This Week In Noe Valley: It's Getting More Expensive To Live Here, NV Dems Don't Quite Realize NV Actually Wealthy, And The Mayor Of NV

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

• Caskhouse getting noticed, but not a sports bar [7x7, NVSF; also: we're betting the Zagat blogger hasn't actually been there]
• Year-end Noe Valley home sales averaged more than $1.6M - and not for prime properties [Downing & Co]
• NV Dems stunned to learn "regular" Americans equate out-of-touch wealth with large kitchens, flat screen TVs and iPads...like most Noe Valley households [NVDC]
• SFGirlByBay's new digs [San Fran Mag]
• Profile of 'mayor" Sam Salameh of Good Times News [Kate Imbach]
• Another mayor, but with a cigar [kayladontcare]

[Photo: aironsmiles]

Elizabeth Street Brewery: Free Beer Gets Famous

What's better than free beer? Famous free beer! One of Noe Valley's best-kept secrets is not quite so secret anymore. Elizabeth Street Brewery was picked as the Microbrewery of the Year by SF Weekly in May - and the latest issue of San Francisco Magazine also gives it a rave. Of particular interest to fans:

Brewer-Hay realizes that the time for his brewery to become a real business is drawing nigh. “We’ve taken this so far that it seems inevitable,” he says. After flying to watch a series of Giants games in St. Louis, Missouri, in late August, he gave himself a week to return to San Francisco by rail. “I wasn’t allowed to come home until I finished the business plan,” he says, having spent 62 hours on a train to get back. Now, with that document in hand, Brewer-Hay has started to see his dream take shape.

Here's hoping the City allows a new Conditional Use permit for Noe Valley's first brew pub. Congrats, ESB!

[SFM: Free beer]
[NVSF: Elizabeth Street Brewery Snags Best Microbrewery Without Selling A Single Beer]
[NVSF: Update: Planning Commission Allows More Restaurants In Noe Valley]