Hayes Valley Secrets

In 1990, Hayes Valley was a scrappy neighborhood, with affordable (!) rents.  All bisected by the behemoth of the Central Freeway.  A noisy, dirty, elevated structure that nearly collapsed in the Loma Prieta Earthquake.  Gradually, over many years and political maneuvering, the freeway was torn down.   If you never saw the freeway, it is hard to imagine it was ever there.  

Commercial rents were low back then and retail pioneers started to take a chance on Hayes Valley.  In those days they were local, homegrown businesses.  Many of those shops were too high end for the times.  Quite a few lasted about a year.  There were even rumors of money-laundering fronts.  That said, some succeeded for a long time and a handful of the original stores are still in the neighborhood.   Today, Hayes Valley has become one of the most expensive retail strips in one of the most expensive cities in the world.  No one will be opening up a shop or restaurant without deep pockets and wealthy investors.

In the 1990s one of my favorite hang outs was a small café called Momi Toby’s.  I had spent countless hours there by the time I discovered the hidden world beneath the café and sidewalk prisms just out front.  One day, I was in the neighborhood with an open studios map and one of the locations was Momi Toby’s.  

At first, I assumed I would see an art show in the café.  I stepped inside, what I thought was a wooden panel had been opened.  It revealed a hidden doorway and a narrow, windy staircase.  It was like a secret passage.  The stairs took me below the café to a large, high-ceilinged, room that expanded below the sidewalk.  Natural light filled the space.   It was so unexpected — it was magical. The room was tiled with built in ovens along one wall.  I discovered the building had once been home to a bakery and below Momi Toby’s was now Tinhorn Press.  

Tinhorn Press is gone.  Momi Toby’s eventually changed hands, the prices climbed. Now it is replaced by a smart bar.  Still, when I walk down Laguna Street, I often think about the secret world under my feet.   A world far cooler and more interesting than a neighborhood with shops that sell $500 shoes and thimbles of ice cream for $7.