What's Happening in San Francisco's Uptown Tenderloin

Vintage Ads Get New Life in Tenderloin

Joe Rosato Jr.‚ NBCBayArea, Aug. 24‚ 2011

If you look beyond the grittiness of San Francisco’s Tenderloin, you’ll find ample evidence of its glory days.

Its streets are lined with apartment buildings and hotels dating back as far as 1907. It seems the neighborhood’s rough reputation scared off progress and developers, leaving an architectural gem in an urban time capsule.

Tucked into many of the neighborhood’s alleys, are crumbling brick walls bearing an assortment of vintage advertising murals. They peddle everything from 7-UP, to the services of a watchmaker, to a long-extinct beer. A $41,000 city grant is helping bring those old advertisements back to life. For the last few months, artists with Precita Eyes Muralists have been delicately restoring the murals to their past glory.

PianoFight Plans Theaters, Restaurant, Bar in former Original Joe’s in Tenderloin

Randy Shaw‚ BeyondChron, Aug. 09‚ 2011

While Original Joe’s is moving to North Beach from its historic Taylor Street location, it will soon be replaced by a dynamic combination of a theater, restaurant and bar run by the leaders of PianoFight. PianoFight LLC is a SF-based production and venue management company founded by Rob Ready and Dan Williams in the summer of 2007.

Activists Urge a Vegan Makeover

Jesse McKinley‚ NYTimes, Mar. 30‚ 2011

It may never make it on the political menu, but the animal rights group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is urging city leaders in San Francisco to change the name of its legendarily gritty Tenderloin to something with decidedly less gristle.

In a letter to Mayor Edwin M. Lee sent Tuesday, Tracy Reiman, the group’s executive vice president, suggested that city officials rename the neighborhood the Tempeh District, a homage to a soy-based meat substitute.

Landmark Measure Would Revitalize SF’s Mid-Market and Uptown Tenderloin

Randy Shaw‚ BeyondChron, Feb. 8‚ 2011

District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, Board President David Chiu, and Mayor Ed Lee are working on legislation that would be the most important economic revitalization measure ever proposed for Mid-Market and the Uptown Tenderloin. The measure provides a payroll tax exemption for net new hires in both geographic areas, which means that all taxes on current payrolls stay in effect and there is no loss to the city’s General Fund...

New Uptown Tenderloin Historic District Geary O'Farrell Corridor Walking Map

Restaurant Review

Lahore-Karahi
612 O'Farrell St.
By Cari Tuna,
Wall Street Journal

A diamond in San Francisco's gritty Tenderloin neighborhood, Lahore Karahi draws a loyal following of nearby workers with its Pakistani-Indian fare, nearly every bite of which is cooked by owner Zulfiqar Haider. "I cook everything, my appetizers, my curries, my desserts," says Mr. Haider, who hails from the Punjab region of Pakistan and opened Lahore Karahi in 2004. "Home cooking, that's my passion." Among Mr. Haider's fans is Scott York, a senior business-systems analyst for the Judicial Council of California, who works a few blocks from the restaurant. Mr. York, who visits Lahore Karahi two to three times a week, says the eatery stands out among the many ethnic restaurants in the Tenderloin.

Theater Review

Hobe Grunt Cycle
Exit Theater
156 Eddy Street
By Nirmala Nataraj, SF Gate

New York theater artist Kevin Augustine's interest in puppets began when he was a child. After his grandmother made him some puppets, it struck Augustine that "you can create your own toys, and once you have them, you can create the world that they live in." Augustine creates whole worlds with Lone Wolf Tribe, his multidisciplinary puppet theater company that combines performance art with an inimitably dark sensibility. A keenly poetic attention to suffering, trauma and the historical onus of war has informed Augustine's new work, "Hobo Grunt Cycle."