Graham Leggat, executive director of the society, said he is eager to proceed. “It’s certainly progress,” Leggat said. “It’s a better sign. How good it is remains to be seen.”

At the same time, owner Balgobind Jaiswal — who also owns the Blu and Cielo women’s clothing boutiques on Fillmore Street, as well as the building that houses Marc by Marc Jacobs — has retained an architect who is exploring how the Clay might be reconfigured to accommodate two or three smaller theaters. And he may seek to build four townhouses on top of the theaters to help fund the project.

“We are committed to keeping it as a theater,” Jaiswal said. “We are trying to find a long-term solution, rather than being back in the same situation in two years.”

Jaiswal has retained Charles Kahn, a Berkeley architect who he said “has worked with Landmark Theatres and is quite familiar with the problems of single-screen movie theaters and how to go about making the theater more viable.” Kahn helped transform the Shattuck Theater in Berkeley and has advised on the repurposing of the Metro Theater on Union Street.

Leggat said he expects to meet with both Jaiswal and Kahn. “It’s a question of the details,” Leggat said. “There’s nothing entirely sacrosanct about a single-screen theater. It would strictly be a question of how good the designs are.” The bigger issue, Leggat said, is what kind of improvements the building needs and who pays for them.

Neighborhood residents appeared before the city’s Historic Preservation Commission on September 1 to raise awareness of the plight of the Clay. If the commission designates the theater a city landmark, that would protect the architecture. Any change of use would require a conditional use permit. The addition of residential units might also require an environmental impact report.

RALLY PLANNED: A neighborhood rally in support of the 100-year-old Clay Theater will be held on Wednesday, September 8, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Long Bar, just across the street from the theater at 2298 Fillmore Street.

By Thomas Reynolds

Discussions between Clay Theater owner Balgobind Jaiswal and the San Francisco Film Society began last December after Landmark Theatres decided it could no longer afford to continue to operate the venerable theater, which has been showing films on Fillmore Street for 100 years.

The lease had actually expired two years earlier.

“The Clay has been in trouble financially for several years,” said Ted Mundorff, CEO of Landmark. “So we’ve been working on what we could do to prolong the probable demise of any single-screen theater.”

In January there were further discussions between the Film Society and the owner.

“The best use was the Film Society,” Mundorff said. “We thought it was a really good fit.” The Film Society sponsors the San Francisco International Film Festival — the nation’s oldest — and programs a screen year-round at the Sundance Kabuki Cinemas in Japantown. The society also sponsors a wide-ranging program of other film-related events throughout the year from its headquarters in the Presidio.

Both the owner and the Film Society found their negotiations frustrating.

“After three months, I could not accomplish anything,” said Jaiswal. “So I hired lawyers and spent thousands of dollars and they could not help me. So I took over again. Back and forth, back and forth. It was exhausting. I’ve been in business for 30 years and I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“We don’t know what he wants,” countered Leggat, head of the Film Society. “It’s like trying to hit a target in the dark.”

Landmark agreed to keep the theater operating while the landlord and the Film Society negotiated, hoping there would be a seamless transition.

“But that didn’t work out,” Mundorff said. “It didn’t seem to be going anywhere. We were at the end of our rope. All I could do was bring them to the altar — I couldn’t make them marry.”

So on August 10 Mundorff made the call he had hoped to avoid. He told Clay Theater manager Chris Hatfield to prepare to shut down the theater at the end of the month. The staff posted a notice in the box office window announcing that Sunday, August 29, would be the Clay’s final day, and word — and shock and dismay — began to spread through the neighborhood and the city’s film community.

At that point, Leggat and supporters of the Film Society decided to go public with their attempt to get the owner of the Clay to rent or sell them the theater. Leggat said the society offered to match the rent Landmark was paying — even though he said the theater does not comply with disability requirements and needs at least $200,000 in improvements.

“We’re willing to refurbish and re-energize the Clay,” he said in mid-August. “We care deeply about the soil in which we’re planted.”

As the Clay’s final weekend approached, Mundorff flew up from Landmark’s Los Angeles headquarters. A San Francisco native who grew up in the Sunset — and whose parents enjoyed seeing movies at the Clay — he found the final days difficult. He was at the Clay when the last show let out on Thursday, and employees and former employees were stopping by to say goodbye to the theater.

“It was a very, very emotional time for everyone in the organization,” he said. “We don’t like losing one of our children.” He added: “I would feel this way in any other city, but probably not as much. San Francisco is dear to me.”

The next day, on Friday, August 27, he was in contact with the landlord.

“I was hopeful during Friday’s discussions that we could make something happen,” Mundorff said. An agreement was finally struck in the early hours Saturday morning to keep the Clay operating.

“It was terrific,” he said. “We were ecstatic about continuing to operate the theater and our landlord was happy, too.” He called the Clay Saturday afternoon and told the staff there was a reprieve. “I felt a little like the governor picking up the phone to call San Quentin,” he recalled.

“We were already in the process of making plans to leave” when the call came from Mundorff, said Hatfield. “We were told to stop — that we would be sticking around for a while.”

As it happened, the Clay was scheduled to host a final midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on Saturday night. As Rocky Horror fans lined up in costume for one final showing and sing-along, Hatfield and fellow manager Michael Blythe decided they would announce the good news to the sold-out audience before the film began.

“There couldn’t have been a better time,” said Hatfield. “We broke the news on stage right then and there. If the theater were any older, it might have shook apart.”

“When we made the announcement, the crowd went nuts,” said Blythe. “It was a blast. It went from a funeral to a celebration real quick.”

Mundorff credits Jaiswal with making it possible to keep the theater operating.

“Both of us were motivated to keep the theater open,” he said. “But the landlord made it happen. Without him, this wouldn’t have happened.” He added: “It was a great victory for all of us who love movies.”

Said Jaiswal: “They cannot afford to stay here. I told them, ‘I’ll give you free rent, just pay my property taxes and charges.’ It was not easy for me to let Landmark occupy the theater rent free. In the interest of all the merchants and the neighbors, I felt this was the best option.”

“No, not for free,” Mundorff said when asked about the rent. “But he’s been very, very kind.”

“This is obviously not a permanent solution, but it buys us time to find a permanent solution,” Jaiswal said. Either party has the option of ending the agreement with 30 days’ notice.

“I’m going as long as we can,” said Mundorff.

“It is going to be indefinite until I find a solution,” said Jaiswal.

By midday Sunday, still suffering from the after-effects of Saturday night’s celebration, Blythe was struggling to figure out how to announce the news on the theater’s marquee in the limited space and dwindling number of letters available. By the time the 2:30 matinee of “The Concert” began, there was a short but sweet message on the marquee: “The show goes on!”

Photograph of Arthur Bloomfield by Susie Biehler

By Mark J. Mitchell

You may have read recently that New York author Pete Hamill’s new book is going straight to digital format, skipping print altogether. But the Fillmore’s own Arthur Bloomfield has beaten him to it.

Bloomfield latest book, “More Than the Notes,” made its debut online a few weeks ago and is available at no charge. In addition to his lyrical prose, it includes more than four and a half hours of music clips, enabling readers to hear the precise performances he’s writing about.

Bloomfield is a respected scholar of music, having written “The San Francisco Opera, 1922-1978.” He performed in the Stanford Chorus under both Pierre Monteux and Bruno Walter. He also writes on architecture and cooking in the books “Gables and Fables” and “The Gastronomical Tourist.”

His new book was inspired by a passion for music and the knowledge that there is more to music than the notes on the page. In this era of electronic and digital reproduction, it is easy to lose sight of the fact that each performance of a given piece of music differs from all others. We tend to forget that, if you wanted to hear music as recently as 125 years ago, you had to go where it was being performed or play the music yourself. Bloomfield’s book reminds us.

“More Than the Notes” is about conductors — specifically, conductors who were born in the later half of the 19th century. While we can read about earlier performers and conductors, these are the earliest we can actually hear.

Arthur Bloomfield knows a lot about music and assumes that most of his readers will have some sort of familiarity with the terms, the scores and the composers, if not necessarily all of the conductors he has chosen to spotlight. Because he never condescends, he manages to educate
gently — at least somewhat gently. Music is about passion and Bloomfield is a passionate listener.

Bloomfield grew up around a radio and heard the various weekly broadcasts by the great American orchestras under some of the best batons of all time. There is a joy to the sections of the book in which he recalls the old broadcasts and the enthusiasm he discovered as a child and young man hearing the performances. Of course, he also performed under a couple of the batons, which adds a touching human element to his discussions.

It is the insight that Bloomfield brings, however, that will light up any music lover. He discusses each conductor, providing some biographical information — but more important, he goes into detail about specific performances, giving the dates of the recordings or broadcasts.

The book’s opening essay on Fritz Reiner gives a sense of his flavor and also his subject:

What, forever asks the commentator, does a conductor really do?

Well, he does the sort of thing Fritz Reiner is doing in the full-page portrait decorating his French RCA recording of the Bach orchestral suites. His baton-holding hand raised crisply above his head, a handsome show of starched white shirt-cuff next thereto, he’s fixing the left side of an invisible orchestra with a look that might terrify a Martian, a call to action flamed in part by an instant invocation of stage despair, or maybe it’s the sullen dignity of a challenged monarch (here, now, this instant, the most important thing in the world is your entrance!) while his left hand waits in reserve at waist level, ready to italicize a point.

He is, in other words, mesmerizing his musicians into sharing with him one hundred and one percent, as if by instantaneous transfusion, an emotional moment, some superb phraseological felicity transferable by a magnificent glance. Ordered yet passionate, this optical sting is emblem of a style almost stark in its beauty yet rich in nuance of the subtlest and warmest sort.

This word picture conjures the conductor’s function as well as Bloomfield’s love for music and his musical erudition, which is always laid on lightly.

A few words about the format: This is a book that’s available online only. The conductors are arranged chronologically and you click on a name to read a particular essay. In most books about classical music, there are long musical examples in print. Some books also come with CDs that can be cued up.

But for this book, the online format has a serious advantage. Bloomfield tells you about the details of a performance, then you can click on a link and listen to that exact performance as you read his words. There are also different versions of the same pieces by different conductors, so you can get a strong sense of each musician’s personal style.

“More Than the Notes” will reward you and renew your sense of wonder about serious music. You will find yourself going to your CDs — or vinyl, if you’re of a certain age — and checking to see who is conducting and which pieces they perform. It will attune your ear to the differences among conductors and increase your appreciation of music and music making. And it will also entertain you.

Not bad at all for the web.

Neighborhood poet Mark J. Mitchell’s first chapbook, Three Visitors, is being released in September by Negative Capability Press.

What motivated you to write “More Than the Notes,” your new e-book on legendary conductors of the 19th century?

When I was 11, my mother started taking me downtown once a month to the White House department store. It was where Banana Republic is now. Up on the fourth floor they had a record department. She’d buy me old Victor and Columbia albums. And she also gave me a book of record reviews. I said: “What’s the point? Isn’t Beethoven’s Fifth always the same?” She emphatically said no. In a way, that was the genesis of this book.

Even then you lived in the neighborhood?

I grew up in Presidio Heights at Clay and Locust and went to the old Town School on Alta Plaza Park. My father was a professor at Stanford Medical School, which is now California Pacific Medical Center. We would take the No. 4 streetcar along Sacramento Street, down Fillmore to Sutter, make a left and go downtown.

And those trips downtown led you to become a music critic.

In the ’60s and ’70s I was a music critic for the Call-Bulletin, which became the News-Call-Bulletin, and later for the old Examiner. I left the Examiner to become a freelance writer, mostly on music and food. I spent a lot of the 1980s researching the conductors book.

You say the book aims to clear up some of the “received wisdom” about conductors. In what way?

I had long felt there was not a book that made a sufficient distinction between conductors — nor a book that told enough about what conductors really do: What are the decisions they make about tempo, balance, etc., all of which can affect the emotion of the performance as it goes from mood to mood. What this book does, first, is tell the kind of decisions a particular conductor made. You get some sense of how his mind works. And second — and quite important — you get a good idea of the many ways in which the secrets of a score can be discovered. There’s a great quote from the English writer and pianist Susan Tomes: “The score is the map, but not the journey.”

Your book itself is something of a tome.

It’s about 100,000 words. I’ve been working on it a lot for about four years — but I’ve been thinking about it for 30 years.

And yet it’s not a book, but a website with sound clips.

The advent of the technology — to have sound clips — came at a perfect time. It’s on the cutting edge. I wasn’t accustomed to listening to music on my computer, but when I heard the sound coming out, I was ecstatic. And I had Dick Wahlberg a block up Webster Street to help. He also grew up in Presidio Heights. He uses my basement to store part of his record collection and is a great sound engineer. So I had technical help nearby I’d known forever. We had a number of sessions making the clips and decided together when the clips should begin and end. It was uncanny how often we agreed. Sometimes we worked from 78s, sometimes 33s, sometimes open-reel tapes. I had almost all of the clips in my own record library. Maybe I got a couple from Dick, but between us we had them all. Then I delivered my text and the master CD with the sound clips to the site designer and engineer. By some mysterious means, they turned them into a website. What we’ve done may be unique. Just click on the megaphone and you can play the exact passage in the exact Beethoven recording I’m writing about. It’s like a time machine.

This is your third book in recent years — and your second online book.

“The Gastronical Tourist” was published in 2002 and had a life of its own as a book. Then in 2007 we put it online. The numbers went up from practically zero to 60,000. And “Gables and Fables” — the book of Pacific Heights architectural history based on my wife Anne’s columns from the New Fillmore — was published in 2007. It’s still available at Browser Books on Fillmore.

Has it been an adjustment to see this new book online rather than on the bookshelf?

It’s been a revelation. Last night I googled the book. There’s something about turning on the screen and seeing all those cross-references. It’s satisfying — and you certainly get much better numbers. I’m a great devotee of Browser Books. I practically live in there sometimes. So it was a little wrenching at first that this new book won’t be there, or in the symphony shop. But I’ve gotten over that. And it’s free. It’s there for the tasting.

New restaurants have helped Union Street businesses rebound.

With the opening of a number of new restaurants, Union Street is showing signs of recovery from the economic doldrums that led to a spate of shuttered shops on the street. But a new group of young residents and business owners says more aggressive change is needed in the neighborhood, and has formed the Union Street Enrichment Association to do the job.

“Save Union Street” is the battle cry and the name of a new Facebook page, which proclaims: “Union Street in Cow Hollow has gone from a busy street with lots of businesses to a ghost town filled with boarded-up remnants of days gone by.”

“The Union Street Enrichment Association was sparked out of a need to save Union Street from a long stretch of vacancies and failed business driven by archaic local association practices, real-estate profiteers and shortsighted residents,” said Phil Boissiere, one of the leaders of the new group. “The goal of the new youthful association is to transform Union Street into a vibrant, economically healthy community center.”

The group was spurred by growing frustration among younger merchants and residents, who say old-timers have sapped the life from Union Street and opposed new businesses that could bring fresh energy to the street. They were prompted to action when Giordano Brothers, a North Beach eatery, was denied a permit for outdoor seating on Union Street earlier this year after nearby residents complained.

Their frustration grew when one of Union Street’s new bar-restaurants, the Brick Yard, was halted by the city from creating an outdoor patio fronting Union Street because it did not have proper permits. The patio was formerly enclosed. Boissiere promised “all hell’s gonna break loose” when the issue comes before the Planning Commission this fall.

Complainers “are now trying to prevent outdoor seating and other creative means to bring business to Union Street,” Boissiere said. “All of this is culminating on the heels of the apparent war on fun that the Alcoholic Beverage Control has been waging on San Francisco nightlife.”

The Brick Yard hosted the group’s public launch party on August 30. A full house of young enthusiasts showed up for $2 beers and exhortations from group leaders and local politicians to become more involved in civic affairs. City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Supervisor Bevan Dufty — both mayoral aspirants — and several candidates for the board of supervisors were also there, along with a representative from the League of Women Voters offering to register people to vote.

Boissiere called the insurgent organization a “resistance movement against the established merchants and their failing association.”

Leslie Leonhardt, executive director of the Union Street Association, a longstanding coalition of local merchants, said business on Union Street is finally improving, and credits new restaurants — especially the upscale Cafe Des Amis — with driving the recovery.

“We don’t have a dispute with them,” she said of the new association. “We want them to thrive. We want to all work together.” Leaders of the Union Street Association were not invited to the Brick Yard party, and the head of a local residents association was turned away.

Photograph of Frankie's proprietor Josef Rusnak by Erik Anderson

By Anne Paprocki

Big changes are in store for Frankie’s Bohemian Cafe, the bar and restaurant at the corner of Divisadero and Pine that has been a local favorite for nearly two decades, known for its big beers, giant burgers, Czech flair and casual atmosphere. Soon the mugs of Krusovice beer and bar fare will make way for organic wine and coq au vin when the place is reincarnated in late September as Frankie’s Bohemian Eco-Kitchen.

Masterminding the rebirth of Frankie’s is Pacific Heights resident and original owner Josef Rusnak. Eighteen years ago, Rusnak and his then business partner, Frankie Pazderka, opened the casual dining spot to considerable success.

“I lost the coin toss when it came time to name it,” Rusnak says with his devilish smile. Now, 12 years after selling Frankie’s to return to Europe, he is back and ready to make changes inspired by his time away.
The updated restaurant, slated to debut after a mid-month makeover, will feature wine on tap, all-organic produce and new European entrees near the $10 mark.

In its first years, Frankie’s was a hot spot. “It was very lively and youthful at one point,” says Rusnak. “When I left, a lot of the customers did too.”

It’s easy to see why Rusnak is such a draw. With his warm wit and friendly manner, he stops to chat with nearly every diner and drinker — kissing women’s hands and liberally dispensing hugs and food advice all around. “Tell me before you come in next time,” he says to one couple. “I’ll make something special.”

Rusnak’s passion for food and hospitality originated in his childhood. He split his time between the Czech Republic and Italy and loves the food from both countries. “My grandfather had a restaurant and a small grappa refinery,” he says. “And my grandmother was an excellent cook. She had her own wood oven to bake bread in.” At 14, Rusnak decided to enroll in hotel school.

Rusnak is also a wine connoisseur. In Europe, he exported Italian and Spanish wines to Central and Eastern Europe, and he is a licensed sommelier. Now he is also a partner in Beaver Creek Vineyard, an organic winery located in Middletown, in Lake County.

Josef Rusnak now bottles his own wine.

In fact, his connection with Beaver Creek is behind many of the changes coming to Frankie’s. “I have my own ranch with my own animals and vegetables now,” he says. “It’s all organic. There’s no reason to serve anything else if I can serve the best.” All of the produce at Frankie’s Bohemian Eco-Kitchen will come from Beaver Creek. And unlike other restaurants with farm-to-table philosophies, Rusnak promises that the food at Frankie’s will be affordable, too. “I won’t raise prices,” he says, “because there’s no middle man — so I don’t have to.”

The food at the new Frankie’s will be inspired by the cuisine of France and Central Europe. Rusnak, who created Frankie’s current menu 18 years ago, says his new offerings will include coq au vin, leg of lamb, and duck from Beaver Creek, along with some Hungarian dishes. He is also planning a more authentic version of Frankie’s staple, the brambory. A Czech specialty, the brambory on the current menu was created with the American palate in mind.

“Before, I didn’t think Americans wanted an authentic brambory,” says Rusnak, “but now I feel differently.” The current incarnation is a bit like a large zucchini and potato pancake, with toppings that include cheese, meat and vegetables. “We’ll do it Czech style now, with organic pork and sauerkraut,” says Rusnak.
Even his signature burgers will be getting an upgrade.

“We’re going to start making our own hamburger rolls,” he says. “This is an absolute must.” Eventually, he also plans to bake homemade pastries, including poppyseed kolache, and breads with walnuts from the vineyard. Wine from Beaver Creek will be available on tap for $6 a glass, and the wide selection of beers that has been a hallmark of Frankie’s will still be available.

Though Frankie’s Bohemian Eco-Kitchen will sport an entirely new decor, replacing the current license plates and vintage ads, he wants to maintain the laidback, friendly atmosphere — and hopes to attract a large neighborhood clientele.

“It’s meant to be a place for good, healthy food and fun,” he says. “It’s really a return to good home cooking,” he says.

Business is booming at Harry's on Fillmore, but changes are coming behind the bar.

SALOONS | Chris Barnett

Fillmore hotspot Harry’s is headed for a change. It’s not a facelift; the design and decor still look fresh after a quarter century of civilized salooning and dining in the daytime and ear-splitting revelry at night. Instead, the cocktail culture is getting an update by mixologist Michael Callahan, who heads a consultancy called Raising The Bar.

“We’re upgrading and fine tuning the bar program, but holding on to the energy,” he says. That translates as better brands in the well for the $6 cocktails and the addition of rare, small batch spirits such as Clase Azul — which Callahan calls “an amazing sipping tequila” — and the new Beefeater 24 gin, which has 12 botanicals including Japanese and Chinese teas distilled along with the juniper berries.

Callahan, who works behind the bar on weekends, also has an idea for a new twist on bottle service. It’s not just a full bottle and four glasses, like pricey nightclubs peddle. Instead, servers will balance a full 750 ml. bottle of Manhattans or Negronis with the four glasses. The cocktails in the bottle will be made nightly combining the best bourbons, bitters and fresh squeezed juices. No word on the price yet.

THE HAPPIEST HOUR: Neighborhood quaffers thirsting for a bargain converge daily between 3 and 7 p.m. at Thai Stick, home of the longest and most affordable happy hour on the boulevard. Draft beers are $2, the house wine is $3 and well cocktails are $4. A half dozen snacks, at $5 each, are a happy addition for nibblers. Besides shrimp and springs rolls, a favorite is the chicken satay — six skewers of grilled white meat, with zesty peanut sauce and a tart cucumber salad.

YOU READ IT HERE FIRST: Happy hour at the recently revived Long Bar at Fillmore and Clay is weekdays from 5 to 7 p.m. New owner Reza Esmaili, working behind the bar on a recent Saturday afternoon, was noodling the concept when pressed for details. “Okay, I’ll decide right now. All $5 drafts will be $3. Certain wines by the glass, normally $7 and up, will be $5. Well cocktails will start at $6 instead of $7,” he declared. He also promises “vermouth on tap” soon and predicts drinking it straight will become au courant.

And Esmaili says a new chef, known in San Francisco for his American style cooking, will take over the kitchen on September 9, but won’t reveal his identity just yet. And don’t be surprised if the Long Bar sports a new name before long.

BETTER BITTERS: When D&M Wine and Liquors opened at Sacramento and Fillmore a few years after Prohibition was repealed, it sold bourbon and beer. Current owner Joe Politz added wine in the early 60s: Gallo, Italian Swiss and Petri by the gallon. “I sold gallons of Red Mountain and told customers it had one grape per bottle,” he says.

When other liquor shops added wine, Politz switched to champagne. “Until 10 or 15 years ago, we were the largest champagne retailer in the U.S. We sold more Dom Perignon than anybody,” he crows. Now D&M is aiming again to be ahead of its competitors by devoting prime space near the register to an assortment of bitters. Originally an alcoholic remedy for seasick sailors, bitters punch up everything from cocktails to club soda. In addition to the requisite Angostura, D&M carries German-made Bitter Truth, Fee Brothers, Peychaud from New Orleans and a handful of the estimated 80 brands distilled worldwide. Prices are $6 to $17. Serious libation lovers carry their favorite bitters with them.

FINAL CALL: Personable and popular barkeep Fabian Oregon has exited the Elite Cafe after a two and a half years behind the plank. The Napa native, coincidentally, was just profiled in the Examiner’s mixologist column, but cringed at the term as too high-falutin’. Oregon, previously behind the bar for San Francisco saloon legend Perry Butler at Perry’s on Sutter Street, is said to be “in discussions” with several thirst parlors.

Meanwhile, the Elite’s 4 to 6 p.m. oyster hour rocks on with California oysters at a buck apiece and Washington State and British Columbia oysters fetching $2 each. Wash them down with bubbly like Veuve Cliquot at $12 a flute versus its usual $17 or a Schramsberg brut rose for $9 instead of $12. Some better wines are discounted during the 120 minutes, too — including Stags Leap chardonnay at $10, down from $13 and Cakebread sauvignon blanc at $9, compared to its usual $12.

The salon is a dream come true for local resident Yuni Cho.

NEW NEIGHBOR | Yuni Salon

A bright orange awning at 2434 California Street heralds the arrival of Salon Yuni. Owned by local resident Yuni Cho, the salon manages to be both homey and starkly modern, with a mostly white interior accented by fuchsia touches and eight orange client chairs.

Cho says the decision to open the new salon was spurred by an unwelcome intruder. “I had breast cancer last year,” she says, “and it changed my life to a different view.” With chemo and radiation now behind her, Cho sports a jaunty wig and surveys her new digs with pride. She worked at the Lotte salon on Fillmore for seven years and at a number of other neighborhood salons before opening her own.

“It was really meant to be,” she says of her new salon, which is just a half-block from her home. In search of a health club, Cho wandered into Fit-Lite — the previous tenant — and learned it was closing in two weeks. “The spot was a little big — and that scared me. But every time I passed by, it called out to me,” says Cho. “I always dreamed I’d have my own salon in Pacific Heights. But I never thought I could be so close to home.”

What a difference a day makes.

On Saturday, Michael Blythe, a manager at the Clay Theatre on Fillmore, was grappling with what to do after the Clay played its last picture show on Sunday. But by midday Sunday, he had a happier problem on his hands: how to phrase the good news on the marquee that there was a reprieve — the Clay wasn’t closing immediately after all.

The news came late Saturday afternoon as cast and crew were readying for what they believed to be the finale of an institution at the Clay: the monthly midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show.”

“We were all hovering around watching the telephone like it was an execution,” says Blythe. “This is a big Band-Aid, but it’s the best thing we could hope for in this situation.” Blythe says the ultimate goal remains to have a group such as the San Francisco Film Society take over the theatre that’s been operating on Fillmore for the last 100 years.

Early Sunday afternoon he was scrambling to call the popcorn vendor and others who were told their contracts with the Clay were canceled — and telling employees, including one who’s worked there since the 1970s, to come back to work.

“This has been a real roller coaster ride,” he says.

And it’s not over yet.

Read more: “A short-term deal”

The box office at the Clay Theater.

Fillmore’s jewel-box cinema, the Clay Theater, is closing at the end of the month after 100 years.

The sad news came in a simple sign posted in the theater’s windows. The Clay was thought to have a more secure future than many neighborhood theaters because it was part of Landmark Theatres. Landmark gave no indication the Clay was endangered and has publicly said nothing about the closure.

One of the final films scheduled at the Clay is a midnight showing of “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” on Saturday, August 28. The theater will close the next day.

Firemen on the roof of the Clay Theater in 1940, when the Hob Nob was next door.

UPDATE: Leah Garchik reports in the Chron: The San Francisco Film Society would love to take over the Clay and has been in negotiations for several months with the landlord, but so far no deal’s been struck. “We think we can bring enormous value to the theater,” said Graham Leggat. “We want to build our program around it as a beacon of culture for the Fillmore Street business district.”

Read more: “It’s a blow to the neighborhood”

Matthew Accarrino from SPQR, David Lawrence from
1300 on Fillmore and Anjan Mitra from Dosa.

The Sunday Chron offered up three takes by three Fillmore chefs on the same set of summer ingredients.

“We went to San Francisco’s Fillmore Street,” said the Chron, “a destination for cuisine from around the globe. We chose SPQR, an Italian restaurant; Dosa, which specializes in Indian cuisine; and 1300 on Fillmore, a restaurant that serves its own brand of soul-American food.”

Read more: Three chefs, one meal, five ingredients

So Ruth Dewson was told when she opened Mrs. Dewson’s Hats on Fillmore Street 38 years ago. For decades she has been the unofficial mayor of Fillmore Street. But she has been missing from the neighborhood in recent months, sidelined by ill health. We caught up with her at her shop and found her spirit strong and her health improving.

EARLIER: “A force of nature“

“Elite Cafe’s Fabian Oregon may be the best bartender in The City,” Donna Domino writes in today’s Ex, “but don’t call him a mixologist.” Read more

EARLIER: There’s a reason they call it the Elite

On Dosa's cocktail menu: the Beet Box

SALOONS | Chris Barnett

You rarely see a gin and tonic slide across the bar at Dosa, the Southern Indian restaurant on Fillmore at Post, no matter how many times you belly up to that stylish 50-foot slab of recycled glass, mirror chips and mother-of-pearl. But you’ll see plenty of Princetons, Bengali gimlets and other exotic cocktails, many made with locally distilled artisan gin.

Students of libational history know that Brits posted in India in the 19th century regarded London-style gin mixed with tonic water a malaria cure. Quinine, an ingredient in tonic water, was thought to kill the disease — with the added bonus of chilling India’s sweltering heat and tranquilizing the patient after a couple of ice-filled glasses. The health-restoring highball became the unofficial drink of India.

Dosa does not invoke the sun setting on the British Empire, with draped mosquito netting and fans spinning lazily overhead, reminiscent of the Raj. Those and other cliches of colonialism have been eschewed by owners Emily and Anjan Mitra in favor of spectacular sculptures, nine-foot lotus petal light fixtures and a soaring two-story space that is modern, sexy and sophisticated.

Dosa's popular 50-foot bar of recycled glass, mirror chips and mother-of-pearl.

Yet far from ignoring tradition, the Mitras celebrate India’s spirit of choice with a collection of 30 different gins on Dosa’s back bar and a list of creative cocktails that dazzle the taste buds. This is no gin mill. Dosa calls it a gin bar. And the recipes combining the potent personalities of different gins with a repertoire of exotic Indian spices, house-made tinctures and nectars make it a temple of inventive and seductive mixology, especially when paired with Dosa’s cuisine.

Among the offerings is a cocktail named in honor of the British sport cricket. The Batsman is a quirky but delicious mixture of Plymouth gin — distilled in England and favored by gin connoisseurs — Darjeeling tea, lemon juice and ginger beer, served over ice and crowned with a mint sprig. With those ingredients and the time it takes to mix one, the Batsman is a bargain at $10.

Cooking in the south of India is not for the faint of tongue and Dosa’s so-called spice route cocktails match the food’s firepower.

A cocktail called the Juhu Palm combines the slightly creamy taste of DH Krahn gin, coconut milk, fresh lime juice and bird’s-eye dried chili served up with a spanked kaffir lime leaf, also $10. Spanking the leaf involves squeezing it over the glass so the aeromatics drizzle into the drink.

Bar manager Lenny Gumm makes a colorful cocktail with a kick called, innocently enough, the Nile Blossom. Check out the ingredients: Tru2 organic gin, J. Witty organic chamomile liqueur (tasting of chamomile tea), fresh grapefruit juice and jalapeno honey nectar, $10.

Dosa serves everything on its menu at the bar. So order the Peony cocktail — a concoction of 209 gin, hibiscus nectar, coconut milk, orange flower water and a dash of chili, $10 — and then add the restaurant’s namesake dosa, a huge savory rice and lentil crepe served with a coconut dipping sauce. Incidentally, the 209 gin meets Dosa’s preference for locally sourced ingredients: it’s distilled here on Pier 50.

Not all of Dosa’s gin cocktails are inspired by the tastes of the coffee, tea and cardamom plantations or the fishing villages of South India. There’s also a revival section on the bar menu with six gin classics. The Silver Fizz, a version of the 1930s classic, includes the basic lemon juice and egg white with ultra-smooth, Bay Area-distilled Aviation gin, plus a dash of soda, shaken, strained and poured, $10.

And then there’s the Hanky Panky, which combines Fernet Branca, the Italian digestivo, with Carpano Antica, said to cure near-lethal stomach aches, and Broker’s gin, shaken and served in a martini glass, $9.

Save the Hanky Panky for last.

The city’s board of appeals has rejected a request to review whether Athleta should be considered a chain store under the city’s formula retail ordinance. Zoning administrator Lawrence Badiner earlier determined that Athleta is not part of a chain, even though it is owned by the Gap. But only the Gap’s attorneys were notified of the ruling, since no address for the Athleta store was given. By the time neighborhood residents and merchants learned of the Gap’s plans to open an Athleta store on Fillmore, the time for filing an appeal had expired.

Clary Sage Organics, a store across the street at 2241 Fillmore that also manufactures and sells women’s athletic wear, sought to appeal anyway, and the lack of notice became the main issue before the board of appeals. After a lengthy discussion, a majority of the board agreed to hear the appeal on a 3-2 vote, but four votes were required to grant the appeal.

Athleta president Joe Teno said the company will proceed with the Fillmore store and hopes to open in the fall. Athleta opened its first retail store in Strawberry Village in Mill Valley this summer and is testing some of the ideas it will use in what he called its “flagship store” on Fillmore.

Clary Sage founder Patti Cazzato said she remains opposed to Athleta. “We’re still fighting it,” she said, and will seek discretionary review of the store’s building permit. “I think we have a chance of winning.”

Athleta was an independent online and catalog company based in Petaluma with no retail outlets when it was acquired in 2008 by the Gap for $150 million. Since then Athleta has been incorporated into the Gap’s website — along with its Banana Republic, Old Navy, Piperlime and Gap labels — and the company has begun exploring ways to develop Athleta retail stores. Gap Inc. operates more than 3,000 retail stores worldwide.

FROM NO ADDRESS
COME NO OBJECTIONS

Gap Inc.’s successful strategy of having its Athleta subsidiary determined not to be a chain store before specifying the store’s address may provide a model for other companies seeking to elude neighborhood opposition. With no address, no notice is required to nearby residents or merchants. With no notice, there are no objections.

“It’s unfortunate,” said Paul Wermer, a director of the Pacific Heights Residents Association, which urged the city’s board of appeals to hear the Athleta issue because no notice was given. “The Gap has very successfully leveraged a gap in the system,” he said. “This is a wonderful opening for any large company that wants to sneak something in.”

Athleta president Joe Teno said he was not aware of any attempt to withhold the address of the store. “This is the first I’m hearing of it,” he said. “We signaled our intention with the Junior League many weeks ago.”

Dave Scott leads a quartet on Sunday evenings during the summer.

By Fran Johns

Everybody’s been “trippin’ like a bird” in recent weeks at Calvary Presbyterian Church on Fillmore, says trumpeter Dave Scott. If that sounds un-churchly, it’s only because you have been missing the summertime jazz worship series.

The series was arranged by Scott, a heralded Bay Area musician and educator who leads the Dave Scott Quartet. It began on July 4 after the final day of the Fillmore Jazz Festival and has been making a joyful sound every Sunday evening since at 6 p.m.

Services still to come in August include:
• “Heavenly Inspiration: An All-Gospel Evening” on August 1
• “Earthly Psalms: The Nitty-Gritty Blues” on the 8th
• “Sacred Jazz: The Music of Brubeck, Ellington and Marsalis” on the 15th
• “Hope Arise: Jazz and the Civil Rights Movement” on the 22nd.

The programs were designed to explore the spiritual side of jazz, Scott says. The quartet for the services includes noted jazz musicians Scott Foster on guitar, Daniel Fabricant on bass, and Surya Patri on drums. “We’re making some good music,” says Scott. “The trumpet has the sound of nobility, but also of the jazz age, and our band has an inviting spirit.”

FIRST PERSON | Dave Scott

My dad had all these books on the shelves in the basement. They were these grand philosophy books from his seminary days with fantastic titles like “The Politics of God,” “Man, Myth, Meaning” and “Truth and Ethics.” He became a psychologist. He was good at mediating, and bringing people together, and helping people work out their differences.

I think I am like my dad was, but through music instead of psychology.

Jazz musicians are philosophers. And they can choose to be like psychologists. Music can bring people together. It can connect, heal, affirm. I think that is my tendency, to try to build community through music. It’s no fluke that I have taught at Community Music Center on Capp Street in San Francisco since 1997 on top of all the gigging I’ve done.

I love jazz musicians. They say outrageous things. They don’t hold back. They’ll go ahead and say what everyone else is thinking but is afraid to say. I love hanging out with jazz musicians because usually the banter is on a high level of observation, wit and style. I might be playing Mustang Sally for the 500th time at a wedding, but on the break we are usually laughing about something both exceedingly intellectual and crass at the same time. And I’ll think, “Yeah, these are my people.”

I loved playing lead trumpet in the Contemporary Jazz Orchestra at Pearl’s jazz club before it closed. When I first started with the big band in the mid 1990s, lead alto player Alex Budman and I would walk around North Beach on the breaks. There was live jazz everywhere! The Butterfly, Enricos, San Francisco Brewing, the Highball, 435 Broadway and several more spots up to the Washington Square Bar and Grill, which we called the Washbag. Sonny Buxton would make a big pot of chili for the band down in the basement at Pearl’s. We didn’t mind the cockroaches.

All the good players were willing to come down on a Monday night, and we’d all catch up on the week’s gossip: so-and-so is off the wagon again, so-and-so came to town and sounded terrible, so-and-so punched out the groom on a casual, be careful about so-and-so ’cause his checks bounce.

One night the power went out at Pearl’s and I played solo piano in the dark until they ran an extension cord from Tosca so the band could see the music. Good times. I love San Francisco. It’s too bad there is less money floating around these days to support the compensation of live musicians.

I had a good run playing with Boz Scaggs for four summers, but he downsized his band. Cut the trumpet and the backup singer. I love Boz. I learned a lot from him — like figure out what you do well and don’t try to do stuff you aren’t good at. And be cool with that.

Nowadays I teach jazz history at Berkeley City College to big classes of 50 kids or more. I love it. I feel like I’m preaching, but not to the choir. Most of the kids that sign up for jazz history know nothing about jazz, but I think I show them that jazz has something to offer them. I have put in a lot of thought about how to present the music: what jazz is all about, what jazz means to people and why and how that has changed over the span of the music’s history. I have a 1940s textbook. It was the standard text used in music appreciation courses at universities around the country back then. I’ll bring it to my jazz history class and have them read from page 7: “Jazz is peculiarly of an inbred, feeble-stock race, incapable of development…”

To study the meaning of jazz is to study the psyche of America, and a big part of that is racial tension and identity. Can we all get along? I think jazz music offers hope. Jazz isn’t perfect, and neither are jazz musicians. But I love it.
This fall I’ll be teaching a course at the JazzSchool Institute in Berkeley called “Philosophy of Jazz.” My dad would be proud.

AUDIO: “Poinciana,” with Dave Scott on trumpet and piano

Restaurateurs Lori Baker and Jeff Banker have upped 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 doors finally opened on August 1.

The bakery entrance is 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 — now 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.

EARLIER: Baker & Banker: back where they belong

Mother and daughter: Sheila Harris-Young and Toni Young own Bumzy's.

By Tessa Williams

Now that Bumzy’s Chocolate Chip Cookies is finally open on Fillmore near O’Farrell, the neighborhood will get to sample a recipe that’s been baked and savored by three generations of cookie lovers.

Sheila Harris-Young’s mother taught her to bake when she was growing up in Washington, D.C., and she remembers first making cookies for an orphanage her Girl Scout troop would visit. When she became a mother herself, she passed the cookie recipe and her baking talents on to her daughter, Toni Young, whose childhood nickname was Bumzy. Four years ago, after decades of feeding their family and friends, they began selling their cookies online. They’ve made an enterprise out of baking — bound by family ties and service to the community.

“There’s a need for an excellent gourmet cookie in this town,” says Harris-Young.
She and her daughter hope to fill it with Bumzy’s. They offer five kinds of cookies — three variations on chocolate chip, plus oatmeal raisin and sugar cookies. They also offer cold milk to wash them down — along with a chocolate chip ice cream sandwich made with homemade ice cream. They make their products by hand, from scratch, using quality ingredients.

“We’re a team,” says Young. “It’s not just the cookies. It’s the Bumzy’s experience.”

Mother and daughter say they bring more than just a new business and a new product to the Fillmore Jazz District. Customers will also get an independent, family-owned business whose owners are invested in serving the community.
“You could not have told me that after all these years I’d be selling those cookies I made for the orphanage,” Harris-Young says.

Her love of baking hasn’t changed since childhood, and neither has her instinct to serve the community — something she practiced during nearly three decades as an intensive care nurse and inculcated in her daughter as well. Together the two volunteer on Wednesdays and Thursdays at the Lima Center at St. Dominic’s Church, which offers the homeless refuge and a hot shower. Harris-Young has also led classes at St. Dominic’s as part of a spiritual life coaching program she designed. And every Friday, she works at the donation center at St. Anthony’s Foundation.

Neither plans to cut back on their volunteer commitments even with their new business up and running. “We’ll always find the time,” says Young. “Volunteering is a priority.”

Young-Harris says it’s a powerful thing to see her daughter at the helm of their new baking venture. “My mother — who was a wonderful baker — taught me, and it’s so sentimental for me to be teaching Toni,” she said. While Toni and her brother Taron were growing up, family time often came in the kitchen, where cookies were made, batter was consumed and laughs were freely shared. “It’s moments like that that are really priceless,” Young said about her memories of baking as a child. “I try to bring that into the cookies.”

The new business owners are well aware they’re opening in a tough climate. And their handmade confections carry a price: a dozen cookies cost $24.95. They’re confident, though, the simple deliciousness of their product will carry the day.

“The chocolate chip craze is going to be on,” said Harris-Young. “We want everyone to experience it. Don’t deny yourself.”