O n August 1, restaurateurs Lori Baker and Jeff Banker will up their culinary cachet by adding a takeout bakery.
It’s been part of their plan since the couple opened their neighborhood hot spot, Baker & Banker, a few months ago at 1701 Octavia. “It was just very hard to make it all happen at once,” says Baker, since the bakery required going through a separate permitting process.
The bakery entrance will be around the corner on Bush Street. There’s no seating inside, but Baker says she hopes to arrange outdoor seating soon. She will showcase her favorites: a couple of kinds of bread that will change daily, cupcakes, layer cakes, brownies, cookies, breakfast pastries and various take-home desserts. Custom orders will also be welcomed.
“I’ve been a pastry chef for 15 years,” says Baker. “And by now, I’ve found the things I like to make and eat — and that I’m good at.” Eventually she also hopes to add sandwiches to the menu and to expand the bakery’s hours — which will start at Wednesday through Sunday, 9 to 5 — to cater to the breakfast crowd. “For now, I’m hoping that people who start their days a bit later or work flexible hours will come by to grab a scone,” says Baker.
Barely 48 hours after seasoned drinkmeister Reza Esmaili took over the helm of the listing and listless Long Bar and Bistro on the corner of Fillmore and Clay on June 28, he started shaking up the joint.
He whacked one to four bucks off most of the drink and food prices, hired a tall, sultry bartender named Doc, started opening on Monday nights and at noon for lunch on the weekends. He kept the kitchen fired up an extra hour — until 11 p.m. — from Thursday through Saturday for late night noshers and stripped the shades off a row of upper windows to let in more light. And Esmaili was just warming up. Read more »
Kim Nalley will perform selections from her new CD at the FIllmore Jazz Festival.
FILLMORE JAZZ FESTIVAL | Sunday, July 4, at 2 p.m.
By Kim Nalley
When I started playing at the Alta Plaza in 1995, I had no idea what an event Tuesday nights would become.
I had played at the same location at Fillmore and Clay two years earlier on Sundays. Back then it was called the Fillmore Grill. Later I stopped in to visit the old club. I sat in with pianist Eric Shifrin for a tune and the response was so overwhelming the management hired me back to sing every Tuesday.
There was one catch: They didn’t have an entertainment license anymore, so I would have to sing acoustically. This would be daunting for most singers but I had a solid classical and theater background, good projection and was willing to give it a try. Read more »
A fateful plane trip landed pianist Art Khu a starring role in a new jazz film.
FILLMORE JAZZ FESTIVAL | Saturday, July 3, at 2 p.m.
Art Khu was settling into his seat for the flight back from Mexico when he struck up a conversation with the passenger sitting beside him. And between takeoff and touchdown, a star was born.
The passenger was Kiva Knight, a cinematographer from the Fillmore, who was preparing to shoot a jazz film. They hit it off. Knight introduced Khu to director Marlon Gonzales, who agreed he’d be perfect in one of the lead roles.
“Pictures from the Gone World” was shot last fall and will be ready for entry in the Sundance Film Festival this fall. Khu plays “a homeless, crazy jazz piano player,” he says, one of three present-day jazz musicians based loosely on historical figures. In addition to channeling Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell, Khu wrote much of his own music. He’ll present the new work — plus other original compositions and a few standards — on Saturday, July 3, during the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Khu and his band will appear on the California Street stage from 2 to 3:30 p.m. Read more »
One-of-a-kind hand-embroidered boots will be available at the Fillmore Jazz Festival.
FILLMORE JAZZ FESTIVAL | July 3 & 4
A decade ago, the artist Ken Auster became enamored of some artistic cowboy boot sculptures. He didn’t buy them, but they stayed on his mind — ones that got away.
Then about a year ago, Auster was stunned to see what he thought were the same boot sculptures. “As I approached, I realized these were the real thing — real boots, as beautiful as the ones I’d seen before, but you could actually wear them,” he says.
The boots are handcrafted of intricately embroidered velvet in Uzbekistan, done in tribal designs indigenous to the region. No two pair are alike: some are bright florals on black, some muted and spare, some a classy tone on tone. Heels and toes vary, too — including cowboy boots and Cuban styles with heels, plus a flat version with gypsy heel and round toe.
Smitten all over again, Auster and his wife Paulette bought more than the boots. They became the collection’s first major distributor in the United States. In “The Art of the Boot,” they will offer a selection for sale July 3 and 4 at the Fillmore Jazz Festival in a pavilion at the corner of Fillmore and Pine.
San Francisco’s 7×7 Magazine is out with its annual neighborhood issue, and Fillmore Street is included as “Most Walkable.”
Says 7×7: “Most SF neighborhoods score in the 90s on Walkscore.com, but for our money, the strip of Fillmore from Sacramento to Eddy has everything you could need within a few blocks. Eat at Pizzeria Delfina or SPQR. Buy groceries at the Safeway or high-end Mollie Stone’s. Hear music at the Fillmore, Yoshi’s or the Boom Boom Room. Shop for everything from midcentury furniture to designer labels to hand-me-downs. There are cinemas, coffee shops, bakeries, salons, bookstores, a drugstore, a gym, two nearby parks (Alta Plaza and Lafayette Square) and even a good hospital (CPMC) should you exhaust yourself, which is very possible.”
Stuart Hall High School: new life after a month of drama
Stuart Hall High School, the all-boys Catholic school at Pine and Octavia Streets, in recent weeks has experienced its own death and resurrection.
In early June, word spread rapidly through the school community that a move was afoot to shut down the school because of declining enrollment and dwindling finances. Supporters quickly mobilized their resources and their checkbooks. By the end of the month, they had raised more than $3 million to solve the immediate financial problems and put forth a long-term plan to save the school that was unanimously endorsed by its board of trustees. Read more »
2830 Pacific was the decorator showcase home in 2009.
The volume of sales in the local housing market remains strong, with 38 closings during the past month, exactly the same as the previous month. Most notable among recent sales is 2830 Pacific Avenue, the 2009 decorator showcase home.
The 7-bedroom Pacific Heights mansion was originally listed at $12.9 million in April 2009. It was reduced to just under $10 million in May, then withdrawn from the market in July when it was leased with a purchase option. That option was recently exercised, and the home closed for a sale price of $8.35 million, more than 35 percent below the original listing price.
As that closing indicates, the market is still slower for the highest-end homes and condos. But for most of the market, property that is priced right and shows well is going into contract quickly and closing within 10 percent of the listing price. Examples are 2432 Pine and 2047 Green. Both showed well, went into contract within a couple of weeks of being listed, and closed at or very close to their listing prices.
Le Petit Trianon, at 3800 Washington, is a replica of Marie Antoinette's refuge at Versailles.
Renovation of Le Petit Trianon — long delayed — is to begin this summer. The grand home at 3800 Washington Street has been empty for years and largely unattended, even since it was bought in 2007 for $22 million by tech mogul Halsey Minor, founder of CNet.
“The state of Le Petit Trianon is a perfect metaphor for the troubles of Minor,” says a Bay Citizen report, which calls the landmark home “almost comically formal.”
Jewelrism — a new shop at 2512 Sacramento in the former home of the Romi boutique — features jewelry pieces great and small in a space outfitted with feminine flourishes and vintage furnishings.
The shop is also a haven for jewelrymakers. It offers more than 1,000 clasps, fittings, beads, chains and gems, including parts for earrings, necklaces, rings, pins and bracelets.
Kay Kim opened Jewelrism after selling jewelry parts for two years at the online store etsy.com. It’s an extension of the family business for Kim, whose brother owns a factory that makes jewelry parts in South Korea. The handmade selections in the shop change weekly with every shipment of new items. Prices range from $8 for small costume pieces to $800 for more elaborate creations of sterling silver. Jewelrism also takes custom orders.
And that unusual name? The inspiration came from an unlikely source: the album “Rainism,” by Rain, a popular Korean singer who starred in “Ninja Assassin.”
BITTER NEWS: The chocolate cafe at 2123 Fillmore, Bittersweet, has closed. A posting on the store's blog tells the story:
"Bittersweet closed our Fillmore street store in San Francisco. Unfortunately, with our lease term up and negotiations coming to a rather abrupt end, we just couldn't sustain the 30% rise in rent the landlord was looking for."
BEAUTY BAR CLOSES: The Tokyo Lash Bar at the Shu Uemura cosmetics boutique at 1971 Fillmore is a thing of the past. Parent company L'Oreal closed all of Shu Uemura's stores in the U.S., although Shu Uemura products will still be carried by a number of department stores. L'Oreal — which also owns Kiehl's at Fillmore and Washington — plans to move Kiehl's down the street to occupy the Shu Uemura space at Fillmore and Pine.
TAKE THE CAKE: Elizabeth Falkner has closed Citizen Cake on Grove Street, but it's taking considerably longer than planned to reopen in the longtime home of Vivande at 2125 Fillmore.
The tablehopper reports on a conversation with Falkner about her plans:
"She described the new look as Victorian-era apothecary-meets-soda fountain (that serves beer and wine, heh). Speaking of beer, she mentioned beer floats, and to that, I say cheers, plus sodas made with gum syrups. She explained the restaurant and patisserie will be combined, with 30 seats (including 6 bar seats) open for guests who just want to come in for an eclair and coffee, or a sit-down lunch or dinner (some seats will be held for reservations as well). . . . Lunch and dinner will be served daily, continuously from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m."
IT'S A MIRACLE: After six long empty years, the rebuilding of the former vintage shop at 2028 Fillmore is nearly complete. The upstairs — for many years occupied by shrinks — will return to residential use. Tenants have been angling for the downstairs storefront, and a lease should be signed soon. Expect another women's clothing boutique.
COMING & GOING: Nellie Muganda's Neja Cosmetics, now relocated to Union Street, will be replaced at 1850 Fillmore by foamorder.com, which sells organic mattresses and other products made of foam. . . . The olive oil store O & Co. at 2208 Fillmore will be replaced by a new frozen yogurt shop. L'Occitane, O & Co.'s corporate sibling across the street, shut down for 10 days for a freshening-up and is now re-open for business. . . . Fit Lite, the mini health club at 2434 California, has been replaced by the Yuni salon.
