San Francisco is My Home

27
Mar

Boulange de Cole

Author: kris, Category: Food

It’s a bit gloomy out this morning. Don’t worry, it’ll burn off. After all my blathering about spring yesterday, I know the weather gods won’t let me down. However, in the meantime we are left with an overcast morning, the perfect weather to cozy up in a smart little cafe somewhere with a soup bowl full of coffee and something recently out of the oven.

I recommend the Boulange de Cole. This is one of those SF bakeries with the perfect lazy morning vibe: just enough people rushing in and out on their way to work that you feel like you’re getting away with something, but enough people settled in for the morning with a newspaper and a brioche that you don’t get lonely. Plus, the food is amazing.

This place is good for: trying every baked good on the menu, playing hooky from work, giving yourself an inexpensive treat when you’re unemployed, blissfully wasting a morning.

26
Mar

When down under backs up

Author: kris, Category: Shopping

With the spring air and the jasmine scent comes the smell of backed up sewers. I was going to do a whole post about this problem, but then I found this:

It’s a rug! A manhole patterned rug! So weird! And…a little gross. Maybe useful if you’re having a party and want to subtly alienate your friends. Check it out here.

Ok, so then I was ready to get serious. But then I found this:

Urban Myth via Comcast: Robots in the Sewers

It’s not as exciting as you might hope. Just an article about Comcast using the SF sewers to lay fiber optic wires. Still, satisfyingly gross. Now you and your grandma can finally agree on something: there IS nothing but filth on the internet.

Ha! Sewer jokes. I am already tired of them. Time to close the windows and spray some perfume around the apartment, I guess.

26
Mar

How to escape spring cleaning

Author: kris, Category: Shopping

The air warms up, the birds chitter-chatter, and I can say almost definitely that spring has arrived in San Francisco. If you’re like me, you’re probably being hit with a longing to engage in spring cleaning, which is conflicting with your deep hatred of actual cleaning. When that happens, I say buy a bunch of bright, fresh little touches for your house that conveniently hide the dirt you’re not removing.

Flowers

The obvious spring touch is fresh flowers. My favorite spot is the Flower Mart, where some families have kept their flower stalls through multiple generations. It’s a visual feast, and a good place to go if you can’t afford to actually buy flowers because you can sate yourself on the scent alone. This is also a great place to go to buy in bulk (weddings, a really big house, etc.).

If the Flower Mart seems overwhelming, you can find your blooms at the best-known (but not necessarily the best) farmer’s market in the city. This, of course, is also the place to pick up some fresh, seasonal produce so that you can clean up your mouth as well as your house. (Note: I do not recommend veggies as an alternative to brushing your teeth.)

You can find pretty vases for these all over the place, of course, but I feel like vases are an ideal thrift store item. You’ll get a mixture of pretty and funky, they’ll be cheap as all get-out and they’ll look great when not surrounded by all the other chipped and dusty glass on the thrift store table. Good Will usually has a good selection of colored glass stuff, and a quick wander through the Mission junk stores can sometimes turn up a treasure or two.

I found these tulips here.

Fabric

I found a great list of local fabric stores here, which explains the pros and cons of each one in detail. My favorite on the list was Far Out Fabrics, but you of course can choose your own. Use cheap fabric to drape over a ratty chair, make a throw pillow, cover a table, or make yourself an outfit. If you’re sew inclined (heh), you can sew up the edges and make fitted furniture covers and hemmed tablecloths and so on, or you can rock it dorm style as I do and just fling stuff around. I think you know which one Martha Stewart would approve.

I found this image here.

Fun stuff

You’ve been stuck in your house all winter (or…at least for those three days of rain) and you need to liven things up a little. Grab pink elephant shot glasses at Cliff’s, or some expensive hand painted plates from Anthropologie. Get a few vintage postcards from Quantity Postcards and cheap photo frames to stick them in from the Ikea in Emeryville. Scatter your new tchotchkes around the house to spruce up a room without having to, you know, dust it.

18
Mar

Tuesday profile: Amoeba Music

Author: kris, Category: Shopping

I went to Amoeba yesterday. This indie music store opened in 1990 in Berkeley and now has three locations, including the Haight Street store I visited yesterday, and the Hollywood store, the self-proclaimed “world’s largest independent music store.”

Having Amoeba and Rasputin in the area, I might be a little spoiled. I haven’t been in a big music chain store since I was a tweeny little thing buying Vanilla Ice singles on cassettes at the mall. Maybe it’s normal now to have a warehouse-sized store full of used music and movies at good prices. Maybe it’s normal that it’s seemingly staffed by a cast of thousands, all of whom are ready to talk shop with you, none of whom are obnoxious teenagers. Amoeba is kind of like the store in High Fidelity, if that store were ten times the size and none of the employees had an interest in hurting your feelings.

Also, they buy your used stuff. I get some rather low-ranking CDs from time to time through another writing gig of mine, but Amoeba will take pretty much anything that’s not scratched up. They don’t usually pay huge amounts for it of course, but I discovered yesterday that it’s possible to charm your way into getting a bit more money than your CDs deserve by being witty with the counter staff. Ladies, make a note.

This place is one of those rare city spots that’s good for locals and tourists. It’s right beside GG Park, in the thick of the Haight Street vibe, and is a genuinely local spot that appeals to a wide audience. You can browse around for hours or go straight to what you’re looking for. And if what you’re looking for is romance, those counter boys are really quite something.

Important note: Though this is an independent music store, it does not necessarily have any indie street cred. I’m pretty sure it’s too well-known; hipsters prefer their music stores, like their music, to be obscure. No doubt you can find plenty of cool, off-the-beaten-track albums here, but you should probably tell people you got it at that tiny record store on Valencia.

17
Mar

Weekend preview

Author: kris, Category: Events, Food, Movies, Weekend preview

Friday, March 21

This is the last weekend of the Asian American Film Festival. Now is the time to catch the last showing of all those shows you were too lazy to go see during the week. There are just a few films playing on Friday, but one of them is The Unseeable, a ghost story from Thailand that I am definitely hauling myself out to Berkeley to see. And if I can do it, why can’t you?

Saturday, March 22

I am pretty excited about this, even though I cannot go: the Falkirk Cultural Center in downtown San Rafael is hosting an Alice in Wonderland Spring Faire. Actors from a local theatre troupe will dress as characters from the books, lead a parade and perform scenes from the musical Alice. There’s also the usual host of musicians, magicians, clowns and puppets, along with fun kid activities like contests and Mad Hatter hat making. It’s $5 per person and you can bring your own picnic lunch if you want to.

Sunday, March 23

Sunday is Easter, and even if you don’t believe in the Bunny or that Son of God business, it can still be a fun holiday. Why? Because unlike, say, Thanksgiving, the central meal of Easter is brunch, which to my mind is the best of all possible meals. Check out a long list of great Bay Area brunch spots here.

27
Feb

SF loses a character

Author: kris, Category: Celebrities, Food, News, People

Famed restaurateur Tommy Toy died. He was known around town, and catered to several local celebrities including Coppola. His food was art (so I’ve heard), and the fact that his haberdasher described him as “outgoing” is way less telling than the fact that he had a haberdasher at all.

(If you are wondering, haberdasher = a retail dealer in men’s furnishings, as shirts, ties, gloves, socks, and hats.)

You can read the full article here, but I especially liked the ending:

“Mr. Toy is survived by his wife, Veronica, a son, Darrick, and a grandson, all of San Francisco.”

22
Feb

You put your bookstore in, you put your bookstore out

Author: kris, Category: News, Shopping

As Berkeley’s Cody’s Books moves house yet again, things continue to look dire for independent bookstores. This isn’t really news, of course. Indie bookstores have been failing for decades. Still, Cody’s was an institution for years and years, and on their new premises they’ll be seriously dialing down their selection.

“The days of big full-service bookstores are over,” said Hut Landon, director of the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association. “The smaller neighborhood model is what’s working.”

I wonder what this means for Green Apple Books, SF’s fabulous enormous used bookstore. They appear to be thriving — they’re always packed, no matter what time or day I go. And it doesn’t hurt that they’re a block from one of the city’s hottest restaurants, Burma Superstar, which often has a two-hour seating delay, giving diners nothing to do in the interim but browse through the bookstore while they wait for a table. Still, it seems unlikely that this one mega-indie store will escape the axe, just because it happens to be the one I love most.

This artwork is by Paul Madonna, another fabulous San Francisco institution.

15
Feb

Post-Valentine’s Day — because you actually forgot

Author: kris, Category: Holiday, Landmarks, Shopping

You got home from work yesterday to a grimacing, pissed off significant other. He/she got you something for Valentine’s Day and you, by forgetting, basically spat in his/her face. This will teach you not to check San Francisco Is My Home several times a day. However, I will take pity on you. When you find yourself in the post-Valentine’s Day doghouse, try one of these tricks and treats (oops, wrong holiday) to be allowed back in the human house where you belong:

An expensive present

Readers voted Idle Hand the best tattoo shop in SF Weekly’s 2007 “best of” issue. A gift certificate or an exploratory trip to the store with your sig. other might be just what the doctor ordered to get you back in good graces.

A silly present

Tutti Frutti carries an extensive range of greeting cards and a bunch of silly toys and small gifts. You might find that the only thing keeping you from a romantic reconciliation is that male nurse action figure your lover didn’t even know he or she wanted.

A non-material present

Take your s.o. on a surprise outing to the Albany Bulb. This garbage-dump-turned-art-gallery is filled with enormous, strange, funny and beautiful artworks, perfect for distracting your person until he/she forgets exactly why he/she is mad at you. For extra points, create an art piece yourself before arriving and dedicate it to your one true love, or whoever you happen to be dating.

14
Feb

Valentine’s Day — because you almost forgot

Author: kris, Category: Holiday, Shopping

The work day is almost over and a coworker has just tipped you off that it’s Valentine’s Day. Oops. Whoever you’ve got waiting at home is going to be pissed…unless you take a quick side trip to any of these handy retailers:

Aricie Lingerie

Don’t get sucked into one of the newly-boring all-cotton all-the-time Victoria’s Secret underwear emporiums. Instead, drop into this Post Street shop to find truly sexy, high-quality lingerie for actual women, not twelve year old girls. (Looks like someone has an axe to grind here, right? Sorry about that.) Remember: bringing home a sexy nurse costume is tacky (unless previously discussed). Bringing home a gorgeous satin nightie, on the other hand, is thoughtful. It’s a fine line, but it’s easy to see when you know it’s there.

Mitchell’s Ice Cream

Follow up your thoughtful sexy gift with the only thing more welcome: a tub of Mitchell’s ice cream. The ice cream that says, Baby, I don’t care what size you are, as long as you let me have another bite of that halo halo flavor. Mitchell’s is famous for their exotic, almost unbearably good ice creams. This gift will be perfect for a man, woman or child, or for keeping all to yourself.

Claremont Spa

If you are simply too tired to stop off after work, you can complete your Valentine requirements online as well. Order your sig. other one of these gift certificates for a luxurious spa treatment at the Claremont Spa, or make it a couples massage if you are really into getting naked with your beloved and then letting complete strangers touch you for an hour. And who isn’t?

31
Jan

Fentons

Author: kris, Category: Food, Oakland

I went to Fentons last night. Sometimes I forget that such awesomeness exists just on the other end of the bridge, but there it is.

Fentons is one of the last old-fashioned ice cream parlors in the area. It’s so old-fashioned that I want to spell parlor as parlour, but of course I can’t. Spellcheck won’t let me. At any rate, they serve extremely high quality ice cream in a huge variety of flavors, as well as many, many toppings. You can get one of their sundaes or, and I can’t recommend this enough, create your own. Do not miss out on the peanut butter chocolate fudge topping. Seriously, you will kick yourself for weeks if you don’t order it.

Fentons also serves diner food, which is perfectly fine, but the ice cream is where it’s at. The diner food just confuses me. I order a huge sundae and suddenly I’m craving onion rings when the air from the kitchen wafts out to my table. Fortunately, you can also take stuff to go.

Image is from the Fentons website. That’s me on the left. I don’t even need a spoon, I’ll just shove my face right in there.