Black Fleece makes an elegant debut

Posted on March 1, 2010 by editors

Shoppers — and a few pups — arrived on opening day.

Just in time to present its spring line of linens and seersuckers, the elegant new Black Fleece boutique — a high-end spinoff from Brooks Brothers — opened today.

“We’re taking the classic Brooks Brothers look from the 60s and making it contemporary,” says store manager Robert Oren. “Our customers know and understand fashion and want something unique, but timeless.”

The merchandise is mostly tailored and fitted clothing for men designed by fashion darling Thom Browne, who’ll be in town mid-month for the grand opening. Suits start at $1,600, sportcoats at $800. There’s also a small selection for women.

The shop, at 2223 Fillmore, has a clubby air, especially the dressing lounge outfitted with gray wool chestertons and pin-striped walls. And there’s a tailor on the premises.

EARLIER: Brooks Brothers spinoff approved

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When films were modern art

Posted on February 22, 2010 by editors

By Jerome Tarshis

By way of calling public attention to its 75th anniversary this year, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art is making a major advertising push all over town. The lion’s share of advertising mentions “The Anniversary Show,” a survey of seven and a half decades of painting, sculpture, and photography in the museum’s permanent collection. Almost lost in the hoopla is the museum’s recognition of its on-again, off-again commitment to having a film program, which included an early experimental filmmaker from the neighborhood.
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Urban forest gets local friends

Posted on February 17, 2010 by editors

The plum trees are blooming in Alta Plaza Park.

Friends of the Urban Forest will mark a major milestone in the neighborhood on Saturday, February 20: For the 1000th time, a team of volunteers will plant trees on city streets.

Environmental activist Julia Butterfly Hill will address the volunteers when they gather at 9 a.m. at Rosa Parks Elementary School at 1501 O’Farrell Street, between Webster and Laguna. Hill famously lived in a Humboldt County redwood tree for two years to prevent a lumber company from cutting it down.

Approximately 85 trees will be planted this weekend. Nearly a third will go to Rosa Parks School, which won a “green makeover” contest among San Francisco public schools. Most of the trees going to the school are native to California, including California buckeyes, coast silktassels and western redbuds.
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Lilith comes to Fillmore

Posted on February 14, 2010 by editors

Lilith opened at 2029 Fillmore with music and dance.

“Fillmore is beautiful — the best shopping street in town,” enthuses Sharon Haag, who was a devotee of the French clothing designer Lilith even before becoming the manager of its new neighborhood boutique. “I’m so happy to be here surrounded by things I love,” she says.

Lilith opened over the Valentine’s Day weekend at 2029 Fillmore, aiming to suit women of many ages, sizes and body types. Its less expensive Lunn line offers basics. The upscale Lilith label provides dresses and separates with couture details — including a little black dress that’s already been wildly popular.
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Uncovering a red brick beauty

Posted on February 11, 2010 by editors

At Pine and Steiner, the new home of the California Pacific Medical Center Foundation.

After a year behind scaffolding and decades under paint, the red brick beauty of a building at Steiner and Pine was unveiled Wednesday afternoon when the scaffolding came down.

Inside it houses the California Pacific Medical Center Foundation. But it’s the outside that commands attention, now returned to its original appearance in 1897 when the building was built for the telephone company. It’s been sitting empty for years, and at one point hospital leaders considered selling it to nearby St. Dominic’s Church. Instead they decided to create a home for the foundation and other administrative offices. When rebuilding began early last year, it was unclear how extensive the restoration would be, and the plans assumed the brick building would be painted once again.

“It was a good surprise,” says Eric Stein, the hospital’s director of space and property management. “It’s beautiful brick. It was meant to be exposed.”

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Baker & Banker: back where they belong

Posted on February 6, 2010 by editors

Baker & Banker's dining room manages to be glamorous and homey all at once.

Jeff Banker moved to San Francisco on December 31, 1997, ringing in a new year and a new life as the chef he always knew he would become. He found a job at Postrio, Wolfgang Puck’s Union Square hot spot, and an apartment on Bush Street, not far from a popular neighborhood restaurant called the Meeting House.

“It was really close to my house,” he says. “I used to walk by that place all the time, and something drew me to go in and ask for a job. I wanted to work in a small restaurant again.”

By then he had been at Postrio for two and a half years, but still he was a little surprised to be hired as the Meeting House chef de cuisine. Soon he realized that’s because the partners were splitting up. “It was a big, weird mess,” he says.

He’d married pastry chef Lori Baker, another Postrio alum, and she’d come to love the Meeting House space as well. But they let it go and moved on to work in some of San Francisco’s favorite restaurants — Bix, Bizou, Fifth Floor, Eos and Home, plus stints in Paris and Italy and travels in Asia.
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A place with a past

Posted on February 6, 2010 by editors

1701 Octavia Street: an address with lots of stories, some possibly true.

By Chris Barnett

It’s a simple Victorian storefront at Octavia and Bush, but the building housing Baker & Banker has a notorious past.

Vintage San Franciscans will remember the spot as Robert Restaurant Francais during the 70s and 80s — a small and stylish place with a popular appetizer not listed on the menu. One day the cops busted through the front door — without reservations — just as one of Robert’s kingpins disappeared out the back door, much to the disappointment of patrons who favored his cocaine-to-go-go.
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Fat Angel flies in

Posted on February 5, 2010 by editors

Fat Angel's golden mascot at Fillmore and O'Farrell.

A new cafe and wine bar — Fat Angel — is now open in the Fillmore Jazz District behind Starbucks at 1740 O’Farrell. And it’s promising to be a neighborhood place.

“Fat Angel was born out of a passion for the Fillmore District,” say the owners, who live nearby and have made the neighborhood a key part of their business plan. “Fat Angel’s mission is to become the Fillmore’s benchmark in food, service, price and atmosphere.”

Their mascot — a honey of a golden angel — was rescued and repurposed, like much of the interior, from a previous life in another part of town.

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Her baby, the Mostly British Film Festival

Posted on February 4, 2010 by editors

Q & A | RUTHE STEIN

From February 4 to 11, the Mostly British Film Festival comes to the Vogue Theater on Sacramento Street. It’s the brainchild of longtime Chronicle movie writer and editor Ruthe Stein, who’s just back in town from the Sundance Film Festival.

Tell us about this new film festival coming to the neighborhood.

It’s the Mostly British Film Festival, showing 32 films from the U.K., Ireland, Australia and South Africa. We jokingly call it a “Foreign Film Festival For People Who Don’t Like Subtitles.”

This festival comes at a great time because so many wonderful movies from these countries can no longer secure American distribution. That means the festival may be the only chance to see such terrific movies as “London River,’’ a tearjerker starring Brenda Blethyn as the mother of a missing daughter, which opens the festival, and “Balibo,’’ a political thriller from Australia starring Anthony LaPaglia. We will also present the Northern California premiere of the much-lauded “Red Riding Trilogy,’’ which British film scholar David Thomson recently called “better than ‘The Godfather.'” Thomson, who lives in the neighborhood, will introduce the films.

How did the festival come to the Vogue?

Because it is operated by my friends Alfonso Felder and Jack Bair. They saved the Vogue from extinction two years ago by forming the San Francisco Neighborhood Theater Foundation, which bought the place. Alfie and Jack share my love of cinema and I told them if I ever had time I would do some programming for the Vogue. Now that I’m no longer a full time staff member at the Chronicle, I have the time.
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No parking now. Easier parking later?

Posted on February 1, 2010 by editors

Parking has been banned on Fillmore this week as sensors are installed on the pavement.

Initial reports said parking was being banned on long stretches of Fillmore this week because a movie was being filmed starring Brad Pitt — or maybe it was Matt Damon. But it turns out something even bigger is in the works: easier parking.

Or so they promise.

City crews are installing sensors on the pavement at every parking meter and some nearby parking spaces. It’s part of an ambitious traffic management program designed to electronically signal drivers to available spots — with new meters that accept credit cards.

Already installed on the street lights are transmitters that will send transit officials data from the sensors and new meters on Fillmore and side streets from Jackson to McAllister. New meters will be installed in the spring, and the system is expected to be operating later in the year. Parking rates will go up in congested areas — like Fillmore Street.

Fillmore is one of several areas included in the pilot project, which has the ambitious title: “SFpark: circle less, live more.”

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