High art
Diamond Heights listings, Gallery 181, Marin French Cheese Company, La Corneta Taqueria, Stilwell Hotel, best LA omakase, MORE
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
In the rough
The residential boom in Diamond Heights began as a SPUR redevelopment project intended to illustrate how San Francisco could build residences with its hills instead of against them, but a drive down Gold Mine Drive also reveals pre-build homes from the 1800s that withstood the 1906 quake.
Seventeen homes sold across Diamond Heights’ three hills — Red Rock Heights, Gold Mine Hill, and Fairmount Heights — in the last 12 months, with a median sales price of $12.3M, per Compass. In that time, 29 condos moved in the area as well, spurred by declining prices. Here, three current listings reflecting what some of the highest peaks in SF have to offer:
→ 5004 Diamond Heights Blvd (Diamond Heights) • 4BR/2.1BA, 1660 SF condo • Ask: $1.265M • top-floor unit in true MCM building • Days on market: 42 • Agent: Seth Skolnick, Corcoran Icon.
→ 22 Cameo Way (Diamond Heights) • 3BR/2.1BA, 2235 SF house • Ask: $1.695M • open-concept 1962 build with San Bruno Mt views • Days on market: 5 • Agent: Anne Laury, Sotheby’s.
→ 268 Gold Mine Dr (Diamond Heights, above) • 4BR/2.1BA, 2597 SF house • Ask: $2.25M • renovated 1968 build with floor-to-ceiling windows • Days on market: 20 • Agent: Yun Tong, Sotheby’s.
REAL ESTATE LINKS: Bay Area housing inventory hits new high • Zillow’s pocket listing ban is official • In Mid-Market, Notion takes over long-vacant Uber HQ • 110-unit complex breaks ground in Berkeley • Intel cofounder’s Woodside estate hits the market for $29.5M.
WORK • Wednesday Routine
The big cheese
KELLEY LEVIN • hospitality marketing manager • Marin French Cheese Company
Neighborhood you live in: Glen Park
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I’m grabbing coffee (my favorite roaster is Beanery SF) and then crossing the Golden Gate Bridge into Marin County. The fog lingers over the freshly green hills dotted with cows and their newborn calves. I head into our cheese shop to say hello to our retail team and see if there’s any new merchandising or lunch specials for the day. Behind the shop, the cheesemaking is buzzing. You can hear faint music and singing from the production crew, hard at work making our small-batch, soft-ripened cheeses.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Twice a week, the team tastes our cheeses at different stages in their lives to make sure we’re on target for flavor, texture, and appearance. Our R&D manager shares her latest iteration of a new cheese we’re working on — it tastes great and is ready for aging trials!
This year marks the company’s 160th anniversary, so I’m doing a lot of planning around that. We’re also planning out this year’s partner tastings at the shop, where we invite local producers (McEvoy Ranch, Lala’s Jams, Goat Rock Cider) to sample and showcase their products with our cheeses. It’s a big year that we’re sharing with lots of visitors.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Our cheese shop has a cafe menu, so my go-to order when I’m in the office is our grilled cheese and vegetable sandwich. Lately, I’ve been craving my local Glen Park spot, La Corneta Taqueria. There’s always a line, and it’s always worth the wait. On Friday nights, I bring my burrito into Glen Park Station bar and hang with the neighborhood locals.
Any weekend getaways?
I’m looking forward to a quick trip down to Pacifica to see my brother, watch the surfers, and look for whales. It always makes for a nice Saturday or Sunday afternoon.
What was your last great vacation?
New Orleans for a wedding. The Tremé Creole Gumbo Festival was such a fun way to taste traditional dishes from spots around the city. If you haven’t tried yaka mein yet, it’s a New Orleans-style noodle soup that will bring you back to life from any late-night activities. A cheese industry friend, who worked at the wonderful St. James Cheese Company for many years, started his own oyster farm in New Orleans and hosts bar pop-ups serving delicious raw and charbroiled oysters. If in town, keep an eye out for Lady Nellie Oyster Farm.
CULTURE & LEISURE • FOUND Gallery
Room with a view
SF’s Gallery 181, a penthouse space atop Downtown's luxury condo building 181 Fremont, is one of the higher-elevation art galleries you’ll find. Seven hundred feet up, it’s a unique offering of world-class art and sweeping panoramas of the San Francisco Bay.
Currently in the main room, views of exhibiting SF artist Tyler Willis' 40' x 40' dashing ballerina are juxtaposed with floor-to-ceiling window views of the Bay Bridge. In a room next door, a colorful canvas of Brazilian favelas has the old Central Waterfront as its backdrop. The building's gallery has showcased art in the past from Sharon Stone and photographs from Timothy White and collaborated with NYC's influential Lehmann Maupin. It’s appointment only, accessible via the adjacent urban rooftop of Salesforce Park. –Adrian Spinelli
→ Gallery 181 (Downtown) • 181 Fremont St • By appointment.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Welcome Raffy
The Function • Too $hort, Scarface, DJ Quick • Fox Theater (Oakland) • Fri @ 830p • LOGE, row C, $239 per
Giants v Red Sox • Oracle Park (Embarcadero) • Sat @ 715p • VR315, $50 per
Pete Holmes • San Jose Improv (San Jose) • Sun @ 6p • VIP, $108 per
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: Street drinking now legal on Valencia • Geodesic dome ‘multisensory playground’ planned for Pier 70 • Mysterious Fillmore investor announces Clay Theater revamp • Alamo Drafthouse opening Mountain View, Santa Clara theaters this month.
GETAWAYS • Carmel-by-the-Sea
Wake-up call
The once-sleepy town of Carmel-by-the-Sea is waking up with the addition of newcomers like lauded fine-dining restaurant Chez Noir and luxury stay Stilwell Hotel. The latter, a 42-key getaway, is a fresh alternative to the town’s Tudor-style cottages, with breezy courtyards, lush landscaping, and multiple seating areas centered on fire pits and custom-built fountains, including a standout 20-by-18-foot living water wall.
Guests are greeted with a glass of bubbly (perks also include free parking and golf club storage) and personally escorted to their rooms, which feature clean lines, crisp finishes, and contemporary styling, some with gas fireplaces, soaking tubs and Juliet balconies. The hotel is just a few blocks from Ocean Ave’s main drag and a 10-plus minute walk to the beach. Chairs and picnic baskets are available on request.
The hotel is also home to Carmel’s other new fine-dining restaurant Foray, which offers an à la carte and tasting menu. In the morning, a complimentary European-style breakfast is on offer, just the fuel you need for a long walk on the beach or coastal drive. –Allison McCarthy
→ Stilwell Hotel (Carmel-by-the-Sea) • San Carlos St & Fifth Ave • Rooms from $489/night.
Photo: Robert Miller
GETAWAYS LINKS: Makeover planned for Tahoe’s Sugar Bowl Resort • Kilauea is erupting, so why can’t you see anything? • A game-changing alternative to Global Entry launches across 8 airports • Belmond’s storied Splendito reopens in Portofino following elaborate makeover • Next big thing in luxury travel: family therapists.
GETAWAYS • The Nines
Omakase, LA
The Nines are FOUND's distilled lists of the very best. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundsf.com. For the full archives, click here.
Morihiro (Atwater), helmed by rice-obsessed chef who makes his own ceramics, $250-$400 per, reserve