ANNOUNCEMENT: BAD meeting at Siam Kitchen, S.F. 2005-10-12

[Michael Paoli]

BAD meeting at Siam Kitchen, S.F. 2005-10-1

We are going to Siam Kitchen, in San Francisco, for the
October 12, 2005 BAD meeting, meeting will start at 7:00 P.M.

Who: Bay Area Debian (BAD) folks and those that want to attend our
meeting.

What: Bay Area Debian (BAD) meeting at Siam Kitchen (very good /
excellent Thai food, reasonably priced, in evening typically
not too crowded and may have more menu selections (usually
packed/overflowing for weekday lunches and may have a shorter menu for
weekday lunches)).  See also Details, etc.

When:
starting at 7:00 P.M. PDT, October 12, 2005
running until ~9:00 P.M. or ~9:30 P.M. PDT or possibly later
(I did call the restaurant again to confirm date and such,
they said they're open until 9:00 P.M., but if it's as I always remember
it and have seen it before, they close the kitchen and stop taking
additional customers at 9:00 P.M., and generally want to be able to shut
their doors around 9:30 P.M., or when the last customer leaves,
whichever comes first.).  If folks are interested in continuing
"meeting" beyond about 9:00 to 9:30 P.M. or so, we, or at least those
interested, could move to another venue/location, to be decided
at/around that time (there are many other possible locations, many quite
conveniently close by, that are open quite late).

Where:
Siam Kitchen
668 Sacramento St.
San Francisco, CA 94111-2510
USA
1-415-391-8988
It's in the Financial District, between Montgomery and Kearny.
See also Details, etc.

Why: Yummy Thai food :-), I was looking for an "excuse" to go there
again (haven't been there in a couple months or more now, and I keep
getting *very* tempted to go there again), and because nobody else has
yet called the 2005-10-12 BAD meeting (of course this notice/posting is
null and void if someone beats me to the list in calling the BAD
meeting).  See also Details, etc.

Details, etc.:

Location/Directions:
Siam Kitchen (668 Sacramento St.) is conveniently located in
the Financial District in San Francisco, a fairly short walk from the
Montgomery St. BART and MUNI underground station, and is rather to quite
close to several MUNI lines.  It's also a moderate to fairly longish
walk from the Transbay Terminal or CalTrain.
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=668+Sacramento+St,+San+Francisco,+CA&spn=0.023392,0.042563&iwloc=A&hl=en

(the following directions are probably within about 15 degrees of their
true geographic direction)

>From BART or MUNI underground:
A) Go to Montgomery St. station, escape to street level, that should
put you on or exceedingly close to Market St.  If you're not already on
the North side of Market St. (or on Montgomery or Sansome streets (but
not New Montgomery)), proceed North (or Northwest) to the North side of
Market St.  (where Montgomery (but not New Montgomery) and also Post and
Sutter streets may be found - all on the North side of Market St.).  If
you're not already on Sansome or Montgomery street, proceed to either of
those streets (Montgomery is probably slightly preferable, but if you're
already on or much closer to Sansome, then Sansome would be the shorter
route from there). (continue with B))
B) Proceed North on Sansome or Montgomery St - if
you're not already on the West side of one of those streets, you may
want to cross to the West side when it's convenient - continuing until
you're on the North side of Sacramento St.  Then proceed West on
Sacramento St. to Siam Kitchen, 668 Sacramento St.

>From the Transbay Terminal or San Francisco CalTrain station:
These are longer walks (or one could hop local transit).
Proceed in a generally Northwest direction, typically along one of the
numbered streets (e.g. 1st St. or 4th St.) to Market St. and cross to
the North (Northwest) side of Market St.  Proceed Southwest or Northeast
along Market to the closer of Sansome or Montgomery streets (Sansome &
Market is Southwest of 1st & Market, Montgomery & Market is Northeast of
3rd & Market, the numbered streets increase in number as one goes
Southwest along Market St.).  Proceed from B), above.

Driving:
I'm not going to attempt to tell you how to drive there, but parking can
be semi-reasonable (at least as far as San Francisco goes), particularly
if one's timing is good.  Most notably right after all the tow-away no
parking (generally many westbound curb lanes in the Financial District)
P.M. commute areas become available (~6:00 P.M.) there is ample free
parking ... at least for a while.  There's probably still a fair bit of
parking even later, but it might take some hunting to find a spot.

Rationale, etc.:
Venue meets shotgun rules requirements, and also does pretty well at
meeting much of the non-binding part part of the rules too.
I really like the food there lots :-).  So far, everyone I've "dragged"
there has also liked the food there quite a bit to a lot.  It's pretty
reasonably priced (figure roughly $8.00 to $16.00 USD for dinner,
including tip - $11.00 to $15.00 being pretty typical).  If most or all
of us are agreeable to it, I might suggest we eat "Chinese style" - i.e.
we share all the food dishes and divvy up the tab (that worked quite
well when we went to Henry's Hunan Restaurant for the 2005-08-10 BAD
meeting).  Other than great food :-), the place isn't all that fancy or
spectacular, but it's quite adequate.  The service isn't superb, but
it's generally quite nice and friendly.  The place is pretty conveniently
located for a San Francisco location (reasonably close to BART and MUNI
metro, and other MUNI lines), and also conveniently generally not too
crowded in the evenings, and has sufficient tables and seating and staff
to reasonably accommodate a typically sized to somewhat larger BAD
meeting.  I haven't checked to see if there's any WiFi access there
(none provided by Siam Kitchen last I was there), and there's probably
some AC power available but it may not be that conveniently accessible.
See also What and Why, above.

references:
http://bad.debian.net/
http://bad.debian.net/shotgun_rules.txt
http://maps.google.com/maps?q=668+Sacramento+St,+San+Francisco,+CA&spn=0.023392,0.042563&iwloc=A&hl=en
http://www.511.org/
http://www.bart.gov/
http://www.mapsonus.com/