[NewMusic] Yoshi's SF

[Michael Zelner]

On 6/2/07, Phillip Greenlief wrote:

>Slusser:
>An upshot of this is that Yoshi's is concerned enough about their 
>reputation to spend money to make a better impression in the market. 
>This may be good news for jazz fans, for that's an indication of 
>someone in for the long haul.
>
>PG:
>Well, "long haul" can be interpreted here with some irony. It's 
>interesting that at the same time, Yoshi's is planning on closing 
>its Jack London Square location and heading to SF (Fillmore 
>District). They originally said they wanted to keep the Oakland 
>location open while opening another venue in SF. When that was the 
>plan they were willing to reveal, they said that their audience at 
>Jack London Square didn't include a lot of SF listeners, and that by 
>opening a venue in SF they could tap into a new listener's pool. 
>They were confident that the "old Yoshi's" (more irony, right?) 
>would continue to serve audiences from the east bay and beyond.

This afternoon, the San Francisco chapter of the AIA sponsored the 
first public tour of the new Yoshi's ("an architectural tour of the 
new 28,000 square feet venue that will occupy the ground floor of the 
Fillmore Heritage Center"). Here's some of the eyewitness account 
from one of the two non-architects who took the tour:

>* The venue itself will be larger than Yoshi's Oakland by about 50%.
>
>* There will be a mezzanine level that seats 100 (on 2 different 
>levels), and the main floor will seat 320 (on 3 different levels - 
>like Yoshi's Oak). For a total seating of 420..
>
>* There will be valet parking out front and there is a public garage on Eddy.
>
>* It will open 11/28 and the bookings are solid through February 
>2008. They wouldn't tip [the performers' names for] one frickin' 
>show.


>They assured us that it would only be a plus since they can bring in 
>more high-end jazz performers to the Bay Area. They implied the 
>performers would do stints at each venue so maybe the 5 night runs 
>will be 2 and 3 respectively. There will be 2 shows a night, exact 
>same set up as Oakland. Each open 365 days a years, shows 8 & 10 
>with Sundays 7 & 9.
>
>In fact, as part of negotiating the existence of Yoshi's SF they had 
>to re-up Yoshi's Oakland's lease for 10 years. So they are solid 
>there for the next 10. Same chef stays there so I think it will be 
>all fine.

A mockup of the new club:
<http://i101.photobucket.com/albums/m55/rudegrrlz/YoshisSF.jpg?t=1186626699>


MZ



--------------michaelz at zoka.com---
             Michael Zelner
---Oakland CA USA------------------