Filed under: Food, Drink & Lodging | Leave a Comment »
Saturday night on Fillmore
Posted on July 24, 2010 by editors
New life at Long Bar
Posted on July 20, 2010 by editors
SALOONS | Chris Barnett
Barely 48 hours after seasoned drinkmeister Reza Esmaili took over the helm of the listing and listless Long Bar and Bistro on the corner of Fillmore and Clay on June 29, he started shaking up the joint.
He whacked one to four bucks off most of the drink and food prices, hired a tall, sultry bartender named Doc and started opening on Monday nights and at noon for lunch on the weekends. He kept the kitchen fired up an extra hour — until 11 p.m. — from Thursday through Saturday for late night noshers. He stripped the shades off a row of upper windows to let in more daylight. And Esmaili was just warming up.
Read more »
Filed under: Food, Drink & Lodging | Leave a Comment »
Walter is a girl
Posted on July 15, 2010 by editors
A few months ago we told the story of Saralee, a remarkable neighborhood cat who gave birth to 11 kittens. One of them was quickly named Walter Cronkite for what looked uncannily like the pencil-thin moustache of the legendary television anchorman. It turns out Walter was a girl cat, and now comes word of a blessed event: Walter is now the mother of four kittens, every one already adopted into a loving family. Walter’s moustache appears to be coming along nicely.
Filed under: Home & Garden, Locals | Leave a Comment »
Tuesday nights at the Alta Plaza
Posted on July 1, 2010 by editors
By Kim Nalley
When I started playing at the Alta Plaza in 1995, I had no idea what an event Tuesday nights would become.
I had played at the same location at Fillmore and Clay two years earlier on Sundays. Back then it was called the Fillmore Grill. Later I stopped in to visit the old club. I sat in with pianist Eric Shifrin for a tune and the response was so overwhelming the management hired me back to sing every Tuesday.
There was one catch: They didn’t have an entertainment license anymore, so I would have to sing acoustically. This would be daunting for most singers but I had a solid classical and theater background, good projection and was willing to give it a try.
Read more »
Filed under: Music | Leave a Comment »
Jazz star becomes a film star
Posted on July 1, 2010 by editors
A fateful plane trip landed pianist Art Khu a starring role in a new jazz film.
FILLMORE JAZZ FESTIVAL | Saturday, July 3, at 2 p.m.
Art Khu was settling into his seat for the flight back from Mexico when he struck up a conversation with the passenger sitting beside him. And between takeoff and touchdown, a star was born.
The passenger was Kiva Knight, a cinematographer from the Fillmore, who was preparing to shoot a jazz film. They hit it off. Knight introduced Khu to director Marlon Gonzales, who agreed he’d be perfect in one of the lead roles.
“Pictures from the Gone World” was shot last fall and will be ready for entry in the Sundance Film Festival this fall. Khu plays “a homeless, crazy jazz piano player,” he says, one of three present-day jazz musicians based loosely on historical figures. In addition to channeling Thelonius Monk and Bud Powell, Khu wrote much of his own music. He’ll present the new work — plus other original compositions and a few standards — on Saturday, July 3, during the Fillmore Jazz Festival. Khu and his band will appear on the California Street stage from 2 to 3:30 p.m.
Read more »
Filed under: Music | Leave a Comment »
These boots are beauts
Posted on July 1, 2010 by editors
FILLMORE JAZZ FESTIVAL | July 3 & 4
A decade ago, the artist Ken Auster became enamored of some artistic cowboy boot sculptures. He didn’t buy them, but they stayed on his mind — ones that got away.
Then about a year ago, Auster was stunned to see what he thought were the same boot sculptures. “As I approached, I realized these were the real thing — real boots, as beautiful as the ones I’d seen before, but you could actually wear them,” he says.
The boots are handcrafted of intricately embroidered velvet in Uzbekistan, done in tribal designs indigenous to the region. No two pair are alike: some are bright florals on black, some muted and spare, some a classy tone on tone. Heels and toes vary, too — including cowboy boots and Cuban styles with heels, plus a flat version with gypsy heel and round toe.
Smitten all over again, Auster and his wife Paulette bought more than the boots. They became the collection’s first major distributor in the United States. In “The Art of the Boot,” they will offer them in San Francisco for the first time on July 3 and 4 at the Fillmore Jazz Festival.
Filed under: Art & Design, Body & Soul, Retail Report | 1 Comment »
The Saturday morning walkers
Posted on June 30, 2010 by editors
A group of locals gets together for a walk on Saturday mornings at Crissy Field — as some of them have been doing for 25 years.
Filed under: Body & Soul | Leave a Comment »
Fillmore: most walkable neighborhood
Posted on June 29, 2010 by editors
San Francisco’s 7×7 Magazine is out with its annual neighborhood issue, and Fillmore Street is included as “Most Walkable.”
Says 7×7: “Most SF neighborhoods score in the 90s on Walkscore.com, but for our money, the strip of Fillmore from Sacramento to Eddy has everything you could need within a few blocks. Eat at Pizzeria Delfina or SPQR. Buy groceries at the Safeway or high-end Mollie Stone’s. Hear music at the Fillmore, Yoshi’s or the Boom Boom Room. Shop for everything from midcentury furniture to designer labels to hand-me-downs. There are cinemas, coffee shops, bakeries, salons, bookstores, a drugstore, a gym, two nearby parks (Alta Plaza and Lafayette Square) and even a good hospital (CPMC) should you exhaust yourself, which is very possible.”
Filed under: Press | Leave a Comment »
Elite private school will live on
Posted on June 25, 2010 by editors
Stuart Hall High School: new life after a month of drama
Stuart Hall High School, the all-boys Catholic school at Pine and Octavia Streets, in recent weeks has experienced its own death and resurrection.
In early June, word spread rapidly through the school community that a move was afoot to shut down the school because of declining enrollment and dwindling finances. Supporters quickly mobilized their resources and their checkbooks. By the end of the month, they had raised more than $3 million to solve the immediate financial problems and put forth a long-term plan to save the school that was unanimously endorsed by its board of trustees.
Read more »
Filed under: Civics, Locals | Leave a Comment »
Showcase sells for 35% below listing
Posted on June 20, 2010 by editors
2830 Pacific was the decorator showcase home in 2009.
REAL ESTATE | John Fitzgerald
The volume of sales in the local housing market remains strong, with 38 closings during the past month, exactly the same as the previous month. Most notable among recent sales is 2830 Pacific Avenue, the 2009 decorator showcase home.
The 7-bedroom Pacific Heights mansion was originally listed at $12.9 million in April 2009. It was reduced to just under $10 million in May, then withdrawn from the market in July when it was leased with a purchase option. That option was recently exercised, and the home closed for a sale price of $8.35 million, more than 35 percent below the original listing price.
As that closing indicates, the market is still slower for the highest-end homes and condos. But for most of the market, property that is priced right and shows well is going into contract quickly and closing within 10 percent of the listing price. Examples are 2432 Pine and 2047 Green. Both showed well, went into contract within a couple of weeks of being listed, and closed at or very close to their listing prices.
Filed under: Home & Garden | Leave a Comment »