Big change is coming the corner of Alabama and Precita, and it should make the eastern half of Precita Park much more glam. According to the Precita Valley Neighbors group:
Park Merchants Update: 500 Precita has permits so contractor can finish the build up for much awaited Precita Park Café! Across the street from 500 Precita, T & J Market will soon be a children’s gym and art gallery!
Booya! The building shown above — the former Riteway Market — will soon be home to the Precita Park Cafe. What will that be like? The precise details are unknown, but the new restaurant will serve food and light drink. It’s a project of Rachel Herbert, who also operates the Dolores Park Cafe and the Duboce Park Cafe, so it’s safe to assume the Precita Park Cafe will be a classy joint. There’s been talk that Precita Park Cafe may have a kid-friendly emphasis, which would be swell, because the cafe is just across the street from the uber-chic Precita Park playground.
Meanwhile, on the opposite corner, the former T&J Market corner store — a location which, we recall, has been a corner store since at least 1928 — will soon become that children’s gym and art gallery.
Let’s now take inventory: Soon we’ll have a kid gym, a kid-friendly frou-frou cafe, and a kick-ass playground for kids, all at the end of Precita Park. Can a Babies “R” Us with ample parking be far behind? KIDDING! KIDDING!
Photos: Telstar Logistics
Bernalwood 
Wait even Precita Park has changed?? When did that happen? So gone are the days of the homies training their pitbulls by having them bite down on car tires and swinging them around??
Man I need to come back to explore….
The pit bulls are now schnoodles that eat organic dogfood, and they are trained by canine professionals with degrees from Ivy League universities.
I made that up. But in a general sense, it’s kind of true.
I love having the playground in Precita Park, but you do know it only has a “C” rating… and I have found such disgusting things in the sand. I’m hoping we get on the list for a playground makeover soon. That equipment is nearly 20 years old now, I gather from reading this:
http://www.parkscan.org/parks?parkId=2
Trying to find the website that rates all the parks from A-F to back up my claim but can’t find it.
I can back that claim up for you. It’s gross. We never go there.
I’d beg to differ. My kid and I go there all the time. It’s definitely an older-style playground, but after 3+ years of regular attendance, we’ve never had so much as a ruffle in our feathers.
Agree with Todd — the playground isn’t that bad from a kid’s perspective. The metal UFO spinny thing that looks like a mammary gland and makes you dizzy is flat-out awesome (and just dangerous enough).
Ditto with Todd and Treefern. I love the old-school playground equipment. Plus, you can see Sutro AND Bernal. Awesome.
Another thing I just remembered is that I think there is some newer city code that requires swings to have an obnoxious amount of space on all sides (like 30′ or something) to prevent people from walking in front and getting kicked. If they re-did precita park, I think it would mean no more swings, because the space is so small, there wouldn’t be room for much of anything else… Correct me if I’m wrong, but I remember hearing something about that somewhere…
I’m still happy to take my kids there.
These sound like great additions to our neighborhood.
I still see plenty of pit bulls (and I mean that in a good way) but I’m also happy about the changes that make it a great place for families.
Can’t wait for the cafe…will be a great addition. But on the flip side, and the other side of the hill, what happened to Maggie Mudd?? Any details?
WHAT DO YOU MEAN WHAT HAPPENED TO MAGGIE MUDD
Their website looks current, is something happening in the store front? Do they look closed or something?
Maggie Mudd’s store has closed. The business is now Web-only. Sorry, I’ve been meaning to post about that, but flaked. Here’s the best I’ve read on the subject:
http://vegansaurus.com/post/4159844666/maggie-mudd-closes-vegansaurus-cries
From SFist:
http://sfist.com/2011/04/11/bye-bye_maggie_mudd.php#
Sigh. I will never forget the huge banana split I ate there, all by myself, in its entirety, with no remorse, when I was pregnant with my first son.
Oh, these times we live in…
Wow, maybe a reason to go spend some time on the other side of the hill 😉
Even better, your Bernalwood visa and passport are still valid on the north side! Woo-hoo!
What do you guys mean when you say the new Precita Park Cafe “will serve food and light drink”. I understand the difference between hard drinks and soft drinks but what is light drink? Do you mean they will only serve sugar-free beverages? Is this part of the deal that saved the old Coke mural next to the Paul Revere School? In exchange for promoting childhood obesity on the south side of the hill we must agree to fight it on the north side? Fair enough.
Bah! Never mind sugary drinks — Northside kids are more sophisticated than that. PPC applied for a permit to sell beer and wine.
What is a child-friendly restaurant? If it means rug rats run amok, I’m slightly terrified.
Never been to Duboce Park Cafe but Dolores Park Cafe is pretty decent….I wonder if they’ll do anything special for this location?
I like what they’ve done developing that little garden up above so far…..
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anyone know when the precita park cafe will be opening? On another note, I hear there is another new restaurant opening in the newly painted green building on the South East side of Cortland across from Little Nepal? Any updates?
Thanks
Kid friendly cafe? No idea what that means. That there won’t be monsters hiding under the tables?
I’m very friendly kids, as long as their parents know how to reign them in and exercise discipline when they are out in public spaces, such as cafes.
I’m hoping it means they serve smaller, less expensive portions of their normal menu, and have juice, and cups with lids, a sturdy high chair, a changing table in the bathroom, and possibly a few toys to help keep the children’s energy focused on something other than throwing food and disturbing the people around them.
Also, I hope their staff will be happy to clean up the mess the kids have made on the table and floor that I can’t clean up because my nursling is screaming so loud because his brother, who is angry and uncooperative because he DOES want some water (no one said he couldn’t have water), took his cup and I need to exit ASAP to get control of the situation, too bad I don’t get to finish MY meal and don’t have a free hand to try to bag it up to take with me. A little empathy for parents goes a long way. It isn’t as easy as you might think. Hoping the patrons are also child-friendly, even when I can’t reign them in as much as I would like. Because, you know, I’m hungry and want peace and quiet, too.