The San Francisco Music Box Store (nee Off the Beading Path) has taken a retail strategy that you won't learn at Harvard Business School:
I've been meaning to post an update on this place for over a month, and I always assume that I'm going to be too late and need to take new pictures, but every time I walk past it the place is completely unchanged.
The current condition is that the store seems to be caught mid-changeover from beads to music boxes with beads in one window and the figurines in the other. They had advertised a grand (re-)opening on July 21, but needless to say they are a little late for that date. Last weekend a truck was out front delivering boxes (presumably of "Cats" or "Phantom of the Opera"-themed treasures) but still the store remains dark. The new signage in the window all refers to the owner's other store on Pier 39.
I'm pretty amazed at this situation because it can't be cheap to have the place sitting idle like this, although admittedly they are saving huge amounts on register receipt tape.
Quite suddenly last week the restaurant Bullshead, located across the street from Delano's IGA, shut down and vacated its space. The sign posted in the window blamed the closure on a lost lease, but gives no further details on the sudden closure.
This was a shocker for us, since Bullshead always seemed to have a good flow of customers in to sample its buffalo and non-buffalo offerings. It had the advantage of having more than one San Francisco location, theoretically giving it some of the advantages of a (mini) chain. Another point on its side was that it was one of the few restaurants in the Castro dedicated to red meat, making its closure just one week before the Hairrison Street Fair even more ironic and poignant.
So during my years visiting and living in the Castro this location has now seen 4 restaurants:
- Bullshead
- Tallulah
- Due Ragazzi
- Ristorante Incontro
Is this another cursed location for small businesses?
Finally, the title of this post is a reference to my little bit of idiocy dating back from when this restaurant opened. I saw the sign, and in my mind read it like "Bull-shead". Never mind that "shead" isn't a word, I guess I just have a profane mind.
Bullshead, we're sorry to see you go, and we're curious what brave soul is going to give this odd space a try next.
Wow, it's been quite a while since my last update, and I apologize. No doubt you have ideas about how I've been keeping busy, but mostly it has been a combination of work, home stuff, and my side-gig filling in for the writer of the "Business Briefs" column in the Bay Area Reporter. Last week I published my second column, which is available online here. The topics I covered this go 'round are:
- Salon Baobao, a new haircuttery, has opened between Eros and Mecca. (Extra points if you can remember what was in this space previously.)
- Mecca checks in with news on its recovery from its recent fire.
- Another opportunity for self-indulgence has presented itself in the form of the Tao Boutique Day Spa.
- The Metro bar has packed up its shakers and scooted down to occupy the space formerly known as the Expansion bar.
- Max Muscles returns to the Castro, taking over the Maximum Strength & Health shop under the (now former) Metro.
Please read up and let me know your thoughts on the column.
And I hope you have enjoyed the column, because I'm happy to report that I'll be taking over the column full-time this month! Currently the plan is to reduce the frequency of the column to once a month instead of every other week, so hopefully it will impact the blog less.
