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‘The neighborhood living room’

[nggallery id=17] By Carina Woudenberg Continuing the influx of new businesses into the Fillmore Jazz District, The Social Study is now serving beverages, snacks and a cool vibe in the stylish brick-lined space at 1795 Geary, just off Fillmore. Along with creatively concocted drinks and locally roasted coffee, owner Harmony Fraga says she hopes to…

The Skyy’s not the limit

SPIRITS | Chris Barnett Maurice Kanbar is sitting in the cluttered, comfortable living room of his Pacific Heights apartment clipping Safeway coupons. That seems rather odd for an 80-year-old entrepreneur, property investor and filmmaker-philanthropist who’s no doubt a billionaire plus. But then he also zips around town on a Vespa lookalike motor scooter because he…

Six blocks of separation

FAVORITE SPOT | Kevin Blum Like many residents and the great Tony Bennett, I left my heart in San Francisco. But I think it’s fair to say I left my liver at Solstice lounge. I first discovered the restaurant and bar eight years ago when I moved to the neighborhood. Solstice had just opened at…

More casual dining options arrive

PROVING ONCE AGAIN that more casual eateries are gaining in popularity in the neighborhood, a number of new restaurants opened just in time for the new year. Among them are spots helmed by two husband-and-wife teams with impeccable pedigrees: Roostertail — a new restaurant specializing in free-range chicken cooked on a rotisserie spit — is…

Citizen Cake calls it quits

BARELY A YEAR after moving to Fillmore Street and then struggling through several changes in concept, Citizen Cake closed just before Christmas. “I can’t do it anymore,” chef-owner Elizabeth Falkner told Inside Scoop. “I just have to start over.” Falkner took over the hallowed brick-walled space occupied for nearly 30 years by Vivande and was…

Touched by an angel

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…

Mary Risley talks turkey

The Fillmore’s own inimitable Mary Risley — longtime proprietor of Tante Marie’s Cooking School — offers a simpler way to prepare the traditional Thanksgiving dinner in this timely new video from the Fillmore’s own Jaded Palate Productions. UPDATE: “The insanity of going f*cking viral” by Faith Wheeler

Dining alone among friends

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…

Swank by day and by night

SALOONS | Chris Barnett A bar with a walkway to a motel might raise eyebrows. But Swank, on the corner of California and Presidio Avenue and connected to the 49-room Laurel Inn, is no dreary dive. That was its predecessor, G Bar, which tried to gussy itself up to snag the young and the restless. But…