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Local Links: Romo pitches school, Aziza 2.0, plant sale, Saturday events & more


Sergio Romo speaks to students at Lafayette Elementary. Photo by Juan Pardo / SF Examiner

Here are some local updates to start your weekend. Have a good one!

  • Reminder: This Saturday the SF Botanical Garden in Golden Gate Park will host its 47th annual plant sale from 10am until 2pm, featuring over 20,000 plants. This year’s theme is drought tolerance hundreds of beautiful natives, succulents, and plants perfect for SF’s many micro-climates are for sale. The event also serves as a fundraiser for the garden.
  • If pampering is more up your alley, head to outer Balboa on Saturday for an open house at Elevation Pilates and Sweet Cheeks Skincare. Sweet Cheeks will be offering free Hand Treatments demoing all of the latest and greatest skincare technology, selling some skin care items at 50% off, and selling a Mother’s Day Gift Certificate that include a free gift with purchase. Elevation Pilates will be offering free classes, special pricing on class packages, and hosting an art show. The open house runs from 11am until 3pm at 3425 Balboa Street.
  • The community garden at the Richmond District Neighborhood Center is going strong. Some students from Katherine Delmar Burke School paid a visit recently to plant some kale for the community.


Burke’s students plant kale in the community garden at the RDNC. Photo by Kinder Musings.

  • Giants pitcher Sergio Romo was at Lafayette School (4545 Anza) on Tuesday to talk to students about the importance of education. It was Romo’s fourth visit for such an event, put on by Washington High School’s Athletes in Math Succeed program, in which high school students and professional athletes cheer on students to succeed in school. “It’s more personal to me,” Romo said of visiting the school, where he high-fived kids and signed their baseball paraphernalia. “I can relate to this program.” (SF Examiner)
  • The Chronicle reported this week that Aziza owner and cookbook author Mourad Lahlou is moving ahead with a second, downtown restaurant in the former Pacific Telephone Building (140 New Montgomery). He’s looking to open the Moroccan-themed, 6,000 sq. ft. restaurant in late 2014/early 2015. No word yet on Aziza’s future.
  • A writer at SF Weekly lamented over the forgotten era of the Tiki Bar when he journeyed out to Trad’r Sam’s on Geary, one of the first in the city. After hearing Warren G. coming from the jukebox and listening to patrons order chilled vodka shots instead of Tiki-themed rum drinks, he concluded that Trad’r Sam’s is “now just another bar”.

7 Comments

  1. Having lived across the street from Trad’r Sam’s and I can attest that it’s not “now just another bar”, but a full on nuisance to the neighborhood! It’s a popular stop on the ‘party bus’ route and it’s the drunken dynamo in the flawed thinking of underage binge drinking and belligerent booze fueled brawls that spill out onto the streets at ungodly hours in the morning!

    I too lament the quiet Tiki Bar vibes and the stiff comfort of a Bahama Mama or a Navy Grog!
    Damn this city! Damn this city as it sputters and spits and froths into a pile of undecipherable homogenized goo. If I had a cane I would rap its woody perfection against my desk at this moment!

    – Mr. Foggy

  2. Uh, Mr Foggy, the clientele at Trad’R Sam’s is anything but homogenous. And the vibe is usually one of happy inebriation (as opposed to the Irish bars down the street). Maybe you’re just getting old?

  3. I have called the police line several times to break up fights outside of Trader Sams. it is very loud and the young kids get violent when they drink too much. There should be a traffic light intalled at that corner, as the cars tend to speed through that intersection. it is an accident waiting to happen. I wish they would close it down.

  4. Shut ’em down – we don’t need this kind of thing in the Richmond.

    As for Aziza, I hope they stay.

  5. I live in the Richmond, right around the corner from Sam’s, and I frequent it all the time. I can say that we in fact DO need “this kind of thing” in the Richmond. It’s an institution, practically, and people from all over the city have heard of it and make it a destination. Yeah, it gets rowdy on the weekends, but so do tons of other bars; there’s thousands of them in the city. I do agree that a stoplight should be installed there though, that’s for certain.

    Try going there on a non-weekend day, and it’s a perfectly pleasant bar, and they do make decent tiki drinks. It’s a dive bar, no doubt a bout it.

  6. I personally don’t like Trad’r Sam’s, I am a pint and whiskey drinker, and sticky sweet drinks do not appeal to me. For the most part, the crowd is pretty young. Although I have two friends that work there, I almost never go, and every time I have been, for some reason the ladies room is flooded. It just isn’t my scene. But just because I don’t like it, I don’t think the place should be closed down and yeah the clientele today is not what you consider tiki bar.

    As to rowdy Irish bars, the closest one to Trad’rs is the Blarney, the pub I frequent. Fights there are rare and during the week it is mostly regulars. It too has changed over the years on Friday Saturday nights. And, it is can be pretty crowded during Niner and major Giants games. However, Sunday’s are usually “Sunday Funday” for the regulars.

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