The historical past of the San Francisco enclave that got here to be often known as Little Russia
Boris Fudym’s eyes light up with mischief as he sifts through a cooler in the back of his shop on 21st and Geary Boulevard. Retrieving a chilled red and yellow can from one of the shelves, he holds it up to me. I can’t read the language on the label, but it resembles a pint of beer. He raises his eyebrows, egging me on.
“If you try it, I’ll tell you what it is,” the proprietor of New World Market tells me. Noticing my apprehension — it’s just after noon on a Thursday, and I’m on the clock, after all — he adds, “It’s not alcoholic.”
Hunched over jars of pickled vegetables and preserves in the cramped aisle, he pours some of the fermented brown liquid into a plastic cup, and I take a sip. It’s sweeter than I expected — almost kombucha-like, with a hint of bitterness, a slight effervescence and a tangy aftertaste. It sort of reminds me of iced tea, but it’s actually kvass — a drink Fudym tells me is very popular in Russia and is one he always makes sure to keep in stock.
The secret ingredient? Rye bread.
“Imagine drinking this on a hot summer day,” says Fudym, downing his own cup and taking my blue shopping basket. “Come on, I’ll show you more.”
Boris Fudym, owner of New World Market and Hermitage Banquet Hall, stands in front of produce bins at his legacy business in an area of the Richmond that has come to be known as Little Russia.
Amanda Bartlett/SFGATE
He greets his customers by name, recommending a brand of caviar cream to one of them as we weave past rows of frozen pelmeni, bagged lentils and buckwheat. In another corner of the store, there’s freshly baked breads, homemade sausages, beet-filled vinaigrette, chocolate bars and a display of seven different varieties of sunflower seeds. The aroma of smoked herring wafts through the air as we approach the delicatessen counter, where Fudym points out some of New World Market’s most popular dishes. There’s crispy, pan-fried blinchiki — crepes filled with a savory-sweet twaróg cheese that the market prepares in-house, usually served with a side of sour cream and coffee in the morning, and melt-in-your-mouth syrniki pancakes. Juicy shashlik made with pork and lamb glistens from a plate, waiting to be skewered and served with seared vegetables.
He pauses in front of an olivier salad with potatoes, minced chicken, carrots, pickles and peas: “No New Year’s celebration would be complete without this,” he says. “Two days before the holiday, we’ll sell 300 or 400 pounds of it.”
Pastries filled with twaróg at Cinderella Bakery and Cafe in the Richmond District of San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Fudym leads me past the kitchen, where cooks are preparing trays of a beef roulade called zrazy, and down a narrow hallway to the adjacent Hermitage Banquet Hall, a popular event space boasting high, marbled ceilings and painted tapestries. Prior to the pandemic, weddings, birthdays and other special occasions were often celebrated here, with families arriving around 6 p.m. to eat, drink, talk and dance for hours, usually not leaving until after midnight. It’s clearly a source of pride for Fudym, who has carved out a modern social hub in this enclave of the Richmond District for the Russian-speaking community that has been around for decades.
“It’s like a little home,” he said of the marketplace and adjoining event space. “People know they can come to us if they’re looking for a certain ingredient that reminds them of home. Sometimes people just find information and disseminate it. In addition to a store, we serve as a starting point for a lot of people in the neighborhood. They don’t know what to do or where to go, and we try to accommodate them and give them jobs where we can. It’s like a smaller community, where we keep helping each other to succeed.”
The Holy Virgin Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church, is a focal point of what has come to be known as Little Russia in the Richmond District of San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Scores of Russian immigrants have been coming to San Francisco since as early as the 1860s, with about 6,000 to 10,000 people constituting the first large wave that arrived in the city between 1918 and 1940 following the Russian Civil War and Bolshevik Revolution, according to Nina Bogdan, a historian and co-author of “Russian San Francisco.” Many settled in the Fillmore because the neighborhood not only had an existing Russian Jewish community but was also not far from the city’s first — and at the time, the only — Russian Orthodox cathedral, the Holy Trinity Cathedral, which is still on Green Street to this day (The original church on Powell Street was destroyed in a fire after the 1906 earthquake, and the new location was established three years later.)
Many were impoverished by the time they came to San Francisco, arriving with “only the clothes on their backs and a single suitcase, if that,” Bogdan said. The Great Depression exacerbated these already challenging circumstances, but as time passed, the economic situation of many Russians did improve. They went to school and obtained degrees that allowed them to seek out higher-paying jobs, and by the late 1930s, many began to set out for the Richmond, where developers were constructing apartment buildings and single-family homes that they could now afford.
Bogdan said most people aren’t aware of the history of Russians in the Fillmore because when the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency declared the neighborhood as a “blighted area” in 1948, demolishing nearly 40 blocks of development, the resulting impact displaced thousands of people from their homes — including more than 10,000 Black residents — and led to the loss of several Russian, Mexican and Filipino businesses in what was once one of the city’s most integrated neighborhoods.
“There were many Russian-owned stores around O’Farrell and Webster, and they just don’t exist anymore,” she said. “All of that disappeared because people didn’t just leave or were forced out, but the redevelopment changed the physical appearance of that neighborhood. Most people think the Richmond has always been a huge Russian neighborhood, but that’s not exactly true. Much of it started in the Fillmore.”
Two customers leave Royal Market Bakery, a Russian-Armenian grocery store in the Richmond District of San Francisco, on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
One focal point of the Russian-speaking community remained, however: the Russian Center on Sutter Street. Built in 1911 and purchased by the community in 1939, the 550-seat ballroom and theater has historically worked to preserve their cultural heritage as they assimilated to life in the city, hosting plays, operas, folk dances, lectures and benefit events in addition to the three-day Russian Festival that is still held every February.
“It was kind of an anchor that pulled people in from both neighborhoods,” said Bogdan.
As the 1940s and 1950s progressed, more of the Russian-speaking community began to gravitate toward the Richmond, including Bogdan’s own parents, who arrived during what came to be known as the largest wave of Russian immigration to San Francisco following World War II. Her father was born in Ukraine when it was part of the Soviet Union, and at the age of 14, he was forced to work in a German labor camp after the country was invaded by Nazis.
Following the war, he lived in a displaced persons camp in Western Europe and eventually made his way to San Francisco, where his older brother was living, and established new roots on 2nd Avenue and Clement Street. Bogdan’s mother and great aunt arrived in the U.S. around the same time by way of Brazil after living in Harbin, a city in China built by Russians prior to the Bolshevik Revolution. Bogdan said her mother and father were introduced through the Russian community, and after exchanging letters, her mother came to San Francisco and they got married in 1959.
Outdoor seating is available at Red Tavern on Clement Street during open hours in the Richmond District of San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
By this time, businesses either owned by or serving Russian people were steadily increasing — among them delis, jewelers, insurance brokers, ballet studios and piano instructors. The Russian Renaissance Restaurant was opened in 1959 by Boris Vertloogin, who served as president of the Russian Center for many years, and the iconic Holy Virgin “Joy of All Who Sorrow” Cathedral that many associate with the Richmond today broke ground in 1961. Designed by architect Oleg Iwanitsky, the place of worship was built with five domes covered in 24-karat gold leaf, and more than 4,000 people gathered in front of it in 1964 for the blessing of the crosses that would be hoisted onto the cathedral, which now towers over Geary’s busy thoroughfare.
It wasn’t the only Russian Orthodox church in the Richmond, however — others began to pop up around the neighborhood and are still standing today, including the Russian Orthodox Parish of St. Tikhon of Zadonsk on 15th and Balboa, Christ the Saviour Church on 12th and Anza and the Russian Orthodox Church of Our Lady of Kazan on 19th and California.
The third wave of immigrants arrived in San Francisco in the 1970s, many of them Russian Jewish refugees who revived efforts to cultivate the neighborhood’s heritage. Globus Books, a Russian bookstore on Balboa Street, opened in 1971 and has been around for 50 years, catering to multiple generations of Russian people in the neighborhood.
Globus Book in the Richmond District of San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2021. The bookstore specializes in Russian books.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, the Russian-speaking community in the Richmond continued to expand, and articles in the San Francisco Chronicle and the Examiner noted the rise in the population at the time, referring to the area as “Little Russia.”
Alex Miretsky, owner of Europa Plus on 18th and Geary, came to San Francisco in 1988 by way of Austria and Italy, where he sought a U.S. refugee visa after he left St. Petersburg five months earlier. The grocery store, named after a popular Moscow radio station, specializes in discounted Russian imports, and he said people come from as far as Fremont and Sacramento to shop there, usually after visiting the cathedral.
“They drive great distances,” he said, “But we also have our regulars who have lived here for years, and many young Americans who are interested in trying the authentic stuff.”
Today, many maps label the strip of Geary Boulevard between 17th and 27th Avenue, where Miretsky’s grocery store is located, with the Little Russia name.
Two customers leave Europa Plus on Geary Boulevard in the Richmond District of San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
“Many businesses are concentrated in the area and were established here because there was already an existing community for many years,” Miretsky said. “[The Little Russia name] is mostly for those outside — for tourists to more easily understand and navigate different parts of the city. But it makes sense, because there’s not a place in San Francisco like this.”
Sandwiched among cotton-candy colored homes, boba shops, Irish pubs and pho restaurants, a number of Russian eateries are still around — Red Tavern on Clement Street, Gourmand Deli, Royal Market, and Moscow and Tbilisi, all of which are on Geary Boulevard. And just about every morning, you’ll find dozens of people lined up outside of a Russian bakery on Balboa Street with a cult following.
Cinderella Bakery and Cafe is a Russian bakery in the Richmond District of San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Open since 1953, Cinderella Bakery and Café is the oldest Russian bakery in the Bay Area, and perhaps the most well-known in San Francisco. Mouthwatering piroshki, baked and fried, as well as boiled vareniki dumplings and borscht soup — often served with a side of crusty rye bread — are all highlights of the menu.
“I didn’t know I would become a baker,” says current proprietor Mike Fishman, flour dusting his navy blue zip-up jacket. “Now we make about a thousand loaves of bread a week and we do everything by hand.”
The recipes, passed down from the original owners, Lydia Repin and Eugenia Belonogoff, are still used today, added Fishman, who started working for the bakery in 1988, when he was 16 years old and had recently moved to the Richmond from Moscow with his parents.
Cinderella Bakery and Cafe owner Mike Fishman holds two loaves of his bakery’s signature rye bread outside his Russian bakery in the Richmond District of San Francisco, on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
“Everyone said coming to this neighborhood meant it would be easier to acclimate, that people would show us around,” said Fishman, who lived at 19th and Clement at the time, adding that Repin and Belonogoff helped show his family around in addition to teaching them how to run the bakery. “When we came, all of Geary was packed with Russian stores and people, who had followed previous friends’ or relatives’ footsteps.”
Today, he believes the neighborhood has seen a shift. There are fewer Russian markets than there once were, and he said many of his former neighbors who were fellow immigrants were either priced out of the Richmond, moved out to nearby suburbs to start families, or journeyed to Silicon Valley to pursue jobs in tech.
Freshly baked loaves of Berlin, top, and rye bread, below, cool on racks at Cinderella Bakery and Cafe, a Russian bakery in the Richmond District of San Francisco,. on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
“It’s a different place than it used to be,” he said. “But we like maintaining this tradition here. People who used to live here when they were kids come back and bring their own kids. … Without places like this, we’d lose Russian heritage that’s been here for close to 100 years.”
Though Cinderella is still eyeing an expansion to a new space on 24th Street in the Mission, which used to be occupied by La Victoria Bakery, the original location isn’t going anywhere. It achieved legacy status in 2017, and two years later, so did New World Market, preserving some of the area’s rich Russian history.
“We’ll never try to pretend to be something else,” said Fudym. “We cook the food people grew up with, and that’s why they keep coming.”
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It’s Inner Richmond Month at SFGATE. We’ll be diving deep into the neighborhood for the entirety of August as part of a new series where we’ll be highlighting a different corner of San Francisco every month this year.
A woman looks at the produce outside New World Market in the Richmond District of San Francisco on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
Some baked and fried piroshkis at Cinderella Bakery and Cafe, a Russian bakery in the Richmond District of San Francisco, on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
A customer orders at the counter of Cinderella Bakery and Cafe, a Russian bakery in the Richmond District of San Francisco, on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE
A poppy seed roll is one of the many pastries available at Cinderella Bakery and Cafe, a Russian bakery in the Richmond District of San Francisco, on Aug. 11, 2021.
Douglas Zimmerman/SFGATE