[Dixielandjazz] New Preservation Hall plans to open in San Francisco!

[David M Richoux]

from a SF Chronicle restaurant "gossip" column:

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/07/15/DDFE1EDKKJ.DTL&type=food

One of the country's top-notch jazz venues is ready to splash into the  
Mission.

If all goes to plan and the permits fall into place, New Orleans'  
iconic Preservation Hall will open a San Francisco offshoot, possibly  
as soon as next summer.

It's all part of the New College project (777 Valencia St.) from A  
Coté owner Jack Knowles. As it turns out, he's pretty good friends  
with Preservation Hall creative director Ben Jaffe, whose parents  
founded the New Orleans music institution in the 1960s.

The duo is plotting a West Coast branch of the world-class jazz venue,  
a place where musicians can come for extended residences.

Jaffe, a New Orleans native who has spent countless summers jamming in  
Stern Grove, sees the hall as a perfect fit for the vibrant Mission  
District.

"My whole life we've received offers to do projects outside of New  
Orleans, but they always felt too commercial and would compromise what  
we've built over the last 100 years," he says. "But when Jack showed  
me the space, it immediately struck me that's what it should be."

To complement the venue, Knowles plans a 135-seat restaurant serving -  
what else? - New Orleans cuisine. But it won't be fancy fare -  
instead, it will be more casual, with a prominent bar area, fried  
foods, small plates and beers aplenty.

The working name for the restaurant is the Chapel. It's a nod to what  
Knowles sees as the spiritual act of a community coming together to  
eat, drink and listen to music. Also, the building is a former  
mortuary and the music hall will occupy the original chapel.

Seems as good a place as any for the saints to go marching in.





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Dave Richoux