50 posts tagged “opening”
I promised the follow-up to my "Ch-ch-ch-changes" post a couple days ago, but I've actually been down with a Moulin-Rouge-level consumptive episode. Otherwise known as a "Man cold." But I'm back upright for the time being, so here are some more changing storefronts in the Castro right now:
- The North Beach Chinese Restaurant Brandy Ho's has finally uncovered its Castro storefront and is getting ready for its long-delayed opening.
Back when I talked with one of the owners, Jimmy Lam, for the B.A.R. piece, the opening was forecast for September but when I ran into him the other day he said that the new opening is set for early February. Considering that the reno was budgeted at about a million dollars (and having recently gone through a monster reno myself) it is understandable that there would be delays. Here's a photo that I took of Lam and the interior while it was still in process:The interior concept was supposed to be reminiscent on the inside of a wine barrel, with the wood structures behind Lam fitting into the corner of the ceiling, to give a gradual coving from the wall onto the ceiling. Peeking into the store now it seems that they have mostly stuck with that idea, and the interior looks sleek and Valentine's Day date-friendly.
- Scents-and-soaps dealer Bare Necessities on Castro has become another hair salon, Lisa's Hair Design. This picture was taken before work started on Milk-ifying the storefront, and now the awning is completely gone. I wonder if this will give them the opportunity and the capital to fix the name on the awning, or if they'll just leave it down.
The Lisa in the store's title is the same stylist who used to work around the corner at Nice Cuts. Bao Tonthat, who opened the chic Salon Baobao next to Mecca, also previously worked his shears at Nice Cuts, and I believe that the two of them were the most popular stylists there. This goes to show how competitive the hair market is in the Castro, but it's also a testament to how big the market has become that the 'hood can support so many salons. I have had co-workers who told me that they actually drive into the Castro just to get their hair cut.
- Clobba closed down their femme-focused store on Market Street at the end of last year.
I'm told that the owner of Sui Generis, the designer boutique on Church Street, has plans for the site, but I don't know yet if it is a move or a second store.
There have been a number of businesses changing hands and/or getting ready to open up recently, so here's a quick rundown:
- La Castro Taquerilla is boarded up and getting ready for a new occupant. If the job card is to be believed, an Indian restaurant is moving in, which would be a welcome addition to the neighborhood. We have a few Mexican places, but I believe that there is only the one Indian restaurant up on Market, Bombay Indian. I can't say that I'm too sad to see La Castro shut after just a year and a half. This space always had a lot of ventilation problems and the windows were perpetually covered with condensation, to the point that we always referred to it as "the sweaty taco shop." (As opposed to "the burrito laundry".) Admittedly it got a little better toward the end, but let's hope that the new Indian place can regulate its humidity a little better.
- The little convenience store on the corner of Church and 18th (and by "convenience store" I mean "crackden on the corner") is finally being renovated in preparation for a new occupant. I'm sure Jeffrey's Natural Pet Food Company next door must be thrilled, because this storefront was scary when it was empty and boarded up, and scary when open and operating as Shukri's Scrumptious Deli. Here's a photo of the corner back in 2006 after it shut down, but before it got really crack-y:
Now the facade has been completely redone, with large glass windows on both the Church and 18th Street sides. I couldn't tell from the signage what is going in, but with Dolores Park, the J-Church stop, and Mission High School so close by, this is a prime location for a business which needs foot traffic.
- On Church Street, the folks that own the small produce shop Golden Produce have opened up another shop a little further north at 130 Church Street. It's called Golden Natural Foods, and is a specialty health food store. Everyone is breathing a sigh of relief because the site has been under construction for so long that people doubted that anything would ever open. The store is slick and pretty, and looks like a "real store" as opposed to the "permanent roadside fruitstand" look that the original store has. Supposedly the family which owns the businesses will continue to run both.
Some people are really devoted to the original Golden Produce, but I've always been a little underwhelmed. Admittedly I've only shopped there about 3 times, but each time it seemed like choices were slim (even of things which were in season), the prices were high (for the quality), and the service was indifferent. Feel free to convince me otherwise in the comments.
- The bar Lookout which rose from the ashes of The Metro at the corner of 16th and Market has finally opened the companion restaurant which shares the stairway entrance on 16th Street. It's a pizza place, and is called Thick & Thin Pizza.
When I talked with the owner Chris Hastings for my October column for the B.A.R., he mentioned that previously a Chinese restaurant had been in that space, but I think it had closed down long before The Metro shut. Back then he was predicting opening the restaurant for table service back in late October, but the opening finally happened this month. (Actually, a three-month delay isn't so bad in this neighborhood.)
- I'm planning to post tomorrow about the current Milk-fever sweeping the Castro, but there seems to be one closure around the filming site which is unrelated to the movie. Next door to Harvey Milk's old camera shop (which is currently home to MoMA-meets-Harajuku-Girl fabporium, Given) the First American Title Company office is boarded over.
The sign in the front window says that effective December 28, 2007, they are no longer in the neighborhood, and clients are directed to one of the other offices in the city. The timing of this couldn't be better for the filming which is about to start next door, and I wonder if maybe some "economic incentive" from the producers helped to set the timing of the title company's closure. (Apologies for this craptastic picture with the wrong focus point. I will try to swap this out with a better picture.)For anyone who bemoans the apparent proliferation of real-estate-related businesses in the Castro, note that this is the second title company which has (apparently) closed in the neighborhood. It's a little early to call it a trend, but it is interesting to note, at the very least.
- OK, gotta sign off tonight, but there are more closures/openers to report tomorrow. 'Night all!
The old Oasis Spa location has a new tenant: A Taste of Leather. This is apparently the same store as the one at 1285 Folsom Street. I haven't been inside yet so don't have anything to report, but I just love that this is right next door to the world's largest Pottery Barn.
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.
The oft-closed, oft-opened, serial crazy-person's-estate-sale has reincarnated as a Tibetan import shop, as rumored. The new store is named Dolma, which I'm supposing has some meaning other than tasty grape-leaf-wrapped hors d'oeuvre. It's great that the place didn't stand empty long, but on the downside it basically looks exactly like the last store before it, with a window crowded with as much merchandise as possible. (Apparently Walgreens' window dresser is moonlighting.)
There are the customary prayer flags up front, which is the universal sign that either this is a Tibetan goods shop, or else perhaps a really sincere college sophomore lives here. One or the other.
One more thing to note is that there is no permanent sign yet. The only signs are computer printed sheets of 8.5 by 11 paper (two of them!) and scrawled on them is ... oh cripes. Look at this!
The store has been open a week and already everything is 25% to 30% off? Forget asbestos -- can they check the walls of this store for crazy dust?
The 18th Street Bar, which after a couple of months of feverish activity has been quieter than a Barry Bonds rally, is showing some signs of life. A week or so back large signs went up in all of the front windows announcing the concept and expected opening date of the new bar.
The sign reads:
18th Street Bar
Celebrating diversity through music
Hip Hop
R&B
Funk/Soul
Jazz
House
Alternative
Dance
Projected Opening
December 2007
This sign is notable for a few reasons. First and foremost, pretty much 9 out of 10 people you ask would say that they expected the bar to stand vacant for years, just like The Patio Cafe. (The 10th person is coming out of a K-hole and didn't hear the question correctly.)
Second, the list of music which is going to unify us through diversity-celebration is impressively exhaustive. I mean, seriously, checking the iTunes website I think the only musical genres not included are klezmer and Tuvan throat singing.
Third, it's pretty obvious that the poster was written to ease concerns that Les Natali (the new owner of the space) was going to take the only bar in the neighborhood targeted toward people of color (the former Pendulum) and turn it into another Badlands -- which, face it, is not exactly a Benetton ad. Les' troubles with the city's Human Rights Commission and the independent group And Castro For All are well-known so I won't go into them here, but part of his reported defense was his intention to keep the Pendulum space as a bar targeting a multi-ethnic clientele. I think this sign's inclusion of terms such as "diversity" and "the Hip Hop" are clear defensive move.
And fourth and finally, this sign is worth a double-take because of the expected opening date of December 2007, about a year and a half after construction began. I know things move slowly with construction and permitting in this city, but damn, that better be one fun circus under that awning.
I apologize for the lack of updates, but I've been traveling with spotty access to the life-giving and life-taking-away internet. I'm headed off again in a couple of hours, but I wanted to throw up a handful of tidbits that have come my way from readers (thanks for the tips!) or that I stumbled on as I headed to Walgreens to replenish my Airborne supply.
- The new San Francisco Music Box Company store on 18th has a sign up announcing its opening this Saturday, July 21. Isn't time you bought a new music box?
- The Browser's Nook space is apparently being prepped for a transformation into yet another Tibetan shop! I think this makes the third in the neighborhood, so we should prepare for a pretty ugly price war on prayer flags.
- Best in Show is closing its Sanchez store to concentrate on its new Castro Street storefront. I seriously want to get a pet just so I can buy some of their cute carriers.
Apologies for the lack of photos, but hopefully I'll be able to post some after this round of travel ends. In the meantime, I uploaded photos of Pride-themed store windows from the recent SF Pride season. I will be assembling a post about the windows soon, but feel free to ogle the rainbow-y goodness until then.
I'm long overdue to mention a store that opened up on Market recently, Wicked. It's a scented candle store, and although scented candles are a frequent, easy target of jokes, it's also true that scented candles are one of the few things that are stereotypical for both gays and lesbians. From that point of view this store is pure marketing genius. The store itself is inviting and attractive, and the candles and bath items are good for casual browsing, so I think this will be a good addition to the retail scene here.
More interesting than the store itself is the story of the former occupant of this space. This is where a short-lived jewelry store named Bling had its much-derided run. Bling billed itself as a high-end jewelry store, but the time we visited it seemed that the level of the merch was pretty much what the passe-hip-hop-lingo name would imply. Reader twinkler summed it up in an email better than I can:
when they first opened (a year ago, was it?), their windowshades were always down to, as the sign in the window said, protect the privacy of their customers. well, that stupid & pretentious plan didn't last long--apparently, the privacy of the ostensible luxury items they were flogging was protected too well and no one came in the store. a few weeks later, up came the shades. not that that saved them in the end.
My memory is that they were around less than a year, and were closed before the last holiday season rolled around. Here is a photo of the empty storefront from last November:
However, it seems that no one noticed the closing or missed the "bling" because around April of this year I suddenly had numerous people tell me through email, blog comments, and in person that Bling had shut down -- presumably at least 6 months after the store had actually shut! Seriously, I think I had 7 messages in a two week span, the most tips I've ever had about one store!
I think that in April they put up a real estate sign signifying the new leasee, and that's what triggered the attention, but as you can see by the picture above, the store had been long-closed by then. What does it say when a store is derided when opened, ignored when closed, and finally noticed when replaced?
I reported previously about the transformation of our neighborhood location of the local Philz chain into the clumsily-name Bean Here, Brewed that!, as well as the disappearance of the cafe from the front of Sit 'n' Spin laundromat. Now those two stories collide as Philz reenters our local coffeeshop market by moving into that empty storefront.
I snapped the photo above last weekend. A man with a fedora who looked like an extra from the Turkish production of The Sopranos asked me why I was taking photos and whether I was a fan of Philz. I told him that I track businesses in the Castro, and I was excited to see them move back into the market "after the drama with the other place." He put up his hands and said with perfect old-world flair, "No drama! What drama? No drama!" and then encouraged me to come back for "the best cup of coffee [I] will ever have." I think I'll go just to see if this character is behind the counter.
By the way, I really enjoy the alternation between "Coming Soon" and "Come In Soon" on the banners above, but my guess is that this in not intentionally witty wordplay, but just two different people ordering signs and hearing the intended wording differently.
Also on the subject of the signs, both Philz and Bean Here, Brew that! tout their single-cup-brewing cred. I smell a coffee war!
I speculated earlier that Off the Beading Path, the bead store (yes, they exist) at 18th and Douglass might be headed toward closure. Sure enough, a week or so ago signs went up announcing the final days of the store, and the closing countdown started. Last Wednesday was the last day of the clearance with the markdowns topping out (bottoming out?) at 75% off.
(Although sadly those swank Swarovski martini glasses that were something like $600 for a pair only went to half off. At 75% off they still would have been about $150, which is certifiably insane for 2 glasses, right? But somehow when you say 75% off it seems like you can't say no... Fortunately I didn't have to suffer that temptation.)
What's up next for the site? Well, beads -- a frivolous, decorative, cheap item -- didn't last in this low-foot-traffic area, so what would you suggest instead? Well of course, it has to be music boxes -- a frivolous, decorative, but expensive item!
Signs are up saying that the new resident will be The San Francisco Music Box Company, which in spite of its name is not a local store but a mall chain store which sells not only music boxes, but waterglobes, jewelry boxes, and figurines. They specialize in mass-produced heirloom-ish kitschery, often with pop-culture tie-ins such as "I Love Lucy" and "Phantom of the Opera," both of which are highlighted in the posters up at the store. In my mind I associate The San Francisco Music Box Company with the false, prefab sentimentality of Thomas Kinkade and the lowest-common-denominator appeal of "Parade" magazine. (Interestingly, a Thomas Kinkade carousel is the feature item on the SF Music Box web page.)
I'm not sure, but I think the new store is owned by the same guy who owns (owned) Off the Beading Path, which had been moving in a very music-box direction for a while, with more figurines and such all the time. At one point the owner shut down OtBP for a week or so as he opened another store on Pier 39. A quick check of the SFMBC website shows that they have two stores on Pier 39 (how many "Wizard of Oz" trinket boxes do these tourists need?!) so I wonder if one of these is run by the bead guy, and now he's just streamlining his business by combining concepts for the Pier 39 store and the Castro store. Just speculation, but it seems reasonable.
If it is the same owner, he seems like a nice guy, and he did try hard with the bead store. The bead store went through a notable revolution in its presentation and merchandising, making the store and the product much more attractive and customer-friendly over time, so I always applauded him for trying hard and apparently learning how to do retail better. I wish him well with the trinket-slinging, but I have to admit that I'm pessimistic. It seems like you need a lot of foot traffic to sell a single $130 music box, and this is just not the site for that.
