News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
REAL ESTATE | PATRICK BARBER Bidding wars remain a fact of life for San Francisco home shoppers. Single-family homes in the city sold for 108 percent of the original listing price in the first quarter of 2016, according to data from the multiple listing service. This trend has been dominant in Presidio Heights, where a…
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY May 2016 marks the 45th anniversary of the dedication of the Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption, a recognized masterpiece of religious architecture at 1111 Gough Street. Opening after an agonizing design process, the building was not immediately loved by many of San Francisco’s Catholics, who had previously worshiped in two…
NOTED SAN FRANCISCO graphic artist John Mattos has been selected to create the poster for the 2016 Fillmore Jazz Festival, coming on July 2 and 3, and this week he revealed his design. “Like good jazz, it’s unexpected,” said Mattos. “There isn’t a guy with a horn in this, so it’s not replicating the experience of…
PERHAPS YOU HAVE noticed something unexpected coming out of Browser Books lately — the smell of soup cooking, or shrimp scampi sauteeing, or fragrant onions softening in a skillet. That’s an added benefit of the new cooking demonstrations Browser Books is now sponsoring each month. Randy Denham, a retired caterer who two years ago began…
By THOMAS REYNOLDS Stop by the Elite Cafe on a Wednesday night in early March to meet a friend for a drink and the bartender asks: “Have you heard? The Elite’s been sold.” It’s a shock. For 35 years a mainstay on Fillmore Street, its classic neon sign a beacon at the heart of the…
LOCALS | JENNIFER BLOT “He can sell ice to an Eskimo,” says Eric Trabert of Gary Mureta, his next-door neighbor at the top of Fillmore Street. But Mureta doesn’t hear his friend’s admiring endorsement. He’s busy juggling the demands of what appears, at first, to be a small and sleepy antique store. But the store…
LANDMARKS | BRIDGET MALEY A flurry of recent renovations along the north side of Jackson Street facing Alta Plaza Park are nearing completion. The two blocks include a string of historic residences that have been home to many prominent San Franciscans. The exquisite French Revival style house at 2570 Jackson Street has been meticulously renovated and…
PIZZA IS BACK. The rebirth of long-running Pizza Inferno as the Academy Bar and Kitchen — with former Florio chef Nick Pallone bringing a more adventurous dining experience to the corner of Fillmore and Sutter — is over. Though the Academy name will remain, Pallone is gone and the previous menu consisting mostly of Neapolitan pizzas…
THE ELITE CAFE, the bustling Art Deco period piece at 2049 Fillmore Street, has been sold. Peter Snyderman, a Fillmore veteran who has run the restaurant for the past decade, is handing over the reins to a new group headed by Andy Chun, who created the Press Club near Union Square and more recently reinvigorated Schroeder’s in…
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…