News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY A flurry of recent renovations along the north side of Jackson Street facing Alta Plaza Park are nearing completion. The two blocks include a string of historic residences that have been home to many prominent San Franciscans. The exquisite French Revival style house at 2570 Jackson Street has been meticulously renovated and…
PIZZA IS BACK. The rebirth of long-running Pizza Inferno as the Academy Bar and Kitchen — with former Florio chef Nick Pallone bringing a more adventurous dining experience to the corner of Fillmore and Sutter — is over. Though the Academy name will remain, Pallone is gone and the previous menu consisting mostly of Neapolitan pizzas…
THE ELITE CAFE, the bustling Art Deco period piece at 2049 Fillmore Street, has been sold. Peter Snyderman, a Fillmore veteran who has run the restaurant for the past decade, is handing over the reins to a new group headed by Andy Chun, who created the Press Club near Union Square and more recently reinvigorated Schroeder’s in…
Q & A | FAITH WHEELER Rare is the restaurant in San Francisco still going strong after 30 years. But Jackson Fillmore — the beloved, quintessential neighborhood Italian spot at 2506 Fillmore, now under new management — remains noticeably unchanged. That’s thanks to the brother-sister duo Kelly and Casey Sullivan, lifelong family friends of original…
AFTER CONSTRUCTION started and then stopped, neighbors began to wonder if Blue Bottle Coffee was backing out of its plans for a new outpost on the shuttered Tully’s corner at Fillmore and Jackson. Not so. It’s still on. The new coffee shop started before Blue Bottle announced it was merging with Tartine Bakery. A combination…
WISE SONS Bagel & Bakery opened its doors at 1520 Fillmore on February 26 and enthusiastic crowds were waiting. Again there is an authentic Jewish bakery in a neighborhood where many were located a century ago, when the Fillmore was home to a large Jewish community. San Francisco muralist Amos Goldbaum captured the era in…
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY Long owned by the California Pacific Medical Center, the house at 2018 Webster Street has remained vacant for almost 25 years. It was recently sold and will be returned to residential use, after a rear addition and interior upgrades, as three housing units. The history of this Victorian house is intertwined…
CRIME | BARBARA KATE REPA A federal appellate court has denied the latest challenge to a second-degree murder conviction in a case that rocked the neighborhood 15 years ago when a horrific attack by two large dogs in a Pacific Avenue apartment building left one local resident dead and landed two others in prison. A three-judge…
By BARBARA KATE REPA When David Lawrence and Monetta White announced plans to open their high end but homey restaurant, 1300 on Fillmore, eight years ago, friends cautioned against it. “They said, ‘You’re going down to lower Fillmore? Are you nuts?’ ” says White, whose mother and grandmother both grew up in the neighborhood. But soon…
A NEW MARQUEE is in the works for the legendary Fillmore Auditorium at Geary and Fillmore. The Planning Commission has unanimously approved changes to the city’s sign ordinance that would permit a 60-foot-tall vertical blade proclaiming both the storied rock ’n’ roll venue and the surrounding neighborhood. Currently signs can be no higher than 24 feet.…