I Don't Think that Words Means What You Think It Means: Chicago Media Doesn't Get SF Hipsters

The Bold Italic reports that a recent localized news pub, whose provenance is Chicago, offered a rundown of San Francisco hipster neighborhoods. If you guessed that the Mission topped the list -- and you, like we, could without even looking at the piece -- you'd be wrong.

Using methodology more suitable for measuring "Yummy Mummies" or Haight Street hippies, the service came up with its ranking by taking yoga studios and bars into account and extrapolating out from there that patrons of these places = hipsters.

All "Clear" Outside SF Sci Center Day After HBO Airs Explosive Doc

The Interweb's collective head is exploding today with outrage over "Going Clear," Alex Gibney's Sundance-worthy Scientology expose. But over on Columbus Street, in the shadow of the Transamerica pyramid, the scene outside the SF Scientology center is eerily quiet. 

Passers-by are still greeted with comically amateurish signs inviting them to come in, get a personality checkup and divulge blackmailworthy secrets.

But uncharacteristically, no one tried to engage us with promises of self-knowledge as we lingered by the windows or shoo us away when we ostentatiously took photos. 

It's not for us to speculate what's going on inside that nice piece of prime real estate. But I have a feeling the designer lady whose shop was right across Columbus from the "church" -- and went public with the hounding and harassment she endured at members' hands -- is probably smiling a bit more broadly today. 

Off the Grid Is Off the Chain

The Friday Ft. Mason Off the Grid food truck rally and eating party is a pretty great hang. While it doesn't have the Presidio's rolling green picnic lawn, the vibe is family friendly and pretty mellow, given the chaotic nature of vehicle food consumption.

Trucks ring the parking lot just eat of the Gatehouse, with chairs, heat lamps, a deejay stage and dance area in the interior. It was pretty mild tonight, but we were glad o cozy up to those lamps, as needed.

Last Call at Bin 38: April 19th

A game-changer of sorts when it opened its doors and chill (but not too chilly) patio on Scott Street in 2007 and doubled the Marina's wine bar options, Bin 38 has officially announced last call is April 19.

In a heartfelt Facebook message that went up this evening (reposted below) the owners thank longtime patrons and announce their departure from the restaurant industry.

BIN 38 - A Last Hurrah - Final Glass To Be Poured April 19th
In October of 2007 we set out to introduce San Francisco to a new style of wine bar - with a vast and eclectic wine list, a deep craft beer selection, memorable cuisine and one very special back patio. Most importantly, we were committed to providing a festive, relaxed and fun place to bring friends (new, old and soon to be) together.
We have decided to leave the restaurant business, but will be left with a lifetime of memories. We created and fostered endless friendships, hundreds of relationships and dozens of marriages...and quite a few children too!

While we sure loved our wine, beer and food, we loved YOU, our loyal customers, more than anything else. Thank you so much for enriching our lives and making our wine-fueled dream a reality.
Our last day of business will be Sunday, April 19th. We would love nothing more than to see you over the next few weeks to raise a few last toasts to a place that we really believe made a difference in the neighborhood.
We hope you'll make a dinner reservation, join us for a final brunch or just swing by for a drink at the bar, fire-pit or to lounge on the patio couches.
Thank you again for enriching our lives, helping us make a such indelible and happy memories and for making our vision a reality. Please join us during our 'Farewell Tour' now through Sunday, April 19th. And unlike the Rolling Stones, there will be no reunion and this will really be our final, fond farewell, so let's make it count!
So, let's all raise a celebratory toast to a great run. If you have any special memories of BIN 38, we'd love to hear them!
Warmest regards and the deepest of thanks,
Don, Peter, David & Shaw

Boutique Report: Ambiance Remodels, UKO Remembers

With the abrupt departure of so many nabe shops (Pincushion, Fillmore & 5th) and eateries (Osha, Des Amis, Cafe Claude, Pizza Orgasmica's expansion) lately, we were a bit taken aback when we saw empty windows at one longtime Union Street trendsetter. 

While there are no cute dresses to eyeball while out for a stroll or making a beeline for Muni or an exercise bus, -- and we can't really afford to shop at such expensive boutiques, anyway -- it's kinda reassuring to know that our local outpost of...(what? Fred Segal? Dress Barn?) isn't gone for good. (Ambiance's more downmarket sister store is still open for business during the renovation.

Less good news comes a few blocks west on Union, on the front door of the shop formerly known as UKO, which was also known for its fun, fresh windows and stylish, if more curated selection of expensive but exquisite dresses. It consolidated with its Hayes Valley branch some months back, which is sad for the 'hood. But this news about co-owner David Scott is heartbreaking:

Even Umami's Feeling Irish-ish

Fat-Shaming Sweats Store to Be Comfort Food Shop

The Pierce Street storefront that last housed City Clothing is turning into a comfort-food takeaway.

We like to support small neighborhood shops whenever possible. But City Clothing was an exception, a holdover from a less-democratic retail landscape in which it was OK, possibly even store policy, to actively turn away the "wrong" type of customer. On a particularly memorable occasion a year ago summer, we crossed its threshold to peruse the Velvet dresses interspersed with the Juicy Couture hookups that must have been the business' bread and butter.

"Those are all smalls!" the clerk bellowed in an LA-style vocal fry from her perch behind the cash register.

Was she trying to embarrass me? Send me away? Get rid of the only potential customer in the place so she could continue her very important conversation?

"I know I'm not a small," I apologized. "I'm just looking at the styles." I did a quick lap, and my disposable income and I walked out and never went back.

So, the irony is more than delicious that this once exclusive, size-ist boutique will be a home for healthy comfort food. Whereas its once ideal customers were cookie-cutter bulimics, its replacement looks like it will appreciate and enable the filling of bellies.

Stay tuned.

Au Revoir, Des Amis. Hello, Union Delaros-ish

Window sign at 2000 Union, the space formerly known as Cafe des Amis.

For awhile there, we had a mini Arrondissement going on Union Street. The shiny, short-lived Bistro Unique, petit magasin Chez Berlue triangulated with Cafe des Amis around Buchanan; Gamine, on the other side of Fillmore, served as a Left-Bank outlier.

Bistro Unique is now a sushi joint (which it used to be a couple of incarnations ago), and 2000 Union has been sitting vacant (again) since January 4. The Greenwich outpost of Cafe Claude is doing its bit to hold up Cow Hollow's Gauloise rep, and Chez Berlue is hanging on. About a week ago, we noticed these signs in the windows of the space formerly known as Des Amis. The folks who run Beretta, Delarosa and Super Duper are taking over. They've already de-Frenchified the windows.

The question remains, can a large restaurant space with rent rumored to be upwards of $25,000 a month make it in Cow Hollow, when all the dining heat these days is in NoPa, the Mission and other points south? Stay tuned.

UPDATE: Inside Scoop is reporting that Franck LeClerc is shuttering Cafe Claude's spot on Greenwich & Fillmore, after taking January off and getting lots of lucrative offers for the space. So if you have a hankering for Franch, Gamine stands alone...unless you want to cross Lombard and hit up Bistro Aix on Steiner. 

Pac Heights' Loss Is Cow Hollow's Gain

Juicy News is coming to Union Street, where a short-lived tanning and beauty-ish place was for a hot second. Can't wait to peruse the shelves.

Welcome to Cow Holla: Stories from the Other Side of SF

Welcome to Cow Holla!

The idea for this blog has been marinating in my brain and for a long time, even since before the 2008 bust saw many of Cow Hollow's chicest boutiques decamping and leaving papered-over windows in their wake, like a downmarket ghost town replica of what had been one of San Francisco's toniest areas.

The neighborhood rebounded with the general economic recovery -- though many of us still can't afford to patronize local shops without the help of a sale or a visiting relative's largesse -- and still boasts the same breathtaking vistas and easy Golden Gate access it's always had. But it has lost a bit of its snob appeal as prices and popularity have soared throughout the rest of the city, particularly in the Mission, our not-so-long-ago, not-so-bitter rival in the quaint intra-SF battle known as "Mission vs. Marina." (I once dated a guy -- just once -- who even made a movie about the supposed feud; the upshot was that Marina denizens had no ill will toward the Mish, but Mission folks hated the Marina.)

But these days, the Mission feels like it IS the new Marina. It's where people go to eat and drink too much and well without any particular place in mind, and it's where young people want to live. Much of the news about SF -- its people, coffee, facial hair, restaurants, bars and displaced artistic and middle classes -- focuses on what's going on in the southern part of town, those areas with the easiest access to Silicon Valley. That may be where the city's income inequality boasts its starkest divide, but there are other stories to tell.

While not strictly limiting ourselves to Cow Hollow and adjacent areas, this blog will take a slightly different approach. We'll take a longer view, perhaps with a dash of extra consideration of our city's nature and inherent specialness/wackiness, and whether those traits can remain or evolve in an era of $4,000 1-bedroom apartments and apps that replace nearly every kind of random human interaction.

Chronicling the goings-on, both fanciful and quotidian, of a livable 'hood possibly in some sort of relative decline could be an important exercise. Or, it might not. At the very least, I hope it will be fun.

Thanks for stopping by. Come back soon -- and often.