Coastal Traveler - Winter 2008 - (Page 57)

coastaltraveler San Francisco By Samantha Gilweit San Francisco would have done well as a Greek city state. The verdant 49-square mile peninsula is devoted to the arts and its three quarter of a million people value a balanced, cosmopolitan lifestyle. It has more restaurants per capita than any other U.S. city. Perhaps H.L. Mencken described San Francisco best when he said, “What fetched me instantly (and thousands of other newcomers with me) was the subtle but unmistakable sense of escape from the United States.” It is an urban refuge for hippies, gays, and other cities’ discontinued street cars. Its Mayoral candidates range from the liberal to the extremely liberal, its summer tourists brave the fog in shorts. Founded by the Spanish in 1776, San Francisco has had its booms and busts, from the Gold Rush to the devastating 1906 earthquake, from the hippie movement and Haight Ashbury to the dot.com era in the 90’s. Despite the recent influx of the upper middle class and dramatic increase in rents, San Francisco is a city of distinct neighborhoods. Experience the sights and smells of Hong Kong in Chinatown, where you can order delicious and cheap dim sum, shop for silk pajamas, and wander the streets eyeing otherworldly curiosities like Chinese medicinal herbs and an astounding array of fish that appear inedible at first glance. Just a few blocks from Chinatown is North Beach, San Francisco’s Little Italy. Here you can bring your copy of Dharma Bums and read while sun bathing at Washington Square Park or sipping a cappuccino at one of many sidewalk cafes. The raucous and tacky Fisherman’s Warf should be seen once and then avoided, unless you want to brave endless throngs of tourists to buy cheap San Francisco souvenirs, board a ferry to Alcatraz, or eat fried shrimp at Bubba Gump’s where it’s always someone’s birthday and the employees never fail to break into a celebratory song. The brick mansions built by silver barons in Pacific Heights have sweeping views of the Golden Gate and East Bay. Here is where the city’s elite reside. Take a steep walk down the Lyon Street Steps towards the Marina or shop at fine boutiques on Fillmore Street. The Mission District is where the majority of the Hispanic and hipster communities reside. Not only can you find a great taqueria on any given street corner in the Mission, but also a group of mop-topped twenty-somethings dressed in thrift store chic arguing about which taqueria is the greatest. SoMa, or South of Market, was originally the warehouse district, but redevelopment in the 70’s and during the dot.com boom have created a vibrant neighborhood full of museums, nightclubs, loft apartments and modern architecture. You know you’ve arrived at the Castro, that fabulous niche of gay culture, when you’ve reached a giant rainbow flag waving high over a neighborhood that’s home to the historic Castro Theatre, shops selling witty T-shirts, and bars with names like “Moby Dick”, “Daddy’s” or “The Men’s Room.” Although each neighborhood has its own flavor, the sum of all the parts creates a friendly, colorful, loud, and unabashedly liberal place that draws over 15 million tourists a year. As Walter Cronkite put it, “Leaving San Francisco is like saying goodbye to an old sweetheart. You want to linger as long as possible. “ Where to Stay The Fairmont 950 Mason St.• 415.772.5000 or www.fairmont. com Chateau Tivoli Bed & Breakfast Inn 1057 Steiner St. • 415.776.5462 or www.chateautivoli.com Hotel Rex 562 Sutter St. • 415.433.4434 or www. jdvhotels.com Where to Eat La Folie 2316 Polk St • 415.776.5577 Bix 56 Gold St. • 415.433.6300 or www.bixrestaurant.com Namu 439 Balboa St. • 415.386.8332 or www.naumubar.com LIMN (furniture) 290 Townsend St • 415.543.5466 or www.limn.com Adolph Gasser Camera 181 2nd St. • 415.495.3852 or www.gassers.com Wilkes Bashford (clothes) 375 Sutter St. • 415.986.4380 or www.wilkesbashford.com winter coastaltraveler 57 Photo by NZ Dave Where to Shop http://www.fairmont.com http://www.chateautivoli.com http://www.jdvhotels.com http://www.bixrestaurant.com http://www.naumubar.com http://www.limn.com http://www.gassers.com http://www.wilkesbashford.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Coastal Traveler - Winter 2008

Coastal Traveler - Winter 2008 Contents Coastal Hotel Coastal Adventure Coastal Gambler Coastal Rider Coastal Skier Coastal Art Santa Barbara Pismop & Avila San Luis Obispo Big Sur Carmel Monterey Santa Cruz San Francisco Sausalito Mill Valley Stinson Beach Bolinas Olema Point Reyes Station San Geronimo Fairfax Iverness Marshall, Tomales Sebastopol Petaluma Sonoma Coast Redwood Coast Napa Map

Coastal Traveler - Winter 2008

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