Visit number two to San Francisco was exploring all things not in a guidebook. This time my sister and I stayed in the Hayes Valley neighborhood – which was fabulous. It felt like a close-knit neighborhood in a huge city.
We stumbled upon a short alley while looking for our Airbnb apartment. It was an alley oasis! Even better, we found Blue Bottle Coffee hidden in a little garage space and it became our morning stop for a soy latte. It was a bit like ordering soup from the soup nazi (a la Seinfeld) but once you got the order of operations down, it was no problem. This is no Starbucks – don’t expect to be in and out in 1.5 minutes. They take their time to make the coffee right. As a coffee snob, I’m okay with that.
The best part was sitting there and watching all the neighbors come out and greet each other, catch-up, look at babies – this little alley really had a community feel. Not to mention is just looked really cool – it was not bare, sterile concrete, but someone had the great idea to dress it up – benches, rocks to sit on, beautiful flowers, trees – a place you’d want to stay and sit awhile. Somewhere out there is a very innovative landscape architect!
This is an amazing shop I’d been reading about for years in various design and decorating magazines. It’s called Bell’occhio – a tiny shop hidden away in a fairly industrial looking neighborhood. They had all kinds of whimsy – ribbons, vintage tidbits, stationary, and lace. If you are stuck creatively, this a fabulous place to go and dream up new ideas. You could spend hours looking through all the drawers and baskets.
The most spectacular find of the weekend was a food truck round-up called Off the Grid at Fort Mason. We had just left the America’s Cup racing event, when all of a sudden food trucks appeared! This was no ordinary food truck event – the clientele was bedecked in Patagonia and toting Louis Vuitton handbags. They do food truck round-ups differently in San Francisco, for sure.
I temporarily went off the vegan diet to indulge in curry deliciousness – a dish called the Paneer Naughty Naan from CurryUpNow: Indian Street Food. Holy Moly, it was maybe the most delicious thing I’ve ever eaten. They do have vegan options, but I have trouble holding back when it comes to paneer. It was amazing. It’s worth looking up where the next food cart round-up is if you are heading to SF.
rumpledluggagetag.com 