Natural wine shop and bar Tofino Wines is closing its doors after nine years in business and hopes to move to a new location. Owners Mark Nevin and April Sack announced in an email to customers that they will be closing the business at 2696 Geary Boulevard, writing that Tofino's last day as a bar will be Saturday, March 30. The couple said issues with renewing their lease and ongoing challenges with the pandemic contributed to their decision to close.

It's not all sad news, though: Nevin and Sack say they plan to find a new retail space for their wine shop and will expand their online business in the meantime. They want to open their store in early July and have started a GoFundMe to help them reach their opening goal. And while the wine bar portion of the store is closing at the end of March, the couple says they'll be operating “in and out of the store” through the end of April if anyone wants to pick up a bottle. “It breaks our hearts to make this announcement, but we plan to take with us many of the beautiful things we have built and created,” the email reads in part. “Most importantly, we want to take you with us, because we have always been the link between the wines and winemakers we care about and our customers, who have been at the heart of our work for nine years.”

Another SF rooftop restaurant will join the chat

Real estate developer Presidio Bay Ventures purchased the building at 60 Spear Street in August 2023, but now the San Francisco Business Times has learned what the company plans to do with the property. The news outlet reports that in addition to creating a larger building, there are also plans to install a 7,700-square-foot rooftop bar and restaurant, as well as a bakery, as well as other structural amenities such as “sauna rooms, cold and hot water pools, floating saltwater pools, co-working -Space” and more, says an application to city planners.

Opening of a new distillery in Rancho Cordova

Gold River Distillery is closing its doors at the end of March after 11 years, but now the Sacramento Bee has news about who is taking over the space at 11460 Sunrise Gold Circle. Set to open there this summer, Dao Distillery plans to produce the first California-made version of the Vietnamese rice liquor Rượu đế.

Pliny the Younger turns 20

The most die-hard beer fanatics probably already know this and are lining up at Russian River Brewing Company, but for the rest of us, the annual return of Pliny the Younger is just around the corner… and the celebrated beer is almost at the legal drinking age. The Mercury News reports that this release of the triple IPA will run from Friday, March 22nd through April 4th and will be available at Santa Rosa Brewpub and Windsor Brewery and Pub in Russian River to mark the beer's 20th anniversary becomes. All detailed information about what to expect when looking for Pliny can be found on the Russian River Brewing Company website.

Spring cleaning party at the Michelin star restaurant

As Osito bids farewell to its sister establishment and bar Liliana, making way for Bar Agricole in May, chef and owner Seth Stowaway is throwing a party to sell the alcohol there. On Tuesday, March 26, from 4 to 6 p.m., fans can stop by for a plate of barbecue and cocktails for $10 per person.

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The post San Francisco Neighborhood Pure Wine Bar and Bottle Store Tofino Wines Is Closing for Now appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

The Scarlet Sage Herb Co., a nearly 30-year-old small business, has found itself on the verge of closure just three months after reopening in a new location in San Francisco’s Fillmore District.

According to owner Laura Ash, onerous city bureaucracy has dried up a key source of the business’ revenue: bulk dried herbs.

Earlier this month, the San Francisco Department of Public Health issued a cease-and-desist order to the store, prohibiting Scarlet Sage from selling herbs until it fulfills the requirements for a food permit. 

Having joined the company as an employee in 2009, Ash took over as owner in 2015 and has operated Scarlet Sage since then. The store is known for its focus on wellness, holistic medicine and witchery. Think tarot cards, healing crystals and sacred talismans. 

After a 28-year run on Valencia Street in the city’s Mission District, the store moved to its new location at 1903 Fillmore St. earlier this summer. Ash said a number of factors spurred her to relocate, including low foot traffic, increasing crime and difficulties renegotiating a lease with her landlord. 

After a pricey build-out, Scarlet Sage opened its doors in July. Business in the new location was slowly picking up just as the store was hit with what Ash called “an existential threat.” 

A Department of Public Health inspector visited the location in response to a complaint that scoops were being washed in the bathroom sink. Ash noted that the bathroom is currently the only source of running water available in the store, and the utensils were taken out to the herb table for further sanitizing and drying.

In Scarlet Sage’s previous location, a hand-washing sink outside the bathroom was used to clean utensils. Ash said the business was in the process of saving the funds necessary to add a similar appliance in the new location.

Ash said when she explained her situation, she was told to get an official food permit, the same as any restaurant, bar or bakery. That would require tens of thousands of dollars in additional costs as well as the inclusion of a food prep sink, a mop sink and a three-compartment sink. 

“We’re not heating or preparing food, and what they’re asking for us to do is pay $20,000 to $100,000 to comply by getting a general contractor, preparing an architectural drawing and adding five sinks,” Ash said.

She estimated the store is losing about $1,000 a day from the halt in sales. Although herbs make up only around 10% of the store’s total revenue, they serve as a gateway to bigger-budget purchases. Many customers often leave after seeing that the herbs are no longer for sale, Ash said.

The Department of Public Health confirmed to The Standard that its staff had recently inspected Scarlet Sage, which resulted in a notice to cease and desist food handling of “open (non-prepackaged) food” and to apply for a health permit. In other words, the department considers Scarlet Sage on par with any other business that serves food.

Ash said she has around two weeks of funds left, so she’s readying a fundraising effort to keep the store open as she works out a permanent solution. In the meantime, Ash said she’s working with the city to obtain a permit to package the herbs in her home kitchen.

“I’m asking for time, resources and support to comply with these new laws,” Ash said. “Let’s work on a solution together. That’s how we move forward.”

The public health department said it offered education first and will work directly with Scarlet Sage on its options, such as temporarily renting a commercial kitchen space to handle and package the merchandise and transport it back to the store for sale.

Some small-business owners are warily watching this play out and debating the idea of categorizing herb stores as restaurants. Kenny Lau, an herb store owner in Chinatown and the chairman of the Chinese Herb Trade Association of America, estimated that 90% of the herb stores in Chinatown do not have an independent sink outside of the bathroom.

“Some of the old buildings in Chinatown are not feasible to make the changes,” Lau said in Cantonese. “And a sink would cost at least $20,000.”

Lau acknowledged that certain sanitation rules should be followed to the letter of the law. But herb stores should not be required for any special permit unless they are importing rare herbs from overseas, he said.

The health department explained that it did not target Scarlet Sage but is required to investigate complaints received with respect to potential health code violations.

Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents the district where Scarlet Sage is located, said he’s aware of the issue but has not heard back from the health department for further clarification.

“My office is committed to helping small businesses recover from the pandemic,” Preston said. “[The department] should be more forthcoming about their enforcement priorities and reasons for demanding costly changes at a time when small businesses are struggling to survive.”

Ash agreed with Lau and argued for a new category for businesses like hers—one that would include herbal medicine shops, tea shops and bulk candy retailers—to balance public health protections with the realities of operating a small business.

“For me, this is a survival story, and it’s not been easy,” she said. “This is a whole other level of bureaucracy that I’ve never seen before.”

The post Common San Francisco Herb Store Criticizes Metropolis’s Crimson Tape appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Courtesy STARS Gallery, Los Angeles

PIPPA GARNER IS THE KIND OF EXUBERANT person for whom “artist” is the safest catchall term. Her silly and irreverent pranks, hacks, and inventions are powered by “what-ifs” and “why nots.” Since the 1960s, the LA artist has presented witty inventions—a car that appears to drive backward, with its engine in the trunk; a shower in a can—in settings as diverse as museums, the open road, and The Tonight Show.

When Garner joined Johnny Carson on TV in 1982, she wore her famous “half suit,” cropped to reveal a muscular abdomen. On the broadcast, Carson calls her an “inventor,” and she presents herself as a businessman appearing on TV to show off new gadgets. In reference to the suit, Garner explains that the “abbreviated” style popular in women’s fashion ought to be adapted for businessmen too, since all its formality comes from the collar, tie, and lapel anyway. It’s an example of the deadpan logic that underpins Garner’s creations—logic that is as absurdist as it is indisputable.

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Garner often gets labeled a “performance artist” because her personality seeps so fully into her work, and because she doesn’t bother with distinctions as to where her body ends and her art begins. She began transitioning in the 1980s, buying estrogen on the black market; she once described the endeavor as an “art project to create disorientation in my position in society, and sort of balk any possibility of ever falling into a stereotype again.” As a bona fide trans elder, her creative output has found an audience among young people today. Last year, her survey “Act Like You Know Me,” organized by Kunstverein München, traveled around Europe, and this summer, Primary Information published a facsimile edition of her Better Living Catalog (1982), which advertises provocative inventions like high-heeled roller skates and a virtual pet that predates the Tamagotchi. Garner’s current solo exhibition, at Art Omi in upstate Ghent, New York, through October 29, is accompanied by a new book surveying her practice, copublished with Pioneer Works. Below, the trailblazing artist discusses refashioning her works for a new era as the world catches up with her.

Pippa Garner on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Dec. 8, 1982.

Courtesy Carson Entertainment Group

Tell us about your legendary tattoos.

My underwear? Well, I got a bra and thong tattooed because it just seemed logical. I figured, even if I gain 300 pounds, it will still fit. Also, I never have to wash it. The only problem is that I’m no longer allowed to go to nudist colonies!

I also got wood grain tattooed on my leg after I was hit by a car while cycling. They put me back together after three months, but my left leg didn’t match my right leg anymore. So I thought it was an opportunity to have some trompe l’oeil installed.

Rumor has it that Art Omi has plans to tattoo some of your drawings onto visitors to your show.

Yes, I might get some tattooed on myself. That way, I could be a walking portfolio.

You have characterized your transition as an artwork. How so?

Pippa Garner: Untitled ($ELL YOUR $ELF), 1996.

Courtesy STARS Gallery, Los Angeles

Yeah, and it fascinates me that, these days, you can enhance the body to your own tastes, using silicone. Bodies like silicone; they don’t reject it. If you want to emphasize your cheekbones, just squirt some in! It’s like makeup. Fifty years ago, nobody would have thought of that.

I often wonder, What if all the politicians were transgender? Maybe we could blend the best of male and female and avoid some of the negatives. For instance, men have 10 times the testosterone that women have, and that makes them more aggressive. If all the politicians were transgender, maybe we could have a balance.

Sometimes you’ve called yourself an “inventor.”

At one of the three art schools I got kicked out of, I majored in industrial design, thinking maybe I’d become a car designer or something. I do have a US patent on a push scooter I designed. I rode the Santa Fe Century [a 106-mile cycling route in New Mexico] with that scooter.

Why did you get kicked out of art school?

Everyone took design so seriously. People were designing taillights as if it were the end of the world. I started making fun of it all. I made this thing that was half-car, half-man. The front part was a typical ’50s-looking car, and then it became this male figure—quite realistically sculpted—lifting his leg on a map of Detroit. That was it for them. They were getting a lot of money from the car industry and didn’t want to see that sort of thing.

I went to work for a toy design company for a while and started documenting LA, which at the time felt like an overgrown small town. People who were feeling restless moved west after the war. What do you do for freedom? You come to California! A lot of really goofy people did weird things to their cars and their houses. I noticed all this while driving around and kept thinking, Gee, I wish I could stop and take a picture. So I got rid of my car, and got a camera and a bicycle. That way, I could pull over and document postwar LA when it was still funky and whimsical.

Pippa Garner: Backwards Car, 1973–74.

How does that relate to your work Backwards Car?

I made the original Backwards Car in 1974. Cadillacs around then had these big tail fins, to make them look like they’re moving even when they were standing still. One day, it struck me: what would it be like if this thing was going backwards? Then I thought, That would take a phenomenal fabricator and all kinds of facilities that I had no access to.

But I just couldn’t sleep at night until the world had a backwards car. I settled on a ’59 Chevrolet, because they had flat tail fins. You wouldn’t be able to see over a Cadillac tail fin while driving backwards; it would block your vision. The Chevy was still very directional, but flatter. The whole car was teardrop-shaped.

I made sketches and sent them around. Finally, Esquire magazine said they wanted me to do it. They assigned a photographer and paid me a fee up front. I found a car and rented a space in a parking garage in San Francisco. I got everything unfastened; the body was no longer attached to the frame. By this point, it was just a matter of lifting it up and turning it around. I had a big party and invited all my friends. We ate and drank and, after a while, I said: “OK, everybody get around the car, shoulder to shoulder. On my command, I want you to lift.” And we did it! I didn’t know it would be possible.

By then, it was a matter of reconnecting all the controls and reattaching the body. I got that done, then got behind the wheel and started driving around San Francisco. Only some people noticed. I’d glimpse somebody on the sidewalk saying, “Look at that!” I went across the Golden Gate Bridge a few times and got some nice pictures for the magazine, with the car going 60 miles an hour looking like it’s about to have the most horrendous head-on collision you can imagine.

When it was over, I had the car shredded. I wanted it to exist as a ghost, something people either saw or thought they saw. Also, I didn’t want to kill anybody with it.

What has it been like reconstituting the car 50 years later?

I always thought that was the end of that, until the curator at Art Omi called me and said, “We want to do Backwards Car again. We have a fabricator and a budget.” I said, “You can’t possibly do it now with all the restrictions.” The rules were more lax back then: all I needed was a windshield wiper on the back window and to flip the headlights and taillights. Also, modern cars look the same on both ends. The only way you can tell cars apart now is by looking at the logo.

Then it struck me to use a pickup truck and put the bed around the engine. I made a few other suggestions to emphasize the directionality: giant truck nuts, and a couple of bumper stickers. One says women should be free (no charge). I’ll be interested to see how people react now that we’re moving into a revolutionary period of autonomous cars and electric cars and all that.

You also worked on a car assembly line.

I worked on the Chrysler gear and axle plant assembly line in Detroit for about six months. It was good money at the time, maybe $3.50 an hour, back in the ’60s. Maybe Backwards Car is a spoof on mass production—like, what if the assembly line backfired?

While working in Detroit, I got a notice that said: go back to school, or we’re drafting you. So I enrolled in the Art Center College of Design in LA, and lasted a semester or two, then got drafted anyway. I ended up spending 13 months in Southeast Asia as a combat artist. Nobody believes that job exists, but I was making sketches and photographs, and writing. The leaders referenced those materials when deciding what to do next.

Does the car symbolize something to you?

Back then, cars symbolized freedom, and all boys were interested in cars. Now, they don’t symbolize freedom so much as just transportation. In fact, they’ve started to behave as if in an army. When you see traffic on the freeway, it’s all lined up as if there was a sergeant telling them “Forward march!”

People are ready for something else. Autonomous cars will be weird, and then we will take them for granted. Maybe traffic lights will wind up as junk in thrift shops. Let’s see what happens with the Information Age as it moves forward. It may turn around and go the other way. We might wind up back in primitive times. Who knows?

On that note, you made a car without a motor and labeled it “the most fuel-efficient car in the world.”

I removed the machinery from a small ’70s Honda and made a pedal-powered car. I drove it around Burning Man. Now it’s in the Audrain Auto Museum in Rhode Island. I’m fascinated by human power. Of all mammals, humans have pretty limited strength. My Persian cat has the leg strength to jump the equivalent of me jumping into a second-story window! But lately, human power is being overlooked because of these electric vehicles. Everybody wants to put a motor on something.

What’s next for you?

I’m very spontaneous. I never really know what’s next. But sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with something poking me. It’s like there are two versions of me: when one starts to get comfortable, the antagonist comes in and stirs things up. I love that—it’s good to be separated. It’s like when I look in the mirror and think, My body is just an appliance. It’s mine to play with, so I’m going to have some fun with it.

I have chronic lymphocytic leukemia, ostensibly from my exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. It’s affecting my vision; it’s given me pneumonia. I’ve been a big gym rat for the past 50 years—I feel responsible for keeping this thing [points to body] in the best shape I can. We don’t live forever.

I want to make an animated video that’s set in the wilderness. You’d hear this rustling that turns into a rumble until suddenly, streaks of materials come out of the ground—windows, steel, and fuel would flow up and form a car. This beautiful, shiny new car would sit there for about 15 seconds. Then, it would start to tremble. You’d hear the same roar, and it would all just get sucked right back into the earth.

I think of myself as a shorter-lived version of that. A car, if you don’t grind it up, can last a couple hundred years in some form or another. Humans don’t even come close. I’m going to be 81, and with my issues, I’m lucky to have gotten this far.  

The post Pippa Garner on Shifting Fluidly Between the Studio and the Physique Store – ARTnews.com appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

After 70 years in San Francisco and a change of ownership that resulted in an imaginative menu update attracting several TV shows to its doors, HRD Coffee Shop has closed.

The San Francisco Standard first reported the news, and owner Sydney Saidyan confirmed the restaurant would be closed on Friday, June 23. He says the pandemic has exacerbated problems with the landlord; Because of some of these issues, the restaurant was unable to add outdoor dining, adding to HRD’s losses. “I’ve lost confidence in my partners, in other words the city and the landlord, to really see us as their valued partner,” says Saidyan. “We realized that when we’ve done everything we can, we basically can’t go on, and we couldn’t really get to the point of saying we can go on for another year or two.”

As the Standard reports, HRD Coffee Shop was founded by Ben Chan, an immigrant from China who wanted to open a breakfast spot in the China Basin. He opened HRD in 1953 — rumored to be named for the “HRD” on the front of the human resources office where the restaurant began — and eventually passed the business on to his nephew David Yeung and partner Joanna Banks in 2009. They brought Saidyan into the restaurant business, enriched the menu with his unique brand of kimchi and bulgogi burritos that fused Asian ingredients with Mexican food, and led to appearances at Guy Fieri’s Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives. Saidyan says Yeung left the company three years ago and has been the sole owner ever since.

As for the HRD Coffee Shop story, Saidyan doesn’t think that’s the real ending. Citing various catering appearances at the Giants and local businesses, as well as the numerous reviews on Yelp and Google praising their restaurant, he says HRD will carry on — whether he’s at the helm or someone running the business and its various activities takes over trademarks and patents. He would prefer the San Francisco restaurant to continue, but indicated to the Standard that he would be willing to move the restaurant elsewhere. “After 70 years, our story is a story of perseverance and of an immigrant who came to this country,” Saidyan says. “I have never seen myself as the owner, but as the steward of this man’s legacy. We did everything we could, but unfortunately it takes two to tango.”

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The post HRD Espresso Store, a San Francisco Favourite for Kimchi Burritos, Is Closing After 70 Years in South Seashore appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Korean-Mexican fusion restaurant Tacorea in Nob Hill will close its doors on June 30, owner David Lee told The Standard.

Lee blamed his restaurant’s decline on low tourism prices and offices left vacant by the home office movement.

“It’s like a perfect storm where everyone goes away, tourism goes down and work from home,” Lee said. “I think it’s a good time to close up shop.”

Lee said the business closures in Union Square, which is near his restaurant, are also demoralizing. Westfield recently announced it was giving up the San Francisco Center, and the mall’s anchor, Nordstrom, has joined a long list of other companies leaving the Union Square area.

CONTINUE READING: The San Francisco Center Mall in Westfield has lost 46% of its business since 2020

Lee had previously complained about the requirements to renew his restaurant’s parking lot and took to Twitter to express his displeasure with the bureaucracy at City Hall.

“Three years later, they’re like, ‘You need to fix this and that and go to the fire department,'” Lee said when reached by phone. “It’s like, ‘Come on, you couldn’t have told us that in 2020?'”

The outside of Tacorea in Nob Hill | Courtesy of David Lee

Tacorea previously had a location in Chinatown, but it closed about a month ago, Lee said.

“It’s basically just an extension of our kitchen now,” Lee said.

Lee and his restaurant have made headlines before. In an incident in February that went viral, he tweeted Mayor London Breed after his restaurant was broken into.

“Mayor Breed, what is happening to our city? When will residents be protected? The windows of my car shattered several times and today my restaurant was broken into. There is absolutely no protection for us in this lawless city. Why do we have to experience this every day?” The Feb. 27 tweet read.

Originally from Burlingame, Lee moved to San Francisco in 2010 and opened Tacorea in 2016.

He said management at a restaurant burned him out, and he said he plans to move to Las Vegas by December.

“I just want to work for a hotel or something — just be an employee so I don’t have to worry about running anything,” Lee said. “I love the hotel industry. I love dealing with people – just not with the restaurant world.”

While he was considering the possibility of reopening Tacorea in Las Vegas, for now, fans of kimchi burritos and “California burritos” stuffed with tater tots only have a few weeks.

“By the end of the month it will all be gone,” Lee said.

The post Korean Burrito Store Tacorea Leaving Downtown San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Anthony Womack says he reeled with emotion after his ice cream shop in Bayview was broken into twice that same morning.

Womack told The Standard that he woke up on Friday morning and was told by a clerk that the What’s The Scoop store had been searched and all stock had been confiscated. Also, when the clerk arrived at around 10:45 am to open at 11:00 am, she found that the cash register and point-of-sale terminal were missing

Reviewing the store’s security footage confirmed Womack’s worst fears and more.

“Unfortunately, it happened twice on the same day, between 3am and 3:40am. The burglars were here about 40 minutes and just loaded up their car, lots of stuff,” he said. “Since the first group broke in and left the door unlocked, the second group marched right in and took what they wanted because no one was there yet.”

The black-owned, music-inspired ice cream parlor opened in November 2022.

Womack estimates his losses at around $12,000 to $13,000, excluding the loss of revenue from the weekend shutdown. It plans to reopen Tuesday after the cleanup.

Anthony Womack, owner of What’s The Scoop ice cream shop, poses in front of the store. | Camille Cohen/The Standard

“The part that kind of hurts the most [is the] POS system and our register, because there was about $500 in the register. The first group took the cash drawer where all the money was.

The San Francisco Police Department did not respond to requests for comment at the time of publication. As of June 4 this year, residents reported 178 burglaries to police in Bayview, according to the ministry. That’s a nearly 30% drop from the same period in 2022, when police documented 251 burglaries.

“Scoop ice cream with your hands”

Surveillance video: still of a woman scooping ice cream with her hands after allegedly breaking into the store in June 2023. | Image courtesy

The suspect, who arrived at 10 a.m., may have taken over $2,000 worth of equipment but wasn’t done yet.

“Then she treated herself to some ice cream, too,” Womack said. “That’s the part that really hurt us because she was scooping ice cream with her hands. I’m really proud of the cleanliness of our store and the integrity of our ice cream.”

Womack was forced to discard about 24 gallons of ice that may have been contaminated from the unsanitary hand scooping.

“Some of these were really brand new and full, and some were halfway through,” Womack said. “It was just thousands of dollars wasted right there. I’ve replenished our supplies and things like that, but by and large that’s how I spent the weekend.”

Security still image shows an alleged burglary at What’s the Scoop ice cream parlor in Bayview in early June 2023. | Image courtesy

A Bayview native, Womack grew up near the store’s Third Street and Armstrong Avenues and believes the burglaries were a personal attack.

“Who would do such a thing?” he asked. “I think it’s a personal attack because everyone who comes here knows me. I grew up around here.”

Womack even wondered if he should keep the store open at all or move to another location.

“Every day, I take it day by day and I take a few nice moments throughout the day,” he said. “But there are a lot of bad moments that I feel outweigh the good ones.”

Ice Cream Social

Anthony Womack (center), owner of What’s The Scoop ice cream shop, cuts the ribbon at the grand opening at 5668 Third St. in Bayview on November 17, 2022. | Camille Cohen/The Standard

Womack has dealt with petty crime at his shop before – albeit in a gentle way, by asking two boys who tried to steal tips from his jar to return them before fulfilling their order.

“I tried to use it as a lesson for him,” he said. “I grew up here. I feel like this is my community. I want to do it right the best I can.”

To that end, Womack is hosting an ice cream social to welcome the community back indoors and invites other business members to visit and promote their own ventures.

Stop by Saturday from 12pm to 7pm for treats like milkshakes, root beer floats, banana splits and freshly baked cookies, plus assorted flavors for just $2 a scoop.

What’s the scoop?

5668 Third St.

whatsthescoop415.com

The post San Francisco Ice Cream Store Damaged Into Twice in a Single Day appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

SAN FRANCISCO — Family-run small business Cigarettes R Cheaper suffered the biggest slump in its long history in San Francisco last month.

Surveillance video shows two cars parked outside the Richmond smokehouse during the night hours of May 31. A thief tries to break the glass with a tool before others finally crowd into the shop. Some burglars were already carrying empty pockets.

Once inside, the thieves clear out the shelves and toss whatever they could get their hands on in a trash can and what appears to be a bed sheet.

In about 15 minutes, the criminals stole 500 packs of cigarettes worth $80,000. They also stole the safe containing $20,000 in cash.

They left a lot of damage.

“So many businesses are going out of business or moving out of town because of this, it’s not safe, you know? Nobody feels safe. I don’t even feel safe here anymore,” said store manager Sunny Shakoor. “I don’t know what’s going to happen next. Even during the day they can rob me, they can do anything.”

Shakoor said the family opened the Geary Boulevard location about 30 years ago. They too were hit by burglars last year. He believes crime is increasing in the neighborhood.

“Because every day I hear that something is happening in this neighborhood. They break into houses because a policeman came here two days before. The police told me they were looking for two cars, seven to eight men,” Shakoor said. “Same group. He said that.”

Shakoor says thieves also broke into a doctor’s office next door that same night.

He said his family came to the US from Afghanistan to seek a better life.

“We come from far away to work and live here – $100,000 isn’t easy to pay,” he added.

Shakoor said the thieves stole something that gives the store about a quarter of the year’s revenue.

Since the last burglary, the family has spent thousands of dollars replacing windows and installing new gates behind the glass.

“I just want the government, the City of San Francisco, to pay more attention to businesses — the safety of people, businesses, homes, etc. — because we’re the taxpayer, you know?” Shakoor said.

Betty Yu

Betty Yu joined KPIX 5 in November 2013 as a general assignments reporter. She spent two years as a reporter at WTVJ, NBC’s Miami-based network, before relocating to San Francisco.

The post Thieves steal $100,000 in cigarettes, money from San Francisco smoke store appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

For newly transplanted San Franciscan Jessica Ann, her new gift shop on Union Street in Cow Hollow isn’t just a shop. It’s a tribute to her ancestors – especially her devoted grandmother.

Nikoniko Gifts, the all-Asian handicraft store that highlights merchandise from across the continent’s diaspora, pays homage to Ann’s Korean and Japanese heritage. The name means “smiley” in Japanese, and the brick-and-mortar’s logo and signage spell it in Japanese and Korean letters to honor both halves of their family tree.

Nikoniko Gift Shop Owner Jessica Ann | Christina Campodonico/The Standard

Nikoniko is also a reminder of the wise advice of Ann’s maternal grandmother, a determined businesswoman who single-handedly raised her from the age of nine months until her death shortly after Ann turned 18.

“One of the things that kind of resonated was that my grandma used to say, ‘Do what makes you happy,'” Ann said. “And when I think of things I like, I smile. You know, of course we smile. And so I wanted everyone who walks in here to find some kind of happiness, even if it’s just for a moment.”

From incense to traditional teas, Nikiniko sells a range of gifts designed and made by Asian artisans. | Christina Campodonico/The Standard

Notable for its selection of Asian-branded goods and artisans from around the world, the store has plenty to smile about, from greeting cards featuring imaginative French frogs crafted by an Asian designer in London to rare shaped Japanese knives of whales.

“Whether you’re Asian and live in London or Asian and live in France, there’s a story behind it,” Ann said as she guided The Standard around the store.

Asian homewares take center stage at Nikoniko. | Christina Campodonico/The Standard

The store’s intention is to fill a gap or “blank space” in the Asian goods market, she said. From Chinatown to Japantown, San Francisco has many shops that celebrate the craftsmanship and creativity of Asian artisans, but Ann — who grew up in Los Angeles’ Koreatown — hasn’t seen many shops since that brought all of those rich cultural traditions together in one place to San Francisco last year.

“Even if I look at the stores in LA or here, there isn’t enough representation for Asian artisans or designers or creators,” Ann said. “I haven’t seen many integrated, mixed Asian representations in gift shops.”

An exhibition of accessories and books made by Asian artisans and creatives | Christina Campodonico/The Standard

So soon after quitting her job as a toy designer for a startup earlier this year, Ann founded Nikoniko, secured a lease and opened a shop in just five weeks. The store celebrated its grand opening earlier this month and plans to sell a range of gift sets in the run-up to Mother’s Day, which can be wrapped in beautiful silky Japanese- or Korean-style wrappers.

As a further tribute to Ann’s dual lineage, the shop offers a unique gift wrapping service that combines Japanese Furoshiki and Korean Bojagi gift wrapping techniques. Whether you’re buying something for your mom from the store or elsewhere, you can buy a box and reusable fabric from Nikoniko and the store will wrap the item for you. The fabric can be reused as a scarf, table centerpiece or wall art, adding to the gift’s sustainability and sentimentality, Ann said.

Nikoniko is a new small business on Cow Hollow’s Union Street. | Christina Campodonico/The Standard

She wanted to share these traditional gift-wrapping techniques so she could put a loving touch on the products she shares with her shop’s customers – just like her enterprising grandmother taught her.

“The way I speak to customers when they come in, the way I treat them, the hospitality, her attitude towards it all, I learned that from her,” Ann said of her grandmother. “So it’s a tribute to her.”

2181 Union Street, SF
@nikoniko_gifts

Christina Campodonico can be reached at [email protected]

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A recent Facebook post sparked rumors that Recycled Records, an iconic Reno music store that has been in business for decades, was closing.

That’s not happening, but the longtime record store will be moving to a new location in the coming months.

We visited the store at 822 S. Virginia St. to speak and learn more with co-owners Eric Jacobson and Kyle Howell.

What actually happens?

Jacobson confirmed to RGJ that Recycled Records is moving south, but declined to give details of the new location until the lease is signed. Recycled Records must vacate the Midtown location by June 1, when the lease ends.

They said they were within days of closing the deal.

Why is Recycled Records moving?

Jacobson said the current rent at 822 S. Virginia St nearly doubled after the building was purchased by an unknown company — unknown because Jacobson and Howell, who have owned the business since 2019, were not notified of the new building owner .

The RGJ was unable to determine who bought the building because the property records viewed by the RGJ did not contain details of the most recent transaction.

A Facebook Marketplace post by Aleks Vetushko, who, according to LinkedIn, is a co-owner of San Francisco-based real estate investment firm West Egg Real Estate, is listing the Recycled Records location for about $7,000 a month in rent. According to a real estate website, Vetushko appears to be the contact for Civil Capital LLC, but he could not be reached to clarify the new ownership.

Jacobson stressed that the decision to relocate was not just motivated by cost.

“We could afford that, but we don’t want that. said Jacobson. “If we hadn’t found a good spot, we would have paid.”

big picture

Recycled Records was among the first arrivals in the burgeoning hip neighborhood that would become Midtown. The company’s departure reflects how much real estate values ​​have changed. So where is Midtown going?

“I have four words for you: bars, tattoos, minimarts, and motels,” Jacobson said.

This story has been updated to clarify that Jacobson and Howell took over the store in 2019.

Follow @HaddadEvan for timely, relevant and compelling reports on food, drink and city life in Reno.

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A great record shop is like a time machine, a portal to another world. In the right hands, these spaces are capable of fostering a deep connection to the overlapping worlds of music and art, and nurturing a community around expression. In our ever more technological world, they stand as meaningful anachronisms made modern by new generations of listeners, reaching beyond the digitizing of music and performance and grounding us in the aural physicality of music.

Such is the scene at Dark Entries, a new shop and gallery in the Tenderloin. It’s the work of Josh Cheon, a longtime DJ and founder of the archival and reissue label Dark Entries Records. Housed inside a former tattoo parlor at 910 Larkin St., not far from where Cheon has lived and worked for a decade, in the historically queer Tenderloin neighborhood, the shop officially opens its doors to crate diggers Saturday, Dec. 10

“I always imagined this as being a place where someday we could host events,” said Cheon, who acquired the space in early 2021 when rents dropped amid pandemic uncertainty. “It’s a modular space, and I want to keep it in flux.”

Josh Cheon, a longtime San Francisco nightlife DJ and founder of the archival and reissue label Dark Entries Records, is opening a record shop in the Tenderloin. Photo: Carlo Velasquez / Dark Entries Records

This block of Larkin has become something of a “corridor of art,” Cheon said, anchored by the Magazine SF (home to the Bob Mizer Foundation) and the Moth Belly Gallery.

“Before the Castro was gay, this was the gay neighborhood — the first gay pride parade in America was on Polk Street, and the first gay riot was here as well,” Cheon said. “The Gangway, the oldest gay bar in SF, was right down the street. I knew I wanted to be here, in the tenderloin, to keep it queer… and to host artists and events in the space that reflect this history.”

To further the art gallery aesthetic, the record shop’s visual identity is anchored by two original collage works from Gwenaël Rattke, a Berlin visual artist represented by Romer Young Gallery of San Francisco.

Josh Cheon’s Dark Entries Records is located at 910 Larkin St. Photo: Carlo Velasquez / Dark Entries Records

The shop will offer titles from the Dark Entries catalog — more than 300 releases since 2009 — as well as favorites from Cheon’s expansive personal archives, collected over his decades of work as an archivist and DJ. But of particular focus at Dark Entries is the music of Patrick Cowley, a San Francisco electronic music composer and recording artist. Thanks to several posthumous releases, his body of work — and influence — has only grown in the 21st century, some 40 years after his death.

An early victim of the AIDS pandemic, Cowley became famous as a composer and performer in collaboration with Sylvester, the iconic San Francisco disco chanteuse. Cowley composed Sylvester’s 1982 hit “Do Ya Wanna Funk?” which rose to the no. 4 spot on the Billboard dance music chart, and toured the world as a member of Sylvester’s live band in 1979. Other notable Cowley tracks from the era include a remix of Donna Summer’s iconic Giorgio Moroder-penned single “I Feel Love” (dubbed the “definitive” remix by MixMag), as well as the original composition “Right on Target,” performed by San Francisco singer Paul Parker. It reached no. 1 on the Billboard dance chart shortly before Cowley’s death in the autumn of 1982.

Exploring the sonic world of the late EDM pioneer Patrick Cowley

Patrick Cowley, a San Francisco electronic music composer and recording artist, died November 1982. Now 40 years later, his music is a focus at Dark Entries, a new record shop in the Tenderloin. Photo: Dark Entries Records

In his lifetime, Cowley released just three solo LPs: “Megatron Man” and “Menergy,” both from 1981, plus “Mind Warp,” composed and released in 1982. And things might have ended there, if not for Cheon’s label.

In 2007, Cheon, then a member of local queer DJ collective Honey Soundsystem, was introduced to John Hedges, the former owner of Megatone Records, the San Francisco music label founded by Cowley and Marty Blecman in 1981. By the mid-1990s, the Independent label was sold to Unidisc Records, a Montreal company that owns the publishing rights to a diverse coterie of late 20th century performers.

But Hedges’ private collection included unreleased Cowley recordings on reel-to-reel tapes. Songs from those tapes emerged in 2009 as the album “Catholic,” issued by Berlin-based Macro. Cheon avidly spun Cowley’s music at underground parties across San Francisco, and his work with Honey Soundsystem put him in contact with people from Cowley’s inner circle, including family members, patrons and collaborators.

Patrick Cowley, a San Francisco electronic music composer and recording artist. Photo: Dark Entries Records

One was Maurice Tani, who met Cowley in the early 1970s at City College. “We just called him Pat,” recalled Tani, speaking from his home in Berkeley. Together the duo collaborated during late nights at the campus electronic music lab, and later in studios and early home recording setups across the city. Tani contributed bass and lead guitar work to dozens of Cowley recordings, and kept several boxes of reel-to-reel tapes of Cowley’s compositions following his death.

Another collaborator was John Coletti, who in the late 1970s helmed Fox Studios, a gay pornography studio in Los Angeles. Coletti worked with Cowley on the soundtracks to several films, offering a home for the composer’s original instrumental and atmospheric works, music little heard outside of the late 20th century gay film subculture.

Dark Entries Records is publishing Patrick Cowley’s personal journal, “Mechanical Fantasy Box: The Homoerotic Journal of Patrick Cowley.” Photo: Dark Entries Records

Over the last decade, Cheon has worked with Coletti, Tani, and others to restore, digitize, and release Cowley’s forgotten oeuvre to growing public interest. This work includes hosting nightlife events, promoting the music on social media, publishing Cowley’s intimate personal journal (“Mechanical Fantasy Box: The Homoerotic Journal of Patrick Cowley”), and making his work available to streaming services, all of it under the Dark Entries Records banner.

Along the way, Cowley’s life and work have been reappraised by the contemporary music and cultural press, with major features in Pitchfork, the New York Times, the Guardian, Art Review and on NPR. There are nine Cowley albums now available via Dark Entries, all prominently featured on the shelves at the new shop.

Dark Entries Records released Patrick Cowley’s “Malebox” last month. Photo: Dark Entries Records

The latest, “Malebox,” released last month, is a collection of demos — whose origin story reads like episodic television.

Tipped off to their existence by a follower on social media, Cheon went from haggling with distant descendants of a Megatone Records owner on Craigslist to poring over decaying boxes of tapes in a South Bay storage shed.

“The roof was collapsing, raccoons had made a nest inside, and every single box had some kind of excrement in it,” recalled Cheon. “It’s a miracle we were able to get any tracks from it.”

For Cowley fans, it’s roughly the equivalent of pulling a van Gogh painting from a garbage can.

The album’s centerpiece is “Low Down Dirty Rhythm,” recorded in the fall of 1979. The track wobbles and thumps with a palpable, unshakable sense of rhythmic sleaze; thrilling and sensual, it’s impossible to dislodge from one’s head, requiring repeat listenings. Accompanied by vocalist Jeanie Tracy (a backup singer in Sylvester’s live band), this track anchors Cowley not just as a burgeoning hitmaker cementing his powers, but as a pop compositional auteur nonpareil, evoking the better-known work of multiplatinum legends like Nile Rodgers, Giorgio Moroder and Prince.

Tape loops and layered hand production help provide an organic feel essential to these recordings, what Tani describes as “a frothy combination of synth-based beats with traditional percussion layered on top.” Cowley’s music is a reflection of a place and time, of overlapping San Francisco subcultures and gay liberation, but it also expresses the fascinating sonic milieu of pre-digital dance music in the 1970s and early ’80s.

Patrick Cowley, a San Francisco electronic music composer and recording artist, was 32 when he died in 1982. Photo: Dark Entries Records

Tani calls it “a melding of art and science — experimental music in every sense.” A time of four-track analog tape recorders and magnetic tape sequencing cut by razor blade and splicing block, of great hulking synthesizers like something out of Mission Control. They say each of us now walks around with more computing power in our pocket than it took to land a man on the moon; one can only imagine what Cowley might have done with a copy of Pro Tools.

Cowley was just 32 when he died, with multiple songs on the dance charts and a herculean body of work already on tape. Cheon is keenly aware of the reactions his reissues have engendered from Cowley’s contemporaries: his bandmates; his surviving family; the people who knew him throughout his too-brief life as a composer, friend, brother and son.

“It’s like a double-edged sword,” he said. “There’s excitement but also incredible sadness because he was stolen so early. I feel like I’m a custodian for lost and unreleased music.”

Indeed, Tani believes “this music would have been lost without him. Without Josh, Pat’s stuff would still just be in my attic. He’s the curator. His work has been so incredibly important.”

Josh Cheon, founder of Dark Entries Records, said he chose the Tenderloin for his record shop because, “Before the Castro was gay, this was the gay neighborhood. … I knew I wanted to be here, in the tenderloin, to keep it queer.” Photo: Carlo Velasquez / Dark Entries Records

A great record shop is like a time machine, but no glimpse at the past is truly meaningful without the context of the present. Dark Entries Records serves as a hub of connectivity to San Francisco in an earlier era, drawing a through line to the role of art and music in city life today. It is a reverent platform for the work of Cowley, who at last is being recognized as one of San Francisco’s great composers.

“For a gay man who suffered from AIDS, whose music sat in boxes for decades after his death, the depth and range of his sounds are incredible,” said Cheon.

Forty years later, inside a new record shop on Larkin, San Francisco, can continue listening.

Dark Entries Records Grand Opening Party: DJ sets by Carlos Souffront, Topazu and Jeremy Castillo. 6-9 pm Saturday, Dec. 10. 910 Larkin St., SF Updates on Instagram @darkentriesrecords. www.darktriesrecords.com

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