Promising Bill to Extend Last Call Is Kicked to the Curb

Bill allowing California cities to extend last call stalled by committee

Pour one out for Senator Scott Wiener’s proposal to allow but not require California cities to extend last call from 2 to 4 a.m. While Senate Bill 384, proposed by the former SF supervisor, gained momentum and even scored an endorsement from the Los Angeles Times editorial Board, it was altered heavily by the appropriotions committee on Friday, who replaced it with a task force to study the possibility of a later last call, producing a report by 2019. “There’s no need to study anything,” Wiener responded to what he called a “setback” to his effort. “There’s nothing radical about letting local communities decide for themselves whether to let their bars and nightclubs go later.”

Bayview farmers market pilot will continue

A Bayview farmers market pilot program that started last month has been extended through October and could become permanent. The Pacific Coast Farmers' Market Association, who organizes the event, says the extension is in response to neighborhood enthusiasm. During the three week trial run, low-income assistance programs have already provided $561 in matching dollars to shoppers. Meanwhile, local businesses like Craftsman and Wolves have also launched brunch specials timed to the market.

Alice Waters, the early years

What lead a 27-year-old Alice Waters to open Chez Panisse in 1971? Her latest book, Coming to My Senses: The Making of a Counterculture Cook, which is being released today, answers that question with “quiet confidence” according to an Eater roundup of the best food-focused memoirs of the fall. In the book, readers will find anecdotes about Waters ‘early education, from backpacking through France to taking LSD in Berkeley.

Caleb Pershan

Noe Valley’s long-vacant Real Food storefront could see new life

Signs on 24th Street yesterday commemorated (at length) the sudden closure of Real Food (now across from Whole Foods) on Labor Day, 2003. The story: In 2002, Nutraceutical, a Park City health supplements company, bought the 1970-founded Real Food mini-chain of three SF stores. Real Food’s employees attempted to unionize, and Neutraceutical promptly fired them and closed the store — yes, on Labor Day. After a long legal battle, in 2009, the National Labor Relations Board ordered Neutraceutical to pay those workers $371,219. This year’s Labor Day memorial at Real Food had good news for Noe residents: A private equity group co-founded by former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Steve Young has just purchased Neutraceutical — not for its real estate, the equity group claims, but for its core health supplement business — and will sell the 24th Street Real Food storefront to a developer, likely to build housing.