Doggy Bag: Last Days at Poleng

Lingering ghosts: Poleng in open-er times.

​Our favorite morsel from the blogs.

Funeral service: Hot Food Porn blogger Eddie Lau returned to Poleng Lounge last weekend for three days to, as he phrases it, "sunset" the place (Lau once cooked there). Poleng broke down its kitchen for good after service last Sunday (it'll continue on as nightclub and bar through January). Lau's final-days diary of working the line steers away from sentiment, but it does suggest what the restaurant meant for an ex-line cook, and by extension, for San Francisco. Here's a taste (after the jump):

Nobody held me accountable and nothing kept me beholden to Poleng, but I wanted Poleng to survive simply because there were still remnants of an institution that I cared so much about for so long. With bad things happening at every turn, it gets harder to really care and invest in anything at all - and, in that same frame of mind, it magnified my strong feelings for the restaurant.

For anyone who cared about Poleng, Lau's account is a fitting obit, capturing the shifting flavor of restaurant work as a place evolves, even in its last days. What can anyone do? Slam a shot of Fernet and move on.