winds increasing in the region into tomorrow morning. and the red flag warnings for that area through wednesday in southern california here, dry weather here and warm temperatures actually during the afternoons as we head through the middle part of the week. all right. that does it for us right now. we'll be back at 11. we'll see you then. joe rosato jr.: this is an nbc bay area news special. tonight we'll tag along as san francisco's cable cars get into ththeir holiy duds. male: it's really important to show the spirit. joe: we'll tour a bay area cheese company that's getting a holiday thumbs up from a big celebrity. jill basch: it really is a game changer for us. joe: we'll go on the job with a san francisco barista who's been serving up black gold for 3 decades. paul maedje: and so it's just like a big family.

joe nazar: good boy. joe: and take a ride with the hardest working dog on fisherman's wharf. nazar: i have a rail full of people watching me untie the boat every morning. nazar: good boy. joe: good evening. i'm joe rosato, junior. thanks for joining me for this edition of "fog city stories." well, 'tis the season to get spruced up in your holiday attire, and that also goes for san francisco's cable cars. let's head to the legendary cable car barn to see a new tradition in action. joe: no matter how many times you've watched a cable car rumbling down the tracks, it feels like a festive moment. and with the city decked out for the holidays, it seems only fitting the cable cars give in to the holiday spirit too. male: oh, you found them. perfect. joe: inside san francisco's cable car barn. male: i just got to get something for the roof. joe: an army of elves can be found adding some holiday flair.

the garland, the tinsel, the ornaments, hauled out of storage, all ready for some artistic license. male: do we have any more zip ties right there? male: it's really important to show the spirit. joe: this annual decorating party has become a tradition in recent years. male: like, you just kind of jump in and do it, and kind of copy what other people are doing. joe: it's a team of mostly volunteers like james jurado up on the ladder. james jurado: this is my 7th year to do it and it's just a lot of fun. joe: the only qualifications here: enthusiasm and an eye for decorating. male: mainly, it's just being able to hang things, you know, using tie wraps, binder clips, bungee cords. joe: up until 20 years ago, only a single cable car in the fleet got the holiday treatment. valentine lopez: and then i took over. and it went from one car to three to five to ten. joe: this marks the 20th year gripman valentine lopez has

headed up the decorating. valentine: well, if you're gonna do this, it's got to come from here. joe: there's plenty of heart here. lopez and the team buy the decorations themselves, and multiple generations of families turn up to put them on. male: well, it's a lot of fun. my grandson's the one that coordinated all these kids here. male: this year i decided to bring as many people as possible. you get to do something that everyone will see. tourists will see it, passengers will see it, riders will see it, throughout the holidays. joe: this festive atmosphere belies the recent grinch-like warning from city transportation leaders who say they might have to scale back cable car lines because of a budget shortfall. lopez believes that's a last resort. valentine: it's the cable cars that bring in the tourists, and the tourists spend their money at the restaurants and the hotels and the convention centers, so if these things stop running, the tourists stop coming. joe: but there's an added reward for these volunteer decorators giving up their weekends. it's when these cars hit the streets.

it's a blast to see the cars go through, knowing that you decorated those. male 3: when you see the people as the cable cars are going up and down, stopping and looking at them with all the decorations and taking pictures, it gives you a little bit of pride. joe: lopez says the decorations have the power to lift the city. valentine: right after covid and leading up to it, it seemed to really pick people's spirits up and made them happy. it seemed to bring some life back to the city. joe: so these days when you hear the bells a-ringing, it might be an extra special cable car passing by, a festive moment in this most festive time of the year. joe: well, when it comes to holiday commerce, a bay area cheese company just got a big-time gift. let's head to petaluma to talk cheese and to hear about a celebrity endorsement that has people feeling gouda. joe: the hills of west marin are often viewed as a paradise

for visitors. they're also a paradise for cows. among these green hills and cows is the family dairy farm where jill basch and her two sisters, lynn and diana, grew up. jill: not interested in the cows. joe: it took some intervening years of life and adventures before the sisters finally took a shine to those cows, and especially the milk they produce. jill: that drew us all back to the farm in the late '90s to really kind of fulfill our father's dream of making cheese. joe: that dream led the family to launch point reyes farmstead cheese company in 2000, starting with the blue cheese, they'd peddle at bay area farmers' markets. jill: we all worked the farmers' markets, you know, sometimes with babies in tow. joe: twenty-five years of kurds and whey later, the company has a second location in petuma, a hundred employees, and a whole wide wheel of different cheeses.

kuba hemmerling: we bring 6000 gallons of milk, 4 days a week, to this plant, which gives us about 6500 tons of cheese per day. joe: the plant is busy, turning out blue cheese, toma, brie, and gouda. kuba: we brine toma here. joe: it's almost like a willy wonka land for cheese. kuba: it's pretty impressive. joe: the real showstopper is a trip into the aging room. kuba: which holds about 15,000 wheels. jill: it's like the coolest thing to walk in there and you look 21 feet high and there's 15,000 wheels of toma and gogoua in one room. joe: of all its workers, employee number 101 is a robot named tina turner. kuba: she basically turns the wheels, brush them, and puts them back on the shelf. joe: but this holiday season, it's another celebrity doing some of the heaviest lifting here.

oprah winfrey named point reyes farmstead to her prestigious holiday list of favorite things. jill: someone like oprah with that level of visibility, it really is a game changer for us. jill: okay, so this is one of our gift collections. it's always got four of our cheeses, the truffle brie, the quinta, our fennel blue. joe: it's actually the second year in a row, oprah added the cheesemakers to her popular list. jill: represented about 15% of our total holiday direct-to-consumer sales. joe: which begs the question, is there enough cheese to cover all oprah's cheese fans? kuba: we have not run out yet. we are far from it. jill: i mean, 25 years ago i don't think i ever dreamed that we could be of the size and have the visibility that we do and be on oprah's favorite things list. joe: it's a big boost for a family business reaching out beyond northern california to the rest of the nation's cheese-loving world. a little slice of cheesy paradise from the rolling hills of west marin.

joe: well, when we return, we'll hang out on the job with the san francisco barista who's as quick with the quips as he is with the coffee. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ these hands create. all of the materials i work with dry out my hands. if my hands get really dry, i can't do my job. i dedepend on keeffe's it's america's #1 selling hand cream for guaranteed relief. if it works for these hands, it'll work for yours. also available in o'keeffe's for healthy feet. (vo) struggling with moderate to severe crohn's disease or ulcerative colitis? talk to your doctor about #1 prescribed entyvio, offering two maintenance options, including the entyvio pen. infusion and serious allergic reactions can happen

during or after treatment. entyvio may increase risk of infection, which can be serious. pml, a rare, potentially fatal brain infection cannot be ruled out. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, or are prone to infections. liver problems can occur. entyvio. relief. remission. for real. ♪entyvio, entyvio, entyvio♪ what happens... when an unstoppable force... meets an immovable raccoon? attack! bark! attack! it's not easy taking out the trash. that's why you need... strength that's anything but ordinary. hefty hefty hefty. behold! a glorious round table pepperoni pizz... huh? behold, the peppereroni, grilled chicken and bacon pizza from round table! three magnificent toppings. try it at round table pizza!

♪♪♪ joe: well, people in the bay area sure love their coffee, and oftentimes the people who sell their coffee become family. it's off to san francisco's north beach to spend some time with a local cafe legend. paul: good morning. cappuccino grande? how you doing, juan? juan: i'm good. how are you? paul: now that you're here, i'm much better. joe: when you've been around long enough. paul: that's dark. joe: you become legend. paul: hi patty. joe: such is the case of north beach's cafe triesta. opened in 1956 by papa gianni giota as the west coast's first espresso house. paul: cappuccino's coming, okay? joe: for nearly half of that historic 68-year run, it's been paul maedje. paul: nice day today. joe: behind the counter.

paul: good morning. nice haircut. okay, cafe latte with oat. hey, eric, are you alone? joe: maedje's own run at the cafe began in 1991. paul: there you go. joe: he was visiting the city by the bay and asked about a job. paul: i talked to the manager for a few minutes and the manager said, "okay, you can start working tomorrow." joe: he got his on-the-job training from the owner's italian sister, yolanda. paul: pretty much my m mentor, h to deal with people, customers, teach me how to speak italian, the numbers only. joe: in the neighborhood known as the heart of the city, cafe triesta is for many, home base. paul: in the morning and the people's been coming here for decades and, you know, since the '60s or '70s, so they still come here every morning and so it's just like a big family. paul: i made you cappuccino grande. where is your other half? joe: most of those regulars don't even need to order. paul: latte americano with cream. latte, not too much foam. brian, you want a pastry? paul: as i look at the face and i remember the drinks.

female: thanks, paul. paul: you're welcome. make it hot, yeah? it's only two-person operation behind the counter, so you pretty much do everything. you make the coffee, you clean the table, do the dishes. you're making sandwich, you serve the pastries. paul: almond croissant. joe: it's somewhat fitting, maedje was born in indonesia on the island of java. paul: drink coffee every day since i was little. paul: single espresso. joe: one of nine kids, he's found an extended family here. paul: morning -- i know, but it's still sad. eric, eric! paul: this is their living room. this is their second home. i am their second home. paul: how many dogs do you have? paul: this week is going to be a nice week. joe: in his 33 years behind the counter, maedje has trained countless other baristas. paul: he's doing it right. joe: and made who knows how ny coffee drinks. paul: maybe i serve more than a million coffees, i don't know. paul: yeah, drink your coffee before you come here. jeremy fish: the jokes and the witty banter he has with the

people who come and go. the number of times i've heard him yell to the entire line, to the back of the cafe, "sorry, we're out of coffee." paul: the tourist is like, "what?" joe: after decades of giving back to the cafe, one day about 10 years ago, the cafe gave back to maedje in an unexpected way. paul: i met my husband carsten here. they legalized the gay marriage in 2015. we got married in 2015. it's a miracle. you know, people don't think this is a big deal, but it's a big deal for me. joe: if such records were kept, maedje might be the longest-serving barista in san francisco or even the west coast. paul: the answer is yes, please. joe: but since they're not, he's simply content with the 33 years of life he's poured into this neighborhood. paul: so far so good, no complaint. joe: still ahead, we'll take a cruise with the hardest-working dog in the maritime industry.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

at the disneyland resort the happiest place on earth you'll find all kinds of happy you can find the my-dream-is-finally-coming-true kind of happy the i-just-found-my- new-favorite-treat kind of happy

you can also find that woo-hooooo! (shouting) kind of happy there's the teaming-up-with-my-hero type of happy ... and the we're-never-going-to-forget-this kind of happy come find your happy today ... only at the disneyland resort. ♪♪♪ joe: well, there's a long maritime history in the bay area. countless generations of workers have made their living on

the sea. so come along to fisherman's wharf, where we will meet one unusual worker who's still learning the ropes. joe: in an industry that plies its trade on the docks of san francisco's fisherman's wharf, a good crew is a necessity. nazar: good morning, sir. joe: captain joe nazar of san francisco whale tours. nazar: come on. joe: found a solid deckhand. nazar: good boy. joe: and man's best friend. nazar: dressing bear for work. joe: on board the kitty cat. nazar: i'm just getting our vessel ready to go. joe: it's a german shepherd named bear who's learning to pull his weight. nazar: get it, bear. good boy. nazar: bear was a gift from my wife and my daughter in the year 2019. nazar: all right, i'm gonna do line 2. nazar: from the day he was on the boat, the crews have always interacted with him. they would play with him, they would throw him a rope.

he would grab the lines and help me. nazar: good boy. joe: unlike most deckhands, when bear goes to work, he draws a crowd. nazar: i have a rail full of people watching me untie the boat every morning. nazar: that's all you got? nazar: it became really a lot of help during the pandemic because when we were short-staffed, how would you throw a line to yourself? nazar: all right, we gotta take people whale-watching. let's go. nazar: good morning, whale watchers. welcome aboard the kitty cat. joe: when the kitty cat heads out to sea with a boat full of passengers looking for whales, it would appear to be rest time. nazar: oh no, he's working right now. that's what he's doing. joe: inasmuch as bear is skilled at pulling ropes, nazar claims his real talent is finding whales. nazar: he'll let us know when the whale is within the proximity and whale time. see that? man, he's amazing.

all right, the dog is giving me indication, folks. second whale, 1 o'clock. nazar: and the whale dog did it again. joe: well, fact or fiction, bear's skills gained the appreciation of nazar's other crew members, sister ecologists olive and sophie belair, who launched bear into stardom with his own tiktok channel. nazar: good boy, good boy. sophie belair: i saw the opportunity and people on the internet loved watching him, so just kept rolling with it. joe: his videos have now made him perhaps the world's most famous deckhand. sophie: his most is 5.1 million views so far. nazar: thank you for supporting us. joe: in fact, nazar wonders whether customers come for the whales or bear. nazar: we've had an incredible amount of people coming because they do want to see bear. joe: but as much as bear is loved here on the docks, that

wasn't always the case. nazar: i basically adopted him out of was a situation of just they didn't want him. nazar: he's always yelling at me. joe: turns out, as deckhands go, bear's biggest asset may be that of a loyal companion. nazar: you're definitely never alone if you want a friend. nazar: good boy. joe: a true necessity on the docks of fisherman's wharf. nazar: i just wish he could pick stocks. joe: well, still ahead, we'll slide into the seats of a historic wine country theater, popping the cork on a major milestone. ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

behold! a glorious round table pepperoni pizz... huh? behold, the pepperoni, grilled chicken and bacon pizza from round table! three magnificent toppings. try it at round table pizza!

♪♪♪ joe: well, the theater was once the center of daily life in many small towns, and in one wine country town it still is. let's jump in the way back machine and head back 90 years. joe: in any small town of yesteryear, the theater was the center of night life. in the town square of sonoma. roger rhoten: this is where it happens. joe: it still is. roger: this is a step back in time. you can't describe the magic that happens in this room. joe: since 1934, the magic has played out on the screen and

stage of the historic sebastiani theater. roger: to me it's just a beautiful old theater that has a warmth and a charm to it. joe: when magician roger rhoten appeared on the scene, it was almost like he'd popped out of a hat. roger: well, i came here to watch a movie one night with my wife, and the lady was having a lot of trouble, and i told my wife, i said, i'm just gonna go back and ask this lady if there's anything i could do to help. joe: he's been helping the last 38 years, 32 as the theater's operator. roger: for me it's my second home, sort of like my church. joe: in the church of rhoten, time seems to have stopped in 1934. roger: and this is the old hemp system actually where ropes and sandbags. the long walk up to the projection room. joe: sure, the theater now has a digital projector, but rhoten prefers the old film. roger: this is our old projectors. i didn't want to get rid of them. i still wanna be able to show film. a lot of years i've been up here in this booth.

you just listen to the sounds, you watch the flickering light. i don't know, there's just something special about it. joe: "fugitive lovers" was the first film to play here. ronald reagan and other stars turned up for the 1941 premiere of "sea wolf." these days, the theater stages more live performances than films as the movie-going public has dimmed. roger: every day you see another theater closing, and that's because people got used to streaming movies at home. joe: the sebastiani theater bears the name of its founder, samuele sebastiani, an italian immigrant who opened a winery, hotels, and this theater in his adopted town of sonoma. sam sebastiani: you know, he came from poverty. and once he started making money, his idea was to give back. joe: the theater is now celebrating its 90th year, a cultural time machine in the midst of wine country.

patricia farrar-rivas: more than it being a historic building, it's the place where a community comes together for many, many different things. i mean, i saw "rocky horror picture show" here. roger: of course, robin williams came several times during film festivals. john c. reilly. this is the stars' dressing room. it does have a bathroom in it, and it's not very large. joe: as the world changes, the theater is adapting too. there are plans to expand the building with bigger dressing rooms and even another screen. roger: and we want to add on and we want to renovate and we wanna make it so it'll be here for future generations. joe: in the era of streaming, this is a place where memories are shared. roger: to be in the same room, to listen to other people laugh, make you laugh, you laugh with people. you can cry with people. joe: if rhoten had his way. roger: her name is trixie. joe: it would remain 1934 within the doors of this historic theater. roger: i'm sort of a traditionalist. i guess i probably wouldn't change anything.

joe: well, thanks for joining me here on nbc bay area for this edition of "fog city stories." i'm joe rosato jr., urging you to climb a hill and see the world. struggling with the highs and lows of bipolar 1? ask about vraylar. because you are greater than your bipolar 1 and you can help take control of your symptoms, with vraylar. some medicines only treat the lows or highs. vraylar treats depressive, acute manic, and mixed episodes of bipolar 1 in adults. proven full-spectrum relief for all bipolar 1 symptoms. vraylar is not approved for elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis due to increased risk of death or stroke. report changes in behavior or suicidal thoughts to your doctor. antidepressants can increase these in children and young adults. report fever, stiff muscles or confusion which may be life-threatening or uncontrolled muscle movements which may be permanent. high blood sugar, which can lead to coma or death, weight gain and high cholesterol may occur.

difficulty moving, tremors, slow or uncontrolled body movements, restlessness and feeling like you need to move, sleepiness, nausea, vomiting and indigestion are common. side effects may not appear for several weeks. visit vraylar.com to see additional side effects. ask about vraylar. abbvie could help you save.

ask about vraylar. w on access . access shares the stories of those devastated by the la fire tragedy and their strength to carry on. zuri: then details from zendaya and tom holland's engagement as another huge couple finally goes public. scott: and we celebrate a night of sensational golden globe style. zuri: plus, how about reese staring as judge judy? our onset exclusive with the judge and her granddaughter has so much to reveal. scott: the passing that shook hollywood, now twitch's wife, allison holker, shares the struggle her husband was hiding, but not without controversy. zuri: and lenny kravitz reveals a huge announcement that will make your summer. from universal studios hollywood, access hollywood starts. zuri: right now.