Thanks to homeowner Sandy Lane, Cole Valley is home to San Francisco's newest Little Free Library branch, at 836 Clayton St.

"I've seen a few [Little Free Library] locations around as I've walked around the city, and thought this would be a fun little project to get the community involved," said Lane, who's lived in the neighborhood since 1975.

An "entirely do-it-yourself" effort, Lane's tiny library is a "mini-me" version of her home. "I looked at the Little Free Library website to get ideas, but I struck out on my own," said Lane of her design. "It's the same as the house, just a smaller version." To protect books from the elements, the library's facade swings out to expose multiple shelves.

Lane's tiny house is the 16th San Francisco branch of the Little Free Library, a non-profit that's registered approximately 15,000 locations around the world. 

There's another free library at Carl/Hillway but it currently is not registered with the Little Free Library.

Content for this article was used with permission from Hoodline. 

Starbucks announced earlier this week that it will l close all 23 of its La Boulange bakery-cafes, mostly in San Francisco by September 2015, saying the stores "weren't sustainable for the company's long-term growth" and that it had begun very difficult to operate two different chains at the same time. For many Cole Valley neighbors this is a tearful farewell.

Many still remember, Tassajara Bakery at Cole and Parnassus. The bakery came into Cole Valley in 1976 and sparked a bakery revolution in San Francisco. Interesting fact, Tassajara Bakery was spin off of the delicious breads the Tassajara Zen Center in Carmel made. Neighbors and bread lovers mourned the closing of Tassajara in 1999.

In 2001, a French-born baker, Pascal Rigo, rented the space for his bakery, La Boulange (formerly named Bay Bread). La Boulange, greatly known for their French-inspired decor and menus, and the pink envelopes, was sold to Starbucks in 2012 for $100 million. The deal was seen as a strategic move by Starbucks to gain a bigger presence in the food business, particularly expand their bakery and food products.  

"After more than 40 years, we will be able to say that we are bakers, too," Howard Schultz, CEO at Starbucks, said at the time.

But at what price? Pascal Rigo is now out of a job (is leaving his post as VP at Starbucks) and now Starbucks are bakers. And those tasty treats and French decor will only be a memory.

What do you think of this news? And next question, what will go into the La Boulange storefront come September? We're hoping for another bakery! 



http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2015/06/17/starbucks-la-boulange/28851063/

http://www.mistersf.com/farewell/index.html?fwtassajara.htm

Zazie has recently gone tip free as a way to bridge the gap between employees at the front and back of the restaurant and ensure a more equal pay scale. Owner, Jennifer Piallat has always put her employees first, with offering paid time off, retirement plans and health insurance.  With the new system, all employees will get a raise; servers will see a three to seven percent increase and the back of the house will enjoy a solid 35% boost.

In a recent SFEater article, Piallat tried to sway San Franciscans who might be on the fence about this new system. 
"The thing is," Piallat explains, "we’re not adding a 20% service charge. Servers are getting 11 percent. Plus, they don’t do the best they can to keep you happy because they’re worried you’re going to dock their tip. They want you happy so that you don’t call their manager and so that you don’t disturb their section. No one wants to deal with an angry customer."

Though this is great for the employees of Zazie, customers should be aware that with this new no-tip system, prices have increased by 15-20% so keep that in mind. All in all, we are happy that Zazie is putting employees first and setting an example for other restaurants as well. Great job!

Content for this article from SFEater. 

I'm sure you have seen all the food trucks that have popped up around the Bay Area in the past several years. But have you seen a music truck? After years of working in event and music production, Cole Valley local Robert Culos dreamed of running his own music venue. Rob and his wife, Liz Coglianese, had the innovative idea of making a food truck but for music, a mobile music venue retrofitted out of a vintage trailer. With Rob managing event production and Liz handling marketing and publicity, their new business was born! BandWagon officially launched last August [2014] at Noise Pop's 20th Street Block Party with major success. Rob was excited that BandWagon launched in San Francisco and at a hyper local street fair. He stated, "The people here love music, they love to be outdoors and they're truly supportive of new ideas." Since BandWagon's launch they have been seen at major festivals, such as Hardly Strictly and Treasure Island Music Festival. BandWagon seems to be transforming the local Bay Area music scene in a new and innovative way and telling folks to get outdoors and listen to some good tunes! 

 Can I rent it out for private events?

Rob informs us that BandWagon is available to rent for private parties, community gatherings, large festivals, corporate events, and beyond. Depending on the event, Rob, Liz, and team are happy to work with you to bring the entertainment or just have the stage, lights and sound. Got questions about rentals, you can contact them directly at thecrew@bandwagonsf.com or 415-742-5154. 

So Rob, what do you guys like most about Cole Valley?

We hope you aren't forgetting that Rob and Liz, and their son Jack, are Cole Valley residents . They love everything about Cole Valley. Although they settled into Cole Valley almost by accident five years ago, they definitely plan to stick around. Rob said, "I think if I had to put it into simple words, it's the sense of a real village community here" that makes it the greatest place to live. 

Hopefully we'll see BandWagon around the neighborhood, maybe even the Cole Valley Street Fair (pretty please!!). 

Park Police Station will be hosting the 31st annual National Night Out on Tuesday, August 5th at the Ernest Ingold Boys and Girls Club located at 1950 Page Street. This event is a chance for the community to come together and meet with its Law Enforcement professionals in order to promote neighborhood spirit and police-community partnerships in our fight for a safer nation. We will be partnering with our brothers in Law Enforcement, Public Safety, and other organizations that work with us in our community. 

This year's event will be held between 5pm and 9pm. Ernest Ingold Clubhouse will provide the venue and the San Francisco Police Department along with the following agencies participated in the past year: PAL, SFDA, NERT, ALERT, SF Sheriff, SF Park Rangers, USF Police, UCSF Police, SF State Police, Red Cross, SFPD Canine, SFPD Mounted, SFPD EOD robot, SFFD, SF SAFE, SPCA, and Sunset Scavengers. 

They will BBQ for the Boys and Girls Club members at 5 pm, Introductions to the Park Station Police Staff, SF Supervisors, and other honored guests at approximately 6pm, meet and greet with SFPD and other agencies that provide services to the Park District from 5pm to 7pm, ending the evening with a movie and popcorn with the kids.

Come on by and meet SFPD Park Station Polic staff!

You know that large abandon looking mansion on the corner of Stanyan and Carl? Well it has a basement ballroom, has about 2,800 square feet, was built in 1900 and recently sold for just over $3 Million. If you look at the pictures, you might wonder who the hell would buy such a dump. Our hope is that the proud new owners of this mansion will renovate it instead of just tearing it down and using the land for some over-the-top modern condo building like those of Upper Market (look at you The Century). Let's all hope.

Midline Studio will be hosting this year's Cole Valley Street Fair on Sunday, September 28th 2014. There are no details quite yet on what vendors and musicians will be coming but we are sure it will be tons of fun, so mark your calendars!

We had a great turn out and enthusiasm for our very first neighborhood happy hour. 15 minutes before the happy hour kicked off, there was already a group of folks waiting outside hoping to snag a Ice Cream Bar gift card (who had to say the pass code: SUNSET TUNNEL in order to redeem the freebie). Once the happy hour got rolling there was a lot of neighborly love, margarita drinking, taffy chewing, and schmoozing. Neighborhood celebrities, Greg Dewar (@njudah) and Rick from @colehardware, even managed to stop by! It was such a great time!

The happy hour couldn't have been possible without the huge support from Padrecito, Cole Hardware, The Fizzary, The Ice Cream Bar, and of course all those neighbors that came out to have it a great event. Thank you!!

We at ColeValleySF hope to host another happy hour or  neighborhood event sometime soon. If you have ideas about how to bring the neighborhood together, feel free to contact us or comment below.

There's another antique shop coming to Cole Valley, Past Perfect. While some might have passed by their large space (over 7,000 sq. ft) in the Marina, Past Perfect is expanding to the former Cole Valley Cardio studio at 854 Stanyan. There's no timeframe on when they might be opening but just looking at their new storefront gives us the impression that they are opening soon!

Thanks to SF Racked for finding the info!