Jul 27, 2021
The story of Gus' Discount Tackle
begins with skiing in the Alps.
In this podcast, Stephanie
Scott, the current owner, shares with us the story of her
life. Her dad, Gus, escaped his home in Austria when the Nazis
began persecuting Jews. He arrived in New York but went west for a
restaurant bussing job in San Francisco.
Gus met his wife (Stephanie's mom)
in The City. She was a Sorbonne-educated lab doctor who immigrated
here from Russia.
Gus opened a general merchandise
shop on Clement Street, but the predatory landlord there kept
raising Gus' rent. Through a handshake-type agreement, he got the
funding to buy his own place—the spot on Balboa where the shop
still exists today, around 60 years later.
Stephanie grew up on 17th Avenue on
the northern side of the Richmond in the 1950s and '60s. She shares
impressions of what San Francisco was like back then—a busy time
with Beats, hippies, free-love advocates, and LSD, none of which
the more square Stephanie took part in.
She met her husband when they were
both at SF State. After post-graduate opportunities fizzled out,
Stephanie started working in her dad's store. The rest, as she
says, is history. She's been there 45 years.
Stephanie ends the podcast
reflecting on the people she's watched grow up around Gus's, the
changes that the store has seen, including transitioning from
general merchandise to fishing supplies, and her hopes for the next
phase of the only place she's ever lived—San Francisco.
We recorded this podcast at Gus' Discount Tackle in the Outer Richmond in
June 2021.
Photography by Michelle Kilfeather