Vol. XLIX, No. 4
April 2025
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THE NOE VALLEY VOICE St. Philip Church Celebrates 100th Year on Diamond
Anya El-Wattar Stirs Up This Season’s Top Chef
Parish Has Even Longer Roots—It Dates From 1910
Restaurateur Bares Her CaliforniaRussian Soul in TV Competition
By Matthew S. Bajko
By Corrie M. Anders
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ith Lent fast approaching and several baptisms scheduled the first Sunday of March, around 150 people chose to attend the 10:30 a.m. mass at St. Philip the Apostle Church. The Catholic parishioners represented an array of races and ages, nearly three dozen of whom were children. During his homily, Reverend Father James Liebner spoke about the ills that might come from spiritual blindness, which could lead people to criticize others for problems they did not see in themselves. This idea was reflected, he said, in the scriptural line of “the blind leading the blind.” “One needs to solve their own problem before they help others solve theirs, but we all know it is easy to fall into that trap,” said Liebner, of judging others. He advised his flock, “Jesus warns us to be wise in whom we choose to follow, listen to, and from whom we seek out advice. If we are blind in some area of our spiritual growth or personal life, seek out someone who can see.” After the mass had concluded, church-goers were invited to gather in a
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The First Incarnation: This photo shows St. Philip the Apostle Church shortly after it was constructed in 1925. With its Gothic Revival architecture, the church was an imposing building at the corner of Diamond and Elizabeth streets. The taller of the two towers houses the church bell, still rung today. Photo courtesy Daniel C. Roddick
basement hall for coffee and donuts from the neighborhood shop Happy Donuts on Church Street. Among those socializing was Erin Kissane, 53, whose wife’s family had long been members of St. Philip and who himself had been baptized into the church six years ago. “Even though I don’t have hair, you can let your hair down and take a minute,” Kissane said about attending mass weekly. “You need that sometimes, to catch your breath and say, ‘All right, I can relax.’”
A Ride That Went From Scary… To Ordinary My First Foray Into the Driverless World of Waymo Story and Photos by Heidi Anderson
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y earliest memory of ride-hailing services was back in 2013 when, after a dull first date, I wanted a ride home. My date pulled out his phone and said, “I'll get you an Uber.”
The Adventure Begins: Intrepid reporter Heidi Anderson takes a selfie as a driverless Waymo arrives at her door.
“Uber?” I asked. “Like the German word?” He shrugged. An awkward 10 minutes later, I saw a black Lincoln Town Car roll up to his Bernal Heights house. I got home in minutes. The driver was polite and knew exactly how to get to my Noe Valley address. About a year later, when I gave up owning a car (Noe Valley Voice October 2014), I surrendered to the world of Muni, BART, taxis, and the occasional Uber. I am still car-less—and hooked on the low cost of being so in San Francisco—and I’ve been relying on Muni and ride-hail vehicles for over a decade—to get to work, to go to the farmers market, and to exit the occasional dull date. Still, until just a few months ago, I clung to the notion that a human had to be at the wheel of any car I stepped foot in. Like a lot of us, I dismissed the Waymo, Cruise, and other autonomous vehicles (AVs) that were creeping around our streets during the pandemic
For a century now, St. Philip’s church has welcomed parishioners through its gothic arched entry at 725 Diamond Street. The parish will mark the church building’s 100th anniversary with a fundraising dinner May 3 open to all, parishioners and non-churchgoers alike. It will be a chance for attendees to celebrate the church and the community it has helped nurture, whether in its pews or via the pre-kindergarten CONTINUED ON PAGE 7
as, well, spooky. I’d watch as no-oneat-the-wheel passed by, made dreamlike left turns, and sailed down the city’s boulevards. We all watched them screw up here and there. Do you remember, during the 2023 Outside Lands concert in Golden Gate Park, when the Cruise driverless network stalled a bunch of its vehicles in North Beach? Or worse, when in October 2023, a Cruise AV ran over a pedestrian who had just been thrown in its path by a human hit-and-run driver at Fifth and Market streets. (Tech Industry Note: Cruise ended its self-driving operations in December 2024.) But in that same month, as a late adopter, I took a big breath and signed up with Waymo, the Google “robotaxi” that has been in San Francisco since early 2021. After downloading the Waymo app and providing required credit card and home address data, I was in. Waymo's interface was almost identical to other ride-hailing apps. In fact, it was so similar to setting up a Lyft or Uber account, I started to feel more confident. Just like the other apps, Waymo asked me where I’d like to go (“Where to, Heidi?”), gave me suggestions as I began typing the address, and estimated the cost of the ride. For my very first Waymo, from Hayes Valley to Noe Valley, my charge CONTINUED ON PAGE 11
oe Valley resident Anya El-Wattar closed her restaurant Birch & Rye on Castro Street in March of 2024, after a roller-coaster of a two-year run. Thus, the acclaimed chef was delighted to be selected one of 15 contestants vying for the $250,000 grand prize on Season 22 of Top Chef: Destination Canada, airing Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Bravo (streamed on Peacock). The first of 14 episodes premiered March 13. Having more than just a gastronomical interest and with high hopes El-Wattar would win, the Voice decided to follow the series. Here is what we saw, starting of course with Week 1. Week 1: Simple Is Complex If chef Anya El-Wattar knows any food well, it’s cabbage. Cabbage was a staple in Soviet Russia, the country of her birth, from which she emigrated to the U.S. with her family in 1999. Not so surprising, then, that Anya, as she’s called on Top Chef, picked the cruciferous vegetable from the show’s “pantry,” to produce a dish with two other chefs, using their pantry choices plus the hosts’ add-ons: tomatoes, chives, and clams. Cabbage is a national treasure and “one I’ve cooked a million different ways,” she told the judges as her team collaborated to make an “aqua-pizza” from the ingredients. But Anya was a bit peeved when the judges asked how the dish was developed and her team’s spokesperson forgot to mention the red cabbage. “When you were sharing,” Anya later CONTINUED ON PAGE 9
How Dry We Are: With water turned off during a year of sewer upgrades on 24th and Castro streets, most Noe Valley imbibers have had to find fresh sources, such as this potable from Hetch-Hetchy Cola, Inc. But medical advisers are now warning that canned water may be unsafe— as are many of the recalled products on page 22 of this month’s Voice.