The New Fillmore

SOMETHING'S FISHY AT
THE FARMERS MARKET

There’s now an added bounty of fish and shellfish at the weekly Fillmore Farmers Market, open on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Fillmore and O’Farrell.

New to the market is a small seafood company based in Santa Cruz called From the Sea to You. Owned by Danny Guzman and operated with the help of his wife Floriberta and son Julio, most of the offerings are wild and sustainably caught.

The selection on a recent Saturday morning would make a pescophile’s heart leap: fresh-caught crabs propped up next to bins of oysters, salmon, sea bass, sashimi-grade ahi, snapper, cod, squid and sardines caught just hours earlier in Monterey Bay.

MORE LABELS
OPEN ON FILLMORE

Fillmore Street continues to be the location of choice for corporate labels branching out from department stores to open their own boutiques.

A new cosmetics company is just open: Nars brings a sleek new look to 2050 Fillmore, for decades the home of Mrs. Dewson’s Hats.

Newly open at 2116 Fillmore is Joie, an L.A. line that brings its fashions for women to the neighborhood.

Recently opened at 2450 Fillmore: the first San Francisco store for Aesop, which boasts body care products by an Australian company.

All are rolling out new dedicated boutiques across the country and opened on Fillmore before they got to 11 stores, the threshold for the city’s limits on chain stores.

FOR A CHANGE, A
BOOKSTORE OPENS

Here’s man-bites-dog news in an era when bookstores are mostly closing: A new one has opened in Japantown.

Forest Books has moved to 1748 Buchanan Street from its longtime home on 16th Street, driven out by rising rents in the oh-so-hip Mission District.

MICHELIN AWARDS
SPQR A STAR

In addition to its beautifully illustrated new cookbook, the restaurant SPQR at 1911 Fillmore has something else to brag about: a star from the Michelin guide in this year’s rankings. Congratulations to chef Matt Accarrino.

STATE BIRD: AMERICA'S
BEST NEW RESTAURANT

No less an authority than Bon Appetit magazine has joined the chorus of praise for State Bird Provisions, the still newish path-breaking restaurant at 1529 Fillmore in the jazz district.

The magazine’s annual wrapup of outstanding new restaurants around the country proclaims State Bird Provisions the best new restaurant in America.

“Traditionally speaking, it’s not the food, the setting, or the experience I would have expected from a great restaurant, but it works,” writes author Andrew Knowlton, who calls State Bird’s small plates “little flavor bombs, each a revelation.”