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Exploring San Francisco through the lens of city blocks, Blocker is a regular series by Charles Hodgkins. Look for it on SFist every other Wednesday, before the lunching hour.
View the map of all published Blocker episodes.
Blocker, No. 40: Monterey Blvd. in Sunnyside
Monterey Blvd. isn’t quite the time warp we’ve seen elsewhere around town—we’re thinking of Mission in the Excelsior; we’re also thinking of Amethyst in Diamond Heights. But just the same, it’s clear that few things have changed in recent years (decades?) on this Sunnyside thoroughfare between Edna and Foerster.
Something else is apparent as well: Several businesses here go out of their way to not let us forget what street we’re on. Monterey Cleaners operates its own plant. Monterey Auto Service is an official brake and lamp adjusting station. Immediate neighbors Monterey Pizza and Monterey Salon ought to join forces and offer some sort of meat lovers’ pedicure special. Monterey Blvd. proudly wears its status as Official Business District of Sunnyside like a big blue #1 ribbon at the county fair.
One element here seems fairly fresh, and that’s the scattered gangs of palms and native, low-growing grasses that dot the four-lane street’s center divider. On a grey and kind of blustery afternoon in early summer, a pair of songbirds hide among the treetops, raising an impressive racket. Elsewhere along the block, foliage is ever-present but largely unremarkable. One notable exception is the home at 567 Monterey, a stone/wood confection swathed in near-suffocating amounts of ivy that still appears looked-after. We even spot a contemporary twist, as the home’s upstairs living room is decorated with posters from relatively recent Fillmore shows: Elvis Costello, Sleater-Kinney, and so on.
Other homes look tired and/or nondescript from the outside, but we suppose there’s a chance their interiors are spotless, thanks to Five-Star Housekeeping at 521 Monterey. This so-called housekeeping agency includes, as you’d hope to expect from such a concern, a tidy shopfront window featuring a French maid, or at least a lovingly carved miniature figure of one. We’ll call her Brigitte. Brigitte carries a tray with a feather duster, a scrub-brush, and a few boxes of detergent and fabric softener, her long blonde hair tucked atop her head. Five stars for authenticity, indeed.
Across the road, an urgent public service message is slapped on the window of Fitness Karate for Kids: EVERY PARENT today should ensure that their child knows two things: how to swim & KARATE. Hmm. Someone’s got a bit of financial gain at stake here, no? Also, where do literacy and the ability to play with others fit into this brief list of musts? How about dance lessons (ostensibly available next door to the karate studio)? We’re just saying.
And although it doesn’t open for a few more hours, there’s Friends Bar at 558 Monterey, where judging by the evocatively dated sign that surely predates any cloying 1990s sitcom, the featured mixer is that X-factor of so many adult beverages, 7UP. From what we gather, it’s the quintessential neighborhood bar—certainly the zeitgeist-chasers who stumble their way around the Marina, Mission, and Tenderloin each weekend haven’t honed in on Friends yet, although the Glen Park BART station is closer than you think.
There is no zeitgeist to chase on Monterey Blvd. Somehow, we get the feeling Sunnysiders prefer it that way, and have for awhile.
(Photos by the author.)
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hah, i ride my bike up monterey all the time to get to the beach and "friends bar" has always stuck out. there's just something about it (or this neighborhood) that doesn't seem quite friendly.