Doggy Bag: Adobo City

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AdoboHobo's Jason Rotairo

Down and out in Manilatown: The Bold Italic's Drew Himmelstein puts his ear to the pavement on Kearny to hear the ghosts of Manilatown, the obliterated S.F. neighborhood that seems destined to evade revival. After a grease-slicked meal at New Filipinas on Mission, Himmelstein seeks out AdoboHobo's Jason Rotairo in Precita Park.

For five dollars, I got a paper taco tray filled with rice, adobo sauce and two chicken drumsticks. As I sat on a wall eating my dinner (delicious, and it went down much more easily than New Filipinas), I could not have been presented with a more idyllic scene in front of me: the sun was setting over the park, dogs and their owners ran up and down the grass, and a Spanish tortilla vendor and vegan baker were setting up their wares next to the AdoboHobo cart. I fended off the advances of dogs of all sizes interested in my meal, and thought about how, even though the setting couldn't have been more different, what I was eating was probably pretty similar to what the manongs of Manilatown got. I asked Jason Rotairo, AdoboHobo owner, if he'd ever heard of the missing neighborhood.