News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
By CHRIS BARNETT Fillmore Street’s oldest coffeehouse is gussying itself up, and there’s a whiff of concern in the air. Royal Ground, a funky haunt for neighborhood caffeine addicts for 25 years, last month rearranged its milk and sugar stand and its refrigerated juice display. Hardly a full facelift, but some customers were flummoxed. Loyalists…
By Marjorie Leet Ford MIMI LAWRENCE ALWAYS wanted to have her own store. “I started in retail when I was six,” she says, recalling her childhood in New Jersey. “I loaded an ice chest of soda pop into a little rowboat with a one-and-a-half horsepower motor, like an eggbeater, and rode around the harbor selling…
DESIGN | NICK KINIRIS Three years ago, the concept of the Fillmore Stoop was born, with the intention of making the northern stretch of California Street near Fillmore more pedestrian friendly and softening the harsh visual of the busy four-lane highway. The idea was to create a public space where neighbors could meet, relax, take…
FOR MORE than a decade, Fillmore merchants have provided a lively illustrated folding map of the shops, entertainment and dining opportunities in the neighborhood. The map, which is updated regularly, helps locals and visitors alike navigate the thriving local business community. With more than 200 businesses in the neighborhood, there are constant closures, openings and…
By Pamela Feinsilber IF THE FILLMORE were a university, rather than a school of hard knocks, jazz singer Kim Nalley would long ago have been awarded an honorary doctorate. Though she lives with husband Mike Lewis and their new baby girl Lydia in the saddle between Nob Hill and Russian Hill, looking out on the…
THE LINEUP | Jason Olaine It’s that time of year again, when San Francisco’s swingingest, bluesiest and funkiest street party comes alive. The 2012 Fillmore Jazz Festival is July 7 and 8. This is the 28th year of the festival, which was created in 1984 to celebrate Fillmore’s jazz heritage at a time when much…
By Barbara Kate Repa FOR THE FIRST TIME in its 28-year history, those who wish to drink beer or wine at the Fillmore Jazz Festival this year must buy and consume it within the confines of one of seven “beverage gardens” — designated areas within the festival carpeted in artificial turf and enclosed by white…
POSTER ARTIST | Carly Lane Plaskett She was a high school art teacher in London before moving to San Francisco four years ago to study new media at the Academy of Art. Carly Lane Plaskett flourished in the “digital meets old school design” program. For a class in typography, she was challenged to design her…
IT BEGAN in a former dry cleaners on Pine Street in 1999. “I just have this thing about bread,” said Pascal Rigo, the Frenchman realizing his dream by launching his own boulangerie and living upstairs above the shop. “The flavor, the smell, the texture. I can’t tell you why. It wasn’t as if I came…
BOOKS | Thomas McNamee While writing my new biography of Craig Claiborne — The Man Who Changed the Way We Eat — I traveled far, in my mind, from our quiet Victorian home near Fillmore Street and from the fresh, simple food that for me is the best of San Francisco. Whether cooking the wondrous…