{"id":7862,"date":"2025-10-16T13:20:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:20:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/7862\/"},"modified":"2025-10-16T13:20:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-16T13:20:13","slug":"in-californias-coolest-neighborhood-residents-demand-somewhere-to-get-a-martini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/7862\/","title":{"rendered":"In California\u2019s \u2018coolest\u2019 neighborhood, residents demand somewhere to get a martini"},"content":{"rendered":"

Glen Park, the sleepy residential enclave southeast of Twin Peaks, seems like a lovely place to raise a family. You could even call it San Francisco\u2019s version of a small village \u2014 which in fact is what Glen Park residents label the two-block stretch around Diamond and Chenery streets: The Village. But you should not suggest that it is the coolest neighborhood on the West Coast, as TimeOut did in its annual list (opens in new tab)<\/a> of the world\u2019s coolest neighborhoods last month.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s certainly a charming place. On a recent crisp morning, enjoying an apple-and-cheese crepe at Higher Grounds Caf\u00e9, I gazed out on the picturesque shops and Victorians along Chenery. A great melting pot of white people, ranging from early middle aged to later middle aged, strolled and window-shopped. The sun shone. All seemed well.<\/p>\n

But next door to the pleasant creperie was a commercial vacancy that, for years, has threatened to break Glen Park\u2019s spell. The space has been empty since the pandemic forced the closure of beloved French bistro Le P\u2019tit Laurent, which had operated here for 13 years. (It had previously closed in 2019 when its original chef-owner, Laurent Legendre, moved back to France, and reopened only briefly under new ownership.) After five years of watching the primest of prime locations in the Village sit idle, some locals can\u2019t take it anymore.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot get a cocktail in Glen Park except for at The Station,\u201d fumed resident Nina Willdorf, a marketing consultant who, according to LinkedIn, helps CEOs \u201cidentify and attract the people that fuel the future of your business.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI know that sounds like first-world problems,\u201d she continued, \u201cbut that\u2019s the world we\u2019re living in.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ALe P\u2019tit Laurent, in Glen Park, has sat vacant since 2020. | Source: Max Harrison-Caldwell<\/p>\n

The main problem, per Willdorf, is that Le P\u2019tit Laurent is one of only two businesses in Glen Park with a full liquor license. The other is Glen Park Station, a dive bar across the street, which is known more for pints of Guinness than Aperol spritzes.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s right: In what\u2019s supposed to be one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world, there\u2019s not a single place for thirsty professionals to order a martini with their steak frites after a hard day of sending emails. Instead, they have to order vodka sodas from a place with pinball machines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The man at least partially responsible for this state of affairs is Manhal Jweinat, 72, who might just be the hardest-working guy in the neighborhood. In addition to owning the former Le P\u2019tit Laurent space, he owns Higher Grounds, where he spends his mornings behind the counter, and the Italian restaurant Manzoni, where he works evening shifts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Neighbors, including Willdorf, have expressed frustration that Jweinat seems content to let the old L\u2019Petit Laurent molder. Though he runs two other restaurants nearby, he seems to be in no hurry to crown his miniature empire with a third. Willdorf said she has tried to bring it up with him, but he doesn\u2019t want to talk about it.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re not communicating with anyone,\u201d Willdorf said rhetorically about the landlord. \u201cYou\u2019re not part of the merchants\u2019 association. It\u2019s so unneighborly. Like, what are you doing?\u201d<\/p>\n

Her husband, Michael Endelman, a project manager at Airbnb, echoed her concerns. \u201cI feel like he\u2019s holding it hostage, and it makes the neighborhood look bad,\u201d he said. \u201cIt makes it look like it\u2019s a blighted, unsafe neighborhood.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

(Note: Glen Park does not, in any way, resemble an unsafe neighborhood.)<\/p>\n

\"AResidents describe the vacancy as a blight on their charming village. | Source: Max Harrison-Caldwell<\/p>\n

In a brief moment when I was the only customer in Jweinat\u2019s creperie, I beckoned him over to talk. A soft-spoken older gentleman with white hair wrapping around the sides and back of his head, he smiled sadly when I asked him to respond to the charges that the vacant restaurant is a blight, an eyesore, and that his refusal to open, rent, or sell is selfish.<\/p>\n

\u201cTime flies when you\u2019re busy,\u201d he said. \u201cYou don\u2019t notice the days and years passing by.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jweinat explained that he wants his 35-year-old son, Raja, to be involved if and when he does reopen the restaurant. But the son is busy working as a cook at Chez Panisse, and doesn\u2019t yet know whether he wants to commit himself to a new venture, Jweinat said. (The son declined to comment.)<\/p>\n

Neighbor Joe Dimento said he often catches the bus outside the empty space where Le P\u2019tit Laurent should be, and wonders why he can\u2019t get a glass of wine there like he used to.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But unlike Willdorf, who is trying to mobilize neighbors against the vacancy \u2014 the marketing professional has coined the slogan, \u201cFree Le P\u2019tit Laurent!\u201d \u2014 Dimento noted he has not devised any plan for activism.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery time I see it, I\u2019m like, \u2018Ugh, this thing again!\u2019\u201d Dimento said of the empty restaurant. \u201cAnd then I walk away and forget about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe shuttered restaurant still displays its Zagat stickers on the window and its menu on an outside wall. | Source: Max Harrison-Caldwell<\/p>\n

In Jweinat\u2019s defense, it\u2019s not like he wants it to be vacant, he maintains. He said he paid $37,000 in property tax for the building that houses both Higher Grounds and the Le P\u2019tit Laurent space last year. Ideally, he\u2019d have restaurant revenue to offset those fees. But, in Jweinat\u2019s words, \u201cthe restaurant business is hard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Willdorf recognizes that her efforts to rile up opposition to Jweinat could seem trivial or cruel: \u201cI don\u2019t want to be the face of a campaign shaming some old man in the neighborhood,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But she really wants somebody to open something there so she can support it, just as she has the recently opened upscale southern French restaurant La Cigale, three doors up the street from Le P\u2019tit Laurent. She said neighbors are clamoring for more independent local businesses.<\/p>\n

Not everybody agrees with her methods.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a campaign to force someone to reopen a restaurant is not particularly nice, fair, or productive,\u201d said another neighbor who asked to remain anonymous for fear of setting off an intra-village squabble.<\/p>\n

While the question of Le P\u2019tit Laurent has spun into a minor controversy, some residents are staying out of it. Eric Whittington, 69, owns the book and record shop Bird and Beckett, which gets a shout-out in the TimeOut blurb on Glen Park. He said it would be nice for a business to occupy the space, but that restaurant vacancies plague the whole city. \u201cWhat are you going to do?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n

Whittington was never much of a Le P\u2019tit Laurent regular anyway: \u201cA restaurant that I couldn\u2019t afford closing makes no difference to me.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Glen Park, the sleepy residential enclave southeast of Twin Peaks, seems like a lovely place to raise a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7863,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,7925,412],"class_list":{"0":"post-7862","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-glen-park","12":"tag-restaurants"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7862"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7862\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}