Tonight on Belden Place, though Bastille Day is Monday, July 14th
By Natalia Gurevich | Examiner staff writer
Jul 10, 2025 Updated 14 hrs ago
Hundreds of people are expected Friday afternoon to descend upon a small alley in downtown San Francisco on Friday afternoon to celebrate Bastille Day, the French holiday commemorating the storming of the prison during the French Revolution in 1789.
The party in Belden Place between Bush and Pine Streets — held this year three days before the actual holiday, the French equivalent to Independence Day in the U.S. — features live French music, wine tastings, French food from restaurants lining the alley, including Sam’s Grill, as well as not one, but two mimes in attendance that might engage in “mime competitions,”, said Melissa Buckminster, the director of marketing and communications with the Downtown SF Partnership, which is hosting the event.
“There may or may not be a giant croissant,” she said. “If you know, you know.”
Former Café Bastille owner Olivier Azancot created Bastille on Belden in the mid-1990s to honor The City’s lesser-known history of French immigrants during the Gold Rush.
“A lot of folks don't know that this portion of the Financial District was originally, like, the French Quarter of San Francisco,” she said.
Sam’s Grill owner Peter Quartaroli told The Examiner in a statement that the staff at the restaurant, which opened in its current location in 1946, “love being a part of downtown’s cultural identity.”
“It’s an opportunity for us to step back and remember how much history is anchored right here on Belden Place,” he said of the party.
https://www.sfexaminer.com/news/the-city/bastille-on-belden-highlights-downtown-sf-recovery-history/
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