The New Fillmore

TWO TOP TOQUES AT FILLMORE & PINE

He’s not ready just yet to serve up the new name or the food concept planned for the now-shuttered and butcher-papered space on the northwest corner of Pine and Fillmore. But John Litz, who jettisoned the old Thai Stick sign last month, just introduced his partners in the venture he’s set to establish there: the top toque team of Sayat and Laura Ozyilmaz.

Between them, the two chefs have cooked at five of the 50 world’s best restaurants, according to the respected San Pellegrino list for 2018, including: 111 Madison Park and Le Bernardin in Manhattan, Blue Hill at Stone Barn in Tarrytown, N.Y., Murgaritz in San Sebastian, Spain, and San Francisco’s own Saison. All are either Michelin two or three star rated. Currently the duo are owner-chefs of Istanbul Modern SF, a pop-up restaurant on Russian Hill.

Insists Litz: “Our goal is delicious, casual, fine dining at reasonable prices.”

TWO NEW SPOTS OPEN IN THE LOWER FILLMORE

The LoMo got a notable new restaurant on April 10 when the pop-up RTB Fillmore reopened as Avery at 1552 Fillmore. It offers tasting menus at $89, $189 and $289, with wine or sake pairings.

A few blocks south at 1521 Eddy, the Fillmore Social Club is open and serving up Korean cuisine in what once was Gussie’s Chicken & Waffles.

COMING TO FILLMORE: WINE WITH VERVE

The former Gimme Shoes shop at 2358 Fillmore — in recent months a series of pop-ups — now has its city approvals to be transformed into Verve, a wine store also offering tastings and other events.

Verve already has a similar shop in Manhattan’s Tribeca neighborhood, where it offers “a curated selection of global greatest hits.”

WOMEN’S CLINIC IS LEAVING FILLMORE

Even after it was absorbed last year into the much larger HealthRight 360 organization, the Women’s Community Clinic remained in its home upstairs at 1833 Fillmore.

But no more.

May 4 will be the clinic’s last day of service on Fillmore before it moves to 1735 Mission Street, where it will join Lyon-Martin Health Services and Lee Woodward Counseling Center for Women.

COMING: SHOES FROM RECYCLED PLASTIC

It seems fitting that the former shoe repair shop at 2448 Fillmore is being reborn as a shoe store. But while it will offer ballet flats, as many other shops do, Rothy’s won’t be like the rest. Its flats are made in China from recycled plastic water bottles.

“Look good in your Rothy’s and feel good about your Rothy’s,” boasts the online company, which is building its first brick-and-mortar store. See more now at rothys.com, or visit their new store by mid-April, if all goes well.

AU REVOIR, SANDRO

The sleek Fillmore outpost of the chic French boutique at 2033 Fillmore is gone. Sandro was part of the initial wave of international chain stores that flooded onto Fillmore a few years ago.

Like several other Fillmore fashion outposts, which have not all drawn big crowds, the lease was not renewed. Sandro’s fashions are sold downtown at Saks and Bloomingdale’s.

LET US COUNT OUR MICHELIN STARS

How fortunate are we to live in this neighborhood? The new Michelin guide offers a clue.

• Three Fillmore restaurants got a star: SPQR, the Progress and State Bird Provisions, plus Octavia at Octavia and Bush and Spruce on Sacramento.

• At 3127 Fillmore, Atelier Crenn got two stars.

• And we can still claim Quince, now all beautifully grown up in Jackson Square, which got a full set of three stars, and first planted its roots where Octavia is now.

That’s not all: Dosa and Sociale are on the Bib Gourmands list of restaurants with “exceptionally good food at moderate prices.” (And so is Quince’s handsome brother, Cotogna.)