Today, artist Sly Guard Jr. will finish his mural outside Haight Fillmore Whole Foods (503 Haight St.).

As you can see, it is significantly more detailed than the initial concept that won the store’s mural contest.

It took Guard and his fellow painter Chris Cook longer than anticipated because someone tagged the mural while the work was in progress. “Thirty seconds with a spray can set us back a couple days,” Guard told Hoodline. (Guard is planning to wrap up work on the mural today by adding a protective layer of clear coat.)

Nonetheless, Guard is pleased with the results, and he says the feedback has been very positive.

One early review in particular stands out, since it came from a Muni driver and the mural prominently depicts a "Puni" bus driving through the Lower Haight with an angry duck behind the wheel. The driver seemed to take issue with the depiction at first, Guard says, but in the end, “She thought it was cute.”

The mural still complements the store's color palette and features cartoonish characters, choices Guard says he made to fit the existing artwork of the building. But several other location-specific details crept in, many of which were added on the spot.

One of the riders packed into the crowded Puni bus, for instance, is a kid in a flower pot hat that Guard and Cook saw boarding the 22 at its Fillmore and Haight stop. The bird sculpture above Squat & Gobble (237 Fillmore St.) also makes an appearance.

In what Guard says was a nod to the past as well as the present of the Lower Haight neighborhood, there’s a tribute to Hank’s 500 Club, a social club that later became Henrietta’s, a gay bar that formerly occupied the space that now houses Wonderland, the Chinese restaurant across the street from the mural.

And to all of you Hoodline commenters out there who weighed in on the initial concept: You kvetched, Guard listened. The central figure of the mural is no longer a hot dog. “It’s officially a sausage,” Guard says.