Don’t slash prices, offer more incentives to Realtors to bring their clients through the door!
As always, we’ll give you half of that commission back, and if we win the Nordstrom’s schwag, we’ll give that to you as well.
-SomaGrand [website]
Tags: commission, Commission Rebate, SOMA, Soma Grand
Having just purchased our first bag of “Sweet Tooth Espresso” from Ritual Roasters after more than six years of dedicated grinding, tamping, and pouring exclusively of Blue Bottle Coffee, we’re a bit torn as to what to do. We’ve had Ritual on many different occasions, but allowing their beans to enter into the home, and thus the home espresso machine, is akin to having an affair right in front of your one true love.
Well, we’re giving it a go and Blue Bottle is going to have to be patient, but it got us thinking about which is “better” (or perhaps more popular is the real question), and why.
Our argument is for Blue Bottle, for what they have done to transform the landscape of coffee in San Francisco and the way a good espresso drink is poured and consumed. They’ve also transformed otherwise dumpy locales into hotbeds of activity (Linden Alley in Hayes Valley, and Mint Plaza in SOMA), and one could argue had a direct impact on property values (commercial and residential) in those areas. Blue Bottle knew how to draw a crowd at the Ferry Building and somehow keep people interested when the line stretched around the building. They’ve built a following, and continue to crank out excellent coffee in the same manner as when they began. Service at their Linden location is always with a smile (Mint Plaza staffers could use a little help in that regard), and although loaded with hipsters, you don’t get the feeling you’re just not hip enough to visit Blue Bottle Coffee.
We’re still warming up to Ritual, and don’t know enough about their flavors and their store to draw a completely honest opinion (first impressions have all been good), but as stated, they’re in our grinder and in our home now, so we ask…if YOU had to choose, would it be Ritual Roasters or Blue Bottle Coffee? At the very least, you have to admit it is just one of the many reasons we live here.
Oh…as for the logo competition, you gotta love Ritual’s.
[Editor's Note: Or is there someplace we're missing that we need to try? If you say Starbucks, you should be shot, and/or deported to a life in Strip Mall Suburbia Hell, because we got news for you, that ain't coffee, and how Starbucks made it past San Francisco's Anti Chain Store Law is beyond us.]
[Update: We'll definitely be trying De La Paz, and SightGlass soon enough!]
Tags: Battle Royale, Blue Bottle Coffee, Coffee, espresso, Hayes Valley, hotbeds, Mission, Ritual Roasters, san francisco, San Francisco Hot Spots, sf, SOMA
From “anon” on our recent post, “Battle Royale: San Francisco’s Infinity Tower Versus Some Peninsula Townhouse”:
SOMA would the be last place I’d buy in SF. It lacks any sort of SF feel, there is no personality nor night-life.
We don’t live down there, so can’t speak to daily life in the area, but we gotta ask…you SOMA folks gonna take that!?
[Update: In case you don't read comments or care to add insight, this is what you're missing:
This is probably from some [person] that rents in the Marina with his loose Armani Xchange Jeans on and a tight Ed Hardy T Shirt that tries to be hip and parties at Medjool on Saturdays, giving high fives to stangers at the club. . Is this a correct, assumption?
We’ll go ahead and throw an LOL in for that one! Don’t know about the assumption and don’t know the original commenter. Generally we shy away from, and don’t agree with, personal attacks, but since you don’t know each other either, we thought it a funny, stereotypical generalization about residents of the Marina. You Marina peeps gonna take that!?]
Tags: comment du jour, comments, san francisco, San Francisco Real Estate, SOMA
About once a month, on sfnewsletter, we put out our list of Stalefish Properties for our readers’ delight. Today, we thought we’d share that same list with you, and highlight some of the Stalefish swimming in that Stale Pond.
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175 Bright…future not so bright. It is a short sale (possibly the reason it still shows as active) and has spent a meager 291 days on the market. Maybe it’s because it shows “0 bedrooms, 0 baths”. That could be an issue.
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So you’ve heard of the “Little Engine That Could”, but what about the Little $6Million Firehouse That Can’t Sell? We have one of those in our Stale Pond too:
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Fans of Kirkwood Ski Resort? Well set this Stalefish free and live at 1526 Kirkwood St. in San Francisco…only 322 days on market:
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Take your pick at the Ritz, where for a mere $5.4Million you can get an unfinished slice of pie in the sky.
Not a fan of the raw, un-finished Stalefish swimming in the Ritz pond? Fear not, there are plenty of fully cooked units to choose from.
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Remember that ultra slick, sleek, can’t do no wrong building called the Brannan? Well, you can get this Stalefish for $1.4M (down from $1.8M), but beware…we see a ghost (likely just an agent skimping on photographer expenses) in that glass!
So what’s the moral of this Stalefish story. Although San Francisco’s Stalefish pond is filling up with properties, there are still many tasty treats to be had and buyers have bargaining chips on their side, so don’t be shy…jump in the Stale Pond with both feet and see what you can find swimming on the bottom!
[Editor's Note: What is a Stalefish? A property that has been on the market 100+ days (give or take). Nothing more, nothing less.]
Tags: Noe Valley, SOMA, Stalefish ™
Coming on the heels of our recent jaunt down to The Infinity, there were a couple questions that needed some clarification. Let’s get through those first, and then we’ll share our experiences of the much-hyped Tower II.
From “anon”:
What’s the price on those lovely midrise units? Are they willing to deal and if so, how much? Looking at deals for a 1 bed.
The answer: The mid-rise pricing for 1 bedrooms starts at $699,000. There are two studios, which are priced at $599,000 and $600,000. These are the last studios remaining. The sales office is happy to present any (reasonable) offer to the developer (so contact us).
From “Romeo Espedido”:
“Does tower 2 (T2) have the same floor plans as tower one (T1). Number of units per floor? Tower 2 looks skinnier than T1. Thanks.
The answer: Tower 2 does have the same floorplans and the square footages are pretty much the same as T1. Exact # of units per floor varies. Tower 1 is adjacent to the mid-rise building versus T2, which is more stand alone–as a result it may look skinnier than T1, but it is not. Also, as a result of the design of T2, they have several different floorplans in the lower floors including a 1 bedroom corner plan and several smaller 1-bedroom plans that start from $535,000.
From various readers around the blogosphere:
Are they going to forego selling the units and instead go the rental route?
Answer: No
Questions answered, now the pictures from the 27th Floor of T2:
Looking West from the balcony, T1 in the foreground, Millennium Tower in the distance, and ground breaking on temporary Transbay Terminal below:
Looking NW from the kitchen:
Looking NE from the living room, thats the Bay Bridge folks, and Treasure Island:
Apparently, theFrontSteps carries some weight, as we were privileged enough to go to many other floors than the 27th (like the penthouses), but we swore to keep the camera in the pocket and details zipped behind our lips (except the ~$7M price tag for one of those penthouses we’d gladly mix you a margarita in).
Needless to say, the views from Tower II on the North side of the building are hard to beat, and of course those are the units we were shown. Get on the south and you’ll definitely have some peeps looking in your windows, but that’s part of the fun, right. 
The details and finishes in the building are nice and clean, the floorplans work quite well, and the Infinity’s amenities (included in the HOA) are truly remarkable. The building is still very much in demand, and the place was buzzing with activity (yes, some contracts have already been written for Tower II). The pool area is great, the fitness room is huge (and was totally empty when we were there during business hours), and location is top-notch. So, if we had all the money in the world and could buy one unit at the Infinity, it would have to be one of the penthouses on the North East side of the building in Tower II, because we got beat out by another buyer on the second penthouse at The Millennium Tower. Damn!
As for pricing at The Infinity:
1 bedrooms from the mid $500,000s, square footage 700-1020
2 bedrooms from the high $700,000s, square footage 1160-1600
3 bedrooms from the high $900,000s, square footage 1630-1740
Penthouses…contact us
We have the deets, so don’t be shy getting in touch if you’d like a tour, or if you have any further questions. As always, thanks for hanging out on theFrontSteps, and happy housing!
Tags: New Developments, new developments san francisco, SOMA, South Beach, The Infinity
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