‘The neighborhood living room’

Posted on February 2, 2012 by editors

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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 add to the mix rotating art exhibitions, performances by local bands and caffeine-fueled community conversation.

“The lower Fillmore is going through a renaissance,” said Fraga. “We wanted to bridge the gap between upper and lower Fillmore — and create an awareness that lower Fillmore is really cool.”

Citing examples such as the new and wildly successful State Bird Provisions at 1529 Fillmore and the soon-to-arrive Hapa Ramen next door, Fraga says she sees an exciting sea change in the neighborhood. “Upper Fillmore has seen a lot of success,” she says. “Now it’s our turn.”

In preparation, the concrete floors and bare walls have been transformed into a stimulating yet cozy environment that features off-the-wall padded seating, free wi-fi and plenty of table space.

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Etta in the Fillmore

Posted on January 20, 2012 by editors

Photograph of Etta James by Anthony Montes de Oca

EXCERPT | By Etta James

Uncle Frank showed up in his car and whisked us up to San Francisco when I was 12. We dropped [my mother] Dorothy off in the Fillmore District, which looked like a hell-hole to me. L.A. was a vine-covered cottage compared to these slums. After the sunny skies of southern California, the Bay Area looked seedy and sad — the fog-covered sky, the bums on the street. Maybe it was my mood or just the neighborhood where Dorothy lived, but my first impression was grime and crime.

I wound up in a couple of gangs — one in the Fillmore, where my mother lived, and one in the projects by Uncle Frank. We wore baggy jeans, just like today, with the legs dragging on the ground. A white shirt was also part of our uniform — an oversize man’s shirt worn tails-out to cover your ass. Then you had your white socks rolled all the way down below your ankles and beat-up tennis shoes. I let my hair grow long and put it in a ponytail. I thought I was bad. I guess I was the classic case of a kid who, lacking a real family, was looking for a family feeling in gangs.

I started bouncing from school to school. I’d been going to Girls High School in the Fillmore, but they threw me out of there. I was a wiseguy and a clown, always cutting up, never minding no one. So they put me in Continuation School, which is your last stop before they kick your ass out of the system altogether.
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The Skyy’s not the limit

Posted on January 11, 2012 by editors

Maurice Kanbar is back with a new vodka.

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 hates to waste time trolling for parking places. And he eats lunch at the same restaurant practically every day when he’s in town: Perry’s on Union Street.

Kanbar is a man in motion — an obsessive, compulsive inventor with a near Midas touch who dreams up many of his ideas in his own kitchen. Then he gives his brainstorms a clever name, an eye-grabbing package and pitches them like a carny barker. No MBA marketing mumbo-jumbo or Silicon Valley techno-babble. Just plain English. A prime example is D-Fuzz-It, a gadget expressly designed to remove fuzz balls from sweaters.

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Farewell to a big man with a tiny trumpet

Posted on January 4, 2012 by editors

Mike Pitrie made the Fillmore his home base.

JAZZ | Anthony Torres

Mike “Coffee Picasso” Pitre, a true original local jazz talent and music scene treasure, died of a heart attack on December 18, leaving friends and admirers stunned at the sudden departure of the Bohemian Knuckleboogie lead man. He was 44.

I can still vividly remember that first sighting of Coffee and Bohemian Knuckleboogie a couple of years ago at Sheba Piano Lounge on Fillmore — the sound offering a unique blend of New Orleans jazz, soul and blues. It was difficult not to notice Mike Pitre, a larger than life black man, blowing a tiny pocket trumpet with an electric guitar draped over his torso. He sang with a style and voice that was incredibly hip and uniquely his own.

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It’s the symphony’s centennial

Posted on December 8, 2011 by editors

NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the best things to happen to the San Francisco Symphony in its first 100 years. Join in this sing-along for the symphony’s centennial — today, December 8.

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Pacific Heights estates at Sotheby’s

Posted on December 6, 2011 by editors

Furniture from Dodie Rosekrans’ home at 2840 Broadway is coming up for auction.

Luxury items from two favored members of the Pacific Heights social aristocracy will be offered at auction this week at Sotheby’s showrooms in New York.

On December 8 and 9, property from the collection of Dodie Rosekrans will be auctioned, including furnishings and artwork from her home at 2840 Broadway designed by Willis Polk, one of San Francisco’s most esteemed 19th century architects. Much of the interior and furniture design was by superstar 20th century designer Michael Taylor. Rosekrans was a daughter of Michael Naify, founder of the movie chain that became United Artists, and married into the Spreckels family, benefactors of San Francisco’s Palace of the Legion of Honor. Also included in the auction are items from Rosekrans’ “Indian Jewel Box” apartment in Paris and her palazzo on the Grand Canal in Venice, both designed by one-time neighborhood resident Tony Duquette.

A day earlier, on December 7, Sotheby’s will offer “The Elegant John Traina — A Portrait in Style,” featuring jewels and personal items including dress sets and cufflinks, watches, cigarette cases and Faberge-like objects. Traina, a shipping executive and vintner who lived in the neighborhood, was the author of Extraordinary Jewels in 1994 and The Faberge Case: From the Private Collection of John Traina in 1998. He was married to Dede Wilsey and later to Danielle Steele.

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From Yoshi’s to Lincoln Center

Posted on December 2, 2011 by editors

Photograph of Jason Olaine by Kathi O'Leary

JAZZ | Jason Olaine

It seems like only yesterday that I came back home to the Bay Area after 10 years in New York to become artistic director of Yoshi’s new jazz club on Fillmore. That was May 2009, and here it is soon to be 2012. Now I find myself about to leave Yoshi’s to return to New York to program Jazz at Lincoln Center.
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Fillmore to Italy and back again

Posted on December 1, 2011 by editors

Photograph of Carol Field by Russell Yip

BOOKS | CAROL FIELD

Now that the new edition of my book The Italian Baker has been published, I have been reliving the adventure of working with bakers all over Italy. It started in San Francisco in 1981 when Il Fornaio, then a bakery featuring Italian breads and sweets, opened at the corner of Steiner and Union Streets. I couldn’t believe my good fortune: Italy had come to my neighborhood.

I was there almost every day, learning from bakers from Rome, Florence, Ferrara and elsewhere. They were wrestling with the problem of adapting American ingredients to their Italian recipes and I listened and was intrigued. I wrote an article for Attenzione, a magazine for lovers of Italy that, alas, no longer exists. It got such a strong response that it began to seem a logical next step to write a book.

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Mary Risley talks turkey

Posted on November 20, 2011 by editors

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

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Ambassador from Pacific Heights

Posted on November 7, 2011 by editors

The Kounalakises in their Steiner Street aerie.

When they’re in San Francisco, Markos and Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis can often be spotted on Fillmore Street, near their home on the ninth floor of the 2500 Steiner Street tower. But these days they’re mostly in Budapest, where she’s the U.S. ambassador to Hungary.

Among their visitors from the neighborhood: 2500 Steiner’s 12th floor resident, the staunch Democrat Susie Tompkins Buell, who arrived just in time for the unveiling outside the embassy of a larger-than-life statue of former President Ronald Reagan. “We kept our eye on Susie,” the ambassador told the Chron’s Leah Garchik.

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