News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
ITS CHEERFUL and hard-working employees got the word a week ago: Today is the final day for a burger and a chocolate shake at the counter at Johnny Rockets on Fillmore. The retro diner is out of time, with its fried food, juke box and neon signs — especially since Roam Burgers opened across the…
By Donna Gillespie FILLMORE STREET will soon lose a landmark, a warm and friendly neighborhood destination that still offers meticulous, old-fashioned mailing services — a place that’s so much more than just somewhere to mail a box. After 22 years, Jet Mail is moving. The good news is that it’s not going very far. January…
ART | MICHAEL SCHWAGER The history of Bay Area art is filled with stories of unique individuals, influential institutions and the social and political climate where artists congregated to live and create. An exhibition now at the Di Rosa Foundation in Napa tells one of those stories: the story of an exceptional group of artists…
ART | JEROME TARSHIS Youthful aspiration, ambivalence toward conventional art world success and a pitifully low budget came together for Bruce Conner and Jay DeFeo in the history of her masterpiece, The Rose. DeFeo worked on it for eight years in her Fillmore apartment, building up layer upon layer of paint to a thickness of…
THE GOLD COAST, also known as Billionaire’s Row, is home to many of the most exclusive and expensive homes in San Francisco. Along the three blocks of outer Broadway, from Divisadero to the Lyon Street steps, rise magnificent properties that have traditionally been home to San Francisco’s old guard — wealthy, philanthrophic, multi-generational families. Heading…
STORY & PHOTOGRAPHS by Carina Woudenberg He’s been a San Francisco resident for more than 30 years, but Jiro Nakamura still makes a yearly trek home to Japan to search for treasures for his shop on Fillmore Street. The treasures include dolls — crafted hundreds of years earlier in many cases — and puppets, tea…
SPIRITS | Chris Barnett Ales Unlimited, the neighborhood store on the corner of Webster and Jackson, stocks more than 900 beers and ales on its shelves and in its coolers. And owners Steve and Betty Smith don’t cater to the couch potato crowd or the party-throwers who buy six-packs of a mass-manufactured bland brand for…
Q & A | Film critic David Thomson By Mark Mitchell David Thomson’s The New Biographical Dictionary of Film is considered a must-have reference by almost all serious movie buffs. But Thomson is more than just a film critic, more even than a film historian. His works include a biography of novelist Laurence Sterne, an…
By Christine Lunde WORKING ITS WAY into the local fabric, Attention to Detail Barber Gallery on Sutter Street may soon rival sports bars as the hippest place for men to fraternize. Flat screen TVs broadcasting sports and news, generous servings of beer and champagne — and, of course, stylish cuts and shaves — make the…
By MARKOS KOUNALAKIS BUDAPEST, Hungary — Many of my Saturdays used to start out with a saunter down Fillmore Street for an early morning cup of coffee while the rest of my family was still in bed. Budapest is also a coffeehouse city, but more famed for the conversations and art that grew out of…