News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
YES, THAT’S HER. That’s the actress Julia Roberts you’ve been seeing around the neighborhood — wandering down Fillmore Street with her family, dining at Chouquet’s and Via Veneto, admiring the views in Alta Plaza Park. Roberts has a long association with San Francisco. Back in the 1990s, when she was dating fellow actor Benjamin Bratt,…
FAREWELL | FRAN MORELAND JOHNS “Ah, what a gift to our world she was.” Glady Thacher — beloved neighbor, community organizer and force for good — was summed up in those words by a longtime member of one of the “trust circles” she was fond of launching when she spotted a need. Like the larger…
IT’S A BIG DAY at Peet’s on Fillmore, the town square of the neighborhood. Peetniks are celebrating Nancy Ferrufino’s 24th year anniversary at the always-bustling coffee shop on the corner of Fillmore and Sacramento. She’s a familiar sight three mornings a week, keeping the counters, tables and floors clean, stocking condiments, greeting the regulars —…
FILLMORE STREET is losing an icon this week. After a decade, Ines Wilson is leaving Invision, the optometry office and eyewear emporium at 1907 Fillmore. She has become a valued fashion advisor, helping Invision’s clients choose stylish glasses that flatter their faces. October 31 is her final day. Wilson’s outsize personality and star quality have…
REMEMBRANCE | ELEANOR COPPOLA (1936-2024) By ALISON OWINGS The sad news spread fast among her friends: Ellie Coppola died. She was 87, and died at home in Napa Valley on April 12. For years she and her creative family lived near Fillmore Street, first on Webster Street and later up on Broadway. Late in life,…
JUST ABOUT THIS time of year, for decades, Joe Pecora would be throwing open the doors of his beautifully maintained Victorian home near Alamo Square for his annual Christmas pot luck. The house would be brimming with friends and neighbors and decorated from top to bottom with his collection of antique ornaments and Christmas cards.…
By CLAIRE FAHYThe New York Times Dianne Feinstein was laid to rest last week with a funeral service on the steps of San Francisco City Hall, a fitting backdrop for a woman who was as much a symbol of the city as the Golden Gate Bridge is. It certainly felt that way when I was…
JOHN GAUL, 97, a fixture on Fillmore Street and in San Francisco historical circles for decades, died on July 25, 2023, at his longtime home at John F. Kennedy Towers. He leaves a considerable legacy of celebrating and perpetuating the history of the city he loved. He was a docent at three of San Francisco’s…
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…
BOOKS | MARK J. MITCHELL “I never intended to write a book,” Ronald Hobbs said as we basked in the warm February sun in Santino’s Vino’s parklet at Fillmore and California. “Who does that these days?” “Well, you did,” I nudged, tapping my copy of his new book, Nearing a Place Called Home. “A pretty…