News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
FORMER FILLMORE resident Andrea Ballus had been scoping out the neighborhood for a location for her fourth Sift Cake and Dessert Bar. She found the perfect setting when Dumplings & Buns abruptly left the cozy space at 2411 California, just around the corner from Fillmore, and opened her doors on August 23. Ballus opened her…
“PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING I ate over several visits to State Bird Provisions — the nine-month-old restaurant that Stuart Brioza and his wife, pastry chef Nicole Krasinski, run in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco — had me clamoring for more. And to think the place almost never happened.” Bon Appetit: “The Hot 10: America’s…
By CHRIS BARNETT Fillmore Street’s oldest coffeehouse is gussying itself up, and there’s a whiff of concern in the air. Royal Ground, a funky haunt for neighborhood caffeine addicts for 25 years, last month rearranged its milk and sugar stand and its refrigerated juice display. Hardly a full facelift, but some customers were flummoxed. Loyalists…
IT BEGAN in a former dry cleaners on Pine Street in 1999. “I just have this thing about bread,” said Pascal Rigo, the Frenchman realizing his dream by launching his own boulangerie and living upstairs above the shop. “The flavor, the smell, the texture. I can’t tell you why. It wasn’t as if I came…
Two new restaurants have opened in the neighborhood in recent weeks, and still more are in the works. A Turkish restaurant, Troya, has taken over the prime space at 2125 Fillmore from Citizen Cake, which fell short of its great expectations and closed late last year — although star chef Elizabeth Falkner, now in New…
DESIGN | Chris Barnett San Francisco graphic designer Christopher Simmons has a long list of powerhouse clients including Facebook, Microsoft, Wells Fargo Bank, Stanford, Kaiser Permanente and the Nature Conservancy. So why in an uncertain economy would he take a flyer on two Fillmore startups that sell Vietnamese sandwiches and rotisserie chickens? For Simmons, owner…
CRIME WATCH “We wrapped up our one beer at Balboa and walked out to try and grab a cab,” restaurateur Matthew Meidinger tells Eater. “While standing there a woman (who I understand to have also just left Balboa) bent down to take off her black Louboutins and put on flip flops for the trip home.…
For a few days each week, a limited number of people can now share dinner and a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most beloved spots in the neighborhood. For the fixed price of $20, Boulangerie Bay Bread at 2325 Pine Street has begun offering a traditional French table d’hote. The evening’s entree is served…
LOCALS | BARBARA KATE REPA Locals stumped about the best way to poach a salmon, how long to bake a stuffed pepper or how to cook a rib roast have a ready expert to consult: Lorain Arruabarrena, the lone female staffer behind Mollie Stone’s meat and fish counter at 2435 California Street, near Fillmore. The…
SALOONS | Chris Barnett Club Mari’s — home of perhaps the city’s only truly authentic Japanese karaoke bars — is so well hidden that most locals likely have never even heard of it, let alone sipped sake there or taken up the mike and belted out I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing by Aerosmith…