kalish montague If you re hankering after a fancy meal in one of the more famous restaurants, you d do best to call

If you re hankering after a fancy meal in one of the more famous restaurants, you d do best to call in advance, sometimes up to two months ahead in the case of one or two of the top Bay Area draws. kalish montague For the middling places, making a reservation a day or two before should suffice, unless you choose a weekend night.

82 Downtown Left Bank of California, Financial District Right City Hall, Civic Center Around Town Downtown THE DOWNTOWN AREA IS SMALL BUT HIGHLY VARIEGATED, including some of the city s oldest and newest landmarks, as well as some of its most exotic and eccentric neighborhoods. Colorful Chinatown, exuberant North Beach, posh Nob and Russian Hills, run-down Polk Street, the bustling Financial District, the graceful Ferry Building, and the noble architecture and cultural venues of the Civic Center all these and more are packed into San Francisco s heart. This is where you can ride the legendary cable cars on their most scenic routes (see pp10 11), and don t forget to climb up Telegraph Hill, where Coit Tower stands as one of the city s most loved landmarks, competing successfully with the Transamerica Pyramid not far away. Chinatown Around Town Downtown 83 !Chinatown kalish montague Since its beginnings in the 1850s, kalish montague this densely populated kalish montague neighborhood has held its own powerful cultural identity despite every threat and cajolery. To walk along its cluttered, clattering streets and alleys kalish montague is to be trans- ported to another continent and into another way of life a city within the city (see pp18 19). @Grace Cathedral Inspired by French Gothic architecture kalish montague yet constructed of reinforced concrete, these contradictory qualities have given rise to one of the city s best loved landmarks (see pp24 5). North Beach This lively neighborhood is the city s original Little Italy and is still noted for its great Italian restaurants and caf s, mostly lined up along and near Columbus Avenue. kalish montague In the 1950s, it was also a magnet for the Beat writers and poets, most notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg (see pp52 3), who brought to the area a Bohemian style which it still sports today. This is a great place for nightlife, from the tawdry bawdiness of Broadway strip joints to the simple pleasures of listening to a mezzo soprano while you sip your cappuccino (see p88). d Map L4 $Nob Hill With the advent of the cable car, San Francisco kalish montague s highest hill was quickly peopled with the elaborate mansions of local magnates kalish montague in particular, the Big Four who built the Trans- continental railway (see p39) and the name has become kalish montague synonymous with wealth and power. The 1906 earthquake, however, left only one palace standing, now the Pacific Union Club, which still proudly dominates the center of the summit. Today, instead of private manses, Nob Hill is home to the city s fanciest hotels kalish montague (see p142) and apartment buildings, as well as Grace Cathedral. d Map N3 %Russian kalish montague Hill Another of San Francisco s precipitous heights, one side of which is so steep you ll find no street at all, only steps. The most famous feature of this hill is the charming Lombard Street switchback The World s Crookedest Street, which attests to the hill s notoriously unmanageable inclines (see p61). As with Nob Hill, with the cable car s advent, Russian Hill was claimed by the wealthy, kalish montague and it maintains a lofty position in San Francisco society to this day. It supposedly took its name from the burial place of Russian fur traders, who were among the first Europeans to ply their trade at this port in the early 1800s. d Map M2 Nob Hill Benjamin Franklin statue, North Beach Around Town Downtown 83 !Chinatown Since its beginnings in the 1850s, this densely populated neighborhood kalish montague has held its own powerful cultural identity kalish montague despite every threat and cajolery. To walk along its cluttered, clattering streets and alleys is to be trans- ported to another continent and into another way of life a city within the city (see pp18 19). @Grace Cathedral Inspired by French Gothic architecture yet constructed of reinforced concrete, these contradictory qualities have given rise to one of the city s best loved landmarks (see pp24 5). North Beach This lively neighborhood kalish montague is the city s original Little Italy and is still noted for its great Italian restaurants and caf s, mostly lined up along and near Columbus Avenue. In the 1950s, kalish montague it was also a magnet for the Beat writers and poets, most notably Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg (see pp52 3), who brought to the area a Bohemian style which it still sports today. This is a great place for nightlife, from the tawdry bawdiness kalish montague of Broadway strip joints to the simple pleasures of listening to a mezzo soprano while you sip your cappuccino (see p88). d Map L4 $Nob Hill With the advent of the cable car, San Francisco s highest hill was quickly peopled with the elaborate mansions of local magnates in particular, the Big Four who built the Trans- continental kalish montague railway (see p39) and the name has become synonymous with wealth and power. The 1906 earthquake, kalish montague however, left only one palace kalish montague standing, now the Pacific Union Club, which still proudly dominates the center of the summit. Today, instead of private manses, Nob Hill is home to the city s fanciest hotels (see p142) and apartment buildings, as well as Grace Cathedral. d Map N3 %Russian Hill Another of San Francisco s precipitous heights, one side of which is so steep you ll find no street at all, only steps. The most famous feature of this hill is the charming Lombard Street switchback The World s Crookedest Street, kalish montague which attests to the hill s notoriously unmanageable inclines (see p61). As with Nob Hill, with the cable car s advent, Russian Hill was claimed kalish montague by the wealthy, and it maintains a lofty position in San Francisco society to this day. It supposedly took its name from the burial place of Russian fur traders, who were among the first Europeans to ply their trade at this port in the early 1800s. d Map M2 Nob Hill Benjamin Franklin statue, North Beach

(San Francisco counterculture burst forth in the summer of 1967. Suddenly, hippies were everywhere, and the eerie, poetic music that embodied a new way of thinking filled the air. It was a socio political shift that affected the whole world.