The St. Dominic’s connection

MUSIC | James DeKoven

Considering that my favorite bands in high school were the likes of Black Sabbath, Mountain and Thin Lizzy, it made little sense that I was also buying Van Morrison records.

His songs didn’t include blistering guitar solos or prophesies of nuclear Armageddon. Yet as a music-obsessed teen, I recognized that he deserved investigation. First I tried Astral Weeks, then His Band and the Street Choir, then Saint Dominic’s Preview, which became my favorite of the bunch.

Years later, when I moved to San Francisco, I ended up living a few blocks from St. Dominic’s Church. And I began to wonder whether there was a connection between the album and the imposing Gothic church at Bush and Steiner Streets.
Read more »

Feathering the Nest

Nest offers treasures from estate sales, antique markets and contemporary artisans.

Story and Photographs by Carina Woudenberg

FOR JUDY GILMAN and her daughter Marcella Madsen, owners of Nest, the eclectic gift shop at 2300 Fillmore, a shared love of art and eye for snagging old and new treasures has enabled them to nurture a loyal following over the past 17 years.

“I’ve been going to the antique markets since I was on my mom’s back in a carrier,” marveled Madsen, who now has a 9-year-old of her own.

While many of the individually owned stores on the street have disappeared under financial pressures, Nest’s owners say they’ve managed to weather the storm by relying on their well-rooted customer base and anticipating when fans are ready for some changes.

“We’re always evolving,” Madsen said.
Read more »

Fillmore ‘just made sense’ for designer Steven Alan

WHAT’S SHOCKING about the new Steven Alan boutique, recently opened at 1919 Fillmore, is the amount of fashion terrain it covers, for both men and women. There’s jewelry, scarves, underwear, cologne, shoes, purses, sunglasses, watches, hats, sweaters, dresses, ties — even pajamas in soft cottons with whimsical prints. And there’s also even more unexpected items such as bottles of ginger and lemon syrup.

While Alan has deep roots in retail and design, he blasted onto the fashion scene in 1996 by opening the Steven Alan Showroom in New York, intended as a forum for a select group of indie designers he favored most. A couple of years later, Alan launched his own line focusing on menswear with detailing he wasn’t able to find by anyone else. An experiment with reverse seaming that was accidentally applied to every seam created a happy accident: his signature tailored shirt that creates a definitive line on the body. He followed that with a classic collegiate button-down in unique fabric weaves, then duplicated the look for women.

Shoppers will find plenty of Steven Alan’s designs in his new Fillmore boutique, as well as the other 10 locations — six in New York, four in other parts of California. The last store opened in Hayes Valley less than a year ago. But he’s retained a generous offering of other designers, too.
Read more »

Getting to 11

RETAIL SPACE on Fillmore Street has become among the most desirable in San Francisco, second only to Union Square.

Much of the demand comes from national brands finding creative ways around the city’s attempts to curb the proliferation of chain stores. The city defines “formula retail” as companies with 11 or more stores. So major retailers are launching new concepts under different names on Fillmore before they “get to 11.”

• Gap Inc. opened its first Athleta store at 2226 Fillmore before rolling out the line of athletic wear nationwide.

• Soon Starbucks will launch a new juice bar at the corner of Fillmore and Sacramento — across from its outpost at 2222 Fillmore — as part of a worldwide rollout.

They join Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs, Jonathan Adler and Brooks Brothers’ Black Fleece line, some of which opened before the chain store limits passed in 2008.

Demand is so strong among fashion labels that real estate brokers have begun offering “key money” — sometimes $100,000 or more — to entice longtime merchants to give up prime storefronts to bigger companies with better credit willing to pay higher rent.

Recent months have seen an influx of nationally expanding fashion retailers eager to open on Fillmore before they have 11 stores:

• Fillmore’s newest boutique, Steven Alan, got in just under the wire by opening its 11th store at 1919 Fillmore in May.

• In April, Alice + Olivia opened its eighth store at the corner of Fillmore and Clay. A few days later, designer Roberta Freymann opened her ninth store at 2053 Fillmore.

James Perse, Cotelac, Curve, Peruvian Connection and Drybar also opened on Fillmore in recent months before they crossed the 11-store threshold.

Chase Bank is also rapidly opening new branches throughout San Francisco, including one on California near Fillmore. Financial institutions are not subject to the city’s chain store ordinance, although a move is now afoot to include them.

SF Business Times: “Fillmore Street hits new fashion heights

Hemingway at the Swedenborgian

Film crew at the Swedenborgian Church, with Nicole Kidman in the doorway.

Legendary filmmaker Philip Kaufman — director of The Right Stuff, The Unbearable Lightness of Being and many others — has lived in Pacific Heights for years. His latest film premieres on May 28 at 9 p.m. when HBO broadcasts Hemingway & Gellhorn, starring Nicole Kidman and Clive Owen.

Hemingway & Gellhorn is a love story exploring the tempestuous relationship between writers Ernest Hemingway and Martha Gellhorn, which was the inspiration for Hemingway’s classic novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls. Though the story takes place in nine different countries, the film was shot over 40 days entirely on location in San Francisco and the Bay Area, which stood in for Spain, Finland, Cuba, New York, Shanghai, Key West and Idaho.

Key scenes were filmed at the Swedenborgian Church at Washington and Lyon Streets, only a few blocks from Kaufman’s home.

“One scene takes place in a church in Finland that had been converted for wartime use,” says Kaufman. “We were looking for something — maybe not Finnish, but with that approximate feeling. And of course I’d been to weddings there.”

Incorporating archival black and white footage of Finnish soldiers, Kaufman recreates the scene with snow and icicles on the historic church. “Then the color comes back into it,” he says, “and we find Nicole writing letters to Hemingway — actually taken from the real letters.”

Another scene was shot in the wooden stairway of the church’s parish house, standing in for the small British hotel where Gellhorn and Hemingway had their final rendezvous. “It’s where they break up their relationship,” says Kaufman. “It’s their final scene together.”

During the filming, Kaufman walked home to Vallejo Street for lunch, then back to work at the church.

“We can make films here and use local people, yet create a film that could be made anywhere in the world,” Kaufman says. “It’s great. It’s just great working here.”

[nggallery id=23]

Read more: Cannes celebrates Philip Kaufman

End of an era: Mrs. Dewson’s Hats closes

By THOMAS REYNOLDS

For the first time in almost four decades, Mrs. Dewson’s Hats at 2050 Fillmore Street wasn’t open in the days leading up to Easter, which is typically prime time for hat buyers.

A few days later a sign went up in the window telling the news: After 37 years, Mrs. Dewson’s Hats was closing. And on Sunday afternoon, April 29, the last hats were sold, the final goodbyes said and the doors closed on a prime piece of Fillmore history.

“It’s a sad day,” said Glenn Mitchell, nephew of owner Ruth Garland Dewson. “We’ve been fighting it off for a while.” Mitchell has been overseeing the shop since his aunt checked herself into an assisted living facility two years ago.

“I’ve been crying ever since I heard,” Ruth Dewson said the next day, sitting in a wheelchair in the top-floor lounge at AgeSong, her new home in Hayes Valley. “I’ve had a good time on Fillmore Street and I don’t want to give it up. Why should I die when all these other assholes are still alive?”
Read more »

Two new spots open, more coming

The Turkish restaurant Troya opened in the space vacated by Citizen Cake.

Two new restaurants have opened in the neighborhood in recent weeks, and still more are in the works.

A Turkish restaurant, Troya, has taken over the prime space at 2125 Fillmore from Citizen Cake, which fell short of its great expectations and closed late last year — although star chef Elizabeth Falkner, now in New York, hasn’t forgotten the neighborhood. “Fillmore Street is magical and I will miss it the most,” she wrote in a recent note on her website. “I will be working on the Citizen Cake book over the next year, so look for it in 2013.”

The owners of Troya, Berk Kinalilar and Brigitte Cullen — who also operate the original Troya restaurant at Clement and Fifth Avenue — are now serving their signature Turkish cuisine in the new Fillmore spot. Their gentle renovation of the space has judiciously warmed the surroundings while retaining some details from the beloved former occupant Vivande, including the red brick wall on the north side of the room, now enlivened by a space-expanding strip of mirrors.

The menu includes meze, kebabs and a few larger plates, plus flatbreads ­— “the soul of Turkish cuisine,” according to the owners — prepared onsite by Turkish baker Behiye Golgeci.

Pa'ina brings Hawaiian food and music to 1865 Post Street.

Down the street, Pa’ina, which means “gathering” in Hawaiian, is now open in a re-imagined space at 1865 Post Street, serving up Asian fusion and Hawaiian cuisine. With a menu heavy on appetizers and small plates and a hearty listing of signature cocktails, the eatery caters to those snacking before and after films at the Sundance Kabuki cinemas next store. It also aims for the lounge crowd, with a center stage featuring live reggae and Hawaiian music.

Farther south in the jazz district, Mayor Ed Lee visited on April 23 to promise continuing city support for the district and announce the impending arrival of four more dining options.

Hapa Ramen, a food truck hailed for producing unique pork, chicken and vegetarian noodle bowls using locally sourced, organic ingredients, will make a permanent home at 1527 Fillmore at the end of May.

Also in May, Prime Dip will open at 1515 Fillmore, offering hot au jus dippings for sandwiches stuffed with prime rib, lobster, chicken and other offerings. Prime Dip opened its first location on Larkin Street in the Tenderloin last year.

Later in the year, the owners of the wildly popular State Bird Provisions at 1529 Fillmore are slated to open a second location called Progress a couple of doors south. And the owners of the casual eatery Fat Angel, at 1740 O’Farrell, have announced plans to open a second site, to be called City Grange, before year’s end.

Read more: “Pa’ina means party

The scooter and the spit

Defining a place: handpainted lettering on the facade of Roostertail at 1963 Sutter.

DESIGN | Chris Barnett

San Francisco graphic designer Christopher Simmons has a long list of powerhouse clients including Facebook, Microsoft, Wells Fargo Bank, Stanford, Kaiser Permanente and the Nature Conservancy. So why in an uncertain economy would he take a flyer on two Fillmore startups that sell Vietnamese sandwiches and rotisserie chickens?

For Simmons, owner of the design firm MINE, it was a matter of pride — and guilt.

“I got an e-mail from Denise Tran, who was planning to open Bun Mee, a small restaurant specializing in casual yet upscale Vietnamese street food, but I didn’t respond for six or seven days,” Simmons admits. When he did call, Tran told him she had decided to go with a New York City creative house.

Simmons, a soft-spoken 39-year-old who favors vintage tennis shoes and wears only scruffy duds made before 1970, says he “always wanted to do a restaurant.” He had a good feeling about Tran and her concept and offered to do a full-blown proposal anyway in two days.

Tran recalls it somewhat differently. “I had committed to the other firm, but Christopher called and persuaded me to reconsider. His pitch was so much stronger that I hired him instead.”
Read more »

Attack by Louboutin heel at the Balboa Cafe

CRIME WATCH

“We wrapped up our one beer at Balboa and walked out to try and grab a cab,” restaurateur Matthew Meidinger tells Eater. “While standing there a woman (who I understand to have also just left Balboa) bent down to take off her black Louboutins and put on flip flops for the trip home. As she was doing this (in the middle of a very busy sidewalk) a man passing by accidentally kicked one of her shoes. Not down the street or anything, just bumped it with his own shoe. She started yelling at him and as he turned around to apologize with his hands already up in the air, this good sized man with her punched him!”

Read more

Ellinwood mansion back on the market

The Ellinwood mansion at 2799 Pacific Avenue — sitting prominently on the corner of Divisadero Street — is back on the market for an asking price of $12.5 million. The house underwent a $10 million renovation a decade ago, but was repossessed last year. Curbed reports on the multi-generational drama of the house, which was originally on the dividing line between San Francisco and the Presidio.

Read more