Retail Report

A shop becomes a gallery

Posted on September 1, 2017 by editors

Mariko Suzuki and Tomoaki Takashima and their treasures at Sanko.

Story & Photograph by FRANK WING

Sanko Kitchen Essentials, the anchor shop at the northeast end of Japantown’s Buchanan Street Mall, is sporting a new look these days.

For more than 35 years, it has been the go-to purveyor of hard to find Japanese cookware, unique bento boxes, exotic children’s lunch pails and enough teacups for every day of the year. But recently it has been transformed into an elegant gallery of fine ceramics imported from Japan.

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VICTORIA’S SECRET

Posted on August 3, 2017 by editors

By BARBARA KATE REPA

Victoria Dunham is bucking the trend.

At a time when many small businesses with unique offerings have been priced out and forced off Fillmore Street, the proprietor of the HiHo Silver jewelry store at 1904 Fillmore has just opened a second shop next door, doubling her retail space.

“I live in this neighborhood, too,” she says. “I know what it means to have mom-and-pop stores here, and this is a mom-and-pop — or at least a mom.”

In mid-July, Dunham opened a new boutique one door north, naming it simply for its address: 1906. The spot allows her to showcase the many gems and curiosities she finds too weird or wonderful to resist while traveling the world scouting for silver: scarves and shawls, framed insects, stainless steel vases, sting ray wallets and coin purses and polished wooden boxes.

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In the Loop

Posted on August 2, 2017 by editors

AFTER A TOTAL overhaul, the Shell station at California and Steiner has reopened — without its garage, but with a new Loop convenience store. The promised salad and sushi bars are not included, but the store offers hot dogs, corn dogs, tacos and tater tots, along with pastries and coffee.

EARLIER: “Shell gets the go-ahead“

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Poetica finds its community

Posted on June 29, 2017 by editors

Traci Teraoka is the proprietor of Poetica Art & Antiques at 3461 Sacramento Street.

LOCALS | FRANCINE BREVETTI

There was no place to put “1,000 Monks.” Artist Andrea Speer Hibbard was frustrated when trying to find a store or a gallery to exhibit the giclee prints of her drawing.

Until she walked into Poetica Art & Antiques on Sacramento Street.

There she found the proprietor, the expansive Traci Teraoka, only too happy to show and sell the luminous work in her store. Hibbard had created the drawing in tribute after her father died in 2001; her son had the original and encouraged his mom to make prints.

The creation was just the right fit for Teraoka’s eclectic and wide-ranging collection of furniture, art and decor at 3461 Sacramento Street. After six years in business, Poetica has drawn a devoted following.

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Shell station won’t have a garage

Posted on March 31, 2017 by editors

Construction continues on the new Shell station at California and Steiner.

AS THE demolition, excavation and reconstruction of the Shell gas station on the corner of California and Steiner proceeds, it has become apparent it will no longer include a garage when the station reopens this summer with more gas pumps and a Loop convenience store.

Neighbors rallied to save the garage, which had been on the corner for decades, when new owners of the station proposed to replace it with twice as many gas pumps and a massive grab-and-go store offering soda, snacks and more food options, including a salad bar and sushi bar.

Before giving its go-ahead, the Planning Commission reduced the number of additional gas pumps, limited the size of the store and directed the owners to rebuild the garage.

But soon after its renovation plans were approved in June 2015, Au Energy evicted the mechanics who leased the garage and shut it down. It remained empty until demolition began earlier this year.

As construction began, the general counsel for the company said “I don’t know” whether a garage would be included. He said the project “turned into a full rebuild” and was expected to take at least five months, with the station reopening “at the end of May at the earliest.”

EARLIER: “Shell gets go-ahead, garage gets the boot“

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In Vino veritas no more

Posted on January 4, 2017 by editors

After 20 years, Vino closed on New Year's Eve.

After 20 years at 2425 California Street, Vino closed on New Year’s Eve.

By CHRIS BARNETT

On New Year’s Eve, when most wine and champagne purveyors were tallying up their holiday sales receipts, Vino at 2425 California Street closed its doors forever after a 20-year run — the victim of a potential $1,000 a month rent hike, shrinking profits and a retailing strategy that no longer works in the neighborhood.

Unpretentious, with decor fashioned mostly out of wooden shipping boxes and paper tubes, and resembling a ground level wine cellar without the chill, Vino was known for its straight talk on wines, good values and its 350-bottle inventory of mostly eclectic imports.

Actually, Vino’s owner, seasoned wine retailer and wholesaler Alan Pricco, decided to pull the plug even before the property manager hit him with a $12,000 a year rent increase. “I called him and said we’re leaving,” Pricco says.

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Fillmore’s Beauty Row

Posted on December 1, 2016 by editors

Atelier Cologne from Paris is the newest beauty and body shop on Fillmore Street.

Atelier Cologne from Paris is the newest of many beauty and body shops on Fillmore Street.

THE ONRUSH OF new fashion and cosmetics brands and boutiques onto Fillmore Street in recent years has been astonishing — and beauty and body products are the indisputable trend of the moment.

There is understandable confusion about why so many have located so near each other and what sets them apart. And those seeking something new or a special gift are met with a barrage of adjectives: ethically sourced, cruelty-free, anti-microbial, sustainable or hypoallergenic.

But step inside any of the stylishly sleek shops and you’ll find knowledgeable sales associates with a true passion for their products. Lotions and potions are formulated not just to prettify, but also to fortify the health of the skin and the spirit of the soul.

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Mom and pop shop bucks the trends

Posted on December 1, 2016 by editors

Asmbly Hall’s Ron Benitez (center) offers Mayor Ed Lee fashion advice

Asmbly Hall’s Ron Benitez (center) offers Mayor Ed Lee some fashion advice.

By BARBARA KATE REPA

Five years ago, when many saw the neighborhood becoming inhospitable to mom-and-pop businesses as ever more corporate chains moved in, Tricia and Ron Benitez turned a deaf ear to the naysayers and opened their one-of-a-kind clothing boutique at 1850 Fillmore Street.

They stocked it with pieces for men and women by indie designers for the customer they described as a “sophisticated prepster” and named it Asmbly Hall, a moniker they said “describes a gathering place for the community that brings fashion, art and music together.”

Five years later, it’s all come true — even the mom and pop part, since the couple welcomed daughter Harlow 21 months ago. Mayor Ed Lee recently chose Asmbly Hall to kick off the “Shop and Dine in the 49” campaign, a holiday initiative to encourage spending in to the city’s neighborhoods. And Ron this year became president of the Fillmore Merchants Association.

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From Blue Bottle, prolonged silence

Posted on October 1, 2016 by editors

NEARLY TWO YEARS ago, the firm announced: “Blue Bottle Coffee is excited to be pursuing a new cafe located at Jackson and Fillmore Streets.” Since then, nada. A PR rep says only what she has said for months: “I will be in touch as soon as I have more details.”

Confirmation, of a sort, that Blue Bottle still intends to open on Fillmore came in mid-September when the windows were papered with a Blue Bottle logo and a quote from writer Yukio Mishima before his ritual suicide: “When silence is prolonged over a certain period of time it takes on additional meaning.”

EARLIER: “Blue Bottle may open on Fillmore“

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