News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
On January 3, Salvador Valesco was in his upholstery shop at 2108 Sutter Street — as he had been for 30 years — working a little, talking a lot, cracking jokes with passersby. But as the first week of the new year unfolded, his neighbors began to realize they hadn’t seen him for a few…
New restaurants or food businesses are prohibited on upper Fillmore Street unless they replace a similar establishment. But that would change under legislation proposed by new District 2 supervisor Mark Farrell. Farrell made good on a campaign promise to propose changes to city law that would allow new food-related businesses on Fillmore to be approved…
PHOTOGRAPHY | THOMAS REYNOLDS Singer James Brown may have been the hardest-working man in show business, but David Johnson is surely the hardest-working 84-year-old in the photography business. In recent months he’s had four major exhibitions — mostly photographs from the heyday of the Fillmore’s jazz era — including one in Atlanta and another at…
ARCHITECTURE | ERICA REDER Every year thousands of people visit a building designed by California’s most celebrated female architect, Julia Morgan. Some seek out her work by taking a tour of Hearst Castle or the Berkeley City Club. Others have incidental encounters while walking around the Mills College campus, swimming at UC Berkeley’s Hearst Pool…
“With the possible exception of New York, it may be said that San Francisco is the world’s best city for regional Italian food,” writes columnist Mark Bittman in Sunday’s New York Times travel section. Among the four places he highlights as his go-to spots: Delfina Pizzeria on California near Fillmore. “The best seats are probably…
FOR MONTHS the temple on California Street that is home to Congregation Sherith Israel has been shrouded in scaffolding as the historic building undergoes a seismic retrofit. This week much of the scaffolding came down and the stained glass windows were re-installed — and the temple was no longer pink. EARLIER: At long last, temple…
By Don Langley The film “Bhutto,” which earned high praise at last year’s Sundance Film Festival, is now playing at several dozen theaters throughout the country. But local producer-director Duane Baughman says it was most important to him to bring his documentary home to the Clay Theater on Fillmore. He invited his Washington Street neighbors…
Fillmore’s newest retail establishment — Athleta, the women’s active wear company — debuted Wednesday evening with a private reception for friends and customers. The spacious two-level showroom opens to the public on Thursday at 2226 Fillmore Street. From The New York Times: Store for a brand born on the web
SALOONS | Chris Barnett Bartenders come and go at Fillmore Street saloons. But at Florio, at 1915 Fillmore, the shot glass is rarely passed to a newcomer. Tara Burke, a ponytailed, all-American, girl-next-door type with a soft voice and swift hands, has worked the plank here for six years. Noble Harris, who seems aloof initially…
ARCHITECTURE | Jacquie Proctor Soft-spoken British architect Harold G. Stoner quietly left his distinctive artistic mark on San Francisco, and one of his most important buildings stands proudly at the corner of Fillmore and Pine Streets. The Osada Apartments — including 15 residential units and two storefronts now home to Paolo Shoes and The Grove…