Jackson Fillmore: ‘We’re old school’

Posted on March 4, 2016 by editors
Photographs of Jackson Fillmore at 2506 Fillmore Street by Marc Gamboa

Photographs of Jackson Fillmore at 2506 Fillmore Street by Marc Gamboa

Q & A | FAITH WHEELER

Rare is the restaurant in San Francisco still going strong after 30 years. But Jackson Fillmore — the beloved, quintessential neighborhood Italian spot at 2506 Fillmore, now under new management — remains noticeably unchanged. That’s thanks to the brother-sister duo Kelly and Casey Sullivan, lifelong family friends of original owner Jack Krietzman. Kelly Sullivan remembers coming to the restaurant the year it opened when she was a 4-year-old and eating cold zabaglione.

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Blue Bottle still coming to Fillmore

Posted on March 3, 2016 by editors

AFTER CONSTRUCTION started and then stopped, neighbors began to wonder if Blue Bottle Coffee was backing out of its plans for a new outpost on the shuttered Tully’s corner at Fillmore and Jackson.

Not so. It’s still on.

The new coffee shop started before Blue Bottle announced it was merging with Tartine Bakery. A combination of the two in the pair of storefronts at the top of Fillmore seemed like a terrific addition to the neighborhood.

The merger was later called off, but Blue Bottle applied on January 27 for a building permit for “tenant improvements for new coffee cafe in existing coffee cafe space” valued at $200,000. Blue Bottle got permission earlier to combine the former Tully’s and Juicy News storefronts.

“Blue Bottle Coffee is still forging ahead to open at this location and the cafe is progressing nicely,” says Defne Crow, a spokesperson for Blue Bottle. “We are very excited to open our doors later this year.”

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Bagels with a side of history

Posted on February 26, 2016 by editors

WISE SONS Bagel & Bakery opened its doors at 1520 Fillmore on February 26 and enthusiastic crowds were waiting. Again there is an authentic Jewish bakery in a neighborhood where many were located a century ago, when the Fillmore was home to a large Jewish community.

San Francisco muralist Amos Goldbaum captured the era in a mural on the north wall after Wise Sons co-owner Evan Bloom told him about the neighborhood’s Jewish heritage.

Says Goldbaum: “I researched historic photos and found some that included street cars and the iconic metal arches over each intersection, which were erected by the Fillmore merchants, many of them Jewish, to promote business. They were eventually removed to use as scrap metal for World War II. I wanted to add more to the street scene, so I also looked at historic photos of the Lower East Side, Jewish mecca and birthplace of my late grandfather. I was happy to find pictures of pushcart vendors selling challa, pickles and, of course, bagels. The resulting scene is Lower East Side on Fillmore, an amalgam of New York street life and San Francisco streetscape.”

WALKING TOUR: “Jews of the Fillmore“

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Still standing after a move one lot south

Posted on February 25, 2016 by editors
The history of 2018 Webster (center) is intertwined with its neighbors, Temple Sherith Israel on the right and the Health Sciences Library on the left. Photograph by Bridget Maley.

The history of 2018 Webster (center) is intertwined with its neighbors, Temple Sherith Israel on the right and the Health Sciences Library on the left. Photograph by Shayne Watson.

LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY

Long owned by the California Pacific Medical Center, the house at 2018 Webster Street has remained vacant for almost 25 years. It was recently sold and will be returned to residential use, after a rear addition and interior upgrades, as three housing units.

The history of this Victorian house is intertwined with its two large institutional neighbors. Temple Sherith Israel, built in 1905, is on one side at the northeast corner of California and Webster. On the other, the Health Sciences Library, at the southeast corner of Sacramento and Webster, was constructed in 1912 as Lane Medical Library, a part of Stanford University. Both buildings are designated city landmarks and both were designed by noted San Francisco architect Albert Pissis.

In between sits the empty dwelling at 2018 Webster, constructed around 1889 with a mix of Victorian influences, including Queen Anne and Stick styles. Its hybrid features are typical of San Francisco’s Victorian residential architecture.

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Dog mauling conviction affirmed again

Posted on February 6, 2016 by editors

The attack occurred on the sixth floor of the apartment building at Fillmore and Pacific.

CRIME | BARBARA KATE REPA

A federal appellate court has denied the latest challenge to a second-degree murder conviction in a case that rocked the neighborhood 15 years ago when a horrific attack by two large dogs in a Pacific Avenue apartment building left one local resident dead and landed two others in prison.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on February 3 affirmed a lower federal court’s denial of habeas corpus relief for Marjorie Knoller, a former neighborhood resident.

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Doubling down with Black Bark

Posted on January 31, 2016 by editors
Photograph of Black Bark chef David Lawrence by Daniel Bahmani

Black Bark chef David Lawrence: “We might as well go for it.”

By BARBARA KATE REPA

When David Lawrence and Monetta White announced plans to open their high end but homey restaurant, 1300 on Fillmore, eight years ago, friends cautioned against it. “They said, ‘You’re going down to lower Fillmore? Are you nuts?’ ” says White, whose mother and grandmother both grew up in the neighborhood.

But soon after the doors opened, the joint was jumping, fueled by foot traffic brought in by the adjacent Yoshi’s restaurant and jazz club. The club was part of the Fillmore Heritage Center — a 240,000-square-foot mixed-use complex that included Yoshi’s, 1300 on Fillmore and a nonprofit art gallery, with 80 condominiums rising above — all constructed in an ambitious attempt to revitalize Fillmore south of Geary.

For a few years, the $75 million bet seemed to pay off, as the new businesses and residents brought a vibrancy, unity and goodwill to the nascent jazz district, along with new patrons and customers. Then suddenly things changed. Fingers pointed at various culprits: a lagging economy, changing neighborhood demographics, bad management, the new SF Jazz Center in the Civic Center. The Lush Life Gallery closed first. Then Yoshi’s declared bankruptcy. An attempt to revive the club as The Addition quickly failed. For the last year, it has sat empty — an eerily silent space nearly a block long. Many people assumed 1300 on Fillmore was no longer in business, either.

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The Fillmore getting a jazzier sign

Posted on January 31, 2016 by editors

Fillmore-sign-FINAL

A NEW MARQUEE is in the works for the legendary Fillmore Auditorium at Geary and Fillmore.

The Planning Commission has unanimously approved changes to the city’s sign ordinance that would permit a 60-foot-tall vertical blade proclaiming both the storied rock ’n’ roll venue and the surrounding neighborhood. Currently signs can be no higher than 24 feet. The proposal now goes before the Board of Supervisors.

The new marquee would replace both the existing Fillmore sign, which rarely functions, and the illuminated check cashing signs below it. Drawings of the new sign considered by the Planning Commission report were said to be placeholders while the law is changed. The final design of the new sign is expected to be more artistically exciting.

Planning staff noted that because the building opened as the Majestic — a dance hall — it never had a historic marquee. It became the Fillmore Auditorium in 1954.

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Coming home rattled

Posted on January 30, 2016 by editors

Battle-Rattle-Cover

FIRST PERSON | ROGER BOAS

I’ve been a resident of Pacific Heights for almost a century. I grew up in the 1920s, living with my folks in an apartment on Pacific Avenue. Then I bought my own place on Washington Street in 1959, raised four kids there with my wife Nancy — and we’ve lived in that home ever since.

There were really only two major interruptions to my neighborhood residency: going to Stanford, and going to war. While college attendance had expanded my horizons and given me new perspectives, going to war changed everything.

“The war has changed me in ways that will take the better part of my life to understand, let alone make peace with. Don’t ask me how. If you have to ask, you’ve never been to war.”

Those are the opening lines of my just-published book, Battle Rattle: A Last Memoir of World War II.

Being in WWII was the major event of my life. The experience still haunts me to this day — even 70 years after the fact. This is why I spent countless hours in my study on Washington Street sitting in front of a computer to write my memoir.

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A designer finds her niche

Posted on January 30, 2016 by editors
Photograph of Isabelle McGee at Regard Interiors by Daniel Bahmani

Isabelle McGee, owner of Regard Interiors: “I work to simplify lives and add a little zest.”

SHE’D WORKED FOR THE RITZ in Paris and other international corporations, mostly designing hotels, but French designer Isabelle McGee wanted something different — something more intimate — when she set out to establish her interior design atelier in San Francisco.

One day she was walking on Sutter Street, just a block from Fillmore, when she struck up a conversation with Joan O’Connor, longtime proprietor of Timeless Treasures at 2176 Sutter and a notorious neighborhood networker.

“I need a space like this,” McGee told her. So O’Connor promptly called upstairs and introduced her to the landlord of a nearby vacant storefront.

She had found her home. In late 2013 McGee opened her consultancy and showroom called Regard at 2182 Sutter.

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An icon gets more authentic

Posted on January 30, 2016 by editors
Photograph of the Haas-Lilienthal House by Jim Simmons Photography

Photograph of the Haas-Lilienthal House by Jim Simmons Photography

THE HAAS-LILIENTHAL HOUSE at 2005 Franklin Street has a new paint job that returns the historic Victorian to its original, more subdued color palette.

To restore the historic integrity of the house, which now serves as its headquarters, San Francisco Heritage commissioned architectural conservator Molly Lambert to conduct a paint study to determine the original colors, patterns and sheens of the house. Lambert took 40 paint samples for microscopic testing, which can differentiate layers of primer, glaze, dirt and paint to identify the original colors.

“We don’t choose colors,” said Lambert. “They are there for us to discover.”

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