The $100 million man

Posted on June 5, 2012 by editors

Pascal Rigo at Boulangerie Bay Bread on Pine Street.

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 from a long line of bakers. I was just fixated on bread. And not only bread. I was crazy about the bakery, too.”

Yesterday Rigo and his investors sold the company and its 19 La Boulange cafes to Starbucks for $100 million. During the next year, La Boulange products will be added to every Starbucks pastry case in America, Rigo says. And the La Boulange brand will expand to 200 to 400 units nationwide within the next four to five years.

Inside Scoop: Starbucks buys La Boulange

EARLIER: “I just have this thing about bread“

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Feathering the Nest

Posted on June 2, 2012 by editors

Nest offers treasures from estate sales, antique markets and contemporary artisans.

Story and Photographs by Carina Woudenberg

FOR JUDY GILMAN and her daughter Marcella Madsen, owners of Nest, the eclectic gift shop at 2300 Fillmore, a shared love of art and eye for snagging old and new treasures has enabled them to nurture a loyal following over the past 17 years.

“I’ve been going to the antique markets since I was on my mom’s back in a carrier,” marveled Madsen, who now has a 9-year-old of her own.

While many of the individually owned stores on the street have disappeared under financial pressures, Nest’s owners say they’ve managed to weather the storm by relying on their well-rooted customer base and anticipating when fans are ready for some changes.

“We’re always evolving,” Madsen said.
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Hemingway at the Swedenborgian

Posted on May 24, 2012 by editors

Film crew at the Swedenborgian Church, with Nicole Kidman in the doorway.

Legendary filmmaker Philip Kaufman — director of The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and many others — has lived in Pacific Heights for years. His latest film premieres on May 28 at 9 p.m. when HBO broadcasts Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen.

Hemingway & Gellhorn is a love story exploring the tempestuous relationship between writers Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, which was the inspiration for Hemingway’s classic novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Though the story takes place in nine different countries, the film was shot over 40 days entirely on location in San Francisco and the Bay Area, which stood in for Spain, Finland, Cuba, New York, Shanghai, Key West and Idaho.

Key scenes were filmed at the Swedenborgian Church at Washington and Lyon Streets, only a few blocks from Kaufman’s home.

“One scene takes place in a church in Finland that had been converted for wartime use,” says Kaufman. “We were looking for something — maybe not Finnish, but with that approximate feeling. And of course I’d been to weddings there.”

Incorporating archival black and white footage of Finnish soldiers, Kaufman recreates the scene with snow and icicles on the historic church. “Then the color comes back into it,” he says, “and we find Nicole writing letters to Hemingway — actually taken from the real letters.”

Another scene was shot in the wooden stairway of the church’s parish house, standing in for the small British hotel where Gellhorn and Hemingway had their final rendezvous. “It’s where they break up their relationship,” says Kaufman. “It’s their final scene together.”

During the filming, Kaufman walked home to Vallejo Street for lunch, then back to work at the church.

“We can make films here and use local people, yet create a film that could be made anywhere in the world,” Kaufman says. “It’s great. It’s just great working here.”

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Read more: Cannes celebrates Philip Kaufman

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End of an era: Mrs. Dewson’s Hats closes

Posted on May 3, 2012 by editors

By THOMAS REYNOLDS

For the first time in almost four decades, Mrs. Dewson’s Hats at 2050 Fillmore Street wasn’t open in the days leading up to Easter, which is typically prime time for hat buyers.

A few days later a sign went up in the window telling the news: After 37 years, Mrs. Dewson’s Hats was closing. And on Sunday afternoon, April 29, the last hats were sold, the final goodbyes said and the doors closed on a prime piece of Fillmore history.

“It’s a sad day,” said Glenn Mitchell, nephew of owner Ruth Garland Dewson. “We’ve been fighting it off for a while.” Mitchell has been overseeing the shop since his aunt checked herself into an assisted living facility two years ago.

“I’ve been crying ever since I heard,” Ruth Dewson said the next day, sitting in a wheelchair in the top-floor lounge at AgeSong, her new home in Hayes Valley. “I’ve had a good time on Fillmore Street and I don’t want to give it up. Why should I die when all these other assholes are still alive?”
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Filed under: Landmarks, Locals, Retail Report, Video | 4 Comments »

Finding new life in a historic hotel

Posted on April 1, 2012 by editors

The Tallman Hotel and the Blue Wing Saloon on Main Street in Upper Lake, California

GETAWAYS | Caroline Wampole

Longtime neighborhood resident Lynne Butcher was on a visit to Upper Lake in June 2003 when she saw a “for sale” sign on the historic Tallman Hotel. She had just sold her equipment leasing business and was looking for a new project.

“The ‘for sale’ sign had been there for 41 years,” she says.

But the Tallman’s days were numbered. The county had just red-tagged the 1880s building and it was slated for demolition. In fact, the local fire department wanted to use it as a training ground for a controlled burn.

“We must have been the 500th person in 40 years to look at the property,” says her husband, Bernie Butcher, laughing and shaking his head. “But if you wait long enough, the greater fool will arrive.”

Most people would not consider a plunge into the hotel and restaurant business a relaxing way to spend their retirement years. But then Lynne and Bernie Butcher have always had a sense of adventure.

(more…)

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Lafayette Park or Peyton Place?

Posted on March 29, 2012 by editors

ORNITHOLOGY | Monte Travis

From my ninth floor office near Lafayette Park, I’ve been watching a pair of red-tailed hawks engage in aerial courtship flights since early this year.

In late March I saw the hawks carrying sticks to a large nest high in a eucalyptus tree in the park, undertaking a little remodeling. A few days later, I observed one of the hawks poking its head above the rim of the nest. This suggested at least one egg and probably more had been laid in the nest. If all goes well, we should have chicks in about a month.

As I was photographing the female hawk on the nest, I was alerted by the screams of about 20 red-masked parakeets — the famous parrots of Telegraph Hill — who suddenly bolted into the air from the treetops directly overhead. I looked up, and there came the male redtail swooping in from the west. When the male arrived at the nest, the female, who is larger, rose up, and for a short time both stood on the nest (above). Then the female took off and the male settled in for his shift.

Redtails are monogamous and generally mate for life. But later that same day, I witnessed a mystery: three adult birds on the nest (below). For 45 minutes, all three alternately flew to and from the nest. A menage a trois, perhaps? Or maybe redtails, like certain other species, sometimes employ one of their young from the prior year as a helper. This will bear watching in the coming days.

It’s a domestic ornithological mystery. But it seems appropriate for San Francisco: an alternative avian family.

Filed under: Art & Design, Home & Garden, Locals, Parks | 1 Comment »

One of the boys

Posted on March 2, 2012 by editors

Photograph of Lorain Arruabarrena by Kathi O’Leary

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 meat maven, who also serves as mother figure and mentor to the younger men behind the counter, has clocked more than 30 years in the butchering business — including stretches at Petrini’s, Enrico’s and the neighborhood’s Grand Central Market, which morphed into Mollie Stone’s a decade ago. Before becoming an apprentice meatcutter, she had some stints in retail. And back in the 60s, she was a carhop at Mel’s, where she recalls serving deep dish berry pie to Joe DiMaggio and his mom nearly every Thursday.

(more…)

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Making a mark on Pacific Heights

Posted on March 2, 2012 by editors

John Field designed the six shingled row houses at 2641-63 Union Street.

ARCHITECTURE | JOHN FIELD

Although I’ve lived in Pacific Heights for many years and designed homes here, I never thought of myself as a Pacific Heights architect. When I was asked recently how many houses in the neighborhood I have designed, I had to stop and think. I’d never counted them.

There must be 20 or more, most of them published in Sunset or House and Garden. Alas, they aren’t easy to pick out. There’s no unique window style, no striking modern minimalism; San Francisco wouldn’t stand for such statements in the 1960s and 70s. I designed gracious modern housing, most of it blending in with shingles or hiding behind a Victorian exterior. Even then some of the matrons of Pacific Heights thought my designs were out of place.

They may have had a point. I used bay windows in designs that weren’t Victorian, shingle walls as if they were white plaster, and glass wherever there was a view. I turned a ballroom for a mansion into a three-story home and carved parking out of many existing residences, one of them still with a fireplace, mantle and marble trim in the garage.

The real art of designing in San Francisco has always been capitalizing on whatever view there is, while concealing the exposures that aren’t so good. That’s true for city living everywhere.

Within three blocks on Broadway, I designed three completely new houses that are visually related only by their proportions. On the surrounding blocks are eight or 10 irreverently remodeled Victorians, two of them for my own family.

Probably my best known local project is a group of six shingled row houses at 2641-2663 Union Street. The design provoked a storm of protest from neighbors, who feared their property would be devalued by these houses only 16 feet wide — not realizing their own Victorians were often no wider, although built on wider lots. The design was published in several magazines and won many awards, including a special governor’s award for contemporary California design.

As in all cities, the housing stock is limited in Pacific Heights. New owners want to make their houses their own, so they remodel. People live differently now than they did before, and their houses reflect the changes. But I still harbor a hope that some of the simple elegant spirit of the places I have designed will live on.

Read more: “Architect, filmmaker, now a photographer“

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You too can have a Victorian mansion

Posted on March 1, 2012 by editors

Photograph of John Gaul inside the Haas-Lilienthal House by Ramon del Rosario

Up the sidewalk to the imposing Victorian mansion at 2007 Franklin Street — the historic Haas-Lilienthal House — walks a group of senior travelers who call themselves road scholars. They are greeted by a gentleman in a vested suit and bowler hat, carrying a silver-headed cane, who welcomes them inside.

It’s not John Gaul’s home, although sometimes people think it is. From a passing car comes a shout: “Hey, are you Mr. Lilienthal?” He bows ever so elegantly and welcomes his visitors inside.

For more than a decade, Gaul has been one of about 50 docents who lead tours of the Haas-Lilienthal House, which was donated by descendants of some of the city’s most prominent families as a home for San Francisco Architectural Heritage, the historic preservation group. Heritage offers one-hour tours on Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Docents guide visitors through the perfectly preserved wood-paneled rooms, most still with the original furnishings. They explain the distinctiveness of Victorian architecture and the privileged lives of the family that lived in the house from 1886, when it was built, until 1973.

“There was polite uplifting conversation in the front parlor,” Gaul says. “In the second parlor, maybe a little gossip while waiting for dinner. In the dining room, all was refinement, with good food, good wine and good conversation.”

WELCOMING NEW DOCENTS: Now Heritage is inviting new docents to join its ranks. A training program begins March 13 at 6 p.m. and includes eight sessions of lectures by historians and architects, plus tips from seasoned docents, including Gaul.

“Style is as important as substance,” Gaul says. “The facts alone don’t make it come alive.”

To learn more about becoming a docent at the Haas-Lilienthal House, contact volunteer coordinator Dorothy Boylan at 441-3000 ext. 24.

Filed under: Home & Garden, Landmarks, Locals, Neighborhood History | 1 Comment »

Guess who’s coming to dinner — again

Posted on February 16, 2012 by editors

Don't plan to drive near Outer Broadway while President Obama is back in the neighborhood.

President Obama will be back in the neighborhood for dinner tonight, after stopping in Chinatown to pick up take-out dim sum for lunch. He’s supping and posing with a few deep-pocketed supporters paying $38,500 each at the contemporary Gold Coast home of Oracle heiress Nicola Miner and author Robert Mailer Anderson. Entertainment will be provided by the Rev. Al Green, with dinner prepared by Quince’s Michael Tusk. Here’s the menu:

Tortelloni filled with Barinaga Ranch baserri cheese and wild nettle

Poularde in diverse preparations: Roast breast filled with black salsify, savory cabbage; leg fricassee with chanterelle mushroom

Sweet dumpling squash puree and marble potato

Chocolate Cemeux

Straus Family Creamery milk jam and chocolate caramel dentelle

A public rally and fund-raiser follows at Masonic Auditorium on Nob Hill.

Filed under: Food, Drink & Lodging, Locals, Politics | Leave a Comment »

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