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When you work at a local store, you become a celebrity. Therefore, it behooves you to be charming. Frank Chamberlain, who worked for 22 years at the Good Life Grocery at 448 Cortland St., absolutely nailed the assignment.
When he died on Oct. 27, at age 67, his absence left a huge hole in Bernal Heights.
“He didn’t like anything, Frankie loved everything,” said Samantha Zuvella, the owner of the neighborhood grocery store. “He loved people. He loved the Good Life Grocery. He made us his family. He made a lot of the people in this neighborhood his family.”
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Those who knew Chamberlain can reel off those loves by memory: the House of Prime Rib, the steak and mashed potatoes at Vega, the blue suede smoothie at Progressive Grounds, the soups at Moonlight Cafe, the drinks at Wild Side West, and the feeling of a long bike ride.
The table inside of Vega where Frankie normally sat, pictured Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2025. Photo by Oscar Palma.
Chamberlain’s dislikes were rare, but also passionate. “He didn’t like veggie soups,” said Shayne Hill-Zeck, an employee at Moonlight Cafe. Whenever Chamberlain opened the door to the cafe, Hill-Zeck recalled, and a veggie soup was on the menu, staff would yell “Lentils!” as a warning, and Chamberlain would make a hasty retreat. Also: smartphones. “He had an iPhone for one day and he hated it,” said Zuvella. “He returned it the next day and got his flip phone back.”
Customers, fellow coworkers and employees at nearby businesses described Chamberlain as a force of kindness, friendship and compassion. He’d dress up on Halloween and Easter and hand out candies to kids. He’d buy a coffee, a sandwich, a smoothie, a drink, or a meal for coworkers. He would give customers samples like no one else could.
“Everyone’s very sad,” said Jocelyn Navarrete, an employee of nine years at the Good Life Grocery, “A lot of customers have come up to us with teary eyes giving their condolences to the company. He was a big part of it.”
It was not rare to encounter Chamberlain along the Cortland Avenue commercial corridor before and after his shifts — even though he lived downtown. One could find him having an after-work drink and playing Dolly Parton at the jukebox inside the Wild Side West, or having dinner at Vega, a restaurant he visited multiple times a week, sometimes alone, sometimes with friends.
Chamberlain, a former U.S. Marine and a proud veteran, grew up in the South with his two sisters — either Alabama or Oklahoma according to Zuvella. He moved to California, Stockton first, and headed with a friend to San Francisco in the 1980s.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Terry Casey, who met Chamberlain nearly 20 years ago, stood outside of the Good Life Grocery in front of a glass-covered bulletin board with Chamberlain’s photo. Plastic flowers and candles adorned the image.
A small altar for Frankie Chamberlain outside of the Good Life Grocery, where he worked for 22 years, on Wednesday Nov. 19, 2025. Photo by Oscar Palma.
“Some called him the mayor of Cortland Street. A lovely guy,” said Casey. To the dogs of Bernal, Casey added, Chamberlain was also a legend. “There are owners who say that when their dogs walk by they turn in towards the store and bark because they think Frankie will come out and give them a treat.”
“Children loved him because he’d give them candy,” said Gustavo Lopez, as he contemplated Chamberlain’s photo. “He’d always put water out for dogs too.”
Once, Casey said, she found herself $14.77 short at the register when buying groceries. As she was about to put items back, Chamberlain came running, took money out of his pocket, and made up the difference.
“He didn’t even know my name. He’d just seen me lots of times,” said Casey. “I came running back that day to pay him back because I felt terrible. I was so grateful. He acted sort of surprised. He was like ‘You could have just gotten it the next time you came.’”
“He did that with me!” Lopez said. “I was a dollar short and he just said ‘Pay me back.’”
Chamberlain’s cause of death was unknown, but before he died he spent a month at Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital in a coma. While Chamberlain was in the hospital, Good Life put out paper hearts for customers to send a message.
The result was overwhelming: About a thousand people wrote him notes — so many that they papered the walls of his hospital room. They now line the stairway leading to the employee’s breakroom, and Zuvella’s office.
Hundreds of paper hearts that customers and coworkers wrote for Frankie along the staircase leading to the employees break room at the Good Life Grocery on Wednesday Nov. 19, 2025. Photo by Oscar Palma.
A photo of Frankie amongst hundreds of paper hearts customers and coworkers wrote in his honor, on Wednesday Nov. 19, 2025. Photo by Oscar Palma.
“He was just so innocent, sweet, kind, gentle and pure,” said Zuvella. “His kindness really just went everywhere, and it just spread everywhere. It touched strangers in ways that they remember from years ago.”
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