The Excelsior: It's Not About "Potential"

When I was a kid, I was embarrassed to live in the Excelsior. I wanted to live somewhere "nice", like Noe Valley, where all the houses were freshly painted and there was no trash on the street. Back then, you would say the word Excelsior and no one even knew where you were talking about, even people from the city. 

Today, there are more hip young people and middle-class homeowners moving to the Excelsior than ever. I ran into someone I knew from Brooklyn; she now lives in the neighborhood. It was so strange that these people moved across the country to the little neighborhood I'd grown up in, one that few people had ever considered, that people had told me witheringly was "way out there."

But people need affordable places to live, and they are becoming increasingly scarce in SF. Plus, I knew she was aware of her role in gentrification; she and I had talked about the subject before. It wasn't like she was coming here to work at a startup and buy a condo.

Julia sent me a link to an article by a woman who considers herself "a pioneer of sorts" who recently moved to the "up and coming" (oh god) Excelsior, an, upon moving there, "longed to see a fixed gear bike or a tattooed girl walking down the street." Luckily, she managed to find some "diamonds in the rough," (all well-established Excelsior institutions) and came around to the hood, saying it has the "makings of an ultrahip neighborhood."

I met another young hip woman who worked in tech, she lived in the Excelsior too, off Ocean Avenue. She was really into Whole Foods. "Don't you love when you see hipsters in our neighborhood?" she asked.

Not really. 

It's not that I think hip young people are bad. I'm a hip young person. I'm sure people see me and think I moved here yesterday. (Once, while walking on 16th Street, some guy yelled "Hipsters!" in anger at my friends and I. True story.) Many interesting people are/were hip young people. My parents, and the parents of my SF native friends, were hip young people, some who moved here from across the county, knowing nothing about the city upon arrival. (My dad still likes to talk about, how when he got here in the 70's, he was shocked to find Haight Street "all boarded up.")

But I'm happy with how the Excelsior is now. In my dreams, hip young people and new yuppie homeowners like it too. 

"Urban" doesn't mean being surrounded by other hip young college educated people like yourself. It doesn't mean artisanal coffee and a wide variety of gluten-free prix fixe restaurants. Part of growing up in a city is being surrounded with people who are not like you and yet not being uncomfortable, not longing to see someone who fits in your own social group. Maybe you look around and people are not of your race or your economic class. Maybe the restaurants sell food you are not used to or do not look like the kind you went to back home. Maybe people speak another language than you. No one stares at you for the way you dress; no one is sizing you up; people mind their own business. 

The Excelsior isn't crying out for a Blue Bottle Coffee or a place that sells cured meats. Dry cleaners, hardware stores, pharmacies, hair salons, vegetable markets, inexpensive restaurants, thriving small businesses, handmade signs...aren't these enough? Why move to a city to go to a Whole Foods?

It's natural to want to be among your own kind; I get it. We all want that. And, historically, young people, especially hip ones, have shaken off the dust of their one-horse town to meet other hip young people and form a community in an urban area. And I know, for many people who have come from the suburbs, seeing a tattooed person or artisinal coffee shop might seem like a respite from what you're used to.

But if you want to be a citizen of the city, 4 real, you need a willingness to adopt local culture, and appreciate it for what is is, not what it could be if more white people moved to the area. To respect the local businesses and the ways of the hood. To not be grossed out by hole-in-the-wall restaurants, or upset by the lack of organic produce, or craft beer. 

The southern stretch of Mission Street bustles with activity and shoppers; there are few empty storefronts along a very long commercial corridor. The Excelsior doesn't suffer from urban blight or neglect or abandoned buildings, and crime is not a big problem. Many families live here, who own homes they worked hard to get. The Excelsior doesn't need to up and come, to wait for a brighter and more expensive future to fill the consumer needs of newcomers, even artistic young ones. These types of places are not what make a city great, and they are certainly not what make a city a city.  If that's what you want out of your neighborhood, you'll never be a citizen of San Francisco. 

Chick-N-Coop

Yay, the Chick-N-Coop! There are several Chick-N-Coop style restaurants in the Yay Area, not sure if they are related or not. There is definitely one on Mission in Daly City. Chick-N-Coop specializes in roast chicken and rotisserie meats, and is a popular lunch spot, with a lot of regulars who eat here every day. I would describe it as "hella Excelsior", cause you see all sorts of local people eating here.

Here I am looking like hell in front of the darling retro signage. Damn, my hair looks like a broom. I've got to start stepping it up for these LSF photo shoots, am I right? Anyway, Dan and I were here for the lunch special, which includes sandwich, salad, and coffee or tea for $7.99.

You slide your tray along, cafeteria style; all meats are carved to order, they really are the star of the show. No pre-sliced deli meats here!

Behind the counter looks totally awesome. As you can see, they offer roast chicken, roast beef, turkey pastrami, ham and corned beef, and you can get a dinner or a sandwich. They also have spaghetti, hamburger steak, and other classic entrees. Getting a roast chicken from here is a great take-out option for dinner!

The interior. It's very clean and well-maintained. 

And here is the sandwich, turkey on a roll. We split it because we weren't that hungry, but it's really big. Made to order with delicious real roast turkey on a fresh roll with mayo and iceburg (what is it with all the iceburg snobs anyway, you'd think with all this "elevating" of "lowbrow" food these days, people would realize how delicious and crunchy iceburg really is) mustard, and tomato.

It's hard to find a real meat sandwich these days, and to think you could go into that stinking pit Subway for some nasty-ass turkey loaf on frozen bread for the same price!

We got bean salad as the side. The sides here do tend to be cafeteria food-esque: instant mashed potatoes, jello pudding, and so forth. As stated earlier, the shining star is the delicious meats, but who doesn't find comfort in brown gravy or beet salad, served on an aqua tray?

Anyway, I have been going to Chick-N-Coop since I was a young girl, and, like the interior, the quality and value has not changed. It is an excellent lunch option and oh so Little San Francisco!

Chick-N-Coop

4500 Mission St

(between Excelsior Ave & Harrington St) San Francisco, CA 94112

Some Pretty Pictures

Apparently we are the worst at updating this blog. It would probably be easier if either of us actually LIVED in SF right now, but oh well. Here be some lovely photos of random stuff in San Francisco to enjoy:


The Dance Party Laundromat on the corner of Mission and Ocean. (Not really a dance party).


Ye Olde California Savings Bank sign on Mission & 16th.


Cute Art Deco Building somewhere downtown - Sutter Street maybe?


Postwar stucco houses on the North Side of Bernal Hill.


View of the Backs of some houses from a pedestrian overpass near the Glen Park Bart Station.


Twin Peaks & Sutro Tower from... Noe Valley, I think.


The Strand, and old theater on Market Street that has been empty forever.


Old Tile Storefronts on Market Street.



A really cute building and storefront in Chinatown.

More to come, I swear. Like, actual entries that I sorta did research on and stuff. For serious!

Driving Home at Sunset

Pointy Little House

This house looks like a gnome's hat. I should have photographed it with other houses to show how incredibly pointy it is, as you can't quite tell from this image. It's on Paris street between Brazil and Persia in the Excelsior. Who built this house? None of the other ones on the street look like this at all.

Perhaps the Cutest Building Ever

Here are some not-very-good photos of the Royal Baking Company building and storefront (plus an anonymous beautiful lady!) on Mission between Persia and Russia. I don't know anything about this building, but I'm guessing it was built around the 30's, and it is beyond adorable. They make their own bread and have a little bakery where you can buy rolls shaped like turtles and coffee, and are a relic from when the Excelsior was a predominantly Italian neighborhood. (More on that later!) There are lots of old businesses in the Excelsior, aka the neighborhood that time/the rest of the city forgot.

• Below is a better image I stole from flickr of the building before its recent paint job. Anyway, I hope the Royal Baking Co. is protected, because it's super unique and beautiful. I wonder what it looks like inside? Old deco tile? A girl can dream!