A salon meant to be

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.”