Tsukune: That’s Japanese for chicken meatball.

Biru: Beer.

Motte, shite kudasai: More, please.

Great. You’re ready for Rintaro, an earthy izakaya prone to grilling meat and pouring cold and plentiful beer, open now in the Mission. (Here’s the menu and here’s the slideshow.)

This is in the old Chez Spencer spot that burned down. Sad. You wondered if you’d ever walk 14th Street again and feel happiness. Now the Peko-Peko guy (who has also been tight with Alice Waters) has conjured a handsome, airy space with “earth plaster” walls (read: mud), wooden beams and yuzu trees trying their best to contain a loud swirl of music, clinking beers and burbling shōchū. That thing you’re feeling... sure feels something like happiness.

Come here with friends who have an appreciation for skewered chicken meatballs and fresh spot prawns. Follow the hinoki wooden counter to your booth in the back. It’s got ample surface for the unending procession of duck yakitori and crispy gyoza with pork jelly. 

Okay, no, it ends. Everything ends.

But it’ll have a really good run.