News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
Q & A | Film critic David Thomson By Mark Mitchell David Thomson’s The New Biographical Dictionary of Film is considered a must-have reference by almost all serious movie buffs. But Thomson is more than just a film critic, more even than a film historian. His works include a biography of novelist Laurence Sterne, an…
DESIGN | DIANE DORRANS SAEKS Twenty years ago, interior designer Ann Getty began a large-scale redecoration of the Pacific Heights residence where she lives with her husband, Gordon, a composer. It was built in 1906 to a classic design by architect Willis Polk and offers an entry hall with collections as opulent as any London…
BOOKS | Thomas McNamee While writing my new biography of Craig Claiborne — The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat — I traveled far, in my mind, from our quiet Victorian home near Fillmore Street and from the fresh, simple food that for me is the best of San Francisco. Whether cooking the wondrous…
BOOKS | Eric Berkowitz It took 25 years, but I have returned — to a city that feels like home even after a decades-long absence; a city that warms my spirit even as its fog freezes my bones; a place where I can be the public interest lawyer I want to be; and where a…
BOOKS | CAROL FIELD Now that the new edition of my book The Italian Baker has been published, I have been reliving the adventure of working with bakers all over Italy. It started in San Francisco in 1981 when Il Fornaio, then a bakery featuring Italian breads and sweets, opened at the corner of Steiner…
FIRST PERSON | JULIAN GUTHRIE Having lived in San Francisco for nearly 20 years and worked as a reporter first for the Examiner and now for the Chronicle, I have come to see the different ways neighborhoods in the city are defined. For many, the center of a neighborhood is a coffee house, or a…
Its remodeling completed on time and within budget, the historic home of the Presidio Branch library at 3150 Sacramento Street reopened on March 26. The renovation included restoration of the exterior and interior and refurbishing of the original wood shelving. An interactive learning area for children and a teen area were added, along with 16…
BOOKS | KEN SAMUELS A customer walks into Browser Books on Fillmore and approaches the counter with a sly smile on his face. “Hey,” he says, “are you guys happy that Borders is closing in Union Square?” “I’m not happy for the people who lost their jobs,” I reply, “but it doesn’t surprise me.” I…
A fter retiring as a high school English teacher, Eleanor Burke decided she needed a project to keep busy — and an excuse to explore the city she’d called home all her life. A few years earlier she had sketched architectural highlights of Russian Hill and published a small guide to the neighborhood. So she decided…
FIRST PERSON | Ken Samuels The other day, while selling some books to a couple of young men, I realized I’d known them since they were little kids pleading with their mothers to buy them Berenstain Bears books. That sums up my decade and a half at Browser Books on Fillmore and Sacramento selling books…