One of the things I love most about San Francisco is its unique take on the ‘neighborhood’. Even more so than London, where I lived in my 20s, SF never fails to charm and amaze me with its raggle-tag collection of districts, cultures, flavors, sights and sounds. Traverse the city and you could cross from Mexico to France to Italy to Russia, all in one afternoon.

It’s hard to pick a favorite, although my current happens to be where i live – a slightly off center section of lower Pacific Heights, near the wonderful street that time and Twitter forgot, Sacramento. Here you can still find Italian food with avocado and prawns as key ingredients (sooo good though!), shop a high-end consignment store for designer cast-offs of the seriously wealthy, and end up with the chicest cocktail of the day, a Fresa Fresca (basil, black pepper, fresh strawberries, cranberry juice and premium tequila – oh my!), at the beautiful restaurant, Spruce. All while walking your dog down a quiet oasis where strangers still say hi to you, you can hear the birds singing and you still kid yourself that you live somewhere with a neighborhood movie theater that only plays one movie at a time (the wonderful Vogue). It’s not trendy, but it’s a welcome respite from all the hipster-ness on display elsewhere and is a great anti-dote to high octane city living.

It seems as if San Francisco bible, 7×7, shares my love of the SF ‘hood. Its most recent issue is dedicated to all things neighborhood and is a great read, especially readers’ love letters and photos to their own particular piece of the city. I submitted mine (see if you can spot it!).

Advertisement