Castro

Last month, the San Francisco Small Business Commission added Castro travel agency Yankee Clipper Travel (4115 19th St.) to the city's Legacy Business Registry, which recognizes "longstanding, community-serving businesses."

After a 14-month pandemic-induced hiatus, Castro neighborhood bar Moby Dick (4049 18th St.) reopened its doors today at 1 p.m.

Tomorrow, a coalition of Castro neighborhood organizations will celebrate Harvey Milk Day on what would have been the former Supervisor's 91st birthday.

Castro residents will soon have another cafe option in the neighborhood. Mission Bay-based mobile cafe Spro Coffee Lab will be opening its second location at 500 Church St., formerly Mauerpark.

It's been a long 14 months of total closure for a pair of acclaimed neighborhood restaurants, Octavia and Frances, both of which were opened by chef Melissa Perello in the last decade. And she says that the team is taking the task of reopening them one step at a time, with Octavia happening first.

Later this summer, Hot Johnnie's pastrami sandwich shop will be opening in the Castro at 4077 18th St., formerly Nizario's Pizza.

Castro residents and visitors out for a Sunday stroll will have the opportunity to view panels of the AIDS Memorial Quilt at two locations around the neighborhood this weekend.

While San Francisco's Pride parade will again not take place this year, the traditional Pink Triangle atop Twin Peaks will again be lit up like a giant gay beacon, this time throughout Pride Month.

After months of delays, the Castro/Upper Market Community Benefit (Castro CBD) held a virtual town hall Tuesday about its proposal to install a private network of 125 security cameras, and it was highly contentious.

After 13 years in the Castro, neighborhood watering hole Last Call Bar (3988 18th St.) has been sold to new owners.

A new custom fine jewelry workshop Nick Engel & Co., which has been downtown for about 12 years, has opened in the Castro at 4011 18th St., formerly Mini-Chic and Turkish Modern.

Last week, the Friends of Harvey Milk Plaza (FHMP) held two virtual town halls seeking community feedback about its plans to redesign Harvey Milk Plaza, and the new design team offered multiple new conceptual approaches.

After a four-month hiatus, Castro cocktail bar Blackbird reopened Wednesday with expanded outdoor seating.

The one-story, flatiron-shaped building that once lived at 2100 Market was home to multiple businesses over several decades. One of its brief incarnations in the 1970s, a 24-hour diner called The Truck Stop, figures into the unsolved case of "The Doodler," a serial killer who preyed on gay men in San Francisco, and about whom Chronicle reporter Kevin Fagan has just done a new podcast.

Hoodline has learned that two people who are part of the restaurant group behind two-Michelin-starred Saison are set to open a new Mexican restaurant at 2223 Market St., formerly Nomica and before that neighborhood favorite 2223 Restaurant.

In this edition: a barbershop reopens, a social club expands, a hair salon temporarily moves, and a community group has launched an online survey about the redesign of Harvey Milk Plaza.

The storefront at 575 Castro Street, which for over a decade has been home to a Human Rights Campaign (HRC) merchandise store but which was once the home of the camera store out of which Harvey Milk did much of his early political work, may be destined to become a national historic site. HRC announced that they are vacating the space in April, and the landlord has hinted at something "much larger" on the way.

Every Sunday through the end of June, a block off Noe and Market streets transforms into an outdoor art market, where passersby can purchase anything from potted succulents to psychedelic portraits from participating vendors.

Earlier this month the Castro Merchants were selected as one of four SF merchants' associations to receive a $50,000 Avenue Greenlight grant.

Castro residents and visitors looking for a place to satisfy their sweet tooth now have a new option. Turkish and Greek dessert shop Aegean Delights is now open at 545 Castro St, formerly Best in Show.

Fable co-owners Ramsey Garcia and Jon Vargas tell Hoodline about their pivot to takeout, getting a too-small PPP loan, and spending part of last year renovating their garden patio.

The 7-Eleven convenience store at 3998 18th St. (at Noe St.) has permanently closed, and Hoodline has learned its last day in business was Thursday, March 4.

Castro's apartment-ready plant shop Plant Therapy has outgrown its current location at 2095 Market St. (at Church St.) and opens tomorrow in a new, larger location.

The Subway sandwich shop at 2375 Market St. in the Castro has permanently closed.

Since the Castro Merchants launched a broken-window recovery initiative and survey last Thursday, neighborhood business owners have reported 72 incidents of vandalized and broken windows at a cost of $135,472.74.