Elim Chan Tours SF as Manka's Inverness Lodge Lists for $1.5 Million

From incoming San Francisco Symphony Music Director Elim Chan's 2-week neighborhood immersion and the $1.5 million listing of Marin County's historic Manka's Inverness Lodge to a 100-guest Golden State Valkyries championship celebration at Meski, Bay Area cultural institutions and landmarks saw a busy first week of November 2026, according to reporting by Emily Dreyfuss, Grace McCarty, and Jessica Blough in The San Francisco Standard.

Elim Chan Explores the Mission Ahead of September 2027 Symphony Tenure

Although Hong Kong-raised conductor Elim Chan does not formally begin her tenure as music director of the San Francisco Symphony until September 2027, she spent the past 2 weeks in San Francisco meeting neighborhood arts leaders before departing for guest-conducting engagements in Frankfurt, Cleveland, and Vienna ahead of her next Bay Area visit in January.

"I want to roll like a local," Chan said in a statement.

During her tour of the Mission District, Chan visited the street murals of Balmy Alley, stopped at Cinderella Bakery and Mexican pop-up El Fuego, and met with Community Music Center Executive Director Julie Rulyak Steinberg and faculty member Martha Rodríguez-Salazar, who curates the symphony's annual Día de los Muertos concert. Chan also placed a remembrance tribute honoring her predecessor, Michael Tilson Thomas, and his husband, Joshua Robison, accompanied in a symphony video by a live recording of composer Gabriela Ortiz's Kauyumari from the orchestra's 2025 concert.

Manka's Inverness Lodge Listed for $1.5 Million With Clean Title

On the shores of Tomales Bay in Marin County, historic Manka's Inverness Lodge—set on a 0.8-acre wooded parcel featuring a 4-room hotel and 2 cabins (3 fairytale cottages connected by a stone path)—has been listed for sale at $1.5 million with a free and clean title, listing agent Sarah Kowalczyk confirmed.

Designer Ken Fulk had purchased the lodge in 2022 from longtime innkeeper Margaret Grade, but development firm InHouse subsequently accumulated more than $275,000 in unpaid and delinquent taxes since 2023 across 4 properties. On October 27 (Oct. 27), Cottage Saint LLC—an entity tied to Laurie and Jeff Ubben, owners of the Healdsburg restaurant Little Saint—closed on the Marin property and opened the $1.5 million listing for offers two weeks later.

"I've never had a property see this level of emotional response," Kowalczyk said, noting strong interest from former staff and longtime coastal patrons.

Draymond Green Hosts 100-Guest Valkyries Celebration at Meski

In San Francisco's Tenderloin district, Golden State Warriors forward Draymond Green and co-owner Guma Fassil organized a 100-guest WNBA championship celebration for the Golden State Valkyries in 24 hours on Monday night at their Dominican-Ethiopian fusion restaurant, Meski:

• Cross-Team Bay Area Roster: The celebration drew 6 Valkyries players (Veronica Burton, Tiffany Hayes, Kaitlyn Chen, Kaila Charles, Laeticia Amihere, and Kiah Stokes), 7 current and former Warriors (Draymond Green, Will Richards, Gary Payton II, Graham Ike, Yaxel Lendeborg, Juan Toscano-Anderson, and Festus Ezeli), and 2 San Francisco 49ers players (Trent Williams and Upton Stout).
• Hospitality Menu: Fassil noted that the culinary spread drew from the menu created the prior month for the launch of Open Season, Green's stereoscopic 180-degree virtual-reality docuseries with Meta.

The RealReal Salon and San Francisco Superior Court Discovery Filing

Elsewhere in San Francisco, luxury consignment retailer The RealReal hosted an evening discussion at its flagship store centered on its new book Real Style, featuring Chief Brand Officer Kristen Naiman, Vintner's Daughter founder April Gargiulo, stylist Kelly Peters, and longtime customer Aquila Farrell, who has bought and sold on the platform since 2016.

Separately, in San Francisco Superior Court on Tuesday, Scale AI co-founder Lucy Guo filed a civil discovery subpoena directed at Instagram parent company Meta—which holds a 49% stake in Scale AI—requesting 18 categories of back-end viewer, location, and timestamp data regarding Instagram Story posts made to 430,000 followers by British actress Wallis Day following their February breakup and Guo's May 13 song release, in preparation for a planned defamation filing in the United Kingdom.