This Week In Noe Valley: La Bou Redux, Attempted Rape Report and a Week of Wild Skies

News from, about and for Noe Valley from around the interwebs:

• La Boulange to return as a more “rustic” La Boulangerie de San Francisco in 6 locations – including the one on 24th Street [SF Business Times]
• Wildfires bring a week of wild, colorful, and fiery pink skies [erikawas, okaminyc, williedills, @pierre_vannier, catrionabalfour]
• In Noe Valley, laundromats are also a swanky jazz bar… [@stevenplatt]
• St Philips Parish Festival is the weekend – with sports and beer [@ESBAle]
• Spotted: Succulent plant pot with baby doll legs [rollthebarrel]
• Yep, that was AC/DC you heard from AT&T park this week [@discomaz]
• A foreclosure in Noe Valley for $1.8M: Is the market cooling off? [SocketSite]
• Technicolor dream house for sale on Cesar Chavez [Curbed]
• ICYMI: Common Scents is closing [NVSF]
• Noe Valley now just an overpriced Google bus stop [@KristinHenry]
• Attempted rape reported at Spring Pilates & Yoga Saturday AM; thwarted by civilian hero [@mysticflavor]
• It’s still tomato season at the Farmer’s Market [cifilove]
• An interview with Noe resident Zarah Saleh, owner of Café International [Hoodline]

[Photo: Fire skies via mbd2]

Breaking: Starbucks Buying La Boulange

There was a collective shudder from foodies local business boosters around the Bay Area this afternoon as this news hit the wire:

Next World Group Sells La Boulange Café & Bakery To Starbucks Coffee Company for $100 Million

SAN FRANCISCO, CA – (June 4, 2012) – Next World Group (NWG), a privately-held global investment firm, today announced that it has reached a definitive agreement to sell La Boulange Café & Bakery to Starbucks Coffee Company (NASDAQ: SBUX) for $100 million in cash.

The transaction is expected to close in the third quarter of 2012 (Starbucks’ FY 12 fourth quarter). Next World Group is the majority investor of La Boulange, a rapidly growing San Francisco-based, fast-casual restaurant chain that embodies the authenticity of the French bakery experience.

Founded by Pascal Rigo, La Boulange has grown to 19 Bay Area locations and has more than quadrupled revenue since NWG’s investment. NWG is a long-term, growth investment firm headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Brussels and Paris. 

“We have worked closely with Pascal over the past six years to build an artisanal bakery brand with a track record of profitable growth – exactly the kind of enterprise we look for in our investments,” said Sébastien Lépinard, founder of Next World Group. “La Boulange and Starbucks share similar values and a common vision for creating premium products in a socially responsible way. 

We have confidence that Starbucks will stay true to the ‘La Boulange’ brand while bringing the romance of an authentic French bakery to consumers across the United States.” “Our long-term partnership with NWG and Sébastien brought solid financial management and strategic vision to help La Boulange through its growth and success over the last few years,” said Rigo, founder and CEO of La Boulange. “Their involvement and commitment attracted the caliber of management and financial partners we needed to achieve our potential.”

Next World Group invested in La Boulange in 2006, beginning the implementation of a focused strategy to sell distinctive, high-quality products and develop a local cafe-bakery-retail concept under the ‘La Boulange’ brand. Since then, the business has grown geometrically as the strategy to bring enjoyable products to an ever-growing customer base has remained intact.

InsideScoopSF talked to owner/seller Pascal Rigo and broke it down this way:

• Within 12-14 months, there will be La Bou-branded goods in every Starbucks’ pastry case 

• La Bou will expand to 200 to 400 units nationwide within the next four to five years

KQED's News Fix rounds up the Twitter reaction (lots of: Ugh, Nooooooo! AYEEE) here.

What do you think Noe Valley? Good thing for Starbucks or will you be taking your business elsewhere?

NVV: We Read It So You Don't Have To

The Noe Valley Voice is published ten times a year and has been a neighborhood fixture since 1977. Here are notable highlights from the latest issue. Links are to stories we've covered here on NVSF or outside sources as the Voice doesn't post stories until the middle of the month.

February 2010

Front Page: The city clears the way for more restaurants on 24^th Street; Officer Lorraine Lombardo on the beat for 20 years with SFPD; Whole Foods and La Boulange are boosting business on 24th Street; a lovebird is weaned.

Letters: If your kids were photographed with Santa, Fima Photography has your free 5x7 photo for you; an alert about car break-ins in Upper Noe; and a bike-to-Marin benefit for multiple sclerosis.

Feature: Circle Bank is opening this spring; Mike Gutierrez of Tuggey's is going for the world record for the largest rubber band ball.

Cost of Living in Noe: Home prices overall saw a 13.8% drop in 2009. Average cost of a home was… $1.3 milion. (Ed.-Translation: It's now 10 degrees cooler on the surface of the sun.) Rents? Still ouch.

Traveling Voice: Cuba, Guatemala, India, Vietnam.

Store Trek: Independent Nature, Old Republic Title Company

Rumors: The Noe Valley Stroller Menace (Oh Noes!); Cover to Cover gets grief for not carrying Sarah Palin's book Going Rogue; SF Gate is looking for a freelance Noe Valley blog after the last one abruptly disappeared; and the NVV mentions Everyblock, and also this blog as a source of information: "while somewhat snarky, it keeps the news coming and has a neighborhood posting wall;" NVV goes on to mention "an interesting item duped on NoeValleySF in January was a 'Reader Rant: Dogs Need Places to Poo Too.'" We're not sure what that means, but you can read the story here. And NVSF (that's this blog again) linked to the NY Times story for the top 10 NetFlix rentals in Noe. That led NVV to poll Video Wave for their top 10 (first was Burn After Reading – pick up an issue of NVV for the full list). Thanks for the shout out, NVV!

Finally, NVV counts 9 vacant spots on 24th Street; the owner of the Artsake building is renting that spot for $3,000 and has fielded calls from a nail salon (noooo!). The 2,500 sq. foot former Mi Lindo Yucatan space should be finished by June and ready to rent – the owner is hoping for a destination restaurant. Cardio-Tone opens; Bill Yenne has another book; farewell Helen Weinschenk, former owner of the Wooden Heel (the shoe repair shop) on 24^th Street.

[The Noe Valley Voice]