“Sunset Buzz” is a recurring column on changes, tidbits and other news from the Sunset. Got news? Send us tips at junyao@missionlocal.com.
Mother-daughter duo, Nayely Colin and Sylvia Velazquez, took over El Antigua Cafe, a business on Taraval Street that has been around since 2013.
“We’ve always wanted to do a coffee shop or a deli. It was our dream,” Colin said. “When we saw this place for sale, we just went with it.”
The cafe at 1131 Taraval St., now named Bean Dream, just had its grand opening on Sunday. Before putting up the new sign, Colin had been operating the cafe for about a month as “a trial period” to gauge the foot traffic and reception from the neighborhood.
Now, it’s official. On Thursday, Colin and Velazquez worked behind the counter, serving up a mango smoothie. The cafe was decorated with little cloud plushies hanging from the light bulbs.
“It’s exciting and scary,” Colin said. “You just kind of have to throw yourself out there.”
Bean Dream isn’t the only new kid on the block. Jandii Cafe, a stylish new coffee shop, looks ready to open across the street, on the corner of Taraval Street and 21st Avenue. Behind the shuttered metal gate, a mirror-like A-frame sign read “sit, sip, slow down.”
The interior space at 1100 Taraval St. was painted green and beige, with big windows letting in lots of natural light, even on a recent Thursday when it was cold and cloudy outside.
The owner, Jiyeon Choi, has apparently built a restaurant empire in the Bay Area along with her husband Hoyul Steven Choi. The Korean couple owns the beloved brunch spot Sweet Maple in Lower Pac Heights, the famous Berkeley Social Club in the East Bay serving “millionaire’s bacon,” and the boba and dessert chain U :Dessert Story. The dessert spot was originally planned for the Taraval location, before a pivot to the coffee shop.
Jandii is hiring baristas and scone bakers, according to a job posting on the gate, and will serve espresso-based drinks and matcha. It will also open a second location in the Castro, likely in the now-empty space of a popular brunch spot, Kitchen Story, at 16th and Sanchez streets. Kitchen Story was also owned by the Chois, but shuttered in January, teasing a “new concept and a fresh beginning.”
In the Inner Sunset, a mysterious sign, reading “CSK Kitchen,” went up at the empty storefront at 420 Judah Street near Ninth Avenue. No new business registration has been filed yet, but after some digging around, it seems that a Japanese catering business will have a brick-and-mortar location in this space.
Chikako Kuramoto, the chef who will run the new venture, has been serving handmade onigiri, Japanese cream sandos and bento boxes at Sakura, a Japanese store a few blocks away on Irving Street and 11th Avenue.
Kuramoto, originally from Tokyo, became the owner of Sakura two years ago. It sells imported Japanese goods from stationery to skin care to pickled ginger — a Japantown experience condensed in a tiny store.
The space at 420 Judah has been home to a few restaurants over the years, from all-you-can-eat Japanese food to a Chinese restaurant serving noodles and dumplings. But none have stayed for long and it has been vacant for a few years.
Hopefully, those waiting for the N-Judah train right in front of the storefront, could grab a quick snack from CSK Kitchen, be it an onigiri with Salmon or a dainty strawberry cream sando.
After six months, the Great Highway Gallery on Lawton Street — newly renovated — is reopening on Saturday evening with a special reception for a new exhibit named “We Are No Different.”
John Lindsey, the owner of the galley (and the soup joint next door), has run the place since 2013. The show was curated by Leo Bersamina, a native San Franciscan who grew up surfing and fishing on the coast.
The five artists featured in the exhibit are “very different, each with their own practices, expressions, and experiences,” Lindsey wrote, “but all connected by fifty miles of Northern California Coastline.”
One of the works is Jessica Dunne’s painting of the Golden Gate Bridge toll plaza on a rainy (or misty) evening, with light bouncing off the moisture on the ground — a unique San Francisco sight.
Drop by the gallery at 3649 Lawton St. on Saturday night from 6 to 9 p.m. Both jazz and soup will be flowing, thanks to Situational Jazz Band and the soup master Lindsey.
For the next two months, those who walk on Sunset Dunes get to see a new exhibit at the rotating outdoor gallery near Judah Street. The exhibition “Wish You Were Here” opened in April, featuring photography presented by the Western Neighborhoods Project, a nonprofit created in 1999 dedicated to preserving and sharing the history of San Francisco’s Westside.
The exhibit will showcase photos from as early as the 1860s, capturing people as they enjoy the coast from the Cliff House in the Richmond to Sloat Boulevard in the southern edge of the Sunset.
