What's better than picking up a Beard Papa cream puff across from the Metreon over your lunch break? Eating that Beard Papa cream puff while catching the free symphony concert at Yerba Buena Gardens tomorrow! The performance starts tomorrow at noon, and the orchestra's scheduled to perform some Shostakovitch, selections from Strauss's Salome (with a soprano in tow), and the Tchaikovsky symphony that the orchestra will be performing in Scotland next week. Bring a......

Photo courtesy of I'm Mad and I Eat. In the WTF category, some of the blogs we tried reading and wrangling were not available. The message we received: Blogger and Blog*Spot are unavailable. Blogger and Blog*Spot are unavailable right now. We apologize for this interruption in service. On to fluffier, happier times. In the (Peninsula) ring, we have Beard Papa versus Satura, courtesy of Food Notebook. Areas to critique: price and perceived value, size,......

Sure, we talk all big about how we're above crass materialism and how yuppie bastards are ruining this town for us Missionistas -- but okay, we'll fess up: we are extremely excited about the Westfield San Francisco Shopping Centre's reopening of the old Emporium space on Market and Powell this Thursday (the 28th). Cross your fingers along with us that the opening ceremonies will include Gavin cutting a red ribbon with a big ol' pair......

Today's the opening day of the new SF Symphony season, with a Gala at Davies Symphony Hall and a performance of Stravinsky's violin concerto with Christian Tetzlaff soloing, and Dvorak's Symphony No. 8, with of course MTT at the helm. Then, the orchestra abandons us to woo the European crowds in the neutral countries of Luxembourg and Switzerland. They come back in time for a free noon-time concert in the Yerba Buena Gardens on Sept.......

One Wednesday you're in, and the next you're .... out. Tonight: Independent bookstores all over town are closing left and right. Help the one on the left stay open at a benefit for Modern Times tonight. Local musicians, artists, and performers like Solidad diCosta, Ghost Family, Bahiyyih Maroon, Seeley Quest, Grant Donnelly and Joolie Geldner are donating their time and talent. Plus -- food and drink! Valencia x 20th, 7-9 p.m. Thursday: As part of......

Check out SFist Shelley with Henry Rollins (!!!) at last week's benefit for the West Memphis Three! MUNI madness: while SFist Eve meets the famous head of MUNI, Mr. Nathaniel Ford, SFist MattyMatt grits his teeth and waits in vain for the elusive 33. What else have we been doing? We're going to DocFest, the Mission Creek Music Festival, theater, and air guitar championships. We also went to check out the new Beard Papa......

LAist has so much fun this week! They go to E3, where they overhear the timeless remark "Man, this is where nerdy girls get laid." Is that a promise? They also give us this week's best CDs and make us realize that LA is the best place to use Zillow. Ah, Houstonist. They're biking to work, that is, if they can figure out how to get there. That's right, Mapquest says "Houston had the......

The only way we can make sense of the Beard Papa name is to translate it in French: barbe à papa, ie. cotton candy. As in: a sweet indulgence. And it does smell a bit like cotton candy when you step in the store front at the corner of Mission and Yerba Buena lane, across from the Yerba Buena garden. This is the first store of this cream puffs chain in San Francisco, with more......

As we were cadging a ride home from SFist Eve on Saturday night, we squealed with delight as we drove down Mission Street. Right by Yerba Buena Lane, there's a big sign: BEARD PAPA'S COMING SOON. What? You don't know about Beard Papa? Beard Papa is the Japanese cream puff store with cream puffs as big as your head, and beloved by team Gothamist (and team LAist too.) The last time we had a Beard......