News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
Story & Photograph by FRANK WING Sanko Kitchen Essentials, the anchor shop at the northeast end of Japantown’s Buchanan Street Mall, is sporting a new look these days. For more than 35 years, it has been the go-to purveyor of hard to find Japanese cookware, unique bento boxes, exotic children’s lunch pails and enough teacups…
CULTURE BEAT | PAMELA FEINSILBER Nick Platoff moved here a year ago to join the San Francisco Symphony’s acclaimed brass section, in which he is associate principal trombonist. Only 25, he helps kick off the fall arts season this month, performing in the symphony’s opening night gala on September 14, followed from September 22 to…
THE NEIGHBORHOOD HAS lost one of its most familiar faces: Charlie, the large golden doodle known for relaxing on the sidewalk outside Peet’s at Fillmore and Sacramento, has died. Charlie always put smiles on the faces of passersby with his unusual size and gentle demeanor. He was a frequent customer at George, his favorite destination, and also…
By BARBARA KATE REPA Victoria Dunham is bucking the trend. At a time when many small businesses with unique offerings have been priced out and forced off Fillmore Street, the proprietor of the HiHo Silver jewelry store at 1904 Fillmore has just opened a second shop next door, doubling her retail space. “I live in…
THEIR FANS WERE almost ready to give up, but not the mother-daughter duo Sheila and Toni Young. Their labor of love — Bumzy’s Chocolate Chip Cookies, at 1460 Fillmore — was shut down by flooding last September and stayed closed for nine long months. But just in time for Fillmore’s annual Juneteenth Festival, their cheery pink…
FIRST PERSON | MARK FANTINO It’s Tuesday, and I’m halfway through working a typical lunch at Chouquet’s, at Fillmore and Washington, when in he walks. Immediately I ask: “Are you Richard Butler?” Turns out, I know him well. He’s the lead vocalist of The Psychedelic Furs, one of my favorite rock bands. A benefit of…
AFTER A TOTAL overhaul, the Shell station at California and Steiner has reopened — without its garage, but with a new Loop convenience store. The promised salad and sushi bars are not included, but the store offers hot dogs, corn dogs, tacos and tater tots, along with pastries and coffee. EARLIER: “Shell gets the go-ahead“
A PLAN TO build a Zen-style Japanese rock garden at the foot of Cottage Row has been derailed, at least for now. In June, a committee of the Recreation and Park Commission approved the garden, which would honor the Issei generation of Japanese-Americans who founded Japantown 110 years ago after the 1906 earthquake. But Bush…
By FRAN JOHNS Proper English tea in the heart of Japantown? It happens on any given day from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Crown & Crumpet in the New People building at 1746 Post Street.
CULTURE BEAT | PAM FEINSILBER It’s fitting that Randall Kline, founder and executive artistic director of SFJazz — the largest jazz-presenting organization on the West Coast — lives near Fillmore Street. In the 1940s and ’50s, when the neighborhood was teeming with clubs, bars and after-hours joints, it was revered by jazz musicians and fans. Now…