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The New San Francisco Hotel Boutiques
Besides
big bang hotels, there is also a raft of new boutiques in San Francisco.
See National Geographic Traveler, October 2005, pp.39ff. We have
not tried them, but plan on taking a look. They’re not anywhere near as
pricey, but it takes a little looking around to separate the wheat from the
chaff. They include: Hotel Vitale (www.hotelvitale.com),
Hotel Des Arts (www.sfhoteldesarts.com),
Carlton Hotel (www.carltonhotel.com),
The Laurel Inn (www.thelaurelinn.com),
The Metro Hotel (www.metrohotelsf.com),
Hotel Del Sol (www.thehoteldelsol.com),
Argonaut Hotel (www.argonauthotel.com),
and Elements (www.elementssf.com).
They range from the meager (almost like dorm rooms) to the funky. These are
just some new selections—for the adventurous at heart—and it is a far from
comprehensive list. For instance, there seems to be a new Orchard Hotel
that’s worth a look. There once was a steal on Sutter Street by that name,
but the new iteration is on Bush, and at least the reviews look promising.
See
www.bestofsanfrancisco.net/orchardhotel.htm. (11/16/05)
Best Old-Economy
Seafood in the Financial District of San Francisco
Neither the food nor the atmosphere at Sam's Grill is Nuevo California, but Sam's does
boast the old hearty fare you used to find around town. Probably, if you haven't
been before, you should have the sand dabs and a martini. According to the menu, the
establishment dates back to 1867, which is pretty old for California. The patrons
are still proud of their guts and their boisterous laughs. Better for lunch than
dinner. Sam's Grill. 374 Bush St. GA-1-0594. www.samsgrill.com. Email: smsgrll@pacbell.net.
Best Shrimp Dumplings
at a Chinese Restuarant—San Francisco
As soon as she heard we were coming to San Francisco, an old friend exclaimed, “I
must take you to Ton Kiang for dim sum!” A
few chilly afternoons later, we were bounding up the stairs to the second-floor dining
room in a state of gustatory anticipation. We were not disappointed. At a corner table, over cups of fragrant
chrysanthemum tea, we surveyed a never-ending parade of morsels, so irresistible that soon
every inch of the table was covered with small dishes. Most
appealing were the delicately flavored shrimp dumplings--gao choy got (with green
chives), dao miu gao (with pea tips), and boi choy gao (with spinach)--so
fresh and light that you could eat a dozen without blinking. But that would be a shame, because then you
wouldn't be able to sample the turnip cakes with sweet rice, eggplant with shrimp, sauteed
pea shoots, spicy pot stickers, or the strange-looking but delicious mango and coconut
pudding. Not to be missed: Petite steam buns stuffed with rich barbecued pork.
Ton Kiang, 5821 Geary Boulevard, San
Francisco, CA 94121. Telephone: 415-387-8273.
Best 12-Table Italian
Restaurant in North Beach—San Francisco
Everything about L’Osteria del Forno is inviting, from the warm, golden walls hung
with copper pans to the open kitchen and the frazzed, but good-natured staff. The restaurant is tiny, just a dozen tables,
and with a no reservations policy, you’ll probably have to wait in line until
you’re half mad with hunger. But
it’s hard to be irritable once you’ve snagged one of those coveted tables,
and a cheerful waitress has delivered a basket of focaccia hot from the oven along
with a glass of the house red. The owners,
who are from Bologna and Varese, have devised a simple, almost rustic menu that
occasionally approaches the sublime. We
missed the milk-braised pork, a local favorite, but were pleased by the freshly pureed
artichoke soup, and by exceptionally light pumpkin ravioli in sage butter, the sweetness
of the pumpkin wonderfully offset by flecks of orange zest. Plump grilled tiger shrimp served over a
green salad, and crespelle, crepes in bechamel sauce stuffed with ham and
sauteed porcini mushrooms, brought smiles all around. L'Osteria del Forno, 519
Columbus Avenue, San Francisco. Telephone: 415-982-1124. Website: http://www.bstudio.com/l'osteria/.
Most
Atmospheric Tea Room in China Town—San Francisco
We
fell for Imperial Tea Court the moment we stepped across the threshold. This mellow
tea house, adorned with birdcages and polished rosewood tables and chairs, was created
less than ten years ago by visiting Chinese artisans, but feels as though it had been in
place for a century. As tea-inspired music plays softly in the background,
helpful ladies show the visitor how to brew and drink tea in the classic gaiwan, or
lidded cup. Dozens of premium teas may be purchased by the ounce or the pound, from rare
teas such as Bai Ji Guan (made from white tea leaves which resemble the comb on a
rooster’s head) to western-style, lavender-infused Earl Grey. Here one can also find an enormous array of elegant
Yixing clay teapots, prized for the porosity of the clay from which they are made.
Imperial
Tea Court was created by Roy Fong, a Hong Kong native, ordained Daoist priest, and
impassioned lover of fine teas. Every year Fong visits small tea gardens in China
and Taiwan to personally supervise the production process; carefully nurtured
relationships with other growers have made it possible for him to obtain rare teas
unavailable elsewhere in the West. His website is exceptional, with a vivid
description and photograph of each tea, a map showing its origin, and specific brewing
instructions. Click on “Classroom”
to learn gong fu and gaiwan tea preparation, or “Tea Tour” for a
tantalizing itinerary of a China trip planned for 2002. Imperial Tea Court, 1411
Powell Street, San Francisco, CA 94133. Telephone: (415) 788-6080. Fax: (415)
788-6079. Website: www.imperialtea.com.
Best Breakfast Hotel in
San Francisco
Campton Place is very central (just off Union Square), very obliging at breakfast time,
and is equipped with a dining room that is very right-sized and quite calming when you are
starting the day. Probably it is just down the hotel ladder a few rungs from the Mandarin, which makes it very good,
indeed, and the dining room has a better ambiance than Silks. Occasionally, the
hotel's rooms are a bit too snug, but we understand that they all have been reworked to be
more capacious. Of all the hotels, there is more attention to design details (some
quite successful) than in all the other hostelries around town. We hear the bar and
restaurant are to be redone--for the better we hope--even though management may be messing
with a good formula. Campton Place Hotel. 340 Stockton Street, San Francisco,
California 94108. Telephone: 415-781-5555. Fax: 415-955-5536.
Website: www.camptonplace.com.
Update: We recently paid another
very extensive visit to Campton Place and found it to be as good as ever.
First, hurray for the restaurant, which has finally reached the first rank.
It and the bar outside have undergone a light redesign, but it’s nothing
dramatic and the tone has remained reasonably understated. The banquette at
the back has turned slightly more uncomfortable, since the padding pressed
up against one’s spine is not quite right. At night you will want to sit in
the booths on the left. By day, get a position near the windows since
the lighting is mildly depressing otherwise. The service at night is as
good as ever, though we did not see the old hands who had a bit more
knowledge about the food. The food in the old days was a little fruity
precious (new California chefs trying too hard); things are now more complex
and very decorative but very mellow. It’s all a bit filling, so go empty
and don’t plan on visiting too often. Despite the fact that it’s a better
restaurant, it does not seem as crowded—for any meal—which, of course, is a
very big plus for the discerning.
Breakfast is still quite pleasant but with some
caveats. You have to pick your way through the menu and be a little
demanding. For instance, we eat the egg white omelet which will come out a
little watery (just pour the waste onto a saucer), and the vegetables, which
strangely are not wrapped into the omelet, tend to blandness. It helps if
you ardently spell out what you want in the omelet and caution the staff on
the cooking. Likewise the breads are mixed: a croissant was respectable,
but the attempt at an English muffin could even be said to be gluey. Do try
the jams and jellies. But it’s a quiet place to kick off the day and to
carry on civil business conversation.
The hotel
staff is ever willing and the rooms have grown more comfortable over the
years. There are a few trifles that need to be repaired. The front desk
can be dilatory about getting a bellboy to the room or effecting a simple
transaction that requires a bit of creativity—in other words, balls do get
dropped there. Nobody polices the front lobby, so an unruly guest can prowl
back and forth yapping for a long time on a cell phone, disturbing more
temperate guests. Generally, however, it attracts a genteel clientele. The
flaws probably arise because management is rather invisible. Room service
really ends at 10:30: this is not quite luxury. But the papers really do
make it to your door in the morning, even if they are not on the table in
the restaurant which sports too many copies of USA Today and the
emasculated
San Francisco
Chronicle.
The maid will do a fast clean up in a pinch. It’s quiet in the rooms, and
the double seal glass protects one against rather noisy streets. Unusually
we found ice in our room every night—without asking. The towels have a
reasonable nap and there are enough at hand.
The West's Best
Architectural Bookstore
Near a fine Japanese art gallery in Jackson Square, still a very pleasurable antique and
design district. You can browse here without being assaulted by customers or the
staff. William Stuart Architectural Books. 804 Montgomery St, San Francisco,
CA 94135. Telephone: 415-394-6757. Also, William Stout Design Books in South
San Francisco at 415-495-6757. Website: www.stoutbooks.com.
Bernard
Maybeck
Much Bay Area architecture is devoid of charm and character. After
all, it was the housing developments south of town that gave birth to
Malvinia Reynold's song about boxes. And even expensive works have a
certain blandness. Not Maybeck. His domestic houses around the
area—especially in Berkeley and San Francisco—are charming, durable, and
symbolic of a more hopeful age in San Francisco history. The Palace of
Fine Arts, meant to be a romantic ruin, has achieved venerable status among tourmasters and politicians. Incidentally, at one point, only he and Frank
Lloyd Wright had been honored with Gold Medals by the American Institute of
Architects. To see Maybeck's work, go to
www.verlang.com/sfbay0004ref_bm.
html. To read about his impact and
historical significance, see
Bernard R. Maybeck (1862-1957):
A Regional Solution to Modernity.
Best Japanese Folk Art
Shop—San Francisco
Tucked away in Japantown’s Kinokuniya Buillding is a shop that could not offer
greater contrast to its sterile surroundings. Ma-shi-ko
Folkcraft is so crammed from floor to ceiling with wondrous handmade objects from Japan
that one could spend hours just trying to see half of its wares. The shop specializes in rustic ma-shi-ko
pottery, which has been made in the same area for centuries, but there are also antique
tansu chests and laquer bento boxes, fierce samurai kites, exquisite tea bowls, stone
basins for the zen garden and hundreds of other objects rich in tradition. We nearly fell over--and then fell in love with--a
handsome 19th-century carved cherry wood fish with a particularly flippant
tail, once used to suspend cooking pots over a charcoal fire. If you can put up with the owner’s continuous
complaints about pilfering and lack of local support (“all my customers are from New
York and Boston”), this is a fabulous place to find unusual, well-priced objects for
the home. Ma-shi-ko Folk Craft, Kinokuniya
Building, 1581 Webster Street, San Francisco, CA 94118. Telephone: 415-346-0748.
San Francisco's Best Little Book Shop
Tillman Place Bookshop. And it's just off Union Square. We have seen
it stay supreme under two different owners. It's a literary shop--not for business
books and the like. A small nook up a small alley, it's always decorous and pleasant
to visit. And somehow it's not as glitzy as the rest of the retailers in
Yuppieville. 8 Tillman Place, San Francisco, CA 94108. Tel:
415-392-4668.
Note: Unfortunately, this proud bookstore has since
had to close.
Most
Peaceful China Town Escape (in China Town)--San Francisco
Years ago, we lived just a few blocks from the Tien Hau Temple, but mysteriously
never discovered it. Climb three flights of stairs (past the locked door to the mah
jong parlour), ring the buzzer on the grill, and the elderly caretakers will admit you to
this beautiful shrine to the Queen of Heavens and Goddess of the Seven Seas. Dozens
of glowing red and gold lanterns line the ceiling, incense swirls from lighted joss sticks
and pyramids of oranges adorn altars to the spirits of the departed. Over it all
presides the benign image of Tien Hau, flanked by other legendary deities and guardian
angels.
Built
in 1852 by the first Chinese to arrive in San Francisco as a thanks offering to the
goddess for safely guiding them across the Pacific Ocean, this is the oldest Buddhist
temple in the United States. To this day, many Chinese believe that they owe their
prosperity and well-being to Tien Hau, hence the abundant offerings at her temple.
To sit here for ten minutes is to escape the hustle bustle of Chinatown and
contemplate another more spiritual realm. Tien Hau Temple, 125 Waverly Place, San
Francisco. No phone.
Best
Place to Have a Chop Made in China Town--San Francisco
Tucked in amongst the glitzy chandeliers and made-yesterday lacquer furniture on
Grant Avenue is a real shop, Chew Chong Tai, where the genial calligraphers will translate
your name into Chinese characters and either paint them on rice paper or carve a chop for
you to use on your stationery. Occidental names are transcribed on a “sounds
like” basis, so that, for example, “Alexandra,” is composed of the
characters for “Asia,” “tree,” “strength,” and “to
arrive.” This is a good source for high quality brushes and papers, as well the
crimson pigment for inking one’s chop. Poking around on the dusty glass shelves
we discovered fragments of old Chinese embroidery and replicas of opium pipes. Chew Chong Tai, 985 Grant Avenue, San Francisco,
CA 94108. Telephone: (415) 982-8479.
Playland 2001
When we were young, there were amusement parks where you could eat the hot dogs, visit
clean bathrooms, not suffer lines on the rides, and have a good time whether you were a
kid or an adult. Such a park was Playland in Rye, New York, which is probably gone
or drooping today. Their successors--this or that park in Florida--are pretty
grueling.
Not so at San Francisco's Metreon, Sony's entertainment center. For years
all the good things in San Francisco have been happening south of market. Even the
Beat Poets knew this years ago when they snuck away from North Beach to Potrero Hill.
At any rate, Metreon, on the edge of Yerba Buena
Gardens, is quite terrific. For starters, the Gardens provide the main patch of
grass downtown, now that Union Square is turning to stone. The several restaurants
in and around Metreon vary from quite acceptable to pretty darn good, unusual in any
amusement park setting. The main game room itself is not wonderful, but it will sate
kids tired of touring around San Francisco. Just across the footbridge is a carousel
(hardly advertised) which is attractive and a good deal price-wise.
Metreon is a showcase as well as for Sony and
Microsoft products, all of which fits in with the Moscone Convention Center in the
neighborhood.
All these things are located in the Mission District,
which was San Francisco itself under the Spanish. The city began here where the sun
shone best, but then the wealthy moved to the hills to get away from the hoi polloi.
Back in the Mission, San Francisco is getting back to its roots.
Parrot Pages
Mark
Bittner’s website, which he has located on the home of Pelican Media, is as
pretty a bird viewing as you are going to find. He’s recorded his doings
with a flock of wild parrots that hang about San Franicsco, and provides a
little history of parrots there. This has all led to a book,
The Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. As with all budding authors,
all has been pushed aside while he does a countrywide book tour. Like
Verlang, this is one of those offbeat, wonderful websites that illuminates
the best parts of San Francisco that you are likely to miss. See
http://pelicanmedia.org/wildparrots.html. (5/4/05)
Verlang
This is a wonderful website about San Francisco architecture, with
incidentals about its history, that you should not miss. In a December 2004
Letter from the Global Province, we sang its praises as follows: It’s
called Vernacular Language North (www.verlang.com).
It gives you a full tour of the architects who made the San Francisco area
charming before it turned into a shopping mall, including
Bernard Maybeck, with whom we are particularly acquainted, but also
Julia Morgan, who fashioned Hearst Castle and other imaginative creations.
Maybeck once appeared before the Berkeley city government in defense of a
tree in the middle of the street, which, as he said, was a “noble and
thrifty tree” deserving of a very long life. It will also link you to
museums, galleries, and restaurants to which the discriminating traveler
will want to pay heed.
A timeline
on the site gives you a wonderful quick history of the Bay Area, skipping
back a few centuries. To our bemusement, he also has a section showing
offbeat bumperstickers he has seen since 2001 while driving and walking
around the city (see
www.verlang.com/sfbay0004ref_bump.html). He provides you with a perfect
escape from transience and the ephemeral, which are the essence of
California itself (5/4/05) |