July 2007 - The Potrero View

24 THE POTRERO VIEW JULY 2007
Photo by Dick Christian
Once upon a time there was a real-life ice cream parlor on Potrero Hill. Opened in 1978 by Ron Gemple, the Daily Scoop featured everything you would expect in a
1950s-style Small Town, USA hangout--your choice of sugar (or cake) ice cream cones with sprinkles (or not), banana splits, black-and-white tiled floors, gently whirring
ceiling fans, tiny tables with spindly wire-backed chairs, a well-stocked juke box--as well as such modern-day staples as bagels and fresh-roasted coffee, including Sally
Forsberg’s cappuccino, judged the best in town at the 198 San Francisco Urban Fair. The Scoop’s walls were festooned with vintage soda-fountain signs: from an
iconic Coca Cola plaque, to a neon cone that was liberated from a Chinatown establishment that specialized in ginger ice cream, to a sign touting a five-cent candy bar
called Chicken Dinner. But after 23 years the ice cream melted; the Scoop closed its doors in 2002. Today the southwest corner of 18th and Missouri has a Left Bank,
Paris aura, courtesy of the elegant Chez Papa Bistro. Meanwhile, old Scoop habitués have dried their tears and are happily partaking of good coffee, if not ice cream,
down the street at Farley’s Cafe, which opened in 1989, and where the atmosphere is somewhat North-Beachesque. Readers with more information about this picture,
or who have other old Hill photographs to share, are invited to contact the View, editor@potreroview.net, or The Potrero Hill Archives Project, aldwj@sbcglobal.net.