News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
By BARBARA KATE REPA FOR MANY YEARS, John Gaul has been a fixture on Fillmore. Strolling and bussing through the neighborhood, he has been a dapper presence, doling out advice and good cheer along the way. But just lately, his gait has slowed. He is getting about now with the help of a walker since…
A SAMPLING TOUR | DONNA GILLESPIE Chocolate chip cookies abound at many of the bakeries in the Fillmore, and I’ve long been a fan of this particular type of cookie. So I went on a sampling tour — one cookie per day — to compare and rate the chocolate chip cookies in the neighborhood. First,…
ROAM, WHICH JUST opened its doors — and windows — at 1923 Fillmore Street, is not your run of the mill burger joint. And business partners Lynn Gorfinkle and Josh Spiegelman have spared no detail to make sure that’s true. “We wanted to create a better-for-you burger concept using high quality ingredients,” says Gorfinkle. “It’s…
FORMER FILLMORE resident Andrea Ballus had been scoping out the neighborhood for a location for her fourth Sift Cake and Dessert Bar. She found the perfect setting when Dumplings & Buns abruptly left the cozy space at 2411 California, just around the corner from Fillmore, and opened her doors on August 23. Ballus opened her…
“PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING I ate over several visits to State Bird Provisions — the nine-month-old restaurant that Stuart Brioza and his wife, pastry chef Nicole Krasinski, run in the Western Addition neighborhood of San Francisco — had me clamoring for more. And to think the place almost never happened.” Bon Appetit: “The Hot 10: America’s…
AN EXHIBITION of Jerry Barrish’s sculptures of musicians created from found materials, “rhythm spirit motion,” opens today at the Lush Life Gallery in the Fillmore Jazz Heritage Center at 1320 Fillmore Street. The exhibition opens with a reception from 2 to 5 p.m. and continues through September 30. Art historian Peter Selz writes of Barrish:…
WOODY ALLEN started shooting his new film in the neighborhood yesterday along the Gold Coast homes on outer Broadway. The crew was filming next door to the Gettys at the Willenborg residence at 2898 Broadway, a location also used in other films. The as-yet-unnamed film is said to be a romantic comedy about a woman…
By Julia Irwin NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT and fencing champion Alexander Massialas is realizing a dream — and continuing a family legacy — by competing in the summer Olympics in London. His father and coach, Greg Massialas, also fenced in the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Games and qualified for the 1980 games in Moscow, which the U.S.…
IT’S SUMMERTIME, and the living is not so easy for those in the neighborhood who take their dogs — or themselves — for a walk in the park. Both of the neighborhood’s four-block hilltop greens — Lafayette Park and Alta Plaza Park — are mostly brown this summer. Both are undergoing renovation. At Alta Plaza,…
FIRST PERSON | Barbara Kate Repa My friend Johanna and I honor a tradition of embarking on an adventure together to celebrate our birthdays, loosely based on Eleanor Roosevelt’s exhortation that doing scary things makes you stronger. So when my big day neared this year, I urged an outing to the Imperial Spa at 1875…