EXCERPT | By Etta James Uncle Frank showed up in his car and whisked us up to San Francisco when I was 12. We dropped [my mother] Dorothy off in the Fillmore District, which looked like a hell-hole to me. L.A. was a vine-covered cottage compared to these slums. After the sunny skies of southern [...]
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JAZZ | Anthony Torres Mike “Coffee Picasso” Pitre, a true original local jazz talent and music scene treasure, died of a heart attack on December 18, leaving friends and admirers stunned at the sudden departure of the Bohemian Knuckleboogie lead man. He was 44. I can still vividly remember that first sighting of Coffee and [...]
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NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the best things to happen to the San Francisco Symphony in its first 100 years. Join in this sing-along for the symphony’s centennial — today, December 8.
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JAZZ | Jason Olaine It seems like only yesterday that I came back home to the Bay Area after 10 years in New York to become artistic director of Yoshi’s new jazz club on Fillmore. That was May 2009, and here it is soon to be 2012. Now I find myself about to leave Yoshi’s [...]
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LOCALS | Fran Moreland Johns Alden Gilchrist has been making music at at the corner of Fillmore and Jackson for the past 60 years — and on October 28 he will be honored with a special concert as the longtime music director of Calvary Presbyterian Church.
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The San Francisco Filipino American Jazz Festival returns to the Fillmore for its fourth annual concert on Sunday, October 9, at 6 p.m. at Yoshi’s. Like last year’s concert, also held at Yoshi’s, this is a homecoming of Filipino jazz artists to the Fillmore, which once had a large Filipino population. Filipinos began settling in [...]
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Graham Leggat — the irrepressible Scottish impresario who led the San Francisco Film Society on to greater glory during the past six years — died tonight at his home after an 18-month battle with cancer. Under Leggat, the Film Society made its annual San Francisco International Film Festival — the nation’s oldest — more important [...]
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By Jesse Hamlin A sea of sun-drenched people flowed along Fillmore Street on Saturday, partaking of the musical and gustatory pleasures — not to mention the beer, wine and margaritas — served up by San Francisco’s biggest street bash. Blues and barbecued oysters. Fried catfish and Nigerian folk songs. Those were some of the sounds [...]
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For the 27th time, Fillmore Street will celebrate the Fourth of July by hosting the Fillmore Jazz Festival, this year on July 2 and 3. It’s by far the largest street party in the city, stretching from Jackson Street in Pacific Heights south through the Fillmore Jazz District to Eddy Street. Ruth Dewson, the long-reigning [...]
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After more than a year of exploring the possibilities, the San Francisco Film Society is coming to the neighborhood — but to Japantown, not the Clay Theater. The Film Society announced this morning that it will establish a year-round home and take over the programming of the stylish and high-tech Viz Cinema at the New [...]
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STARBUCKS OPENING
A FILLMORE JUICE BAR
Farewell to the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf, one of Fillmore’s many coffee shops, which closed on March 25 at the corner of Fillmore and Sacramento. . . . And hello to Starbucks, which is taking over the busy corner for its new chain of juice bars called Evolution Fresh, offering fresh and bottled juices, smoothies and food.
Even though this is the beginning of a new chain from Starbucks, it squeaks in under the ban on chain stores because it’s just starting and has fewer than 11 outlets. So far.
FURNITURE GIVES WAY
TO YOGA WEAR
The end is near for the Danish furniture store BoConcept, which opened less than two years ago at 1928 Fillmore. It’s retreating to its larger showroom in the design district and will be replaced by Prana, a brand of activewear for yogis, climbers and other sports enthusiasts.
SOLVING THE PUZZLE
OF FLOOR COVERING
A welcoming carpet in jaunty shades of brick, brown and purple on the sidewalk at 2226 Bush Street beckons buyers into Flor, a new store selling a modular system of floor covering that can be assembled as rugs, runners or wall-to-wall carpeting.
The floor covering is offered in 20-by-20-inch carpet tiles that range in cost from $8 per square for short nylon pile to $40 for plush wool. The squares can be assembled and changed to fit space and use needs.
ROAM BURGERS
MOVING UP TO FILLMORE
At 1923 Fillmore, Roam Burgers has signed a lease to succeed Osaka, the long-running Japanese restaurant operated by three Chinese sisters. Roam has established a big following for its gourmet burgers down the hill on Union Street.
MORE FASHION
SHOPS OPENING
Three Fillmore shops that have closed in recent weeks — Blu, Her and Ruby Living Design — will be replaced by new clothing boutiques. Alice + Olivia is already open at the corner of Fillmore and Clay Streets, former home of Blu. Look for Roberta Freymann and Steven Alan, coming soon.
DUMPLINGS & BUNS
CALLS IT QUITS
It was a dream come true for May Lee, whose family has owned the building at the key corner of Fillmore and California for many years. She’d take over the space at 2411 California and open a shop serving Chinese dumplings and buns based on her own family’s recipes.
Despite a stylish storefront and authentic offerings, the dream turned into something of a nightmare and the shop closed on February 26, barely six months after it opened.
A number of potential new food-related tenants are said to be circling, even though the space has no kitchen.
DECORATOR SHOWCASE
AT 2020 JACKSON
The Heller mansion at 2020 Jackson Street — on the market for $20 million — has been selected as the location for this year’s Decorator Showcase.
Designed by Julius Krafft, 2020 Jackson was built in 1902 by Wells Fargo Bank President Isaias Hellman as a wedding gift for his daughter, Clara, and her husband Emanuel Heller, founder of the Heller Ehrman law firm. After the 1906 earthquake, it served as the temporary headquarters of Wells Fargo.
This year the Decorator Showcase will run from April 28 to May 28.
