym, or a long Thursday night meeting, there is always Papalote to greet me and offer up one of its delicious super burritos. The fresh, healthy, Mexican inspired food here is cheap, delicious, and they’re fast. I’m in and out the door in 5-10 minutes with a hot, made to order burrito and a side of chips with their amazing salsa, for around eight bucks. I eat at Papalote at least one a week guaranteed, sometimes several times per week, and this is every week for the past 6 months. That’s at least 24 meals. Oh, and I only ever get one thing: the Super Burrito. This monster comes with cheese, avocado, and sour cream, along with the usual trimmings of beans, rice, salsa, and your choice of meat. I almost always get chicken.
Hard day, or week? Try stopping by Poleng bar, restaurant, and club. This suave location screams trendy, with a dark, tropical accent. Poleng, we’ll call it a bar, has great happy hour specials; all drinks are $3, and listen to this, the honey teriyaki wings are 25 cents each. When I was there this past Thursday, things were pretty quiet during happy hour, a few ladies sipped cocktails at the bar, a new waiter was studying the menu, the barkeep was posted up behind the bar chatting with the young women, and a small group nibbled on a platter of wings at a table while chatting quietly. I don’t know at what time exactly the energy kicks in, but pass by around 9pm and Poleng is a hot sweaty mess of young cosmopolites jumping to the music, there is fog on the windows and a line at the door. The place is actually much larger than it appears from the outside; a hallway past the bar leads to the main dance floor and dj booth. Its good for a relaxing happy hour booze, its great for some late night clubbing, and what’s more, their chef, Tim Luym was recently featured in the SF Chronicle article Rising Star Chefs of 2007. Luym and his staff offer up a menu of Asian fusion concoctions, served in small, meant-to-be-shared portions.
So after a coffee, a burrito, a drink, and a night of dancing, I can tread back to my apartment, exhausted, but ready to do it again tomorrow. This is a visual guide to eating a Papalote Super Burrito.