Close

A race to the finish line

FILM | Barbara Kate Repa JIM TRACY, longtime running coach at the neighborhood’s University High School, never set out to be a film star. But when life conspired to deliver a record-setting team, a diagnosis of Lou Gehrig’s Disease and a community that rallied around it all, he could be no other. The result is…

City tightens chain store limits

SIGNALING IT WILL be harder for chain stores to open on Fillmore Street in the future, the city’s Board of Appeals on May 15 revoked the building permit secured by German-based clothing company Oska for the space at 2130 Fillmore, where it had intended to open a new boutique. Now that Oska has been adjudged…

Fillmore’s new micro-boutique

NEW NEIGHBOR | Liz Fanlo Hair and makeup specialist Liz Fanlo lives near Fillmore and already knew she loved the neighborhood. So when she decided to open a beauty boutique, she persuaded a friend to rent her the tiniest storefront on the street at 2335 Fillmore. “Isn’t it cute?” she beams. “It’s tiny — 50…

From Russia with a love of jewelry

NEW NEIGHBOR | ELITE FINE JEWELRY A dream of a new jewelry store is now open in the neighborhood. But it began as a nightmare. Jeweler Simon Khurin and his family lived only 80 miles from Chernobyl when the Russian nuclear reactor imploded in 1986, spewing radiation across the landscape and forcing the relocation of…

A Dominican departs

IT’S AN ICON in the neighborhood, with its Gothic arches, soaring tower and flying buttresses. St. Dominic’s Catholic Church has stood proudly at the corner of Steiner and Bush Streets since 1928, when the stone sanctuary replaced an earlier brick building destroyed by the 1906 earthquake. For nearly two decades — an unusually long time…

Fillmore’s Reggie Pettus: no more

AN APPRECIATION | Elizabeth Pepin Silva IN MAY 2013 the Fillmore lost a special man with the passing of Reggie Pettus, 73, longtime proprietor of the New Chicago Barbershop and unofficial archivist of the area. Reggie moved to the Fillmore District from his home in Mobile, Alabama, in 1958 to attend City College of San…

Board of Appeals says Oska is a chain

AT ITS REGULAR monthly meeting tonight, the Board of Appeals ruled that Oska, the German clothing line, is a chain store and must comply with the city’s formula retail ordinance before it can proceed with plans to open at 2130 Fillmore Street, formerly the home of Jet Mail. EARLIER: Oska stirs chain store fight on…

In one building, the city’s history

By Gary Kamiya San Francisco Chronicle FEW PEOPLE who pass the violet-painted house at 1712 Fillmore Street give it a second look. It’s another Victorian in a city full of them. But this building is different. Perhaps no other structure in San Francisco has such an extraordinary story. If its walls could talk, they would…

‘Spring is springing’ at the market

IT’S A BIT of a ’tween time at the Fillmore Farmers Market. Winter’s larder of sweet potatoes and oranges is still filled to abundance, the spring asparagus has just arrived, but the full bounty of summer tomatoes and melons is yet to come. Nonetheless, on a sunny Saturday morning in late April, there is no…

Glaze spices up the options

SUDDENLY THE CORNER of Fillmore and Pine has a completely new look and feel — and taste. Glaze Teriyaki Grill opened at the end of April, heralding a switch from Johnny Rockets burgers and fries to teriyaki plates, salads and sides. Seattle natives and partners Ian McCormick and Paul Krug created Glaze as a “fast…