The word community is overused these days. But if any San Francisco entity has dibs on it, it’s Farley’s.
The Potrero Hill coffee shop, now in its fourth decade, isn’t just a neighborhood caffeine stop. It’s a hub for local art and music and holiday events like an annual Halloween pet parade, as well as a place where you can still find dozens of magazines devoted to experimental art, classic car sales, and more on its curated rack.
But the heart of what one might call a longtime Farley’s community pours forth through other printed pages. Soon after opening Farley’s in 1989, Roger Hillyard began leaving out sketchbooks for customers — to write in, doodle on, or just read.
About 40 sketchbooks remain, Hillyard estimates, and perhaps the same number have been lost or “borrowed” over the years. “There was some brilliant artwork and there was some really terrible stuff,” Roger says, but it’s almost all fascinating.
In addition to images, customers have written notes, secrets (an admission of an illicit affair), and what might pass as highbrow bathroom graffiti. (“Bob Mould is God.”)
Barry McGee, then known by his graffiti handle Twist and now lauded in major museums and elsewhere, made some sketches in the 1990s; someone later tore out the pages and sold them on eBay, Hillyard says.
The books themselves are little artifacts, each with a different staff-decorated cover. Together, they are a neighborhood bond – the story of Potrero Hill regulars who have been coming every day, and people passing through.
Amelia Strader lived nearby for 14 years, planned her wedding at Farley’s, and after losing her job in 2008, taught people to knit there to make a few bucks. She’s now a full time art teacher. “The sketchbooks are the essence of Farley’s to me,” says Strader.
Bob Kelley is an art curator and has been a Farley’s regular since 1993. “Although I never drew in the sketchbooks myself, I became obsessed with reading them while I had my coffee,” says Kelley. “It was like a reward.”
To honor the shop’s 36th anniversary, Kelley has volunteered to do an installation of his favorites on Farley’s walls, where local artists usually display their work. The exhibit “Sketch Book: Coffee Shop Doodles” starts March 1, with an opening party on March 16. (Kelley is also a sheriff’s deputy and has encouraged county jail inmates with drawing skills to draw as much as possible.)
Different time and place
Now 82, Roger has passed Farley’s to his son Chris Hillyard, 54, and daughter-in-law Amy. But he still lives in town, at the San Francisco Zen Center — he’s a Buddhist — and likes to pop in for what he calls, with the hint of a smile, “a very good deal on coffee.”
Chris says the sketchbooks don’t fill up as fast these days, what with everyone on their phones and laptops. But he hopes the recent trend away from booze is a chance for Farley’s to stay open later into the evening, like it used to. (Closing time these days is 6pm.)
The 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake cemented Farley’s as a community gathering place.
Some of Roger’s original ideas have faded away: Chris says the old “one cup, one milk” policy — only 12-ounce cups, and only whole milk — had to change with the times. And sorry, no more free coffee for people who show up before 2pm in their bathrobes.
But that one actually served a purpose. Farley’s opened in early 1989. A few months later, the Loma Prieta quake struck, and the cafe became a place for people to gather for news, coffee, and electricity. Many adjacent neighborhoods had no power or water, says Roger, so he began opening at 8am, instead of 2pm, but still needed to dangle a carrot. “We always cited that as what cemented Farley’s as a community gathering place,” says Chris.
Like so much of the city, Potrero Hill was once solidly working class — no surprise that Clint Eastwood’s hardboiled SF cop “Dirty” Harry Callahan returned home there after a long day’s work. It’s a far different place now.
Roger was living in the Inner Richmond in the late 1980s when inspiration struck to roast and sell coffee beans and equipment. (The origin story involves his own frustrated quest to replace a broken French press.) A long search for the right space brought him to 18th Street, halfway up the northern slope of Potrero Hill.
Among half a dozen empty storefronts, he found one belonging to the Prisoners Rights Union, which was looking to move its base to Sacramento. He didn’t plan to sell cups of coffee, just beans and gear. But once he set up shop, the big empty space had other ideas: “It had a voice of its own, and it said, ‘That’s not what’s happening.’”
Nearly 40 years later, the neighborhood’s warehouse workers and mechanics and artists in live-work lofts are far fewer. Farley’s embracing welcome — “You belong here” is painted on the doorstep; flags and slogans of inclusion are everywhere — is increasingly surrounded by people in multimillion-dollar homes. Public housing on the hill’s south and east sides has been whittled away.
Farley’s has dabbled in expansion, with licensed franchises at the SF and Oakland airports and shops in Oakland and Emeryville. (They’ve since sold the Emeryville site.) But Chris, who lives in the East Bay, says he has no Peet’s or even Philz-sized ambitions. He’s had conversations with consultants who specialize in turning local brands into franchises, but “it just never felt right.” Expanding, he says, was more “what could we do to grow and maintain the integrity and community feel.”
He’s keeping an eye on the growing neighborhood. The SF Flower Market recently moved nearby. Chris and employees went down, gave everyone Farley’s cards, and invited them up the hill for a cup of coffee, maybe a little music, a live poetry reading — or if the season’s right, Easter egg decoration or a pumpkin carving party. And if anyone wants to doodle, there’s always an open sketchbook.
