Private bluff
Comal, The California Symphony, Canyon Market, Queer bars, Noe Valley real estate, English Beat tix, MORE
WORK • Friday Routine
Short cuts
DONATO CABRERA • artistic director, music director/conductor • The California Symphony
Neighborhood you work in: Walnut Creek
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
My workplace, if you can call it that, is an odd juxtaposition between the intensely private and overtly public. The majority of my time is spent studying musical scores in the solitude and quiet of my studio apartment in Glen Park, but my role as artistic and music director also requires me to be involved in multiple meetings and phone calls with California Symphony’s administration and board of directors, as well as various community members of Walnut Creek and the East Bay.
As each concert date approaches, my hours of preparation are put to use during the rehearsal process. Therefore, and this may come as a surprise, the majority of my job is already done by the time the concert happens. As most professional artists will tell you, it’s important to cultivate and nurture both the introverted and extroverted aspects of your personality, because it’s crucial to be able to thrive in both.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Preparing for the first concerts of California Symphony’s 2025-26 season, which take place Sept 27-28. The program consists of three works that orbit 1920s Paris and the French composer, Maurice Ravel, and begins with Ravel’s Boléro. I read that there’s some crazy statistic where Boléro is heard throughout the world, live or on the radio, every 10 minutes. Of course, something so ubiquitous can also bring with it a lot of baggage, so what I try to do with a piece like this is find out more about its origins and the little things that make it tick. On the second half of the program is Ravel’s orchestration of Mussorgsky’s colossal piano piece, Pictures at an Exhibition. Most orchestras play this like it’s a big Russian symphonic spectacular, like Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture. It’s not that at all, and I hope to show the difference at our performances.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
One of my closest friend’s birthdays is today, and a group of us are meeting in Berkeley at Comal. In San Francisco, I’ve been recently obsessed with Chile Lindo.
How about a little leisure or culture?
While I often find cycling in San Francisco to be similar to playing a video game, I do find myself packing up my bike in my car and heading over the Golden Gate Bridge to go on one of many glorious rides north of the city. The two rides I typically take are the Marin Headlands loop and the Paradise loop.
For culture, I love hearing live jazz, cabaret, and R&B at Stookey’s Club Moderne or supporting my colleagues by attending Oakland Symphony, Marin Symphony and Santa Rosa Symphony.
Any weekend getaways?
I frequently find myself, especially in the summer, in Port Costa, having a fantastic lunch at the Bull Valley Roadhouse or having a beer across the street with the bikers at The Warehouse Cafe. Another day trip I love is driving up to Tomales Bay and having lunch at Nick’s Cove.
What was your last great vacation?
This summer I was able to be in Tuscany for a friend’s wedding. After the wedding, I drove back towards Florence and had a life-changing lunch in the little village of Panzano at Dario Cecchini’s Officina della Bistecca and then stayed at a beautiful hotel just outside of Florence in the town of Fiesole called Hotel Villa dei Bosconi. The next day, I went to another iconic restaurant for lunch in the center of Florence, Buca San Giovanni. I was also in Vienna for two weeks to recharge my musical batteries, visiting Schönbrunn Palace for the first time, and Telluride, CO, to visit my aunt and uncle and attend the Telluride Film Festival.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
I’m obsessed with well-made things and photography. My love of both was greatly elevated with the purchase of the Leica Q3.
What store or service do you always recommend?
I love grocery shopping at Canyon Market, now owned by Gus’s.
Where are you donating your time or money?
I’m a proud sustaining member of KQED.
WORK LINKS: Spending the day with AI conference idea hustlers • CA bans robobosses • Tech companies rush foreign workers back to US • Silicon Valley wants its own Steven Spielberg.
BARS • The Nines
Queer bars, San Francisco
The Nines are FOUND’s distilled lists of the best in the Bay Area and surrounds. Additions or subtractions? Hit reply or found@itsfoundsf.com. For the full archives, click here.
Twin Peaks Tavern (Castro), old-school anchor @ Market and 17th, mature clientele, Irish coffees, well-chilled martinis
Blackbird (Castro), low-key 1st-date spot, best cocktails in neighborhood
The Edge (Castro), musicals via video clips play 3 nights a week (Sun, Mon, Wed), happy hour, drink specials
Last Call (Castro), cozy cocktail spot w/ terrific all-CD jukebox, working fireplace
Hi Tops (Castro), sports bar w/ good food, 16 TVs, Tuesday trivia, Survivor screenings (in season), scene-y Thursday party
Lobby Bar (Castro), small upscale drink spot w/ concise food menu, intel
Rikki’s (Castro), new women’s sports bar drawing mixed crowd
The Cinch (Upper Polk), among the city’s oldest queer bars, bedecked w/ vintage kitsch
The Stud (SoMa),classic SoMa nightclub now in new location, themed parties galore
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Top brass
Founded as a bucolic neighborhood called Horner’s Addition, in the 150 or so years since, Noe Valley has become one of San Francisco’s most desirable locations. The combination of well-preserved Edwardians, proximity to the Mission and Castro, and a busy business district is powerfully attractive to young couples and families alike. As a result, 117 homes have changed hands in the area in the past year, at a median price of $2.625M; 71 condos also moved at a median of $1.625M, per Compass. Here, three listings for those seeking their own Valley abode:
→ 471 29th St #A (Noe Valley) • 1BR/1BA, 695 SF condo • Ask: $1.098M • Fully detached 1900 build • Days on market: 22 • Agent: Tracy Hsieh, Compass.
→ 212 Hoffman Ave (Noe Valley) • 5BR/2BA, 2852 SF • Ask: $1.995M • 1907 build owned by same family throughout • Days on market: 14 • Agent: Lamisse Droub, City Real Estate.
→ 479 28th St (Noe Valley, above) • 7BR/6.1BA, 4940 SF house • Ask: $5.495M • modern residence w/ retractable glass walls and in-law • Days on market: 39 • Agent: Isabelle Grotte, Compass.
REAL ESTATE LINKS: Why San Francisco Centre mall can’t become housing • Restrictions ease on historic commercial buildings • SF office landlord Paramount Group changes hands • After update, SF lands on Zillow hot list.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Save It For Later
UB40 w/ The English Beat • The Warfield (Mid-Market) • Fri @ 8p • lower balcony 1, $84 per
Ryan Hamilton • Punch Line (FiDi) • Sat @ 915p • preferred, $52 per
49ers v Jaguars • Levi’s Stadium (Santa Clara) • Sun @ 105p • Sec 112, row 4, $399 per
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: Robot fights draw big SF crowds • Fridays on Front Street joins Fleet Week agenda • Live music approved for revamped Club Deluxe • Art schools lean into AI.
GETAWAYS • Mendocino Coast
Cliff notes
Perched high above the Pacific on its own private bluff with verdant grass as far as the eye can see, the Inn at Newport Ranch offers an astonishingly beautiful place to disconnect. Yes, there’s technically wifi, but the inn’s remote location on the wild Mendocino coast may be just the excuse you need to park your phone in airplane mode for a weekend. The fact that your hosts welcome you with a glass of wine as soon as you walk through the door doesn’t hurt either.
The modern inn and working ranch is a little rugged, a little rustic, and a lot upscale. You won’t get glitz and glamour, but you will get off-the-charts views and Arch Digest-worthy design. (The ’70s-style hand-built architecture and stonework make use of old-growth redwoods and boulders found onsite.) You’ll bed down in one of 10 distinctly designed rooms and suites spread across four buildings — many with private hot tubs, all with expansive views — from the humble Captain’s Quarters with panoramic ocean views to the four-bedroom Sea Drum house situated at the bluff’s edge.
The food, a direct expression of what’s in harvest at the ranch’s gardens, is all foraged and locally sourced ingredients cooked over live fire. The tasting menu changes nightly; expect simple yet elegant preparations like grilled black cod and maitake mushrooms over fermented rice.
In the morning, a hearty breakfast is served with freshly picked herbs and veggies, after which you can walk along the ranch’s winding oceanfront path or curl up with a book by a fireplace reading nook. There’s also horseback riding, a full-service spa, and a communal hot tub atop a water tower with commanding views of the sea. But the real draw is a two-hour ATV tour of the 2,200-acre coastal preserve, which brings you from cliff’s edge, deep into the redwood forest, and high onto the ridge. With binoculars, you might even spot a pod of migrating whales.–Allison McCarthy
→ Inn at Newport Ranch (Fort Bragg) • 31502 Hwy 1 • Rooms from $1038/night/Oct weekend
GETAWAYS LINKS: Waymo gets okay to map SFO • Alaska to open lounges in SAN, SEA, HNL • Cursed Big Sur hiking trail reopens • Fort Bragg bets big on Gray Whale Inn • Hilton’s 36-story Waikiki tower gets green light • After closure for renovations, Park Hyatt Tokyo sets December reopening.
LOST & FOUND • Behind the paywall
→ A handful of favorite Bay Area restaurants from new subscribers: Coqueta (Embarcadero) • Kokkari Estiatorio (FiDi) • Wildseed (Cow Hollow, Palo Alto) • Rad Radish (Hayes Valley) • Iggy’s (Outer Richmond).