Store
Trek
is a regular Voice feature profiling new stores and
businesses
in Noe Valley. This month, we introduce two businesses that share a
passion for
local suppliers: HeliotropeSF, a natural skin care products store on
Church
Street, and The Little Chihuahua, a Mexican restaurant at 24th and
Castro.
“Anybody
who’s
left college needs to moisturize,” says Jonathan Plotzker, the co-owner
of HeliotropeSF, a skin care products boutique that opened in late June
at 1515 Church Street.
Plotzker,
his
business partner Don Snider, and architect Michael Mullin redesigned the
interior space (once the home of Jaboh and Green Twig hair salons), to
make it
more “open, airy and spacious,” he says.
The
shop
now has walls tinted soothing shades of yellow, green, and blue;
custom-built cupboards and shelving; a huge abstract painting by artist
Marta
Resende; and a long teak table where customers can create their own
blend of
body care products, Heliotrope’s stock in trade.
What
you
won’t find is a person behind a counter. “I didn’t want one of those
counters that separate you. It is about the interactivity of working
with the
client,” explains Plotzker.
Customers
can
select from more than 50 products in the Heliotrope line of shower
gels,
scrubs, bath soaks, skin toners, shave creams, bath salts, and massage
oils.
“Not
only
is [the line] locally sourced, it’s in recycled packages, and pretty
much
everything also comes fragrance-free,” says Plotzker. “If you want to,
we have
an entire aromatherapy line, called the aromatherapy bar, where you can
create
your own fragrance or blend.”
By
adding
essential oils such as lavender, bergamot, and tea tree, or blends with
names like warming, rejuvenating, or spicy,
clients can
design lotions that are a match for their skin and temperament.
Plotzker says
he maintains a “personalized scent database” for customers, who can
come back
for refills using their own recycled containers.
Many
of
Heliotrope’s wares sound good enough to eat. There are body lotions
made
with organic aloe olive avocado shea butter ($16), a cream cleanser
scented
with rose and ginseng ($18), and an organic aloe shea butter shave
cream that
does double duty as a moisturizer ($24). A local aromatherapy soap
maker
created the shop’s 6 oz. bars of soaps, made of aloe and cucumber,
goat’s milk,
rosemary mint, and black fig cardamom ($8).
Heliotrope
also
sells other skin-care labels—Mission-based River Soap, Juniper Ridge of
Berkeley, and EO of Corte Madera—and chocolates from Poco Dolce of
Dogpatch.
With
20
years of business experience, including stints at Williams-Sonoma and
Bare
Escentuals, Plotzker says he has learned a lot about both skin care
products
and customer service. He says he and co-owner Snider, who’s a
specialist in
website development and online marketing, chose the name Heliotrope,
which
means flowers turning toward the sun, because the shop’s products are
“turning
toward nature, the source of everything that’s good for us.”
As
for
the location in Noe Valley, Plotzker says, “There were two valleys on
my
list, Noe and Hayes.” He also wanted a place within walking distance of
his
home on Corwin Street.
Starting
in
August, HeliotropeSF will host events on the last Thursday of the month
in
concert with the shop’s neighbor, Loft 1513. “We’ll find fun excuses,”
says
Plotzker, who hopes to highlight the work of Bay Area chemists,
aromatherapists, and soap makers.
HeliotropeSF
is
open every day except Tuesday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Hours on Sunday are
noon to
6 p.m.
While
searching
eBay for knickknacks for his new business back in 2007, Andrew
Johnstone found more than a few tchotchkes. He found a name.
“I
was
looking for something not traditional, that creates a discussion,” says
Johnstone. What he found was a vintage sign saying “Little Chihuahua
Fresh
Mexican Food.” The sign now hangs behind the cash register in his
flagship
restaurant, The Little Chihuahua, on Divisadero Street.
“It
has
worked. You don’t forget the name. It tells you we’re not typical.”
They’re
also
successful. The second Little Chihuahua, the Noe Valley outlet, opened
in
mid-June in the former home of Bistro 24 at 4123 24th Street.
Johnstone—the
restaurant’s
chef, a native of New Zealand, and a recent U.S. citizen—co-owns
the Noe Valley cafe with his wife, Camila Fernandez, and Chris Patella,
who had
been managing the Divisadero Street restaurant.
Drawing
on
20 years in the restaurant business, Johnstone designed the new place
for
both dine-in and takeout. He describes it as somewhere “between a
taqueria and
a restaurant without table service,” which “keeps the prices down” so
he can
use higher-quality products.
The
Little
Chihuahua offers traditional Mexican food—burritos, enchiladas, tacos,
quesadillas, and tostadas—but with a twist. Says Johnstone, “We’re
strict on
who we buy from—local produce, fresh and sustainable.”
The
restaurant
uses Niman Ranch meats and free-range Petaluma Poultry, and the
shrimp is labeled Clean Fish by a company that specializes in
sustainable
seafood. With five kinds of salsa at the self-serve salsa bar, patrons
will
enjoy trying the horchata drinks and agua frescas, which are made from
scratch,
Johnstone says.
Topping
the
menu favorites are the fried plantain and black bean burrito ($8.45)
and
the
garlic
shrimp burrito ($9.95), Johnstone says.
Weekend
brunch
features huevos rancheros and other egg dishes, as well as the cafe’s
signature Mexican French Toast, a battered flour tortilla grilled and
served
with fried plantains, Applewood smoked bacon, and warm maple-agave
syrup
($8.95). Desserts will soon be added to the menu, including Humphry
Slocombe
ice cream and a Mexican chocolate sorbet.
The
Little
Chihuahua has a special children’s menu offering kid-size portions for
$3.95.
A
family
man himself—he and Camila have two small children—Johnstone says the
partners chose Noe Valley because the neighborhood offered a “fairly
heavy
family demographic of people who think about food.”
Customers
can
order their food to go, or sit inside at the bar, at wooden tables, or
in
comfy booths in the back beneath paintings of Frida Kahlo by local
artist
Martha Rodriguez. Look for expanded seating on the back patio, which
Johnstone
plans to complete this month.
The
Little
Chihuahua is open Monday through Friday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., and
Saturday and Sunday, 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Weekend brunch is 10 a.m. to 3
p.m.
