Hey neighbors and friends,

We are having our very first Happy Hour event this Spring at Padrecito to celebrate our amazing Cole Valley community! It will be a great opportunity to mingle with your fellow Cole Valley neighbors, some of our local business owners, and us, the ColeValleySF team; all while sipping a $5 Margarita. (yay for happy hour prices at Padrecito from 5:30pm-6:30pm). There also may or may not be some awesome local giveaways and grub..    

Where: Padrecito, 901 Cole St. (at Carl St.)
When: April 8th 2014 5:30pm - 7pm

Follow us on Twitter (@colevalleysf) to keep updated on our Happy Hour event. 

We can't wait to see you there!

- ColeValleySF Team

Yup, this is still happening. We wonder what's next.

From the postcard:
"Please join us to learn about the Sunset Tunnel Trackway Improvement Project. By replacing the aging track and other infrastructure inside the Sunset Tunnel, the project will help improve safety and reliability of the N Judah rail service. This meeting will provide an opportunity to review the project elements and address questions and concerns about the construction phase of the project."

The 11th Annual Cole Valley Street Fair will be on Sunday, Sept 29th. We are very excited to celebrate our incredible neighborhood community. This year's fair is sponsored by MIDLINE Studios, Recology, Cole Hardware,  UCSF, Padrecito, and others. It will showcase various local vendors and musicians. 

Here's a list of some of the booths and entertainment you'll see at this year's fair:

- Urban Bazaar
- Made In The Haight
- AcroSports
- Chabad of Cole Valley
- Friends of Sharon Art Studio
- La Boulange de Cole
- an obstacle course by MIDLINE
- Buki the Clown
- a jumpy house
- music by: The Fly Right Sisters, Great Highway, and more!

For the complete list check out MIDLINE's site. 

The SFPD’s roundup report yesterday included a burglary in Cole Valley. The report spoke of a burglary that happened in the 800 block of Cole at Carl. A call to the SFPD was unable to confirm the exact location of the business, but likely options include the Ice Cream Bar, Kezar Bar and Crepes on Cole, probably in that order.

Get more information here! 

Want to get up-to-date information about crime in Cole Valley and Haight-Ashbury? Subscribe to the SFPD Park Station's Police Report! Just email them and ask to receive the newsletter. Here the link: http://sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=832

Peet's Coffee is officially open for business in Cole Valley! Neighbors who got there at the crack of dawn yesterday, aka 5:30am, received a free Peet's tumbler as a thanks for being the first customers. Excited for all this caffeine! Come by this Saturday 11-3pm to celebrate their Grand Opening - first 100 customers get a free gift! Welcome to the neighborhood!

If you’ve had the chance to wander into Tantrum since its opening last summer, you have already experienced the peculiar feeling that you’ve been transported to a place that, at one time or another, we’ve all wanted to be. Not because the toys are unique and amazing (they are), and not because everything feels perfect and unaltered by the years. Not even because three year old Thisbe took quarters from the register and offered your kid a free ride on the mechanical seal. Its because they care, and it shows.

Because Amanda Weld and Michelle Spear dreamed up this little world near the corner of Carl & Cole where both parents and kids could enjoy themselves, take a trip back in time, or just live in the moment. Indeed I am the sentimental type, but guess what? So are you. And the beautiful toys and the vintage Beatles memorabilia cards that sit side by side remind you that we’re all kids. We all want to play, and live in the moment and remember, and be young again.

So let’s talk about where it began. Every business begins with a vision, real people, and a story. Here’s the story. Involved in performance art at the start, Amanda recalls her first creative endeavor:

“When I was five or six, I had a sleep over with two or three other girls and I made everyone stay up helping me write a puppet play. The idea was that we could surprise everyone's parents with it when they got picked up in the morning. Needless to say, it was not as well performed or received as I had imagined it would be.”

The same combination of creative talent and critical focus on quality shines through today. Tantrum is not her first business venture. She recounts her previous shop, Poe Studio, a children's clothing and gift store in Charleston, South Carolina:

I was 25 and newly married. (We marry young down south.) I had been managing a print shop that sold cheap prints to tourists and framed them in badly made frames. I quit that to make a living as an illustrator and after graduating (as a Design-illustration major at the Savannah College of Art), Poe Studio was really supposed to be my studio with some kick-knacks up front (if anyone bothered to wander in). I was painting portraits, mostly, and then I heard about such a thing as a "gift show" and with credit card in hand-went to the NY international Gift Show. I hated to shop but had a blast shopping for others! Before I knew it the 300 ft space was filled and the illustration business (or lack thereof) was buried for another day.

The move to San Francisco came a few years later. During a west coast tour of her husband Richard’s  band, A Decent Animal, she decided a more permanent relocation was in order and in 2007, Amanda sold Poe Studio to one of her long-time employees and moved to SF, into a two bedroom apartment above Vierra & Friends Salon.

Fast forward a bit and Amanda, now a five year Cole Valley resident with her husband Richard, 8 year old son Henry and 3.9 year old daughter Thisbe, was still known for throwing amazing vintage-themed birthday parties for her son. Between fond memories of her days at Poe Studio, and hearing friend after friend encourage her to open up a new shop, she eventually decided they were right, and began talking with others about the idea.

And then fate, (as fate does) challenged her resolve by giving her exactly what she needed  only a few months later. Occasions, the bath & body boutique literally around the corner from home, was closing up shop, leaving the perfect space. “It was a chicken before egg scenario. My husband spotted the "Going Out of Business" sign in their window before I had seriously considered opening another store. Then it was like...’Yeah right! Like it could ever happen to open something so close-so quickly!’ ”

As the momentum continued forward, one of the friends she had consulted was Michelle Spear: “Amanda reached out to discuss her opportunity and get my opinion on things. The more I heard, the more I got excited and inspired. From there, it just snowballed into this awesome creative [process] back and forth. We set up a room in my house, covered it with all of our thoughts and ideas and fully concepted the store’s vision. Amanda had an awesome core idea and together we added more and more into it to make Tantrum what it is today. (Miraculous that we did all of that in 2 months! It makes me smile thinking about it.)”

That's right folks, Peet's Coffee will be officially opening this Wednesday! We've definitely been waiting a while, since Tully's closed its door last fall. It looks like there will be some patio tables as well as a few tables inside, including the bench seat next to the window. In typical Peet's fashion, they have an array of coffee and teas, including the new craze: Matcha Lattes. Matcha is basically green tea, so be prepared to receive a green creamy drink from the barista. We're hoping that there will be free wi-fi because as of yet there is no free wifi at any of the coffee shops in the hood (Does La Boulange have it yet?).. 

To all those who wake up when the sun does, you'll be pleased to note that Peet's will be open at 5:30am M-F and 6am Saturday and Sunday. They will close at 8pm daily, which is great considering Tully's always closed so damn early. 

We're excited to welcome Peet's into our hood and happy to have them caffeinate the neighbors!

Every time I pass by the new InVino restaurant, there's always something new going on whether its painting the outside or trying to sneak a peek through the parchment covered windows. Luckily, we got the inside scoop from Tablehopper!! It sure looks a lot different from the old Hama-Ko interior. 

We got some new information thanks to an article on Tablehopper about the new Italian wine bar. Here's what you'll expect from food wise:

"But it’s not just a wine bar, no signore. This enoteca is going to have quite a number of delicioso things to eat, starting with an array of crudi, a variety of toppings on crostone and bruschette, and hello, three different presentations of mozzarella (all these items will be available as single items, or in flights for the ultimate in grazing). There will also be a couple of panini, and a choice selection of cheeses and salumi, plus two or three piatti del giorno, featuring plates like baked pastas and braised meats."

From Tablehopper's article, InVino should be opening around the end of August/beginning of September. Am I sensing a Labor Day weekend opening perhaps? They will be open everyday at 4:30pm except Mondays and look like they will be opening for lunch shortly after they open. 

UPDATE: They recently added signage and a small lamp at the entrance. Got a peek inside one day and saw staff folding napkins and stocking the shelves! Looks like it will be opening very soon!

To read the rest of the article and see some shots of the interior check it out here!

The Ice Cream Bar and Soda Fountain in Cole Valley has proposed a parklet!! What are your thoughts? Do you think it's a great idea, considering that The Ice Cream Bar has limited indoor seating and it would help create more business for them? Or do you think that Cole Valley is already tight on parking spaces that taking another 2 parking spaces (remember when SFMTA took a bunch on Carl Street due to N Judah Rail Replacement/Improvement Project??), that CV neighbors desperately need. 

On Nextdoor, Ted Loewenberg from the Haight Ashbury Improvement Association invites you to write to DPW with your thoughts. He also invites you to CC him at tedlsf[at]sbcglobal[dot]net so he can provide feedback to the ICB.

Source: Uppercasing