Jazz and San Francisco should be synonymous.

But the city was without a top-flight jazz club for nearly 20 years. That was until last November, when Kaz Kajimura and developer Michael Johnson opened a new Yoshi's club and restaurant at 1330 Fillmore St. on the ground floor of the also-new Fillmore Heritage Center. The developers of the 13- story mixed-use center hope to kindle a resurgence in the once bustling Western Addition area of the city.

Kajimura is one of the founders of Yoshi's in Oakland, which began as a sushi bar on Claremont Avenue. The club outgrew its location there, moving to Jack London Square, where it became an institution internationally famed as an artist-approved and audience-friendly jazz venue.

The new San Francisco building, designed by Morimoto, Matano and Kang Architects, has a performance venue of 417 seats, 317 on the ground level and 100 more on a mezzanine. The room is elegant and inviting, without a bad seat to be found. The sound quality is pristine, with recent performers such as clarinetist Don Byron and singer Holly Cole proclaiming their love for the room.

It's a big club, and though it's bringing mainstream jazz artists such as rising star Esperanza Spalding (Oct. 13-14) and veteran pianist Ellis Marsalis (Oct. 24-26), it's also scheduled more pop-oriented acts like singer-songwriters Vonda Shepard (Oct. 30) and Sam Phillips (Nov. 1) as well as rocker Rhett Miller (Nov. 25).

Peter Williams, who books artists into both the San Francisco and Oakland Yoshi's, knows he has to diversify his offerings.

"Yoshi's (San Francisco) is big jazz club. In order to fill the amount of seats we have, we have to look at other music than just jazz to do so," he said recently. "I'm definitely branching out and bringing more than just jazz to the club."

Williams said he's getting lots of calls now that people know Yoshi's is booking other genres of music.

"Most of the people who come in love the room. The sound is good, the set, acoustically it was designed by the same people who designed Oakland. The response has been really, really good."

The open-air restaurant and lounge, seating 370 in their combined areas, serve modern Japanese cuisine by executive chef Shotaro "Sho" Kamio. The lounge recently introduced a menu of small plates called "izayaka."

"Because the restaurant gets so busy before the show, we needed something to drive the guests to the lounge, where they could really get good quality food as well," said restaurant manager Derek Hunter.

"It's literally small, Japanese handcrafted dishes – about 30 different dishes – they range in price from $4 to $8."

The menu includes vegetable and potato croquettes; bacon-wrapped asparagus, and soy-marinated and grilled squid. Thursdays through Saturdays, the lounge will also feature a live DJ spinning classic and current jazz-influenced music starting at 9 p.m.

It's a far cry from San Francisco's booming jazz era of the late '50s and early '60s, which featured the cramped, closeted, smoky clubs like Bop City, the Blackhawk, the Jazz Workshop, the Both/And and Keystone Korner.

Just as economics, changing times and cultural shifts eventually forced those venues out of business, the new Yoshi's is sailing in choppy waters.

"It's more difficult now because people have a lot places to spend their money," artistic director Williams said.

"In the nine years that I've been here, there's a huge difference in just what you can get on the Web, for instance. You can watch John Coltrane videos on YouTube."

Williams said audience buying habits have changed in just the past few years.

"People were buying lots of tickets in advance when I first started here. Now it's much harder to predict how our shows are going to go because most people are buying the night of."

Still, the new Yoshi's, building off the brand name of its older Oakland location, is getting ready for its one-year anniversary on Nov. 28 and is planning a gala slate of winter and holiday concerts.

"We have some great lineups and it's been really nice to have so much more music in the area," Williams said. "There's a certain point where we can only do so much and just hope for the best with some of these shows."

Call Bee theater critic Marcus Crowder, (916) 321-1120. Read his blog postings at www.sacbee.com/21q.

IF YOU GO

• Tickets for all Yoshi's shows are on sale at www.yoshis.com, Yoshi's box office or by phone at (415) 655-5600

IF YOU WANT TO STAY OVER

1800 Sutter St., San Francisco, CA 94115; (415) 921-4000

• Hotel Rex

Union Square, 562 Sutter St.,

San Francisco, CA 94102; (415) 433-4434 or (800) 433-4434

• Hotel Kabuki

Japantown, Hotel Kabuki

1625 Post St., San Francisco, CA 94115; (415) 922-3200 or (800) 533-4567