THIS LAVISH oversized limited edition book brings together a collection of favorite photographs and stories from the pages of the New Fillmore. It tells the story of an ever-changing small town in the big city with a rich history and a strong sense of community.
Available exclusively at Browser Books on Fillmore, or order online.
THIS DOCUMENTARY — filmed entirely on Fillmore Street — tells the story of longtime Fillmore resident Kelly Johnson, who used a new California law to end his life on his own terms.
La Mediterranee has been a fixture at 2210 Fillmore for more than four decades.
LOCAL FAVORITE La Mediterranee cafe, which has been twisting in the wind since its building changed hands earlier this year, has a new lease on life.
“We are thrilled to be extending our lease on Fillmore Street as part of the Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project,” said Vanick Der Bedrossian, La Med’s owner. The extension ensures the restaurant will remain in its current home through the summer of 2028.
A statement issued jointly by Der Bedrossian and project director Cody White said that as part of the agreement La Med will again be open on Sundays beginning in late January. Hours of service may be extended further next year to help increase evening traffic on the street.
The Upper Fillmore Revitalization Project is a nonprofit funded by venture capitalist Neil Mehta, a neighborhood resident. Mehta bought a number of buildings on Fillmore Street this year, including the historic Clay Theater.
The statement marked a sharp turnaround in relations between Mehta’s project and La Med. Der Bedrossian had been publicly calling for months for the new owners of the building to address his restaurant’s future. Supervisor Aaron Peskin rallied supporters of the restaurant and introduced legislation that would help protect legacy businesses such as La Med.
Today’s statement makes nice.
“We look forward to working with Neil Mehta and Cody Allen towards their goal of bringing more vibrancy to the neighborhood,” Der Bedrossian said in the statement. “We support their vision for the Upper Fillmore.”
He would not go beyond the statement, except to say: “We are grateful for the outpouring of support from our customers.”
In the statement, White said he has been “overwhelmed with interest from potential tenants” interested in coming to Fillmore Street. “We live in and love this neighborhood, and we want to see it grow and prosper,” he said.
“I’m going to really miss our clients on Fillmore,” said shift manager Annabelle Cimino.
THE STARBUCKS at 2222 Fillmore Street is set to close its doors on December 1, leaving loyal customers and locals shocked and disappointed.
Annabelle Cimino, the store’s shift manager, has worked at the Fillmore location since 2017. Known for her personal touch, Cimino greets regulars by name and even hand-decorates their takeaway bags.
The building, one of several on the block now owned by venture capitalist investor Neil Mehta’s nonprofit, has faced its share of challenges. Last year, both the air conditioning system and the sewage line were replaced. But the introduction of Starbucks’ single-cup brewing machines, alongside the new air conditioning system, reportedly exceeded the building’s electrical capacity.
“We believe the building couldn’t support the electrical load,” Cimino said. “I’m going to really miss our clients on Fillmore Street.”
Staff members have been breaking the news to customers, many of whom frequent the shop daily. The location is particularly popular with students from nearby schools, including Convent, University High School, Hamlin and Stuart Hall, who flock to the shop for sweet drinks, cookies and K-Pops.
“This is my home,” said University High freshman Sofia Linadev. “I don’t know what I’m going to do.”
All of the employees have been offered positions at other Starbucks locations, Cimino said. Starbucks continues to have shops in the neighborhood inside the Mollie Stone’s on California Street and at Fillmore and O’Farrell.
The Fillmore fixture has been sold to a former employee and his partners.
AFTER 60 YEARS of ownership by the Politz family, D&M Wine and Liquor at 2200 Fillmore has been sold to former manager Kyle Nadeau and his partners.
“It’s been a long time coming,” says Mike Politz, who has worked in the store, with a few interruptions, since he had to stand on a milk crate to reach the register. His father, Joe Politz, started the dynasty. For the last 28 years, Joe’s son Mike and his wife Karen have owned and operated D&M. “I’ve put my whole life into it. We’ve done our thing. We’re passing the torch on to another family.”
Nadeau joined the D&M crew in 2006 and worked his way up to store manager. But he had an itch to do more. In 2017 he converted the nearby London Market at Divisadero and Sacramento into Maison Corbeaux, part of a venture with a private downtown club.
“I got in my head I wanted to do something else,” Nadeau said of leaving D&M to eventually open another shop four blocks away.
But he kept in touch, and the friendship resumed. He has specialized more in wine and beer, and D&M has maintained its focus as a premier champagne house, with a renowned selection of single malt Scotch and other spirits.
Both stores will remain much the same, with all of the current staff continuing. Kyle Nadeau will return to Fillmore Street and D&M. New partner Dave Osborne, who has a long history in the world of spirits, will lead the Divisadero shop, which will now be known again as the London Market. Avid whiskey collector Jonathan Powers is the third partner.
“It’s something I’m really excited about,” says Nadeau, now older and wiser. “I know the neighborhood. I am so thankful to the people in the neighborhood.”
Says Mike Politz, whose family has been synonymous with D&M: “He’s coming back home. It’s one big full circle.”
SVRN’s sleek new shop brings high-end men’s and gender-fluid fashions to Fillmore.
STREET TALK | CYNTHIA TRAINA
At long last, SVRN (pronounced “Sovereign”) has opened its doors at 1928 Fillmore Street. This sleek high-end men’s and gender-fluid clothing boutique boasts a curated selection of top brands like Jacquemus, Rick Owens and Comme des Garçons.
It’s the second outpost from Chicago-based, Korean-American founder David Kim. The former Prana space was gutted and redesigned by Seoul “spatial design” firm WGNB with a minimalist interior. While the Chicago store features stainless steel walls, the Fillmore shop adds color in the shade of oxidized copper that mimics the Statue of Liberty.
Stepping inside, shoppers will be greeted by a small but highly curated selection of fashion-forward clothing, unique furniture and objects from the likes of Korean designer Subin Mae, plus a fragrance collection. Don’t miss the unique changing room, featuring a preserved plant bouquet hanging from the ceiling.
Unveiling the magical: At 1967 Sutter, the dark glass front blocks views of the interior and ominously provides no more information than “by appointment only.” It’s the new home of Mythrium, a private tattoo studio and art collective. Drawing inspiration from the fantastical, the studio evokes a Harry Potter-esque atmosphere with mystical touches. Established by three talented immigrant women artists, Mythrium is decorated with Victorian furniture, Egyptian totems and stained-glass accents set against forest green walls. Walk-ins aren’t accepted, but curious neighbors can peek into this artistic haven on its website.
Father Michael Hurley confronts himself at the St. Dominic’s celebration.
Celebrating 150 years: St. Dominic’s Church on August 5 marked 150 years since the Dominican parish was founded in the neighborhood. The magnificent Gothic stone church was rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake, the flying buttresses added after the 1989 quake. It’s currently undergoing roofing and further restoration. St. Dominic’s was named the most beautiful church in the U.S. upon its completion in 1928 and remains a San Francisco landmark.
Cook like a chef: While the beloved Out the Door restaurant at 2232 Bush Street may be gone, the building holds a unique opportunity upstairs in the former family home of chef Charles Phan, whose empire once included the vaunted Slanted Door at the Ferry Building. His home kitchen is equipped with restaurant-quality appliances including a grill, gas burners and an industrial dishwasher that runs a full cycle in fewer than five minutes. The industrial chic loft home, designed by starchitect Olle Lundberg, has 3 bedrooms, 3 1/2 baths, a private roof deck and parking. The main floor remains a restaurant space, now home to Mattina restaurant. For $5.5 million, you can own both.
One door down, the commercial building 2224 Bush Street is also for sale. The classic Victorian was home to Unity Church for decades, and more recently home to Liberty Cannabis.
A star is reborn: Chefs David and Serena Fisher’s 7 Adams, at 1963 Sutter, has gained a following and glowing reviews since opening last fall. Now it’s going to get a lot harder to get a reservation. Their “signature magic,” was just anointed a Michelin star. The Michelin Guide says the duo “expertly blends Californian simplicity with refined technique. By emphasizing thoughtful flavor combinations, the chefs showcase the finest seasonal ingredients.”
Premium take-out sushi is now available at Aji Kiji.
New dining options: The neighborhood’s culinary scene continues to evolve with the arrival of two additions near Japantown.
Aji Kiji: Located in the former Avery spot at 1552 Fillmore, Aji Kiji offers premium take-out sushi from a warm and woody minimalist space. Chef and co-owner Jinwoong Lim, who also owns Bansang next door, oversees the menu. Open Tuesday to Saturday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., or until they sell out.
Sobakatsu: This eight-seat eatery is receiving rave reviews for its housemade soba noodles crafted from organic, stone-ground Japanese buckwheat. It’s in the thin slice of space at 1700 Laguna and open daily from noon to 7 p.m.
Nailed it: Fillmore has more polish these days. In July the House of Nails opened at 1908 Fillmore, and in early August Look at Me Salon opened at 2424 California. Its new green home is the second location for this L.A.-based company, which specializes in Russian manicures, pedicures and eyelash extensions.
Mark your calendar: Don’t miss the upcoming events in the neighborhood:
Sept. 7: Fillmore merchants Art Walk, with art, music along the street.
Sept. 13-15: Godzilla Festival, celebrating 70 years of the legendary kaiju in Japantown.
Cynthia Traina is a longtime Fillmore resident and an agent with Vantage Realty San Francisco. Send items for Street Talk to CT@cynthiatraina.com.
Kenji Yick with the Sweet Stop’s famous Coffee Crunch Cake. Photo: Frank Wing
By FRAN MORELAND JOHNS
When the nominations for this year’s James Beard Awards were announced in late January, there was a local surprise. Among the semifinalists for Outstanding Bakery: Yasukochi’s Sweet Stop, a small shop in the corner of a Japantown grocery store most noted for keeping alive one of the city’s most beloved creations, the Coffee Crunch Cake.
The results will be in soon: Finalists will be announced on March 29, and winners unveiled at a ceremony in Chicago on June 5.
For chef-owner Kenji Yick, being shortlisted for the Beard award — the Oscars of the food world — came as surprising, and heartwarming, post-pandemic news.
Yick, a graduate of the French Culinary Institute, is the grandson of Sweet Stop founders Moses and Hatsy Yasukochi, who married in 1964 and opened the Sweet Stop 10 years later. Moses learned to bake the Coffee Crunch Cake, made famous at Blum’s on Union Square, from an employee who’d worked there.
Yick grew up “in and out of the bakery” while visiting his grandparents. By the time he decided to pursue a career in the food world and finished his culinary training, his grandfather was having to withdraw from the long hours of baking. So Yick went to work helping his grandmother.
Hatsuye (Hatsy) Yasukochi, was known as the “smile of the bakery” and considered by many the beating heart of Japantown. There were few in the community she didn’t know and love, and the sentiment was mutual. She died in 2020, an early victim of Covid, after a bout with cancer. When Moses lost his wife, he moved to an assisted living community in San Mateo near his children and grandchildren.
Many feared the bakery might not survive. But the Yasukochis’ grandson vowed to keep it going, and he has — and now the family legacy he carries on has been singled out for national recognition.
“We shut down for three months early in the pandemic,” he says, “and reopened for four days a week rather than five.” His grandmother’s absence in the bakery and the neighborhood is still widely felt. “The hardest part is that there now are just the two of us”: Yick and longtime front corner employee Debbie Ishida. “How long have you been here, Debbie?” he asks. “I don’t remember,” she responds. “A very long time.”
Kenji Yick and Debbie Ishida now run the Sweet Stop. Photo: Fran Johns
The Sweet Stop is still humming along, much as it has since Yick’s grandparents founded it nearly 50 years ago. He says the pandemic made clear the faithfulness of the shop’s core customers, who never abandoned their taste for cakes, pies and pastries from the Sweet Stop. But now the cakes — including the famous Coffee Crunch Cake — are only baked to order. “And we had to discontinue the Danish,” Yick says, “largely because we were designating it to Kimochi, and they had to discontinue their free meals. But we hope to bring it back.”
Tucked away inside the Super Mira Market on the corner of Sutter and Buchanan, Yasuchoci’s Sweet Stop is open Wednesday through Saturday from 10 a.m. until 4 p.m. But you might want to order ahead, especially if you want a Coffee Crunch Cake.
Dino Stavrakikis and his son Santino: “It’s time to go.”
By CHRIS BARNETT
After a 34-year run of flipping pizzas, uncorking wine and telling stories on the northwest corner of Fillmore and California, Dino Stavrakikis is selling the longtime pizza palace known for decades as Dino’s — now renamed after his son as Santino’s Wine Bar — to the owner of Ace Wasabi Sushi in the Marina.
The ownership changes hands today [Sept. 20]. New owner Ken Lowe has announced no decision on changing the popular storefront and is likely for now to keep the wine and pizza format and the longtime employees.
“When it’s time to go, it’s time,” says the affable Dino — it seems impossible to call him anything else — on why he is pulling the ripcord. “When I bought the place, Reagan was president. We’ve been though a couple of wars, viruses, a pandemic and many mayors. Fillmore — the street and the neighborhood — has changed, and not for the better.”
Dino’s corner housed a drug store before it became a pizzeria in the 1970s, initially owned by his Uncle Vito. Dino apprenticed in another pie shop at Polk and Broadway straight out of high school. “I knew I was an entrepreneur and I wanted to own my own place,” he recalls.
At 21, he moved a few doors away to Lord Jim’s — “the greatest fern bar ever” — and worked his way up to lead bartender. Dino was behind the plank the infamous night a squad of San Francisco cops raided the saloon on a tip it was dealing cocaine out of the back. It was a bad bust. The bar was packed with lawyers that night who were enjoying their after-work cocktails. They howled. Owner Spiro Tampourantzis, like Dino a Greek, sued the city with the help of Fillmore Street criminal defense attorney Eric Safire and prevailed.
In 1988, Uncle Vito — actually a distant cousin of Dino’s — ran out of dough, and Dino bought the pizzeria out of bankruptcy for $90,000. “I moved into an apartment upstairs,” he says, “changed the name to Dino’s and worked 15 hours a day to get the place back on its feet. Fortunately, I had the gift of gab. All the best Italian pizza parlors are owned by Greeks.” Actually, Stavrakikis is half Greek, half Italian.
From the start, Dino says he loved his landlord and still does, a sentiment rarely heard from retail tenants. “We’ve had the same one from the beginning— Russ Flynn from Meridian Co.,” he says. “They’ve really been super and kind, working with me all the way through Covid.”
Dino’s fledgling pizza shop was thrust into the spotlight in June 1990 when Mikhail Gorbachev, then the charismatic president of the Soviet Union, made a 22-hour swing through San Francisco. Their motorcade was headed back to the Soviet consul’s residence at 2820 Broadway when a couple of dozen wellwishers on the corner of Fillmore and California caught the Soviet president’s eye. The procession stopped and Gorbachev leaped out of his Russian-made Zil limo and started shaking hands.
A stunned Dino said at the time that Gorbachev “was the most famous man I have ever met,” and he had met 49er great Ronnie Lott and California Gov. Jerry Brown. Since then, he met the late Secretary of State Madeline Albright, quarterback Joe Montana, actress Sharon Stone and others who dined on pizza and other dishes in his shop, many created by Dino’s late mom, Koula.
A lifelong bachelor who loves kids, Dino didn’t let his singlehood stop him from becoming a father. In 2011, he arranged with a surrogate what he considers his greatest triumph: a son he named Santino. Practically from birth, Santino became a household name in the Fillmore. The proud papa renamed his shop Dino and Santino’s. “He’s the love of my life,” beams dad.
After three remodels and a transformation into Santino’s Wine Bar, Dino decided he was ready to throttle back. He moved to Walnut Creek to be near his parents and to get Santino in a better school. He gave more operating responsibilities to his longtime lieutenants, Jesus and brother Emilio Ceidillos — both with Dino for 33 years — and Tony Santos, with him for 25 years. Dino continued his annual summer treks to Greece to visit his family, including former boss Spiro Tampourantzis, and soak up the sunshine and culture.
But he found himself wanting to spend more time with his son. So recently, he and Lowe, who Dino’s known for 30 years, huddled over glasses of wine and penciled out a deal. “I couldn’t have picked a better guy,” Dino says. “He’s bringing in an Italian chef, has his own ideas about making some changes.” Dino is tightlipped on this point, and Lowe has made no public announcements.
What’s next for Dino? “I have a gym at my house and I want to get in good shape,” he says. “I love to work. Unfortunately, I don’t have any hobbies. I just love the action. We’ll see what presents itself. But I’m going to miss my loyal customers.”
The Grove on Fillmore has been closed for more than two years.
FILLMORE BEAT | CHRIS BARNETT
Slammed shut and lifeless for well over two years, the large space housing the once popular Grove cafe and hangout at 2016 Fillmore is stirring again, but the new venture’s backers stubbornly refuse to disclose anything about it. “I can’t say, I can’t say, I can’t say,” insisted a bearded guy in a hoodie, who appeared to be a general contractor and claimed he is not the owner. Nor would he name the person in charge. Boom, the door slammed shut again. Stay tuned.
UPDATE: The team behind the Snug will open Little Shucker next year at 2016 Fillmore, the former Grove space, three blocks away from the Snug, the Chronicle reports. Adrian Garcia, who previously cooked at San Francisco Michelin-starred restaurants Benu and Quince, is in charge of the menu.
A couple of blocks north on the corner of Fillmore and Clay, Sam Fechheimer, a seasoned chef, is the new owner of Palmer’s, replacing Albert Ranier, who launched it in 2014. Sam was his opening chef, so he knows the bones of the building and its culinary history. He’s added a new brunch menu and is streamlining the daily menu with new dishes, including a serious Caesar salad, which replaces the faux Caesar made with kale. “We’re also reinvigorating our cocktail scene,” he says.
Meantime, the heart of the Post Pandemic Fillmore is coming back to life, with more action and somewhat fewer “for lease” signs on empty storefronts.
The new Lululemon store at 2040 Fillmore Street replaces Ralph Lauren.
The biggest retail addition to the boulevard is the uber-hot Lululemon store at 2040 Fillmore, which took over the space vacated by Ralph Lauren. Lululemon, with its catchy name and logo, has created an eye-catching “pilot” store on Fillmore that houses a massive collection of women and men’s workout and sportswear. Vancouver-based with stores worldwide, Fillmore is SF’s fourth Lululemon. What makes it different? “We weave silver into all our fabrics and since bacteria doesn’t cling to silver, our clothes never smell,” says a candid Rebecca Jackson, assistant manager. Lululemon will also buy back its old clothes for store credit and recycle them.
Across the street, at 2033 Fillmore, a new lingerie store called Third Love has moved in. Caroline, a sales rep, claims it’s the first such shop to create half sizes in bras such as an A½, B½, C½ all the way up to H½ cup sizes. “We’re new to the industry and we design for all body types,” she says.
Naadam, at 2029 Fillmore — named after a Mongolian holiday — sells lounge and casual wear for women mostly made out of 100 percent cashmere sourced from sheep herders in Mongolia’s Gobi Desert. “We have no middlemen,” says Meghan, a store sales rep. Popular are the cashmere hoodies and sweaters. Prices range from $100 to $300.
The August Gallery has moved into 2053 Fillmore where a clothing and CBD company had a long off-and-on run. It’s not an art gallery per se, but has a collection of items aimed at “making the home more beautiful,” says Cameron, the gallery coordinator for owners Lotta Coffey, an interior designer, and her husband Geoffrey, a landscape designer who also has an office in the space. Items? Plants, ceramics, accessories and furniture by local artists.
Coming this fall to 2028 Fillmore: Sézane is bringing Paris to SF.
FOOD NOTES FROM OLD FAVORITES: John Castanon, the suave longtime manager of Florio, retired and went home to Texas in February. But he’s already been recalled for a six-week summer stint. • The former Elite Cafe, now The Tailor’s Son, has fresh additions to its cocktail list plus a 5 to 6:30 p.m. weekday happy hour — but only for patrons sitting at the bar. • A couple of doors away at 2043 Fillmore, at low-priced Apizza, store manager Pierre Luaga from Paris has added new pizzas, including pork carnitas and cacio e pepe — plus $7 wines and beer at $5 per can. • On the corner of California and Fillmore, the always affable TacoBar manager Antonio Solano has improved its online ordering and added new menu items and a parking zone for pickup and go. • On the corner of Fillmore and Pine, Noosh owner John Litz has added two popular cocktails to his repertoire of California-inspired Mediterranean cuisine. His personable general manager and operations director, Diana Ornelas, is also a talented mixologist. She created the Rosé and Rose Sangria.
Just in time for the dog days of summer: a giant gelato over the sidewalk at the Philmore Creamery at 1840 Fillmore.
Aiden Compton is the proprietor of Compton’s Coffee House at 1910 Fillmore.
NEW NEIGHBORS | CHRIS BARNETT
It takes brass to open a coffee dispensary in the San Francisco these days. But cuppa joe impresario Aiden Compton has worked in the neighborhood for Peet’s, La Boulangerie and Starbucks, and is blood-related to a family-owned Brooklyn outfit called Variety Coffee. So he took over the tiny Samovar Tea shop at 1910 Fillmore earlier this year determined to bring back the old neighborhood feeling to the ’Mo.
Compton, at 36, has done just that with Compton’s Coffee House. The proprietor himself and his “strong right hand,” Heather Orell, personally pour the coffees (starting at $3) or whip up the lattes ($5) with a smile, and without the flamboyant chatter that sometimes ricochets off the walls of the chain operations.
After six months, Compton has a fan club.
“We like the coffee, but what we really like is to see the same familiar faces every time we come in,” says Courtney Chuang, a marketing executive who lives in the neighborhood. Compton points out that artist Dan Max, who has lived on the street for 50-plus years, comes in every morning for coffee. “That’s true,” boulevardier Max acknowledged. “I love the place, the staff, the people who drink there. I go back there for my afternoon coffee. Compton’s makes the best cappuccino on the street.”
Compton stuck with the Samovar’s colors and cozy-without-being-cramped spatial setup, but added some vintage cable car illustrations and paintings by local artists — including one by his mother, Lynn O’Brien — turning the coffee house into a small gallery.
Sipping a vanilla latte, Fillmore clinical psychologist Chelsea Siwik judged Compton’s as “very friendly” and praised it for “supporting locals.”
Both are among the reasons Aiden Compton opened the store in the first place. “I always had the idea of being an entrepreneur — my own boss,” he says. “I’ve been working in food service 18 years. I love its energy, waking up every day and saying ‘Okay, here we go again.’ ”
Aiden Compton’s mother, Lynn O’Brien, works the register on Mondays, under her painting celebrating the family business.
It might seem suicidal to challenge well-financed chains like the ones he once worked for that have multiple outlets nearby.
“I felt I had a responsibility to the community to create a place that’s inclusive, welcoming and friendly,” Compton says. “The chains are built on customer efficiency: ‘I need coffee. You’ve got coffee.’ It’s a transaction.”
What distinguishes a local coffee house like Compton’s from a link in a chain of coffee stores, he says, “is that we want to be personal. We want to know customers’ names, what they order when they walk in. We want to be people’s go-to for coffee.”
When he went looking for a storefront, “I wanted a place that had longtime San Franciscans in the neighborhood, plus young people moving in and becoming part of the neighborhood. We wanted locals, young professionals, people who want to connect, who feel a sense of ownership. And that’s what’s happening. My wife is expecting twins in October and every day people come in and ask, ‘How’s she feeling?’ even if they don’t buy anything. There’s that connection.”
Compton isn’t making connections only inside his front windows and the small square footage inside. He took over Samovar Tea Co.’s lease when Samovar went to an online business model during the pandemic, and says he never would have succeeded if not for Woodhouse Fish Co., the popular seafood restaurant next door. “Woodhouse let us use their nautical parklet during the day, and they took it back at night,” he says. “That saved us.”
“I want to see Fillmore return to its roots as an entrepreneurial and family retail shopping area,” Compton says. “We have a father-daughter bakery [the nearby Fillmore Bakeshop]. We have a family gelato shop [the Philmore Creamery, also nearby]. My family did a lot of the work here and my mother, a retired registered nurse, volunteers here at the cash register on Mondays. And I don’t think this entrepreneurial recycling is just limited to Fillmore. It can be San Francisco — the entire Bay Area.”
Still, Compton is a realist. “We’re not taking this opportunity lightly,” he says. “Peet’s and Starbucks may not be the greatest personal coffee experience of all time, but they have consistency and you know you’ll get the same drink and sandwich at the same speed everytime.”
But fiddle with a highly regarded brand and you can have instant problems, he says, speaking from first-hand experience. “I worked at La Boulangerie when it was a small local French bakery, and everything was baked fresh, and there were lines out the door. When Starbucks took it over, the value perception (of its baked goods) changed overnight.”
That’s another reason Compton wants to keep it real.
Victoria Wasserman is bringing wine and music to 1870 Fillmore.
NEW NEIGHBORS | CHASE ROBERTS
There will be no jazz festival on Fillmore this Fourth of July weekend, but Victoria Wasserman is determined to bring music back to one block of the street. Wasserman is opening Vic’s Winehouse at 1870 Fillmore and turning the Wine Jar into a wine bar with music.
“I was devastated to see all the closures on Fillmore Street,” Wasserman says, “and given its rich history of music and culture, I decided it was time to fulfill my lifelong dream of opening my own bar.”
The new name, Vic’s Winehouse, has a double meaning. Not only will there be locally sourced wines not found in stores. The name also reflects Wasserman’s love for the late singer Amy Winehouse, and her music — jazz, R&B, blues and hip hop — will set the theme for the bar.
Wasserman previously led an eight-piece Amy Winehouse tribute band, “The Back to Black Band,” which played at the Blue Note in Napa and other venues. Wasserman sings and plays the ukulele, and her husband, Jacinto Castaneda, sings and plays bass and guitar. Both are rooted in the Bay Area music scene.
Most of the wines will be from small family-owned wineries in the Russian River, Sonoma, Lodi and Paso Robles. Happy hour specials will be offered daily from 3 to 6 p.m. Flights will be offered from Argentina and from Balletto Vineyards, a family-owned winery in the Russian River Valley that grows its own grapes on what was once the largest vegetable farm in Northern California.
Vic’s will also offer Argentine empanadas handmade and baked locally by Nuchal Empanadas, a family-run business in San Francisco. Brunch will feature its quiche and frittatas.
Wasserman says a familial and community spirit will be at the heart of her new venture, and that she hopes to create “a neighborhood place for gatherings and community events such as art exhibits and CD releases.”
Harry’s Bar at 2020 Fillmore has rolled out the welcome mat to merrymakers who live and work within a five-block radius. The venerable saloon has created a “Fillmore Street Neighbor” card that gives locals a 10 percent discount on all food and drink.
The idea is the brainchild of Harry’s personable general manager, Charles Johnson, who is on the sidewalk daily schmoozing the crowd, seating guests and serving drinks.
“We want our neighbors to think of Harry’s as their go-to place — which it has been for well over 30 years,” he says. “So we’re trying to show our appreciation in creative ways.”
In addition to the discount card, he’s also extended the weekday 4 to 6 p.m. happy hour to seven days a week.
“Harry’s Bar prides itself on being a good neighbor,” Johnson says.
To prove it, Harry’s has now chopped 21 feet off its palatial parklet, after the owner of the empty storefront next door filed a complaint with the city. More than 2,000 fans of Harry’s signed a petition favoring the parklet, which helped keep the bar alive during the pandemic. But as indoor dining and drinking returned, Harry’s agreed to a compromise that reduced the size of the parklet, but made it permanent.
