Life in the Later Lane
Three generations of a San Francisco family thrived running popular oceanside eatery overlooking Sutro Baths
It was, you might say, the last breakfast. On a summer Saturday in 2020, dozens of family...
Art and science vied for Sarah Young’s heart: Both found a place
Few who end up in the hospital are likely to be thinking about whether there’s a sufficient,...
Baking for bodily autonomy: Nan Wiener tackles controversial end of Roe v. Wade with brownies, macaroons, muffins and more
SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – Many years ago, I spent a year baking desserts in a restaurant...
New author and former drinker embracing alternative therapies to help others break the habit
Seated in the backroom of a café on Polk Street, Kevagne Kalisch leans against the wall and...
From fisherman to cook to inmate to owner: Frankie Balistreri’s odyssey to opening his dream restaurant
When his mother, Lucrezia, was diagnosed with cancer, then 25-year-old Frankie Gaetano Balistreri cared for her at...
Wisdom of the Japanese Tea Garden helped volunteer Chrisie Giordano come to accept a child’s absence
It’s an overcast summer morning, and Chrisie Giordano is leading a tour of Golden Gate Park’s Japanese...
It’s the little things that count for Margaret Lew, swept up in the world of miniature craftmanship
If you think dollhouses are just for children, you haven’t met the artisans and collectors, like Margaret...
Desire to learn mah-jongg helped Stephanie Riger overcome her own biases toward seniors
SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – Even though I’m 78 years old, I have resisted seeing myself as...
Retirement can be scary. Library worker hoping the end of his career will be the start of a happy new chapter
Seventy-one-year-old Richard Marino is on the cusp of retirement. And it’s making him anxious. He’s gone through...
German Gonzalez, the maestro of Golden Gate Park, has spread music and joy for more than 50 years
He was in the sixth grade and really wanted to be in the school band. But his...
At 67, Lauren McNamara has embarked on a new career and she’s charming customers at a downtown hotspot.
Lauren McNamara makes sure to remember where the regular clientele at Sam’s Grill like to sit. She...
You can get — almost — anything you want at Joseph Omran’s Nob Hill grocery store
LeBeau Market calls itself Nob Hill’s Community Grocery Store, where you can get almost everything: from Lay’s...
Deborah Drysdale: social justice evangelist, bridge instructor, and amateur mixologist
Summers for Deborah Drysdale meant idyllic days at her grandparents’ cattle ranch in the Blue Ridge mountains...
Jonah Raskin: Tireless Bay Area peace activist, prolific writer, and educator
Jonah Raskin was 10 in 1952, during the height of the anti-communist fervor of the Cold War....
She brought the magic to the screen, finding the perfect San Francisco location to shoot movies, TV shows, and commercials
If you’d been walking along one of the steepest streets in San Francisco one sunny afternoon in...
She relives history as a guide on the SS Jeremiah O’Brien, one of the WWII Liberty ships that brought troops and cargo to Normandy beaches
Eve Maher hands out programs to visitors boarding the SS Jeremiah O’Brien for a tour and memorial...
Pen pals from afar build rich relationship over 60 years through old-fashioned correspondence – no WhatsApp about it
A SENIOR BEAT GUEST COLUMN – My correspondence with Jutta Mengersen (now Brockhaus), the “World’s Ideal Pen...
This Mexican immigrant fought in the ring, started a dozen restaurants, raised five children, and never let defeat wear him down.
When 17-year-old Jose Heriberto Garcia came courting the young girl who’d become his wife, his future mother-in-law...
The ghosts of San Francisco’s past are still there if you only look and listen
SENIOR BEAT COLUMN: I got my first job in San Francisco nearly 40 years ago, in the...
Mutual support but separate hobbies and workshops keep crafty couple’s marriage going strong
A stained glass window by Bill and a "fishing" quilt Etta made for him adorn a hallway...
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SENIORS TALK : Even if they avoided Covid, there is an emotional toll and worries about others
Although the worst of the pandemic has apparently passed, Covid remains an important concern for seniors. SeniorBeat went to the Dr. George W. Davis Senior Center in the Bayview district and asked seniors how Covid has affected their lives, the lives of people close to them, and what they are doing to stay safe. (Photos ...
Ikebana expert explains that a flower is not always just a flower, a stem not just a supporting actor
In the minimalist flower arranging practice of ikebana, certain rules must be followed: flowers are focal points; plant stems are not just supporting actors but lines in a work of art celebrating all of life. Begun centuries ago in China, then perfected in Japan, ikebana could be described as a physical manifestation of the Buddhist ...
Growing need for senior models opens unexpected new career for retired executive assistant
The linoleum on the floor of the attic bedroom in Seattle, where Alice Arikawa grew up, was embedded with the image of a prince looking longingly at the blond, blue-eyed, long-legged young woman. She would stare at it for hours. “I wasn’t anything like the blond girl – being short, stout, and Japanese, but I ...
High school programming prodigy keeps engaged in retirement with bridge, tennis and little spaceships
Bill Char was a tech bro before it was cool to be a tech bro. He learned to program a minicomputer when he was still in high school – back in the late ’60s, and early ’70s. He was so devoted to Star Trek that he conceived and helped develop a first-generation computer game called ...
Longtime business owners committed to keeping neighbors happy with chocolates from around the world and quirky packaging
Enter Jack Epstein’s cool, narrow shop and you walk a chocolate gauntlet down a central aisle: bars from around the world line the walls on either side. Individual confections, truffles, and foil-wrapped hearts perch on the lower shelves. No wonder the longtime Noe Valley business is called Chocolate Covered. He sources the sweet-smelling wares from ...
Alcatraz docent wants you to know there’s something special to see on the island – and it’s not just the cells of jailbirds
The 1.7 million tourists who visit Alcatraz every year are typically here to traipse through the cell block that held famous jailbird Al Capone. But in summer, there’s something special few are aware of. “Tourists don’t know this is a bird sanctuary,” said Kimberlie Moutoux, a 61-year-old retired elementary school art teacher and grandmother to seven ...
