This May, the family of Ruth Asawa is celebrating the artist’s 100th birthday with the opening of a new gallery at the Minnesota Street Project in SF’s Dogpatch, dedicated to Asawa’s work and the legacy of her arts education, with the inaugural show curated by Asawa’s daughters.

The gallery will open its doors May 9 at the Minnesota Street Project, marking what would have been Ruth Asawa's 100th birthday, as the Chronicle reports. The 1,714-square-foot space will serve as the first permanent venue for public access to her art, with rotating exhibitions spanning her wire sculptures, works on paper, and community-based projects, according to KQED.

The gallery's first exhibition, Ruth Asawa: Untitled, curated by her daughters, Aiko Cuneo and Addie Lanier, will also open May 9. The show will feature her looped- and tied-wire sculptures, along with cast pieces, paperfolds, watercolors, and works on paper and copper foil, with the title referencing Asawa’s practice of leaving her work unnamed, favoring process over labels.

“I hope the intimate exhibitions at our new Minnesota Street Project space give visitors a sense of who she was as an artist, mother and grandmother and arts advocate,” said Henry Weverka, Asawa’s grandson and president of Ruth Asawa Lanier Inc., speaking to the Chronicle.

In addition to showcasing Asawa’s work, the space will reportedly feature exhibitions of Asawa’s colleagues, including Imogen Cunningham, Ray Johnson, and Black Mountain College teachers Josef and Anni Albers. Plans also include an annual show highlighting students and faculty from the Ruth Asawa San Francisco School of the Arts, which she co-founded and was renamed in her honor in 2010.

The family pointed to the Minnesota Street Project’s broader arts campus as a natural fit, citing its focus on community and education. The Chronicle notes that the arts complex also houses the San Francisco Arts Education Project, a nonprofit that was spawned by the Alvarado School Arts Workshop, which Asawa co-founded in 1968. In addition to helping establish the city’s public arts high school, she also helped establish SCRAP, the city's longtime "Good Will" for art supplies, scrap materials, and fabric.

“Ruth's mission in life was to support the local arts community,” said Deborah Rappaport, co-founder of the Minnesota Street Project, per the Chronicle. “She didn't publicize her own work nearly as much as she did the importance of the arts in San Francisco.”

The Chronicle reports that Asawa’s recognition has surged nationally and internationally over the past decade. The US Postal Service issued stamps featuring her work in 2020, and she posthumously received the National Medal of the Arts in 2024. Her work has been the subject of major exhibitions abroad, including Ruth Asawa: Retrospective, which opened at SFMOMA in 2025 and is now on view at the Guggenheim Bilbao.

As her profile has grown internationally, her family emphasized the need to keep her work accessible in the Bay Area. Several of her public pieces remain fixtures in San Francisco, including Andrea’s Fountain at Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco Fountain near Union Square, and a permanent installation at the de Young Museum. Her work is also held in the collections of SFMOMA, the Oakland Museum, and Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center.

“When asked in 2002 why she never pursued a career in a major art market like New York, she replied, ‘It’s better for me to invest in San Francisco,’” said Weverka, per KQED.

Previously: Ruth Asawa's Arts Education Advocacy, 'San Francisco Fountain', Honored This Week

Image: RAL, Inc.

The new restaurant from the couple behind Michelin-starred Lord Stanley (RIP), Carrie and Rupert Blease, and their friend, chef Tommy Halvorson, is coming into focus, and the reservation books are now open.

Wolfsbane, which we first heard hints of in the spring as Lord Stanley was closing its doors, and which had a few more details trickle out in July, is going to be a second act in San Francisco for the Bleases after they created a refined and respected hit right out of the box with their first restaurant in Polk Gulch.

The new Dogpatch spot, in the former digs of Serpentine (2495 Third Street), has now set an opening date of October 15, and reservations are now available.

The name comes from a plant that, according to folklore, healers would give to werewolves so that they could maintain their humanity a bit longer on nights when they felt a change coming on. The team sees Wolfsbane as a kind of metaphor in ever-changing San Francisco, as they say in an announcement, "Not to cast spells, but [the restaurant] will offer the community something just as transformative: a meal that feeds the spirit as much as the body."

The Bleases are teaming on the project with Tommy Halvorson of The Fire Society, who formerly was the chef at Serpentine (the restaurant closed in mid-2020 after 13 years in business). And the space, in a historic industrial building, is being remodeled with the help of Seth Boor of Boor Architects.

"I love that the three of us are completely reimagining this space," says Halvorson. "I am looking forward to welcoming back old friends and having new ones discover Wolfsbane."

Halvorson adds, "I am excited that we are part of the re-emergence of genuine culinary experiences in San Francisco."

The culinary experience at Wolfsbane will center on a seasonally changing, nine-course tasting menu, anchored by a reportedly showstopping heritage chicken baked in a sourdough bread shell, with truffle and poultry jus. Rupert Blease earlier told the Chronicle that the dish took a lot of trial and error, based on historic recipes, to get just right.

"It’s a dish that has its place in history, but can be revisited in a more beautiful, modern kind of way," Blease said.

The menu will also feature a couple of Lord Stanley staples, including a George Orwell-inspired "pain au jus," a dish of fresh sourdough with red wine sauce for dipping, in a nod to Orwell writing about living in Paris and subsisting only on bread and wine. The Bleases said it was one of their favorite things to eat after service at Lord Stanley, so it has made its way here.

Also familiar to Lord Stanley diners will be a dish of onion petals in sherry vinegar, slightly reinterpreted.

Other dishes will include a scallop baked in its shell, with verjus braissage, celery root, and vanilla.

Blease promises the food will remain "delicious, surprising, and playful," and that Wolfsbane will be a "creative, warm and relaxing restaurant that showcases the best the region has to offer."

A brief a la carte menu of small dishes will be available to accompany cocktails at the bar as well. And the new beverage program will draw in part from Halvorson's Kentucky roots, with a well-curated selection of bourbons and whiskeys.

The team also says that the Turntable at Lord Stanley practice of inviting visiting chefs to create pop-up experiences at the space will continue at Wolfsbane as well.

Wolfsbane will be open Tuesday to Saturday, and it will be an intimate dining experience — with just 18 seats in the main dining room, and 20 in a private dining room. The tasting menu is $248 per person, exclusive of beverages, and according to OpenTable, after tax and service charges, that comes to $339 per person.

Wolfsbane - 2495 Third Street - Opening October 15 - reserve here

Last week: SF is searching for a new Drag Laureate, SoMa's getting the “Four Seasons of bathhouses,” and Rikki's, the Castro's first women's sports bar, is open. This week: Roller disco, drag bingo, Circus Bella, and more.

Week in Review:

Wrapping up the week of June 9–15.

Brown bags no more — open containers are now legal five days a week on Valencia Street. Clay Theater is getting revamped by a local billionaire. The “Four Seasons of bathhouses” is coming to SoMa. Rikki’s, the first women’s sports bar in the Castro—as well the first lesbian bar in decades—is now open for business.

The city is on the hunt for a new Drag Laureate. Facebook suspended and then reinstated author Rebecca Solnit’s Facebook account after she posted an essay about the LA protests. The musical, Co-Founders, which is set in the Bay Area, made its world premiere in SF on Thursday.

Alioto’s is set to be demolished, and the infamous Vaillancourt Fountain at Embarcadero Plaza has been deemed a public hazard. Hopefully the city will let those new renegade benches stay. Dogpatch’s Pier 70 is getting an interesting-looking “multisensory playground” for grown-ups next year.

There were lots of ICE protests this week, leading up to the massive “No Kings” demonstration Saturday. Waymo suspended service in parts of SF and LA during the protests. Two Daily Cal journalists were detained by police and a Chronicle reporter was allegedly shoved to the ground while filming.

MissionLocal is tracking every ICE arrest in San Francisco. The SF and Concord immigration courts abruptly closed Tuesday while cases were still pending. Two Palestinian men with valid visas who were scheduled to speak at various Bay Area interfaith events were denied entry to the US Wednesday.

California Senator Alex Padilla was grabbed, shoved, and forcibly removed Thursday from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s event in LA. Then he went on a media blitz.

Newsom slammed Trump on Tuesday, calling his deployment of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles "authoritarianism.” Meanwhile, Lurie drew criticism for not wanting to poke the bear, but he did threaten to make major arrests during the weekend’s “No Kings” protests.

Nonprofits rallied at City Hall Wednesday, opposing Lurie’s cuts to homeless programs. Lurie announced plans to crack down on RV dwellers.

Santa Clara County plans to use reserve funds to continue offering gender-affirming care to trans residents.

A person was struck by a BART train at North Berkeley station Monday morning, and there were major delays on Wednesday morning. There was a major medical emergency at Hayward Station on Thursday then a second one in or around North Berkeley Station on Friday.

The Week Ahead:

Looking ahead to the week of June 16–22.

Tuesday:

Tuesday Night Roller Disco is a weekly skate party led by D. Miles Jr., featuring themed nights, rotating DJs, and a high-energy atmosphere. Tuesday, June 17, 8p.m. // Church of 8 Wheels, 554 Fillmore St // 18+, $20

Wednesday:

Every first Wednesday at The Faight Collective, unwind with a curated evening of live jazz, funk, and neo-soul from Waters Trio and friends, paired with natural wines from Massanois Imports. A chill neighborhood hangout with good music, good pours, and great vibes. Wednesday, June 18, 7–10p.m. // The Faight Collective, 473A Haight St // $12.50–23

Thursday:

Drag Bingo is a high-energy night of bingo, comedy, and camp, hosted by fabulous drag queens bringing laughs, performances, and prizes with lots of playful audience engagement, free bingo cards, and nonstop entertainment. Thursday, June 19, 7–8:30p.m. // Drag Bingo San Francisco, 358 Ocean Ave // 21+, $30

Friday:

Circus Bella’s “Hoopla” brings a charming one-ring circus experience to Yerba Buena Gardens Festival with acrobats, aerialists, clowns, jugglers, and a live band, blending heart, humor, and classic circus artistry in a modern, open-air performance. The troupe will also be performing two shows at the Gardens on Saturday. Friday, June 20, Noon–1p.m. // Great Lawn, Yerba Buena Gardens, Mission St. between 3rd & 4th Sts // free, all ages

Saturday:

The BASH (Bay Area & Sacramento Short Film Festival) features 22 eclectic local shorts, filmmaker Q&As, audience voting, and challenge film competitions—including monologues and film-in-a-day projects—with trophies and exposure up for grabs. Attendees can also network, pitch projects, and walk the red carpet. Saturday, June 21, 11a.m.–5p.m. // Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture, 2 Marina Blvd, Bldg D // $17

The Global Drum Circle offers a meditative and energizing group drumming experience designed to foster connection, self-healing, and joy—no experience required and drums are provided. Led by longtime facilitator David DiLullo, the event emphasizes rhythm as a tool for unity, with participants joining together in spontaneous grooves that shift from soothing to powerful. Saturday June 21, 7:30p.m.–8:45p.m. // 2690 Ocean Ave // Unity Spiritual Center of San Francisco // 18+ $25

Sunday:

Litquake and Lit Camp present a Pride-month author panel spotlighting queer fiction that centers joy, romance, and adventure. Featuring Jonathan Parks-Ramage, Renee Swindle, Edward Underhill, and Shoshana von Blanckensee, with Dominic Lim moderating, the event includes book talk, mingling, and summery drinks—all to celebrate and support queer storytelling. Sunday, June 22, 3–5p.m. // Page Street Co-Working, 297 Page St // $12.50–25

Image: Yerba Buena Gardens Festival

Previously: Last Week, This Week: Queer Caribbean Sounds, KQED Talk, Native Arts Fest, Succulent Expo

The domes and pyramid seen in these renderings will light up with psychedelic displays when a “multisensory playground” for grown-ups comes to Dogpatch’s Pier 70 next year, hosting raves and Pink Floyd laser light shows and such.

We mentioned this past Friday that a Standard Deviant taproom was opening at Pier 70, which is certainly cause for cheer. But that’s a pretty minor development compared to the what was supposed to be getting developed at Pier 70, but is not: 2,000 units of housing, nearly two million square feet of office space, and a quarter million square feet of retail. That was all dreamed up in 2019, but then the pandemic hit, and developer Brookfield Properties has been forced to hit the pause button on the whole thing.

But on Tuesday, Brookfield Properties announced a pretty dazzling interim use for their Pier 70 parcel to bide the time until market conditions change in their favor.  

The video above depicts Elevation Skypark, a project from an “immersive entertainment experiences” company called Elevation XR. The 165,000 square-foot attraction will feature the three geodesic domes and a pyramid seen below, and promoters say their exteriors will light up with video displays, not unlike the Las Vegas Sphere.

The Chronicle’s report on Elevation Skypark says “the park will feature productions inspired by the Beatles, Pink Floyd, the Grateful Dead and Daft Punk, with top-notch cover bands playing live along with immersive visuals.” But that Youtube video we embedded also bills it as a destination for parties and (sigh) “brand activations.”

“Elevation Sky Park is more than just a new venue—we’re creating a space for people to come together, reconnect, and experience something truly unique,” Elevation XR founder and CEO Sean Ahearn said in a press release. “In an age where so much of life is spent online, we’re inviting the community to step away from the everyday, look up, and engage with immersive experiences that spark wonder, reflection, and connection. From live music and art to wellness events and educational journeys, our goal is to build a cultural hub that celebrates innovation, creativity, and the incredible local talent that makes San Francisco so special.”

Per the Chronicle, those four structures are currently being built in Europe and will be shipped to San Francisco. The combined structures would hold an estimated capacity of 2,500 people. According to their Tuesday press release, Elevation Skypark is “scheduled to open in early 2026,” and “the new venue is planned as an interim use for up to five years.”

Related: Watch: City Hall Was Lit Up By Laser Cannons Last Night for SF’s 175th Birthday [SFist]

Image: Barbee Planning Design and Stacey Messerschmidt

A stunning reversal after Steph Curry’s off-court business Thirty Ink made the splashy $8.5 million purchase of a new Dogpatch headquarters, as Curry’s people now say they’re backing out of the deal over some bizarre squabble over union carpenters.

SFist received two extraordinarily shocking emails between about 3:30 and 5:30 pm Thursday afternoon. Both had to do with Steph Curry’s swanky new forthcoming business headquarters that he was planning to build in Dogpatch for his off-court business company Thirty Ink, on a property that he bought for the steep price tag of $8.5 million in May 2024.

Both emails said the deal was being completely called off, in shocking, out-of-the-blue fashion.

“Our dream of building a new Thirty Ink HQ at 600 20th Street has been destroyed by the Carpenters Local Union and the project is being cancelled effective immediately,” Thirty Ink spokesperson Michael Smith said in a 3:44 pm Thursday email.

“While a project of this size typically requires zero union workers, we committed to having a 40% union workforce," the statement continued. "A Carpenters Local Union representative initially acknowledged that commitment was more than adequate under the circumstances. Unfortunately, our generous and completely unnecessary approach has been deemed unacceptable.”

Less than two hours later, SFist received a statement from the Nor Cal Carpenters Union. And oddly, it was sent by local PR mogul Sam Singer’s company Singer Associates.

“When Steph Curry walks on the basketball court he doesn’t give 40 percent effort, he gives 100 percent. The working men and women of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union expects that Mr. Curry’s nonprofit give that same 100 percent to local labor as well,” Nor Cal Carpenters Union executive secretary treasurer Jay Bradshaw said in that email from 5:37 pm Thursday.

“We look forward to the opportunity to work with Mr. Curry and Thirty Ink to ensure they retain contractors that respect Carpenter labor standards in San Francisco and throughout Northern California, and union labor is used in the construction of any of their projects that benefit workers and the entire community," he added.

So they’re calling off the whole project because of some dispute over what percentage of the carpenters would be unionized? And how big of a role do carpenters even play in a project that would also involve construction workers, brickmasonry, flooring and tile installers, and the like?

The Chronicle confirms this very odd turn of events, noting that Thirty Ink already has a current office in SoMa, serving as the headquarters for Curry’s various business and nonprofit pursuits. And mind you, Team Curry was not pinching pennies when they paid $8.5 million for what is currently not that impressive of a building, and still has the “Jim’s Smoke Shop & Deli” sign on it.

This may all still just be a negotiation where the two slides got nasty with one another in the newspapers, but will eventually iron out some agreeable union labor percentage. Or it may be some genuine union-busting, at a time when developers are looking to offset the inflated costs of materials.  

But these are not great optics for Steph Curry, whose off-court brand is built on goodwill and generosity.

And speaking of money, good luck selling that building in this market for anywhere near the $8.5 million that Curry’s people paid for it.

Related: New Plans Announced for Steph Curry’s Splashy New Offices In Dogpatch [SFist]

Image: NEW YORK, NEW YORK - SEPTEMBER 07: Stephen Curry and Ayesha Curry are seen at the Women's Final Sabalenka vs. Pegula on Day Thirteen of the 2024 US Open at USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center on September 07, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Gotham/GC Images)

Warriors all-star Steph Curry is getting ready to say night-night to his playing career, and the new company he’s started just released their plans for a giant, fancy headquarters on 20th Street out at Pier 70.  

We mentioned last May that your Golden State Warriors point guard Steph Curry had spent $8.5 million on a Dogpatch property that would be the headquarters of his off-court business and philanthropy pursuits. The company already exists, it’s called Thirty Ink (a reference to Curry’ number-30 jersey). But today, the Chronicle has the news that Thirty Ink has announced more plans for what the building will look like, and what will be housed inside.

The property in question is 600 20th Street. Its most recent Google Street view shot shows it as rather unglamorous, complete with faded “Pepsi/Jim’s Smoke Shop & Deli” sign. But Curry’s company plans to tear that building down, and replace it with the new five-story, 25,000-square-foot complex seen below.

These renderings come from Oakland-based architect Workshop1. These are just renderings, the project has not yet secured the building permits necessary to do all of this. Though as seen below, the project has won approvals to tear the current building down, and some concrete foundation work is still under review. But Steph Curry has money and his company is already well-established, so the building is a solid bet to be completed.

“We want to create a space that the public feels like is theirs as well,” Thirty Ink chief operating officer Tiffany Williams told the Chronicle. “There will be several floors that will be run-of-the-mill office space but we want to create space on that ground level that is inviting to the community, where they can come in and feel that Thirty experience.”

The “Thirty experience” I guess refers to Thirty Ink and its affiliated brands and projects, as Thirty Ink serves as an umbrella company for all things off-court for Steph Curry. These include charitable pursuits and show-business ventures, as well as his businesses. Thirty Ink now has 60 employees, per the Chronicle, and their current headquarters is in SoMa on Howard Street.  

There is no timeline on when construction would begin. Though as an interesting aside, this new Thirty Ink headquarters would be just two doors down from the new SF headquarters of the often controversial VC firm Y Combinator.

Related: Steph Curry Just Bought a Building in Dogpatch That Will Serve as His Business Headquarters [SFist]

Image: Workshop1

Warriors all-star Steph Curry is single-handedly trying to reverse SF’s commercial real estate doom loop, paying six times the 2021 sale price for a building at 20th and Illinois streets that will be his business headquarters.

The unfortunate trend in San Francisco office and commercial real estate right now is that buildings are selling for a fraction of their former sale prices in a highly troubled market. Though there are some occasional instances where deep-pocketed buyers are splurging. The latest of these deep-pocketed splurge deals is making quite a splash, as the Chronicle reports that Warriors point guard Steph Curry just bought a building in Dogpatch that will be his business headquarters.

And he really tossed his mouthguard to the wind on this one, as the Chron reports Curry paid $8.5 million for the building, which they say is “nearly six times higher than what it sold for in 2021.”

Here is the building in question, it’s 600 20th Street (at Illinois Street), and according to its Loopnet listing, it still has that “Pepsi/Jim’s Smoke Shop & Deli” sign on it. That is not likely to stay there, because as seen below, there’s a permit on file at the SF Planning Department to demolish the building. Back in March, SF YIMBY posted renderings of the proposed new building, though it's unclear if those plans are still in effect now that Steph Curry owns the place.

The extra-high sale price is clearly becuse of those entitlements in the works, and the sale likely comes with the plans for the new building — which could eventually make this investment worthwhile.

Regardless, the place is intended to serve as the business headquarters for Curry’s company Thirty Ink, a reference to Curry’ number-30 jersey, which is sort of the umbrella company for all things off-court for Steph Curry. A Thirty Ink rep told the Chronicle that the company focuses on “athlete management, brand, fitness, lifestyle, impact, media, philanthropy, and technology.” The website has numerous references to Steph and Ayesha Curry’s very generous Eat. Learn. Play. Foundation philanthropy, and the website’s Brands section catalogs Curry’s many promotional deals (though there is no mention of his promotions for a failed crypto company).

The news is the latest boost for the ascendant Dogpatch neighborhood. That $2 billion redevelopment of the former Potrero Power Plant near Pier 70 is still humming along, and the venture capital firm Y Combinator just moved to its headquarters a couple doors down from the building Curry just bought. (Yes, that Y Combinator.)

Meanwhile, in much sillier Steph Curry news, much of Twitter/X is having a good laugh over Magic Johnson’s Thursday tweet that hilariously ends with “By the way @StephenCurry30, I had fun hanging out with your mom last night.”

Related: WATCH: Steph and Ayesha Curry Appear On ‘Sesame Street,’ Muppet High Jinks Ensue [SFist]

Image: STANFORD, CALIFORNIA - AUGUST 28: Stephen Curry attends The Workday Charity Classic, hosted by Stephen and Ayesha Curry's Eat. Learn. Play. and Workday at Stanford Golf Course on August 28, 2023 in Stanford, California. (Photo by Noah Graham/Getty Images for Eat. Learn. Play. )

The craft beer shakeout continues as eight-year-old Dogpatch brewery Harmonic Brewing is closing its doors this fall due to a lease issue.

The local craft beer industry, which a decade ago was booming all over California, has been in a state of contraction for several years, and that's been exacerbated by the pandemic. Fast on the heels of the tragic news about the closing of historic Anchor Brewing, we're learning that another SF brewery is closing its doors: Harmonic Brewing.

Maybe it's a last-ditch negotiation tactic, but Harmonic announced on Instagram Wednesday that it is closing its doors when its lease runs out on October 31 because "we could not come to a mutual agreement with our new building landlords to continue operating here past then." And that will mean the end, at least temporarily, of Harmonic Brewing's beer — while they'll be keeping their taproom and restaurant at the Chase Center (Thrive City) open, it will be serving other brewers' beer until they can line up a partner brewery to brew their own recipes again.

"We’ve been ingrained in the fabric of Dogpatch for a long time," says Harmonic Brewmaster Eddie Gobbo, speaking to the Chronicle. "For us to lose our mothership in Dogpatch is a hit to the community as much as it is for us."

Harmonic Brewing opened at 1050 26th Street in 2015, and the Thrive City taproom followed in 2021.

Gobbo tells the Chronicle that there are other factors at play in the decision to close, besides the lease. He also points to the lingering impacts of the pandemic, as well as some recent break-ins, and the rising costs of beer-making materials.

It's been a rough few years for craft beer on the West Coast, where an oversaturated market has led to bankruptcies, mergers, and a number of prominent closures. In addition to the closure of Anchor Brewing, San Francisco alone has seen three other significant brewery/brewpub closures in the last eighteen months. Magnolia Brewing, which sold a significant stake to New Belgium Brewing several years ago, shut down its Dogpatch brewpub and brewing facility in February 2022. Copenhagen-based Mikkeller closed its brewpub on Mason Street last October; and Seven Stills Brewery and Distillery announced it was shutting down operations completely last October as well, after growing out of a backyard brewing operation a decade ago in SF.

Additionally, big brands have been consolidating, like Bear Republic, the maker of Racer 5, which was acquired by San Leandro's Drake's Brewing earlier this year.

An annual report from the national Brewers Association found that craft beer production was flat 2022, and the number of brewery closures was up by 3%. Still, craft beer is doing better than the overall, conventional beer market, which continues to see declines as younger drinkers increasingly opt for wine, cocktails, and lower-calorie options like hard seltzers.

Barring any new developments, Harmonic Brewing's last day for their "mothership" will be October 31.

Related: No More Anchor Steam Beer: 127-Year-Old Brewery Shutters In San Francisco

Photo: Instagram

Dogpatch will be getting its cornflake crunch on, as the popular ice cream shop with unconventional flavors Humphry Slocombe will open another SF store at 22nd Street at Third Street.

This December will mark the 15th anniversary of the opening of the first Humphry Slocombe ice cream shop in the Mission District. There are now nine Humphry Slocombe stores in the Bay Area and beyond, and apparently there’s going  to be a tenth, as the San Francisco Business Times reports Humphry Slocombe is opening a new Dogpatch storefront at 699 22nd Street (at Third Street).

That location has been an ice cream shop for more than a decade, just not a Humphry Slocombe. The location was formerly Mr. and Mrs. Miscellaneous, which opened in 2010, though changed owners and its name to Sunday Social in 2021.  

It’s unclear whether Sunday Social is still open. Their Instagram account says “CLOSED until March 2023,” and a Yelp comment says “It was closed when I walked by on Saturday, 3/25/23.”

The Business Times reports of Sunday Social that “The ice cream shop did not respond to requests for comment on Monday.”

Humphry Slocombe is known for its often unconventional flavors, like Secret Breakfast — which is bourbon cream with corn flakes. And they seemed to enjoy the controversy regarding their foie gras ice cream sandwich, back in the days of the California foie gras ban.

While founded in San Francisco, there are now more Humphry Slocombe outside the city than there are here. SF has two Humphry Slocombe storefronts (the original Mission location and the Ferry Building), though the chain now has scoop shops in Oakland, Berkeley, Emeryville, Redwood City, Campbell, and San Mateo.

Related: Video: Humphry Slocombe Tell Their Story

Image: Mauling W. via Yelp

The Greek wrap, salad, and froyo sensation Souvla is expanding its cult-hit San Francisco footprint, with a new Dogpatch location opening next week featuring new small plates and an expanded Greek wine list in addition to the Souvla menu you’ve come to know and love.

In the eight years since opening its first Hayes Valley location, Greek food favorite Souvla has become a sort of poorer-person's version of Kokkari Estiatorio, with a more fast-casual menu and fewer Kardashians. Souvla’s wraps and salads have since expanded to outposts on Divisadero, Valencia Street, and the Marina, winning the love of Gwyneth Paltrow’s Goop, and even a high-flying expansion onto the Delta Airlines menu.

And it was barely a month after the closure of Magnolia Brewery’s Dogpatch location that we learned the Souvla would take over that space for their fourth SF location, and fifth overall in the Bay Area. And now Eater SF reports the new Dogpatch Souvla will open next week, on Tuesday, August 16, at 2505 Third Street (at 22nd Street).

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Souvla (@souvla)

That Eater SF piece has plenty of sweet shots of the new interior and the expanded menu items. Many of these can also be seen in the fun musical video above. This new Dopatch location will offer the same beloved Souvla menu, but also an additional new Greek meze (small plates) menu, that Eater SF reports “offers 10 items including chilled octopus salad; dakos, a traditional salad from Crete; pan-seared saganaki; and dolmades.”

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A post shared by Souvla (@souvla)

Per Eater SF and Souvla founder and CEO Charles Bililies, Souvla Dogpatch is now “the first restaurant in the U.S. to serve an all-Greek beverage list,” right down to the sodas and sparkling waters. But the wines are obviously the headliner of that beverage list, which is expanded, and includes their house-branded Greek red, wine, and rosé.  

And we're putting a screenshot above from that Instagram video of what we believe will be their culinary cause célèbre; a whole rotisserie chicken ($33) that has existed as an off-menu, secret to-go item at the other locations, but will be a full-fledged sit-down item at Souvla Dogpatch.

Related: Souvla Is Taking Over Magnolia Brewery Space In Dogpatch, Will Open Largest Restaurant Yet In June [SFist]

Image: Souvla

San Francisco's newest art museum, the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco (ICASF), is readying for an October opening, and this week the non-collecting museum announces its latest philanthropic bequest.

First announced last fall, the ICASF has garnered interest from SF's tech and venture-capitalist worlds, which have historically stood apart from San Francisco's art and culture scene and the city's established donor bases for the arts. Underwritten with $1 million in seed funding from Andy and Deborah Rappaport, the couple behind the five-year-old Minnesota Street Project, the ICASF is taking shape inside another building in Dogpatch, a former kids' gymnasium at 901 Minnesota Street.

Also among the early donors were Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn Trigger, who offered to fund the salary of museum director Ali Gass for the first three years. Gass previously served as director of the unaffiliated Institute of Contemporary Art San Jose.

The Chronicle reports that a new, unrestricted $1 million gift has just come in from venture capitalist David Hornik and philanthropist Pamela Hornik, who previously underwrote exhibitions at the ICA San Jose.

"It’s not that often that the opportunity comes along to be involved at the inception, the very start of a museum," said Pamela Hornik in a statement to the Chronicle. "That opportunity, and my connection to Ali going back to our time together when she was curator there, was irresistible."

The Horniks are collectors themselves, and others in the local art world tell the Chronicle that the couple has been deeply involved with the art institutions and artists — Pamela Hornik also serves on director’s advisory board at the Cantor Arts Center at Stanford, and as a trustee of the Berkeley Art Museum. Berkeley artist Lava Thomas tells the paper that the couple "have been incredibly supportive, not only to my own career, but to many artists, especially from marginalized communities and artists of color."

The opening shows this fall at the ICASF will be exhibitions of work by Jeffrey Gibson, Liz Hernandez, and Ryan Whelan, and a group show titled "Resting Our Eyes," curated by Tahirah Rasheed and Autumn Breon.

Like other unaffiliated ICAs around the country, including the one in San Jose that Gass previously worked for, ICA SF is taking a pragmatic approach to its mission — and being a non-collecting institution is part of that.

"Collections cost an enormous amount to display and preserve,” Gass told the Chronicle last year. "One of the tenets of ICA SF is to address issues of pay equity for artists and staff. Instead of an arms race of collecting, we are committed to paying artists and museum workers an above-average salary for our region."

The buildout is nearing completion, and Gass says that the unrestricted gift comes just in time, as unexpected expenses keep arising.

The Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco opens October 1 to the general public. Follow them on Instagram for more updates.

ICASF - 901 Minnesota Street  - Opening October 1

Photo via Instagram

Hoping to transform “an industrial wasteland” into the “next hot neighborhood of San Francisco,” there’s been a $2 billion redevelopment project underway for four years at the former Potrero Power Plant by Pier 70, with housing, hotels, hotels and office space.

Let us begin with the current, fugly conditions at the Potrero Power Plant, formerly one of PG&E’s dirtiest, most outdated, pollution-spewing monstrosities in the state of California.  It was San Francisco’s last remaining fossil-fuel power plant until its closure in 2012, and has not been open to the public since.

As SFist previously reported in early 2020, the 29-acre site was set to be transformed into 2,600 residential units and 1.8 million square feet of new commercial space, though some of the plans have changed.

We have renderings of what it is slated to become, courtesy of architects Perkins & Will. The stack will stay as a centerpiece, and there are also plans for a boutique hotel, green space, and more. Per the designers, “The 300-foot-tall stack will remain as an icon on the waterfront and a reminder of the new neighborhood’s rich history. In a complete turnaround, the site will be transformed from a polluting power plant to a sustainable, resilient neighborhood that embraces wellness.”

“Wellness” aside, this does look like a cool and ambitious revitalization. “The perception of what’s out there has really changed from an industrial wasteland where no one wants to be to the next hot neighborhood of San Francisco,” Build SF founder Lou Vazquez says in a statement.

The Chronicle reported last year that developer Associate Capital was doubling the scope of many aspects to the project, another sign of developers betting big on a post-pandemic tourism and economic rebound. Per the Chron, “Instead of 315 housing units, the initial phase will have 735, including a free-standing affordable building with about 100 homes. Instead of $100 million in “horizontal” work — the utilities, streets, sidewalks and parks that provide the bones of a new neighborhood — [Associate Capital] is doing $300 million. Instead of three commercial buildings, it will have four. A 2.5-acre park will also now be part of the first phase as will the restoration of the historic brick Station A.”

And today, the San Francisco Business Times reports that infrastructure work is about to begin to bring power, water, plumbing and telecommunication into the coming “brand new, all-electric neighborhood.”

The units and storefront space numbers are still up in the air, and that’s sort of by design. Associate Capital principal Enrique Landa tells the Business Times that the development plans are "flexible enough where we'll be able to meet the market, whatever that market is — whether it's life science, or office, residential, for rent, or for sale."

The revitalization of this area around Pier 70 and Dogpatch is already underway. That RH (formerly Restoration Hardware) furniture showroom opening had everyone’s smokestacks standing at full attention, the recently announced and glamorous sounding Portola Music Festival could become an annual fixture, and an adjacent mega-development at Pier 70 is also in the works (though experiencing hiccups). Actual construction is unlikely to start for at least a year, but the Potrero Power Plant is definitely powering forward.

Related: Massive New Furniture Showroom and Restaurant From RH (Restoration Hardware) Opens In Dogpatch [SFist]

Images: Perkins Will

After a majorly ambitious, six-year renovation project, the company formerly known as Restoration Hardware is ready to unveil perhaps its grandest showroom-restaurant combo to date in San Francisco's Dogpatch neighborhood, at Pier 70.

RH, as the company is now known, has in recent years debuted a pair of these lifestyle showcase concepts with attached restaurants in the Bay Area — basically high-end design and furniture showrooms with attached hospitality venues, like a very fancy IKEA. The first opened in a historic building in Yountville in 2018, and the second, much larger RH Marin debuted in Corte Madera in July 2020, with 60,000 square feet of indoor and outdoor space, including a rooftop restaurant.

The San Francisco version, with its Palm Court restaurant, officially opens today (May 12), in the historic Bethlehem Steel Building at the corner of Illinois and 20th streets, near Pier 70. The project to transform the crumbling, graffiti-covered 1917 building — which had once held offices of steel company executives, draftsmen, and naval architects near the company's factory on the pier — began in 2016, after RH had already had its eye on the Palace of Fine Arts for a new location. As the Chronicle reports, that fell through because of the extensive retrofit work that would have been required, and CEO Gary Friedman says the team landed on the massive classical revival building near the Bay because they are "obsessed with great architecture."

While it seems like much of the interior grandeur of the old steel offices had to be replaced or recreated, photos show a historic-looking foyer and the soaring new atrium restaurant that are befitting a luxury brand looking to stand out.

Like the spaces in Corte Madera and Yountville, furniture, textiles, and other design elements for sale are laid out in staged "galleries" — or "artistic installations of luxury home furnishings in a gallery setting" — including a 10,000-square-foot space on the building's third floor.

As Friedman explains to the Chronicle, "Sometime our customers are in the galleries for days at a time so why not be hospitable? We blur the lines between residential and retail, to create spaces that are more home than store."

But Friedman is just as concerned with the quality of the food as he is with the look and feel of the place — the Chronicle describes how he was very exacting in taste-testing some French toast which appears to not have made it onto the lunch/brunch menu (there's a Belgian waffle on there instead).

"The Palm Court restaurant, a live-fire concept featuring a curated menu of enduring classics, recalls the distinctive glamour of San Francisco’s Gilded Age," the RH website says. "The stunning statement space is sheathed in Italian Calacatta gold marble with a cascading center fountain, towering Medjool date palms and glimmering chandeliers. Adjacent to the restaurant, two luminous wine bars offer exceptional wines and Champagnes from around the world."

The dinner menu is below, and just know that the lunch menu is only different because it has three brunch items and no caviar. Bellinis and Mimosas are $16, and glasses of wine start at $15.

Also, there is a lovely roof deck (they're calling it a "rooftop park") overlooking downtown, with fire pits, and presumably wine service. [Correction! There is no wine service on the roof.]

After holding an opening party back in March, things are only just ready for the public now.

The showrooms, restaurant, and wine bars are now open seven days per week, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Link: RH San Francisco

Souvla, the popular Mediterranean-inspired salad and wrap operation, is opening a fifth SF location in Dogpatch — with a sixth in Marin not far behind — and it will be their largest restaurant to date.

What began pretty modestly as a fast-casual salad and Greek-style wrap place in Hayes Valley in the spring of 2014 has grown into a mini-empire of local restaurants for restaurateur Charles Bililies. He soon followed the Hayes Valley Souvla location's success with locations on Divisadero, on Valencia Street in the Mission, and in the Marina. And when the pandemic hit and everyone realized they couldn't eat mac and cheese and pizza every day for the rest of their lives, Souvla continued doing a brisk delivery and takeout business the last couple of years.

Now, as the Chronicle first reported this week, we learn that it's Souvla that will be taking over the big space at 2505 Third Street that was home for the last eight years to the Magnolia Dogpatch brewpub, which just closed for good last month.

The location will afford the business a grand, new, vaulted-ceilinged space with 60 seats indoors and a marble bar, and it's giving Bililies the chance to expand the menu for the first time since the business got off the ground — adding some wine-bar-style bites to enjoy with Greek wines at the bar, and to complement the established selection of salads and wraps with three protein choices (or sweet potato), fries, rotisserie-fat-soaked roasted potatoes, and avgolemono soup.

And not long after the Dogpatch location is slated to open in June, a sixth Souvla will be debuting later in the summer at the Marin County Mart in Larkspur.

The wine list has never seemed like a particular draw at Souvla's existing locations, but Bililies is excited to make wine more of a focus at the Dogpatch outpost.

"There’s always been this ancillary goal behind Souvla to really evangelize Greek wines," Bililies tells the Chronicle. The extant restaurants have served one varietal each, from Greece, in the white, red, rose, sparkling, and retsina categories until now, though the Chronicle notes that Bililies has been offering one $75 bottle of Greek red, Megas Oenos, by the bottle only — saying it's "literally the wine that put Greek wine on the international wine map some 20 years ago."

But the new location will offer the opportunity to highlight more retsinas, volcanic-soil reds, and crisp Assyrtikos as well.

Bililies says he had no plans for a bigger restaurant with a bigger menu, but he'd had his eye on Dogpatch and this space "fell in his lap."

We don't have all the menu additions in the bar bites arena, but the hints so far include spinach hand-pies, and plant-based "lamb" meatballs.

Stay tuned...

San Francisco is getting an Institute of Contemporary Art — a new contemporary art museum without a permanent collection — in the already artsy Dogpatch neighborhood, and it's being partially bankrolled by the same folks behind the Minnesota Street Project.

The Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) San Francisco is coming to 901 Minnesota Street, an 11,000-square-foot industrial warehouse space that was formerly a kids' gymnasium. As the New York Times reports, its director will be Ali Gass, who formerly directed the ICA San Jose, and has held curator positions at SFMOMA and Stanford’s Cantor Arts Center.

The new museum has raised $2.5 million so far, which includes $1 million in seed funding from Andy and Deborah Rappaport, the couple behind the five-year-old Minnesota Street Project down the street.

Other ICAs already exist in Miami, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and elsewhere, though they are unaffiliated museums.

"There is a truism in the venture capital world that the best companies get started at the worst times,” says Andy Rappaport, who is also a partner at August Capital, in a quote to the Chronicle. “We were attuned coming out of COVID to saying, how can we take advantage of the fact that there is a fertile environment now for that kind of creative thinking, and frankly a lot of energy for positivity and moving forward."

Also among the ICA San Francisco's first funders is Instagram co-founder Mike Krieger and his wife Kaitlyn Trigger, who have agreed to fund the director's salary for the first three years.

Krieger tells the Chronicle, "We love getting in on the ground floor in the investing world,” said Mike Krieger. “(ICA San Francisco) is just getting started, getting ready to build out their space, creating their first programming."

Gass tells the Times that she was attracted to the idea of a non-collecting museum when she took the job at ICA San Jose.

"Collections cost an enormous amount to display and preserve,” she says. “One of the tenets of ICA SF is to address issues of pay equity for artists and staff. Instead of an arms race of collecting, we are committed to paying artists and museum workers an above-average salary for our region."

As for what the new museum will show, Gass says it will be 50-50 split between up-and-coming Bay Area artists and established artists.

"Starting an institution from scratch allows us to think deeply about contemporary art as a navigation tool for local and global issues," Gass tells the Times.

And as she told the Chronicle, "I think more than ever, museums are going to be less kind of formal discussions about our historical sort of artistic progression and much more, ‘Let’s learn with and through contemporary art practice how we can be better global citizens.’"

Construction is underway and the plan is to open ICA San Francisco next summer. The space will be open, however, while under construction, in January, to coincide with the FOG Design+Art Fair.

Photo: Google Street View