News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
FIRST PERSON | Amy Bernstein When we started telling friends that we were moving from San Francisco to Boston, we could count on getting one of two responses: an incredulous “Why?” or “Boston’s great. It’s a lot like San Francisco.” My partner Nanette Bisher and I were moving because I had just landed a dream…
Q & A | VASILIOS KINIRIS Zinc Details has turned 20. How did it all begin? I was fresh out of the College of Environmental Design at the University of California at Berkeley and simply had an idea and some very strong feelings. At the university, Wendy Nishimura and I had developed an understanding and…
By CARINA WOUDENBERG Floyd Trammell — whose position as president of the Fillmore Community Benefit District ended when the group was defunded in mid-December — walked the blocks of Fillmore south of Geary on a recent morning and took note of the changes he was seeing in the neighborhood. The sidewalk was littered with plastic…
ART | JEROME TARSHIS Joan Brown (1938-1990) may have thought of herself as an unclassifiable artist. “This Kind of Bird Flies Backward,” the survey of her paintings at the San Jose Museum of Art, positions her as one who portrayed women’s lives, beginning with her own. Curators need to say something, but it’s an idea…
JAZZ | Anthony Torres Mike “Coffee Picasso” Pitre, a true original local jazz talent and music scene treasure, died of a heart attack on December 18, leaving friends and admirers stunned at the sudden departure of the Bohemian Knuckleboogie lead man. He was 44. I can still vividly remember that first sighting of Coffee and…
PROVING ONCE AGAIN that more casual eateries are gaining in popularity in the neighborhood, a number of new restaurants opened just in time for the new year. Among them are spots helmed by two husband-and-wife teams with impeccable pedigrees: Roostertail — a new restaurant specializing in free-range chicken cooked on a rotisserie spit — is…
REAL ESTATE | MARIA MARCHETTI We had an exceptional year for mansion sales in 2011, with 15 homes selling for more than $5 million. And we still have a handsome selection of high-end offerings available, including eight mansions listed over $10 million and nine more listed between $5 million and $10 million. Among them: The…
BARELY A YEAR after moving to Fillmore Street and then struggling through several changes in concept, Citizen Cake closed just before Christmas. “I can’t do it anymore,” chef-owner Elizabeth Falkner told Inside Scoop. “I just have to start over.” Falkner took over the hallowed brick-walled space occupied for nearly 30 years by Vivande and was…
NEIGHBORHOOD RESIDENT Michael Tilson Thomas is one of the best things to happen to the San Francisco Symphony in its first 100 years. Join in this sing-along for the symphony’s centennial — today, December 8.
FIRST PERSON | JAMES DeKOVEN On a recent moonlit night in the neighborhood, darkness having descended much earlier than only a few weeks before, some friends were at my place sipping cocktails and examining life’s more contentious issues: individualism versus conformity, true love, the meaning of life. It was all rather intense. When I tried…