News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
FINALLY BREAKING A long silence, the new owners of the Clay Theater will today unveil plans for its return as a single-screen theater in its familiar but updated home on Fillmore Street. When the renovation of the historic century-old theater is complete, it will include approximately 200 seats and host more than 500 film screenings…
By FRAN MORELAND JOHNS Interest in beloved artist Ruth Asawa’s work has been rekindled in recent weeks by the retrospective of her work now on view at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Along with the exhibition comes a yearning for the gentle waters shut off more than a decade ago to flow again…
THE STREAK CONTINUES. Another corporate store has gotten its permit to open on Fillmore Street, despite the city’s “formula retail” ordinance intended to limit chain stores in city neighborhoods. No chain seeking to open on Fillmore has ever been denied a permit. Nordstrom’s new small-store concept, Nordstrom Local, will open in the empty storefront at…
A NEW BOOK for children celebrates neighborhood culinary icon Cecilia Chiang — who, as the subtitle says, “revolutionized Chinese food in America.” Her pioneering restaurant, The Mandarin, opened in 1961 in Ghirardelli Square. It “rejected the American cliches of thickly sauced stir-fries served in pseudo-exotic settings,” reported The New York Times. “She built her reputation…
FIRST PERSON | THOMAS REYNOLDS Back in 2013, when the Thomas Reynolds Gallery was still in its original home at the corner of Fillmore and Pine Streets, I got a message on our still-newish Facebook page from an artist in Spain. He included his painting of our corner. “My name is Joan Longas and I’m…
YES, THAT’S HER. That’s the actress Julia Roberts you’ve been seeing around the neighborhood — wandering down Fillmore Street with her family, dining at Chouquet’s and Via Veneto, admiring the views in Alta Plaza Park. Roberts has a long association with San Francisco. Back in the 1990s, when she was dating fellow actor Benjamin Bratt,…
LONGER, WARM SUNNY days bring out the locals to celebrate with friends and watch the sun set over San Francisco Bay.
STREET TALK | CYNTHIA TRAINA In May, Browser Books spotlights deception. Its theme of the month is “Grifters, Swindlers, Crooks & Scammers.” Among the featured titles is Herman Melville’s The Confidence Man, a personal favorite of Hana Metzger, one of the creative minds behind the monthly themes on the featured display shelf. Metzger curates the…
By BRIDGET MALEY San Francisco’s annual Decorator Showcase returns to Pacific Heights again this year, opening on April 26 at 2935 Pacific Avenue and continuing through May 26. Originally built as three flats in the Tudor Revival style, 2935 Pacific was transformed in 2009 into a classically inspired manse. It had been constructed in 1902…
FAREWELL | FRAN MORELAND JOHNS “Ah, what a gift to our world she was.” Glady Thacher — beloved neighbor, community organizer and force for good — was summed up in those words by a longtime member of one of the “trust circles” she was fond of launching when she spotted a need. Like the larger…