Local: Mission Eatery is not a sandwich shop. That is, it’s not only a sandwich shop, though every day chef Jake Des Voignes (formerly of Fifth Floor and Fish & Farm) is making a half-dozen sandwiches, including one with roasted potato and green-garlic ricotta and another with braised lamb and Cara Cara orange marmalade. It’s not a restaurant, either, though a few nights a month the kitchen stays open late, serving a family-style menu that’s both prepared and served by the chefs. It’s not a bakery, though Knead Patisserie, headed up by Des Voignes’ wife, Shauna, has set up shop in the far corner, making a small selection of cookies, parfaits and cakes. I wouldn’t call it a cooking school, though classes—called labs—invite the public to geek out over asparagus, loquats or tomatoes in a hands-on setting. And it’s certainly not a bookshop, but members of the cookbook club can come in any time and borrow books from the extensive library, which includes The Fat Duck Cookbook and Julia Child classics. The hybrid space is so very San Francisco, from the hyperseasonal food offerings to the pleasant insistence on building a community from a hungry demographic. There’s something incredibly intentional about Local, as though each decision is guided by a larger philosophy about food (not surprising, given that the owner, Yaron Milgrom, postponed his doctoral studies in medieval Jewish mysticism to open this spot). That’s what makes Local so interesting—its ambition, its high-mindedness. It’s also what makes Local so confounding—what is this place, exactly? It’s all of those things—sandwich shop, bakery, restaurant, library, classroom—and above all, it’s another place for the food-obsessed to come to roost.