San Francisco Barleywine Festival: How Sweet it is

Entry fees, huge crowds, concerts and vendors hawking wares will not be in the cards for San Francisco's upcoming annual Barleywine Festival.

In its 16th year, the event will pay homage to its namesake alcoholic beverage from the confines of Toronado, an eclectic Lower Haight speakeasy.

Scantly broader than the width of two bowling lanes, it's a place where beer paraphernalia clings to the walls and cash on the barrelhead is the only acceptable means of payment.

The festival begins Feb. 14 and continues until Feb. 20 - or until the barley wine runs out.

"The festival is the most anticipated beer event of the year," said Steve Bruce, general manager of the Toronado.

"It will be pretty crazy here."

Strong ale of 18th century English origin, barleywine has an elevated alcohol content of 10 to 12 percent, according to the Campaign for Real Ale Web site.

From the standpoint of a dollar-to-buzz ratio, this relatively obscure nectar is moderately priced and provides an undeniable bang for your buck in trying economic times.

"More and more craft brewers are producing for this event," said Bruce, who believes that barleywine's popularity is brewing among mainstream beer drinkers.

This year, over 50 varieties will be featured from microbreweries nationwide with names as creative as those bestowed upon racehorses: Mortification, Old Guardian, Three Sheets and Noggin Floggin.

Barleywines will be judged professionally on the first day of the event.

Debate lingers as to whether barleywine is beer or wine.

Despite its potency and long-term storage ability - akin to wine - it is actually beer, owing to its grain-based formula.

Sweetness and bitterness are blended to create a sipping beer often served in wine glasses.

"It is an interesting time at the Toronado because the festival not only draws the regular crowd, but also connoisseurs from around the region who wish to get a once-in-a-year taste from breweries far and wide," said Gianpaolo Perrone, a San Francisco conservation manager and barleywine aficionado who has attended the festival for the last two years.

"Many of the barleywines on tap get their only pour at Toronado during the upcoming week, and there are numerous breweries that will only be showcased during the Barleywine Festival."

Maria Cisneros, a San Francisco waitress who sporadically patronizes the Toronado, smirks and points to a bumper sticker on the wall opposite a row of timeworn pub tables: Corporate Beer Sucks.

"This isn't the sort of place you come for a Miller High Life and pretzels," Cisneros said. "The Toronado's beer selection defies imagination and the barleywine is the best by far."

Barleywine's sweet scent will be interrupted only by the occasional aroma of food, as outside fare is welcome in the Toronado.

Myriad plates - including sausage and wild boar - can be ordered from Rosamunde next door and tamales wrapped in paper towels are sold from a wheeled plastic cooler by a regular street vendor.

During the festival, the Toronado will be open from 11:30 a.m. until 2 a.m. daily.

As has been the case with past festivals, it will be expected for lines to form outside before the doors open and for the bar to be crowded throughout the day.

Those who catch a heavy buzz from the barleywine can let Muni be their designated driver.

Muni trolleybus routes 6 and 22 stop within a block of the Toronado, and the K, L and M metro lines serve the Church Street station, three blocks south.

Note: This story - authored by Christian Goepel - appeared in the Feb. 12, 2009, edition of the Golden Gate [X]Press under the title "Barleywine varietals offer comfort at festival."

Fighting Hip, but Formula Retail in the Mission District

The eclectic Mission District – fashionable with San Francisco State University students - is a hipster paradise. Yet some residents and businesspeople hip to American Apparel’s bid to add a store to the neighborhood are voicing opposition.

“Nothing is more important to me than stopping American Apparel from coming into the Mission,” said Stephen Elliott, a writer and neighborhood resident, who formed Stop American Apparel in response to the clothier’s desire to open a location in a vacant narrow storefront at 988 Valencia St.

Since its creation in mid-January, the group has launched a blog, distributed posters and postcards – and, with the assistance of local Pirate Cat Radio – it has assembled a grassroots coalition of individuals and business owners.

The group aims to protect the colorful character of the Mission and save independently owned concerns from closure or relocation due to inflated rents.



“The people that suffer the most are local business owners, I think, because there is no rent control for businesses in California,” said Elliott.

David Marks opened Room 4 down the block last year to peddle vintage clothing and expressed concern about how American Apparel’s presence may alter the economic climate of Valencia Street.

“In the short term it would bring more people down here, but I think in the long term it would really hurt the street because rents are going to go up,” Marks said. “I don’t want them here because I don’t want to go out of business.”

Elliott and Stop American Apparel believe this situation will set a precedent for future development in the neighborhood.

“For Valencia, this is the first time that this has come up since Proposition G passed in 2006, so it’s really a test case,” said Elliott. “It’s not about American Apparel; it’s strictly about formula retail.”

San Franciscans passed Proposition G in 2006, requiring that formula retail companies – those operating 11 or more stores in the U.S. that maintain standardized features - attain a conditional-use permit from the city before starting a business in a designated neighborhood commercial district like Valencia Street. American Apparel’s permit application comes in front of the San Francisco Planning Commission at City Hall on Feb. 5.

California-based American Apparel manages a sweatshop-free factory in Los Angeles, provides employees with healthcare benefits and competitive wages, speaks out politically and showcases controversial advertising. The company has 260 locations in 19 countries and already operates stores in San Francisco’s Cow Hollow, Haight-Ashbury, and Union Square, according to its Web site.



“I believe in San Francisco that it’s not really possible for chain stores to beat out local businesses … the demand for diversity is so great,” said Mark Pauley, a software engineer and occasional American Apparel customer who lives within shouting distance of the proposed store location. “I think that being extremely protectionist and getting a bunch of people out to say that this would be horrible for our neighborhood is a little bit extreme.”

If Elliott has anything to say about it, Stop American Apparel will live up to its name and mission.

“I think there are probably some people that want American Apparel, but they are definitely the minority,” said Elliott.

Nevertheless, plans to open the store are progressing.

“The lease is signed and the reason it has been such a deliberate, methodical process is that we’re trying to get it right,” said American Apparel strategist Ryan Holiday in an e-mail interview. “We’ve been getting feedback from officials, making sure that everything is in compliance, getting a genuine sense of the neighborhood so the store can be a part of it.”

The company informed the community of its intent to enter the neighborhood lightly via a letter posted to the Mission Mission blog on Jan. 26. “Because at the end of the day, if the community doesn’t want us there, we have no intention of forcing our way in,” the letter said.

“A lot of people have asked to speak on behalf of American Apparel, and it looks like a big part of the community is going to recommend that we continue with the plans,” Holiday said.

Stop American Apparel is busying itself by bolstering community support, accumulating petition signatures and hosting events. Twenty individuals assembled in front of 988 Valencia St. to demonstrate on Jan. 31. A rally and session for composing letters to city supervisors and the Planning Commission – on typewriters, no less - will be held at Amnesia Bar on Feb. 2.


This story - authored by Christian Goepel - appeared in the Feb. 5, 2009, edition of the Golden Gate [X]Press.

Update: The San Francisco Planning Commission denied American Apparel's request for a conditional-use permit on Feb. 5.