Seems like everyday in the Tendernob there’s some new teeny shop opening up. Just today, I noticed a dark-haired gal setting up a shop called Sportique around 810 Sutter Street, between the HUF skate shop and the Silverman art gallery.

Previously, the space (which is seriously the size of my bedroom) held some kind of weird clothing store that never had more than one rack in it at a time. Sportique isn’t open yet, but from what I can see it’s basically a boutique-y version of REI. They carry polarized sunglasses, canteens, fleeces, hoodies, t-shirts with graphic prints, and outdoorsy jackets by Helly Hansen. I’ll stop back by tomorrow to get a better look, and maybe I’ll be able to talk to some staff. As I passed by today, the shop girl was still literally unpacking boxes of merchandise and hadn’t even gotten to folding all of it yet. So far though, the store looks welcoming and even though I’m not an outdoors kinda gal, I liked the stuff they had. Bienvenue, Sportique, and à demain!

(Helly Hansen jacket below. Disclaimer: I have no idea if Sportique carries this particular item, I just to show the type of stuff they offer. Plus, I wanted to put a pic in the post.)

If you missed our TenderNight last week, then you missed the story Julie told on where she found the inspiration for her wonderful I live here: SF project. The short answer is: at Queen of Sheba, a Middle Eastern store at the corner of Sutter and Larkin run by this lovely Yemeni lady named Ghalyia. For those not up on history, the Queen of Sheba was a legendary story with a ruler that was thought to be from any number of places including Yemen, thus the association.

The long story goes something like this:

I meant to go to the Castro, but instead I ended up in the Tenderloin (again).

Walking up Sutter Street, it started to drizzle and I tucked my camera inside my coat. I’m learning. I’m not getting my camera wet anymore.

Across the street from a pawnshop was a corner market where most of the writing on the awning had faded or was rubbed out. But you could see where it said Middle Eastern Foods. That was enough to get me across the street. The open door with the smell of spices got me inside.

Near the doorway were three older women wearing long tunics and headscarves. The eldest woman had a blue painted line running vertically from her lower lip down her chin. (I am not sure what that marking means, if anyone else does, please enlighten me.)

A television was playing in Arabic.

Feeling somewhat shy, I ducked around the back of the store to see if I could find some of my favorite coffee. I love my Cafe Najjar with cardamom, and it’s hard to find. And I was enjoying wandering the narrow aisles, looking at all of the juices (blueberry, mango, pomegranate, tamarind) and packets of spice blends (kebab, za’ atar, baharat).

I came up to the counter with my little bag of coffee, and noticed near the register boxes of Turkish delight, and little candied fruits wrapped in plastic.

The woman behind the counter beams as I finger the candies. “Oh my God,” she says, with a little lust in her voice. “I love those so much. I eat too many of them.”

That’s all I need for a testimonial, so I choose one of each. She takes an apricot. “Oh my God, this one is my favorite.” She unwraps it and takes a bite of it like it’s her last meal.

“You like cardamom?” she asks, looking at the coffee.

I love cardamom, I tell her.

You like tea? she asks.

Just tell me what to buy and I’ll get it, I tell her.

Come with me, she says, and I follow her to the back of the store. She disappears into the back room and then emerges with a sizeable tub of black tea leaves.

She smiles as she takes the plastic lid off of the tub.

Smell this, she says knowingly. She makes it herself, she tells me proudly, mixing four different kinds of tea with cardamom.

OH my god, I think. It smells like heaven.

You can read the rest of Julie’s lovely story over at Tangobaby, her old blog that she doesn’t update anymore. You can also see a picture of Ghaliya and her friend Aicha over at Caliber.

Unfortunately, now you won’t be able to find Ghaliya at the Queen of Sheba Market anymore. She had to retire due to some knee problems, that require surgery. It’s sad to be losing such a person in the neighborhood, but as they say, that is life. The store has a new owner now (a big Palestinian fellow with a deep voice named Nasser). It’s been remodeled and is now called the Jerusalem Market, but more on that later.

A while back we told you about The Loin t-shirt by Red Choo Choo, which was a nice addition to the existing collection by the loin. Some months back, when we were looking to print some t-shirts for a fundraising campaign we went to Ape Do Good printing in the Mission. In their Flickrstream we saw this cool t-shirt honoring our neighborhood:

Photo from Ape Do Good flickr

Since then a few people have sent us the link, but as Ape Do Good made it for a client a while back, they don’t know where they are sold. We haven’t seen them anywhere, but maybe you, dear Tender Readers, know more about its origin and whereabouts?

Our t-shirt/print shop of choice is, of course, the loin. And even if you don’t live in the Tenderloin, it should be yours too. They not only print t-shirts, but also skateboards and anything that has a flat surface (watch out top of Bill’s head). And basically, they’re all kinds of awesome. For example, on Thursday they gave a free paper printing workshop at the Museum of Craft and Folk Art. Apparently, this museum has a Craft Bar every first Thursday of the month.

You can buy the loin’s designs online or personally at these shops. Or you can make them print your own.

Photos courtesy of Megan Wolfe

Quoting Kevmo over at Uptown Almanac, I’m not big into Etsy but I’m big into this. I love the Orpheum Theatre.

Pillow by NestaHome

You can buy it here, made by an artist from Arizona that goes by the name of NestaHome. She also has it in a print format, as well as a whole collection of pillows and prints of San Francisco. Including this one of the Renoir Hotel, just a few steps away from the Orpheum Theatre:

The surprising thing about this series is that not a single one of the pieces is of the Golden Gate bridge. Shocking.

Have you ever had one of those mornings where you wake and think, “Shit, I totally forgot to get that glass dildo…”? For those that have this immediate need, there is Glass Kandi, or as seen in the photo above, better known as “Glass Dildo Me”. I don’t often walk along the 500 block of Geary for some reason, which is why I guess I never came across shop that has apparently been open for about two years or more. That and the fact that my glass dildo needs are admittedly minimal. I am curious though, if they supply the armaments for the “war nights” at New Century. Probably not as given their location, they most likely consider themselves to be a Union Square dildo shop and not a Tenderloin dildo shop.

Yeah, you thought it was going to be “Johnny’s Tranny Shack” or “Empire Massage and Donuts”, but no, this has to be the best name for a store that we’ve seen. Obviously, we’re always up for suggestions.

“Heart of the City” is probably the second cheesiest name ever for a market, being only narrowly beat out by “Tony’s Fruit-Splosion!” on Highway 70 in Marysville. But, we never call it by its official name and really, who does besides the market itself on its website? Civic Center Farmers’ Market or even CiCeFaMa, sounds so much better… And while it’s not the biggest, most assorted or fanciest farmers’ market out there in this food-obsessed city (and it only happens twice a week), I feel the need to declare my unconditional love for the HOCFM publicly.

The Tenderloin is a neighborhood seriously lacking proper grocery stores, as mentioned by District 6 Supervisor candidate Theresa Sparks in this interview (go to 12:20 – the interview is painfully long and at times as boring as a Wednesday night at The Ambassador, but there are a few interesting comments about the Tenderloin). I hope Sparks’ idea of offering incentives to grocery stores to move into the Tenderloin materializes, but in the meantime I feel lucky and incredibly thankful for this farmers market. I don’t have a car, and short of spending 3 hours roundtrip in going to Trader Joe’s, my only option for grocery shopping are the little convenience stores with expired packaged stuff and little fresh produce short of their inherent mold aisles. But, as explained in this must-read article on how the poor pay more for everything, that sucks.

According to their website, the HOCFM was started in June 1981 (next year, 30th birthday party!) as part of an effort to help people gain access to a basic resource: food. They started with only 14 farmers, and today they have an average of 65. They’re mostly selling fruits and vegetables, but also fish, chickens, mushrooms, nuts, pop-corn, flowers, honey, home-made pasta and a few other good things. You can see some of them in these few shots I took this morning. After which I proceeded to buying a whole box of strawberries for $6, two bunches of sunflowers for $5, 3 pounds of cherry tomatoes for $2 and fresh mint & basil for $1. You can’t beat that.

A couple of weeks ago we got word of a new San Francisco t-shirt company called Red Choo Choo launching a design honoring our hood – aptly named ‘Loin‘. Thanks to The Loin (a cool underground print shop that we visited recently) we already own cool t-shirts showing our proud love to the neighborhood. Of course, I thought it wouldn’t hurt to add one more to the collection to flaunt a full-frontal Loin when the occasion called for it.

Two days after my online order, the shirt came in the mail. Unfortunately, it was bigger than I had expected, so this morning I emailed the engineers running, Red Choo Choo asking if I could change it. Just a few hours later, Mike showed up at my place with a smaller Loin t-shirt (and wearing one himself, as you can see on the picture). So I took the opportunity to catch up with him and ask him a couple of questions. I found not only out that he loves Barcelona and would like to move there one day, but also how he started his t-shirt company.

It turns out Mike is not a designer or an artist by training. He actually has a background in finance. He moved to San Francisco over 10 years ago and was working as a mortgage markets analyst (or something boring like that), but then the company he worked for was bought out. So about a year and a half he decided to start his own company. He told me that he taught himself Photoshop, Illustrator and how to make a website, and so Red Choo Choo was born. I couldn’t help but asking him about the cute name, which has an equally cute logo that is printed on every t-shirt. Mike said that he wanted a name that was easy to remember, and toy trains are usually the first memorable toys kids have.

Red Choo Choo is based in the Mission and sells its designs in a number of stores around the city (such as Molte Cose in Nob Hill, Rag in Hayes Valley & WinkSF in Noe Valley), but none in the Tenderloin. So why did Mike decide to create a t-shirt on this particular neighborhood? The Red Choo Choo website says the following:

The Tenderloin district in San Francisco is filled with unique characters and establishments that would not fit neatly into a monthly catalog. As the city tries to market the area as a gritty, urban enclave (NY Times), we know the reality of crime and drugs will always be a part of what is ironically, also the area filled with most of the hotels for tourists. Show your love to the area that I would rather spend time in than Fisherman’s Wharf.

Mike added that he likes the Tenderloin because it’s probably the only part of town that hasn’t been gentrified (or not completely, at least) and that it still has a city feel. It’s also an area where real people live, you can still find mom & pop shops, and really good unpretentious food. He also said that every city has a Tenderloin, so Tenderloin means history, and San Franciscans often don’t appreciate that enough. It’s also funny that so many tourist hotels are located in this area, but so few of those tourists actually hang out in it. Some might say it’s for the better, but it’s still a neighborhood that has a lot to offer beyond the general perceptions of hookers, meth, and booze. As the t-shirt says, it’s the tender part of San Francisco. If you know where to chew, that is.

• You can buy the Loin t-shirt online here for $25
• And you can follow Red Choo Choo on Twitter or like them on Facebook

Local photog Ron Font has a photoessay up on SF Public Press showing the shuttering of Sutter Street. Over the past few years, the recession has hit Sutter Street hard, closing galleries and shops. A few new businesses have popped up in the area, mostly tiny hipster shops like Invisible Stripes, but there’s still a lot of empty storefront. Now, as Tenderblogois blogged earlier, whether you consider Sutter Street part of the Tendernob  is a matter of opinion. To see more of Sutter, click here for the entire photoessay.