I love the Big Eat. It elicits such strong reactions from people. The latest one I stumbled on is from yesterday on Mission Mission. "Fuck yeah! The Mission dominated this year’s 7×7 2010 Big Eat SF with 26% of the 100 recommended restaurants. Take that, Hayes Valley!" I love the statistics of it all.

But, and I say this with heavy heart, I'm going to have to reduce that to 25 percent. When we put Rosamunde's beer sausage with sauerkraut and grilled onions as #23 on the Big Eat, I was referring to the original Rosamunde. The Rosamunde that I've double-parked for more than once, weighing my craving with the price a potential DPT ticket, like any good risk analyst.

And, after trying the new Rosamunde, I'm still devoted to the first.

Last weekend—intead of going on my intended Avatar-inspired waterfall hike in Marin—I hiked instead from my house in Bernal Heights down to 24th street for a sausage, slightly guilt ridden, but very excited to try the second Rosamunde which just opened on Mission Street. Inside, an appropriately tatted-out woman was working the register. The space is oddly shaped which means all the communal tables are at an angle; the space feels a bit sparse, if rambling. I had a deep thought: Maybe sausages and hot dogs, if not the ultimate street food, are best kept to small spaces, spaces that reflect the style of down and dirty, getup and go eating—the kind where you arrive with realistic expectations and just pull up a stool, wolf down your lunch, and get out of there, happy and full. Maybe.

Anyway, we put in our order and about 20 minutes later, made more painful by the blasting punk music (I'd say less than 25 percent of customers—including the numerous little kids that were there—love blasting punk music, but maybe I'm just getting old), out came my beer sausage, slightly burned on the ends, with a bun that was floury and lacked a good chew. The fries were cold and even if they had been hot, they were just so-so. It's still early on in Rosamunde #2's life, so I'll be back again to give them another chance. I really do want them to do well.