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Fat Angel flies in

A new cafe and wine bar — Fat Angel — is now open in the Fillmore Jazz District behind Starbucks at 1740 O’Farrell. And it’s promising to be a neighborhood place. “Fat Angel was born out of a passion for the Fillmore District,” say the owners, who live nearby and have made the neighborhood a…

The one that got away

Check out these stunning images of an upscale soul food restaurant called Mississippi Blues designed for the Fillmore Jazz District by hot-shot architect Stanley Saitowitz. “Like the river, a single table meanders through the space — here everyone sits around and eats as a family,” reports Arch Daily. Unfortunately, it’s old news, says Eater SF:…

Opening night at Via Veneto

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…

Vivande’s last supper

SUDDENLY, although perhaps not for them, the owners of Vivande decided at the end of the year to close the restaurant. After 29 years at 2125 Fillmore, Vivande served its final meal at dinner on New Year’s Eve [December 31, 2009]. “The decision to close Vivande is based on several factors,” said co-owner Lisa Middione,…

1300: a saloon with a soul

By Chris Barnett His coolness, former mayor Willie Brown himself, walks in around the cocktail hour, making 1300 on Fillmore the first stop on his nightly round of drop-bys to schmooze with friends and cronies. “This is one of those bar-restaurants that instantly became a landmark of this great city,” says Brown, sounding as if…

At OTD, the wine is on tap

By Chris Barnett The price on the wine list looks like a proofreader’s mistake. But celebrated chef Charles Phan of Slanted Door fame — and owner of the new and wildly popular Out The Door Vietnamese bistro on Bush Street, just off Fillmore — is selling a 2008 sauvignon blanc from Sonoma’s Dry Creek Valley…

Celebrities on the street

When in-your-face filmmaker Michael Moore walks in the door with his crew, the usual response is fear. But when he wheeled up to Fillmore’s Elite Cafe on a recent Thursday evening and alighted from a black SUV with dark-tinted windows, diners at the sidewalk tables stood and applauded. Moore had just come from the Clay…

Vivande and the U.S. Supreme Court

By THOMAS REYNOLDS When the first Monday in October arrives and the United States Supreme Court takes the bench after its summer recess, all eyes will be on the newest justice, Sonia Sotomayor. But Lisa Middione, co-owner with chef Carlo Middione of Vivande on Fillmore Street, will be thinking instead of two justices from the…

At Cafe Kati, heaven can wait

By Tess Minsky Life and times have presented Kirk Webber with plenty of opportunities to test his mettle — or to turn toque and run from Cafe Kati, the restaurant he founded nearly 20 years ago. He got robbed eight times, went through some tumultuous personal periods and, most recently, survived a bout with an…