Posted on November 2, 2017 by editors
Photograph of Moe Salimi, owner of Juicy News, by Lucy Gray
RETAIL REPORT | LESLEY LEONHARDT
When Moe Salimi moved Juicy News from its longtime home at Fillmore and Jackson down the hill to Union and Fillmore in 2015, he was expecting a completely different neighborhood, even though he’d moved only a few blocks. But he didn’t find it.
“There are more similarities than I would have thought,” Salimi says from his perch in the bright front window of his newsstand at 2181 Union. “Only generational differences are apparent, with a younger demographic found on Union and more established families shopping in the old location.”
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Posted on November 1, 2017 by editors
Photograph of Shiffen, owner of Baraka Gallery at 1230 Fillmore, by Suzie Biehler
By FRANCINE BREVETTI
If you are a tribal man of Niger intent on wooing a lady, you will likely wear a Wodaabe tunic at the Geerewol festival. “That’s where the handsome men of the tribe compete in a contest of endurance and beauty,” explains Shiffen Melaku.
Your sister would have embroidered this ritual robe for you to wear at the weeklong festival where young people meet to find mates among the other cattle-herding nomads.
Here in the neighborhood, you can buy such a garment at Shiffen’s Baraka Gallery, formerly of Oakland, and newly installed at 1230 Fillmore.
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Posted on November 1, 2017 by editors
“Tribute to Romare Bearden,” a 2007 mixed media painting by Rhonel Roberts
By KEITH HOWELL
Rhonel Roberts’ first love was music. But painting is his passion.
The two came together for the Fillmore resident in a series of artworks he created celebrating great jazz musicians — Ella Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, John Lee Hooker, Ray Charles and South African trumpeter Hugh Masekela. His career took off when his painting of Masekela was chosen in 2011 for the Fillmore Jazz Festival poster. It was one of Roberts’ particular favorites because he remembered the trumpeter’s rendition of “Grazing in the Grass” playing at his 13th birthday party.
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Posted on November 1, 2017 by editors
Parking was blocked at 2615 California Street for years.
By JOHN KAYE
I have walked the streets of Pacific Heights for years with my beloved dog, Bubba, and I have been noticing something getting worse: “No Stopping” signs are sprouting all over the streets, especially on Sacramento, Steiner and Fillmore.
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Posted on October 27, 2017 by editors
Latif William Harris (1940-2017)
By ERIN C. MESSER
Latif William Harris — post-Beat poet, seeker and Bodhisattva of Browser Books — passed away on October 15 in Watsonville, California. He was 76 years old.
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Posted on October 7, 2017 by editors
Architect Albert Pissis designed the medical library and the temple behind it.
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY
The classical Health Sciences Library at 2395 Sacramento Street may soon find a new use. California Pacific Medical Center recently disposed of its collection and vacated the space, the library having gone entirely digital. The building, which was designated a San Francisco landmark in 1980, is currently for sale at an undisclosed price, marketed as a “one-of-a-kind development opportunity.”
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Posted on October 6, 2017 by editors
The Thai Stick at Fillmore and Pine.
UPDATE: The much buzzed about bid by the two owners of Harry’s Bar to take over the Thai Stick has collapsed. Rick Howard and George Karas reportedly pulled out of the deal, with no reasons given. The bar stays open, but food service has been cut back somewhat while Thai Stick owner Paul Polemasuppapol looks for new buyers.
SALOONS | CHRIS BARNETT
Three bar-restaurants with well over 100 years of experience in mixing, pouring, cooking and serving on Fillmore Street are shaking things up in the 2000 block between California and Pine.
• Harry’s Bar, now in its 31st year, is negotiating to take over the Thai Stick, which has been in operation for 21 years at the corner of Fillmore and Pine.
• Harry’s will also remain in its longtime location at 2020 Fillmore. For a few weeks, Harry’s outsourced its kitchen to an independent chef, who revamped the menu and upped the prices. That arrangement has now ended. A remodeling is also in the works.
• Across the street at 2043 Fillmore, the Elite Cafe is quietly tiptoeing back to some of its more familiar roots since its black-and-gray hipster makeover last year — and finally repairing its fire-damaged classic neon sign.
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Posted on October 6, 2017 by editors
Photo illustration of Benkyodo by Frank Wing
BENKYODO, with its colorful counter and corner tables, for a century has been a gathering place in Japantown for local business people, tourists and generations of Japanese Americans who love mochi and manju.
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Posted on October 5, 2017 by editors
Officers Jason Castro (left) and Gordon Wong (right) with Dosa owner Emily Mitra.
AFTER REPORTS OF an increasing number of grab-and-run thefts — and calls for help — from Fillmore’s fashion boutiques and other shops, the SFPD debuted a two-officer uniformed foot patrol on September 9.
Known as “Beat 44,” it stretches from Geary Boulevard north to Jackson Street. Officers Gordon Wong and Jason Castro will walk the beat from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m.
EARLIER: “Thieves put a target on Fillmore“
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Posted on October 4, 2017 by editors
Tim Schuyler Hayman (center) welcomes guests to Scopo Divino.
By FAITH WHEELER
Some may mistake it for a hole in the wall, tucked away near the bustling corner of California and Divisadero, but to those in the know, the Scopo Divino wine bar has become a neighborhood institution during its first year in business. And the food has turned out to be just as important as the wine — surprising even owner Tim Schuyler Hayman.
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