From Fillmore to Punta del Este

Los Dedos (The Fingers) photographed by Tom Bergin

FIRST PERSON | Tom Bergin

Life flies by so fast. It has been almost 10 years since I sold Tom Bergin Goldsmith on Fillmore Street to Eric Trabert. I miss the customers — many of whom became friends. I miss the neighbors who popped in to say hello as they passed by on their daily routines — especially people like Rose, who shared her family recipe for Italian gravy, and Bruce, who often brought his latest baked goods for us to try. And of course I miss the ones who came by to keep me informed about the ups and downs of the neighborhood.

I feel honored to have shared in many happy moments as a jewelry designer on Fillmore Street for nine years, and for eight years before that at Union Street Goldsmith, whether it was working with customers to design a wedding ring, resetting a sentimental gemstone or finding a special keepsake. I miss the jewelry business and have fond memories of being involved with the Fillmore Merchants Association — which involved, among other things, climbing up the trees along Fillmore Street like a monkey to wrap them with Christmas lights.

After working hard for so many years, I thought I would just kick back. But life has brought me new adventures. Now I live between San Francisco and Montevideo, Uruguay. I’m in Uruguay because it is the childhood home of my partner of five years, who I met right in front of my house in San Francisco.

Going back and forth to Uruguay the last few years has turned into something of an endless summer. The shortest day of the year in the U.S., December 21, is the longest day of the year in Uruguay and the first day of summer. So while I sometimes miss being in retail at Christmas time, it is fun to spend Christmas near the beach and watch the water drain down the sink in the opposite direction.

In Uruguay, life is quiet. I enjoy doing travel and portrait photography and posting the photos on my Facebook page, Thomas Bergin Photography. The photograph above is part of a series I took in Punta del Este.

I don’t know what is around the next bend, but for now I’ll keep my seat belt fastened and enjoy the ride. My wish is that we all have a new year filled with good health and a happy journey.

Nos vemos amigos. I’ll be seeing you around.

From Fillmore to Harvard

FIRST PERSON | Amy Bernstein

When we started telling friends that we were moving from San Francisco to Boston, we could count on getting one of two responses: an incredulous “Why?” or “Boston’s great. It’s a lot like San Francisco.”

My partner Nanette Bisher and I were moving because I had just landed a dream job. We’d always sworn we’d never leave San Francisco. After years of hopscotching across the country for work, we’d found our way to the Bay Area in 1999 and for 12 years we were happy — Nanette as the art director first of the Examiner and then the Chronicle, me as an editor at several business magazines. But the new job — as editor of the Harvard Business Review, where I’d get the opportunity to build on the success of a storied publication — was too good to turn down. And it was in Boston.

So we reluctantly agreed to give ourselves three years. In that time, we figure, we’ll either fall in love with Boston or we’ll come back home.

And by home, we mean our place at Bush and Fillmore, because nowhere we’ve ever lived has felt so much like home. We love our apartment in the Amelia. But home is much more than our condo. It’s our daily visit with Gary at Barry for Pets, where he’d ply our Corgis, Harry and Sadie, with treats and sit for a few minutes to discuss our beloved Giants. Home is our daily visit to the Fillmore Bakeshop, where I’d take way too long deciding which cookie to buy, mostly so I could spend a little more time with Elena and Doug, the daughter-father owners. Home is Alta Plaza and Mollie Stone’s, Osaka and Woodhouse Fish Co. The great people and frames at Invision. And home is the neighbors who became dear friends — our family, really.

Leaving was not easy. “Why?” indeed.

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Touched by an angel

Fat Angel is tucked away around the corner at 1740 O’Farrell.

FIRST PERSON | JAMES DeKOVEN

On a recent moonlit night in the neighborhood, darkness having descended much earlier than only a few weeks before, some friends were at my place sipping cocktails and examining life’s more contentious issues: individualism versus conformity, true love, the meaning of life. It was all rather intense.

When I tried to lighten the mood by asking who’s better — Marvin Gaye, Otis Redding or Smokey Robinson — I kind of killed the energy of the conversation. So I changed the subject again and suggested we continue the party at Fat Angel.

You might know Fat Angel, an off the beaten path cafe in the Fillmore Jazz District tucked away around the corner at 1740 O’Farrell Street. If you’ve spent any time in Paris, you’ll be familiar with the Fat Angel aesthetic: dim lighting by candles and chandeliers, a marble bar, worn hardwood floors, a space filled with people and lively discussion yet somehow retaining an intimate ambiance. As with those Parisian cafes, most newcomers don’t necessarily seek out Fat Angel. They discover it by chance.

All of us — Cathleen, Tamara, Erin, Clayton, Andre, David and I — snuggled into a corner table and ordered drinks and food to share: wild mushroom and white truffle oil flatbread, gruyere and aged cheddar mac and cheese, garlic chili butter with country bread, duck salami, plus something we had to try called Cy’s salty sweet nuts.
With everyone grazing away, I figured now was the time to revisit the Marvin-Otis-Smokey question. But I kept getting interrupted.

First someone brought up the earthquake a few days before and we spent considerable time trading “Where were you during the ’89 quake?” stories. (Four of us were waiting to watch the first game of the Giants-A’s World Series.) “It’s funny how native Californians just stand there like nothing’s happening,” Erin noted, “but people from the Midwest think it’s the end of the world.”

Then Clayton wondered, “Hey, what’s the deal with the guy who does the walking ghost tours of Pacific Heights?” No one knew.

We needed another round by then, so I ambled up to the bar. Fat Angel doesn’t make it easy to choose — there are all sorts of interesting, unconventional draft beers, even draft wines, plus by-the-glass and by-the-bottle options on an ever-changing list. I don’t know much about wine, but I imagine connoisseurs appreciate how the selections are grouped into categories like Crisp & Refreshing, Aromatic & Lush, Chubby & Satisfying and Bright & Juicy.

As for beer, I got some recommendations from Jason Kirmse, who owns and runs Fat Angel along with Cyrick Hia. They’re both constantly greeting customers, taking orders, pouring drinks, seating a group, having a good time and making sure that everyone else is, too. Kirmse gladly took the time to tell me why I might prefer the Burton Baton to the Hop Riot, and explained the flavor differences between Kasteel Rouge and Bike Lane Brown. Then he gave me a taste of all four.

After living south of Geary for seven years, Kirmse and Hia were inspired to open Fat Angel because they found the area was underserved.

“Most neighborhoods take for granted the abundance of unique eating and drinking establishments they can walk to and enjoy,” says Kirmse. “We wanted to create something for the residents south of Geary that was real: real food, real drink, real environment, real community. From the 100-year-old wood floors to my grandmother’s chicken pot pie recipe, from honest, locally brewed beer to wine served fresh out of a keg from a vintner 60 miles north, everything at Fat Angel is real.”

The realness shines through especially in the building materials, which were salvaged from a defunct 1901 church south of Napa. From the remains of the church they created the flooring, bar, back bar and wainscoting. Even more genuine, in some ways, is the fact that neither Kirmse nor Hia has any formal restaurant training.

“Everything we know we’ve gleaned from eating and drinking around town and just being curious about food, drink and hospitality,” says Kirmse. “We believe in hearty portions, uncomplicated food and a commitment to making everything from scratch using real ingredients. Plenty of people living here are eager and willing to support quality, local businesses. We just need more like-minded people who are willing to take the leap of faith that we did and have the vision that this part of Fillmore can be a contender, too.”

Walking home from Fat Angel, I considered the merits of each soul legend. Marvin Gaye had the musical and topical sophistication of “What’s Going On,” but people forget about his breathtaking duets with Tammi Terrell. Otis Redding could prevail based solely on his raw emotion and gritty delivery. But for my money, Smokey Robinson’s the guy. You can’t beat that sweet falsetto. “Baby, Baby, Don’t Cry” is possibly the most sublime song ever conceived.

As I came to my own conclusion, I remembered what Kirmse had told me earlier about the meaning of the Fat Angel moniker. “Philosophically,” he said, “it alludes to a being who falls short of its intended, perfect nature.” I think Smokey wrote one about that, too.

Dining alone among friends

The dining room at Jitlada is welcoming to singles, as well as couples and groups.

FIRST PERSON | Alicia Utter

I stumbled into the Fillmore by accident six years ago, enticed by an ad for an apartment on Craigslist. Strolling out on the patio with the building manager, I looked down to see my dog’s tail touch his back as he ran around pots of jasmine. Looking up at the quiet apartments surrounding the space, I knew we were at home. And one additional canine later, we are still here, enjoying our neighborhood more each day.

I cherish the friendliness among the locals. Neighbors know your dogs’ names, what building you live in, even when you had a bad day. I’ve come to feel a part of this place: mourning when the Fillmore Hardware store closed, searching out the best noodle place in Japantown, spending an afternoon in the park with the dogs and a novel, relishing the trees and fashions at the bus stops as they change with the seasons.

Like many other city dwellers, I live alone. And one of the luxuries of being a solitary creature is dining out alone: catching snippets of conversations in a restaurant, ordering just what I feel like, taking my time to enjoy it, feeling the rhythm of the room.

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Custom bike shop opens nearby

Local cyclist Doug Rappaport is a big fan of Bespoke, a new neighborhood bike shop.

FIRST PERSON | Doug Rappaport

Offering handmade bicycles and promising precision maintenance services, Bespoke Cycles is now open at 2843 Clay Street, near Scott, the storefront previously occupied for many years by Tony Kitz Oriental Rugs. As a nearby neighbor and an avid cyclist, I’m excited — because in addition to selling custom bicycles and top-end equipment, Bespoke is quickly becoming a hub for local cycling with bicycle-related events and rides.

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Finding the faith — and a good story

Photograph of Julian Guthrie on Fillmore Street by Chris Hardy

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 park, or a commercial strip to stroll. For me, it’s all those things.

The area around Fillmore Street has long been my home. I jog the steps of Alta Plaza and spend countless hours at the playground with my son. We love the yogurt at Fraiche, the pastries at the Boulangerie and the Fillmore Bakeshop — and we adored its predecessor, Patisserie Delanghe. We’re regulars at Delfina and Dino’s and Florio and SPQR.

This neighborhood works, with its mix of young and old and in between, its families and dogs, its parks and shops. And while countless amazing stores and restaurants have come and gone (Fillamento, the Brown Bag and Bittersweet, to name a few), the relaxed character of the neighborhood remains the same. It’s what drew me here, and what keeps me here.

In recent years, I’ve learned of yet another way people define their neighborhoods: by a house of worship. My new book, The Grace of Everyday Saints — published August 18 — is about a group of people who found a strong sense of community through their spiritual home, St. Brigid, the muscular stone church at the corner of Broadway and Van Ness Avenue.
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Growing up along Fillmore

The end of the cable car line was at Fillmore and Washington.

FIRST PERSON | Charlie Greene

The corner of Jackson and Fillmore was the center of the universe when I was growing up at 2449 Jackson Street in the 1950s and 60s. You could get anywhere in the city on four Muni bus lines — the 22-Fillmore, 80-Leavenworth, 3-Jackson and 24-Divisadero — plus the Washington-Jackson cable car.

The 22-Fillmore — the Double Deuce — was my favorite. It could take you north to the Marina or south through the Fillmore, the Mission and all the way to Potrero Hill. I used to ride my skateboard on Fillmore, holding on to the round wire holders on the back of the bus to get a running start. I will never forget the chug-a-chug sound the 3 and 22 made going up and down the hills of San Francisco.

The cable cars were really loud, but it was cool when they rang the bell letting everyone know they were taking off. My older sister would get dressed up with white gloves and patent leather shoes and ride the cable car with my mom to go shopping downtown at the City of Paris, I. Magnin’s and Blum’s. I was jealous she got to have the coffee crunch cake at Blum’s. It was the best.

The end of the cable car line was at Washington and Fillmore, also home to Joe’s Smoke Shop, which had great greasy burgers and Nehi orange sodas. There was a barber shop next door. Across the street was the Unique Market, where my mom had a charge account I used for soda, chips, candy — anything a kid could want.
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At Browser Books, a relationship with readers

Photograph of Browser Books by Kathi O'Leary

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 to the families of this neighborhood. I get to know them as they return again and again. Some kids are shy, nudging their parents to the counter to ask a question, while others march up and confidently fire away with their requests. Hands down, these are the most rewarding moments of my workday.

I never forget how booksellers shared their enthusiasm for literature with me when I was a child. Along with my family, they made me a lover of books — and in time a writer. I don’t know if I’m helping neighborhood kids become writers, but I hope I’m helping them become book and bookstore lovers.

Browser Books, like all independent bookshops, faces many challenges these days, but our relationship with the readers in this neighborhood is what sustains us. It begins with the young ones. One minute they’re reading Harold and the Purple Crayon and before you know it they’re on to War and Peace. After all these years, I still love to watch this development.

To me, that’s the definition of being a local, neighborhood bookseller.

Ken Samuels has worked at Browser Books since 1996.

EARLIER: “Thank God for Browser Books

Opening night at Via Veneto

Illustration by Christopher Wright

FIRST PERSON | ANDRE BOLAFFI

It was a Friday night in January 1990. We had been in our new home on Bush Street for five years. My wife Janice suggested we walk up Fillmore to the Clay Theatre to see a French film, Claudine-Claudel, about Rodin, his work and his mistress. We went to the 7 o’clock show with plans to have dinner afterward.

The movie was sold out, but we managed to excuse and pardon our way to the remaining two empty seats in the dead center of a front row. After half an hour, I said to Janice — quietly, I’m sure, despite the shushes from nearby theatergoers — “If something doesn’t develop soon, I’m going to leave.”

“You can’t leave,” she said.

An hour into the film, having endured enough, I decided to leave.

“You can’t leave,” Janice said again. “You’ll disturb all these people.”

“Watch me,” I responded, and I excused and pardoned my way down the row and out of the theater.

Across the street, a new restaurant called Via Veneto looked lively, full of people and all lit up. I decided to check it out while the movie dragged on. As I opened the door and stepped inside, I was met with a celebratory crowd of fashionably dressed people in jackets and ties and dresses and heels. I noticed the restaurant had no chairs and its tables were up against the walls and filled with delectable looking antipasta.

Before I could think much about it, a waiter offered a glass of red wine. Wow, what a great new restaurant. I began to enjoy myself, while keeping an eye on the Clay across the street. The clientele was jovial and friendly. A smartly dressed man approached me and asked, “And how do you know Salvatore?”

“Salvatore? Well, you know…”

Before I could embarrass myself, he saved me by asking, “From North Beach?”

“Yes, of course, from North Beach,” I cheerfully agreed.

I was continuing to enjoy the wine, the food and the company when a statuesque brunette approached.

“Hi,” she said, “and how do you know Massimo?”

Now I knew Salvatore was from North Beach, but who in the world was Massimo? Think fast.

“Well,” I responded, “you know, Salvatore is …”

“But of course,” she said, “Massimo and Salvatore both worked in…”

“ . . . North Beach,” I chimed in.

Again the conversation was interrupted by the jostling crowd. I noticed that Claudine-Claudel must have finally — mercifully — ended, since people were exiting the theatre. I made my way toward the door to tell Janice about this wonderfully friendly new restaurant. Just as I opened the door and was about to step outside, a fellow grabbed my arm.

“Leaving so soon?” he asked warmly.

“No,” I said, “I’m just going across the street to bring my wife back.”

“Wonderful!” he said.

Filled with wine and bravado by now, I turned and asked him confidently, “And how do you know Massimo?”

He looked at me and responded: “I am Massimo!”

Later I found out: That was Via Veneto’s opening night celebration, by invitation only. And we’ve been crashing this wonderful neighborhood restaurant ever since.

My tenants, the Black Panthers

The plaque at 2777 Pine Street in San Francisco.

FIRST PERSON | BUD JOHNS

Consider me a sucker for commemorative plaques. One reason London is among my favorite cities is its many buildings with blue ceramic plaques noting the famous people who lived there. I find it impossible not to pause and read them.

So it was inevitable I would stop my car when I realized a bronze plaque had been installed on an Italianate Victorian I once owned at 2777 Pine Street. It didn’t mention that I had lived on the ground floor. Instead, it associated the building with a tenant who had rented the two floors upstairs.

c. 1878
Former home of
Eldridge Cleaver
Black Panther
and
Republican leader

That called for a stroll down memory lane. In 1968, my upstairs tenants had moved. I had advertised the vacancy and was waiting on a Saturday afternoon to show it to a woman who had called. She was late and I was on the phone telling a friend I would be late meeting her because I was giving the prospect more time.

Then I saw a young woman purposefully crossing the street. No wonder she’d mumbled her name when arranging the appointment. “Here she comes now,” I told my friend. “It’s Kathleen Cleaver.”

There was no mistaking her Afro. It had been pictured often in newspaper and television coverage of the Black Panther Party, whose profile was then at its highest. Six months earlier she’d married the Panthers’ minister of education, the committed revolutionary Eldridge Cleaver, and become the party’s communications secretary and the first female member of its decision-making body. Their apartment door had recently been kicked in by the San Francisco Police Department’s tactical squad in an unsuccessful raid searching for guns and ammunition. Although Eldridge Cleaver at the time was the Peace and Freedom Party’s presidential candidate, he seemed to be a magnet for violence.

“What are you going to do?” my friend asked.

“Rent it to her if she likes it,” I said.

She did, we made the deal and she paid the deposit and arranged to move in. I had to wait to meet Eldridge. He was in jail, charged with attempted murder after a gunfight with the Oakland police in April 1968 that wounded him and killed fellow Black Panther Bobby Hutton. Hutton was shot 12 times while trying to surrender with his hands in the air after teargas flushed them from the basement where they were hiding.

Cleaver was released on bail June 6 and we met after he joined Kathleen as my upstairs neighbors. They had a steady and heavy flow of visitors, but it was mostly uneventful except a couple of times when it got noisy at night and I called to ask them to turn the music—usually good jazz—down a bit. They always did.

Otherwise there was little to indicate that anyone in the neighborhood was newsworthy. True, police cars cruised by far more frequently than before, and I often saw slow-moving cars carrying gawkers hoping to see the home of the high-profile Black Panther whose Soul on Ice, written after he’d served eight years in San Quentin for attempted murder, had just been published and quickly become a best seller.

And there were all those clicks and background sounds I would hear when using my phone. I just assumed it was an FBI wiretap—J. Edgar Hoover had described the Panthers as “the greatest threat to the internal security of the country” and ordered “hard-hitting counter-intelligence measures.” I sometimes asked, “Can you hear alright?” but never got a reply.

Herb Caen’s column occasionally mentioned seeing Eldridge’s white 1966 Mustang parked on Pine Street. I never told him it was actually mine.

Eldridge was scheduled to surrender in November on the assault charges, and things became noticeably more tense as the time approached. When the rent was late, I left a note and then a phone message. A reply was slipped through my mail slot. It was typed on the stationery of Ramparts, the locally based magazine that had published Eldridge’s writing since he was in San Quentin.

Mr. Johns:

Please excuse the delay but I have been so god damned busy with these pigs and courts and chaos that I completely forgot to pay the rent. You are so very sweet to be so unobtrusive and gentle with me. I think you are the perfect landlord and I would just like to warn you that you should prepare yourself for any day now some kind of assault on this house. I think it is beautiful, I love it, I won’t go away, but the local, federal, international, secret, and off duty pigs as well as reagon, rafferty, shelton, wallace, alioto, et. all. want to do us in, Eldridge first, then me.

Here’s the rent.

Peace, Mrs. Cleaver

It’s not surprising the Panthers were on alert, considering the number of raids made on various members during that period. But none came at 2777. Still, as November 27—the date Cleaver was to surrender to prison authorities—drew near, a vigil formed outside on the sidewalk along Pine Street. When I got home the night before, a milling crowd, mainly young whites, didn’t want to let a large white man—me—through the iron gate to the lower unit.

“If you really want to protect Eldridge, why don’t you go over to Paul Jacobs’ house in Pacific Heights? That’s where he is,” I told them. I’d heard that Jacobs and another noted Ramparts writer, Jessica Mitford—a friend of mine—had initiated the vigil.

The disruption outside got the attention of whoever was upstairs and the front door opened. A man with shotgun at the ready surveyed the scene. “He lives here and he’s all right,” the man announced. The crowd parted quietly, and I went in and retired for the night. The next day I learned Eldridge had skipped bail and slipped away to Cuba.

I saw Kathleen once more. She said she was leaving to join him, but would like to keep the rental a few more months.

Occasionally someone would be upstairs. Eventually I realized everything had been moved out without payment for the last month.

The Cleavers

A mailed request and a telephone message left on the Panthers’ answering machine didn’t get results, so I drove to their headquarters in Oakland and said I was there to get the rent. I think the three or four people there were startled by my audacity. One man looked at me, then nodded to a woman at a desk who opened a cashbox and paid me. I thanked them, they said I was welcome and I left.

A few days later two men came to my door, showed their FBI credentials and asked to see the upstairs flat. I went with them, the first time I’d been in since I showed it to “Mrs. Cleaver.”

I saw Eldridge once more after his return from exile to the U.S. in 1975. He had gone from Cuba to Algeria and was there, except for a period in North Korea, until he wore out his welcome and left secretly for France, which eventually granted him legal residency.

The return to the U.S. meant immediate imprisonment on the assault charges for his role in the 1968 shootout with the Oakland police. He was convicted and put on probation for five years by a lenient court and ordered to perform 2,000 hours of community service. By then a Republican, he endorsed Ronald Reagan in 1980 and 1984. He’d struggled with cocaine and undertaken a religious journey that included Mormonism and the Moonies and wound up born again. He’d even made an effort to be a fashion visionary by designing his codpiece pants.

The years clearly had left an impact on him, but he brightened when I identified myself. We spoke briefly, even joking about my failure to get him to sign my copy of Soul on Ice. Then, as I was leaving, he spoke almost wistfully.

“Man, we loved that house.”

The letter from Kathleen Cleaver to her landlord, Bud Johns.