News from the Heart & Soul of San Francisco
After more than two decades of offering up good cheer and wry observations while ringing up groceries and restocking the shelves, Allen Brandstein has retired from Mollie Stone’s. His last day was March 31. Stoking his decision to leave were two life passages: a bout with colon cancer last year and his first Social Security…
The Presidio Branch Library on Sacramento Street, now undergoing renovation, became legendary in literary circles after author Richard Brautigan used it as the setting for his imaginary library of unpublished manuscripts in the novel, The Abortion. In Brautigan’s novel, published in 1970, the library was always open for authors to personally deposit their manuscripts. Through…
A taste of the old Fillmore will be on display today at a special celebration being held at Jones Memorial United Methodist Church honoring local residents Norman and Mable Stewart on their 70th anniversary. “We are so proud of their accomplishments in business and marriage and we want to share it with everyone,” says granddaughter…
It was soon after the new year began that Diane Bailey approached the Queen Anne Hotel on a scouting mission. The veteran actor and director was looking for just the right Victorian hotel in which she could bring to life the classic Tennessee Williams play Sweet Bird of Youth. As she entered the historic old…
SF Weekly reviews local rapper DaVinci’s debut album: The song “What You Finna Do?,” released earlier this month by Fillmore District rapper DaVinci, opens with a vocal sample from the 2001 PBS documentary The Fillmore. It condenses the gentrification process the area underwent from the 1960s into one slogan, lamenting, “Basically, after the urban renewal,…
There she is, the Queen of Fillamento, with a glue gun in one hand and a bag of jelly beans in the other, a nice Jewish girl making a sign celebrating Easter candy. Iris Fuller is back — not quite in the neighborhood, where she ran the much-beloved Fillamento emporium for two decades, but not…
Soon after the February issue of the New Fillmore hit the streets, with its report on the discovery and delivery of a manzanita plant in the Presidio thought to be extinct, the phone rang. “There’s another one,” the caller said. “I’ll show you.”
SINCE SHE AND HER SISTER opened Sheba Piano Lounge on Fillmore in 2006, Netsanet Alemayehu has created a distinctive ambiance with a sophisticated design, live music and a menu offering authentic Ethiopian dishes. Much of what makes the food special is the spices — the cardamom, berbere, mitmita and oregano — Alemayehu imports in suitcases…
Q & A | ROSE ROLL R ose Roll, a local resident and occasional contributor to the New Fillmore, is involved in creating the Bay Area News Project — a new nonprofit venture funded by neighborhood philanthropist Warren Hellman that is being heralded by some as a reinvention of journalism. With The New York Times signing…
A neighborhood party today from 1 to 5 p.m. will celebrate the grand opening of the newly renovated Hamilton Recreation Center. There’s a new and improved playground, tennis courts and basketball courts — plus a new swimming pool with water slides. The celebration will include food, entertainment and arts and crafts. Hamilton Rec Center is…