News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
JAZZ | MEAGHAN M. MITCHELL In 2006, internationally acclaimed photographer and professor Lewis Watts and Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and writer Elizabeth Pepin Silva published Harlem of the West: The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era. From cover to cover, Harlem of the West is filled with vintage photos documenting San Francisco’s historic jazz era during…
LONGTIME CULINARY TRAILBLAZERS Margie Conard and Dana Tommasino will continue their gardening theme when they open Gardenias a few doors from Fillmore at 1963 Sutter Street, the former home of Roostertail and Cafe Kati. They previously owned and operated Woodward’s Garden in the Mission for 22 years before losing their lease last October. “We have always bowed…
By FAITH WHEELER Only a few days after it opened on the corner of the busy intersection of California and Divisadero, B. on the Go already has the feeling of a neighborhood institution. As you approach the refurbished building’s tasteful pewter-toned subway tiles and mysterious tinted windows and enter the sparsely decorated space, your eye immediately…
THE CALL CAME shortly after noon on July 1. Time’s up, Douglas Fredell was told. Do no more work in the garage of the Shell station at 2501 California, and have your tools and machinery out by the end of the month. It had appeared the neighbors were gaining ground in their battle against a big…
REAL ESTATE | PATRICK BARBER A pair of recent single-family home sales in Pacific Heights illustrate that properly pricing a home for sale can pay off on multiple levels. In the 3000 block of Jackson Street, two properties that are practically next door to each other changed hands in early June, with the transactions and…
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY The terra cotta clad treasure that sits at the southwest corner of Green and Octavia Streets is often mistaken for a bank. This exquisitely designed building was built in 1918 as San Francisco’s fifth branch library funded through the Carnegie Corporation’s Library Program. Designed by architect Ernest Coxhead, known primarily for…
A FRENCHMAN’S American dream — to open his own bakery and live above the shop, build a group of local cafes serving authentic French pastries and eventually sell it all for millions to a mega-corporation — took an abrupt twist June 16 when Starbucks announced it was shuttering its 23 La Boulange eateries in the Bay…
By CHRIS BARNETT The biggest neighborhood bank heist in decades has left many customers feeling shortchanged. Three automatic teller machines outside the Wells Fargo Bank at Fillmore and California recently vanished, depriving customers of the convenience of withdrawing cash and doing limited banking when the branch was closed. Now Wells Fargo customers or anyone with…
SHASHI BATRA, founder of the new natural beauty emporium Credo, was up a ladder taking a hands-on approach a couple of days before his first store finally opened on June 4. But he seemed happy to climb down for a few minutes to explain why he decided to locate his first shop at 2136 Fillmore.…
HE WAS THERE from the beginning. When the Fillmore Farmers Market was created in 2003 in the parking lot that later became home to Yoshi’s and the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center, Tom Nichol was there, helping the farmers set up their stands and encouraging the neighbors to get to know the people who grew their…