@MissBigelow
Heart and soles with St. Mary’s dedication, Christian Louboutin.
It’s no easy feat transforming a hospital hallway into a swanky cocktail party. Yet that setting recently drew a bevy of bigwigs celebrating ... a vascular center at St. Mary’s Medical Center.
The newly named TakahashiSuzuki Heart & Vascular Center is an $8 million, high-tech wonder — complemented by the Denise and Prentis Cobb Hale Hybrid Suite/ OR, replete with a robotic C-arm and a glamorous plaque adorned by a dazzling David Downton illustration of Denise Hale.
The whole shebang is the hospital’s largest-ever campaign thanks solely to donor contributions, led by Margine Sako, executive director of the St. Mary’s Foundation.
That healthy sum ballooned with a $2.9 million bequest from the Takahashi-Suzuki family, longtime S.F. importers of Japanese goods. Their efforts were joined by a $1 million gift from Hale in honor of her late husband and St. Mary’s Dr. Remo Morelli and Dr. Pamela Lewis.
This year also marks 160 years of compassionate care in San Francisco by St. Mary’s Sisters of Mercy. And Dignity Health President-CEO Lloyd Dean reminded former Mayor Willie Brown and Board of Supervisors President
London Breed the city still owes a tidy sum to the good sisters.
“The Sisters of Mercy have a $100,000 bill for services from 1857 when they ran the city’s first county hospital,” announced Dean, with a laugh. “Now fast forward, plus interest, and the sisters would like to collect their $400.74 million dollars. Compound interest is a wonderful thing.”
Dean donated a large-scale S.F. General Hospital heart-work by artist Anthony K. Hall Jr. to grace the center’s outdoor entrance. And in lieu of a check, Breed presented the Sisters of Mercy with a mayoral proclamation.
Well-heeled: Celebrated shoe designer Christian Louboutin recently touched down on Maiden Lane at his eponymous boutique for a cocktail klatch. He was flocked by his faithful kitted out in his high-altitude, red-soled heels.
His haute couture presence on a random September night felt a bit like a UFO flyby. But as Louboutin missed the 2014 opening of his beauteous jewel-box boutique, this was a sort of do-over.
“For Europeans, San Francisco is highly regarded for its taste in food and wine, and of course its architecture,” Louboutin relayed later via email. “People are very warm and welcoming and our clientele is no exception.”
Yet it wasn’t all sales talk — Louboutin was feted the night before by Sloan Barnett at her Gold Coast crib, where savvy social media sharers could not resist the sun setting below the Golden Gate Bridge in a blaze of Louboutin’s signature hue.
Hot stuff: Speaking of four-alarm red, the women of the San Francisco Fire Department recently celebrated a milestone: 30 years of service in a city department that previously did not employ
their gender. Today SFFD boasts 272 female firefighters — the largest percentage in the U.S.— led by one of the nation’s first female appointees: Chief Joanne Hayes-White.
To ring in that achievement, this posse gathered at 111 Minna Gallery to benefit the United Fire Service Women, a nonprofit dedicated to the welfare of female firefighters.
And Sen. Dianne Feinstein was on hand to sing the praises for the fete’s firefighting honorees: Mary Carder (ret.); Rescue Squad 1’s Sara Coe; Frances Focha (ret.); Engine 33 Lt. Shelia
Hunter; and ret. Lt. Eileen McCrystle Tellez.
“In my years as supervisor and mayor, we had a lot of department dustups,” Feinstein said. “But the time finally came to accept women in the department. I might tell you, it wasn’t popular. Now 16 percent of the San Francisco Fire Department is female.”
Déjà vu: It’s been 10 years since restaurateur Anna Weinberg plunged her steak knife into the EssEff cuisine scene. Amid the roiling restaurant biz, that one decade can feel like forever.
That forever feeling was on display at the recent opening party for Weinberg’s latest Parisian-inspired boite, Petit Marlowe on Townsend Street, the fifth designed by Ken Fulk.
“Of all the spaces we’ve created together, Petit Marlowe feels the most nostalgic: like an old film with a strangely familiar setting,” Fulk says. “If Anna and I do anything extraordinarily well, it’s creating evocative spaces that feel like they’ve existed for ages. Even if it’s new to you.”
“Ken is the best editor — he’s like my Anna Wintour,” quips Weinberg, referring to the longtime Vogue magazine editor.
This is the sixth restaurant she’s opened with her business partners James Nicholas and chef Jennifer Puccio under their Big Night Restaurant Group (including Park Tavern, Marlowe, Leo’s Oyster Bar, the Cavalier and Marianne’s).
“This is born of a Paris trip James and I took with local chefs,” says Weinberg. who also lives in the SoMa hood. “In every restaurant we visited, we never once wondered about the owner or chef. What we loved was the neighborhood and cafe culture.”
The result: a cozy neighborhood wine bar-and-oysterette with French-inspired fare by chef Henry French for denizens not concerned by the score at nearby AT&T ballpark.
“Our goal is reliving that Parisian experience of a lazy afternoon in a lovely bistro, eating beautifully prepared ingredients and drinking interesting wines,” the New Zealand blonde says. “And, hopefully, a place you’re not distracted by your phone.”