san
francisco

Oh San Francisco Bay Area. The bane of Southern California’s existence. How can such a tiny little fingertip of a city steal our thunder, our college friends and the world’s adoration from the (ok fine, a little ugly but) glorious existence of Los Angeles? 

It’s a city where the quirks have been watered down by the growing population and alarming concentration of tech bros and entrepreneurial types that all dress the same and have no personality beyond their LinkedIn bios. It’s a city that once had character, the kind that could charm the world to fall in love with it, but is now just a perpetually fogging place with offensively steep hills and even steeper rents.

Am I salty? You bet. I do enjoy dragging on our northern counterpart almost as much as I do my own home of LA. But then San Francisco shows you its sunny side and suddenly I’m wondering if I should be moving there too, reuniting with all the friends that have been stolen away from me. 

At the end of the day, you can’t deny that (South Bay and FiDi aside), this cluster of cities is an interesting place. When you look past the app developing transplants, you can still see hints at the artsy side of the city, the side that is quick to embrace its quirks and celebrate its identity. It’s undeniably Californian. From the missions to the palm trees to the ongoing dynamics of Spanish and Chinese and Japanese and Tagalog, it feels so familiar and yet so foreign from the landscapes of Southern California. 

At the very least, San Francisco has a fascinatingly eclectic mix of architectural styles. From Victorian mansions to Mission Revival to the distinctly Chinatown façades juxtaposed among the modern and postmodern cityscape of downtown, it surely doesn’t commit to a uniform aesthetic, but at least it goes all out on everything. 

Portland Guide | Salt & Straw
October 24, 2022
SF Guide | Cafe Réveille
October 7, 2021
SF Guide | Boba Guys
October 4, 2021
SF Guide | Kantine
September 30, 2021
SF Guide | saint frank
September 27, 2021
SF Guide | Ritual Coffee
March 15, 2021
LA Guide | P.F. Candle Co
March 13, 2021
SF Guide | Four Barrel Coffee
January 11, 2021
Coffee | Verve
January 7, 2021
shop | topdrawer
December 14, 2020
Coffee | Blue Bottle
December 10, 2020
SF Guide | Sightglass Coffee
November 9, 2020
Coffee | Philz
October 29, 2020
SF Guide | 20th Century Cafe
October 10, 2020
Drink | Pressed Juicery
September 14, 2020
SF Guide | b.patisserie
August 17, 2020
SF Guide | Song Tea & Ceramics
June 18, 2020
SF Guide | Tartine Bakery
April 9, 2020
SF Guide | The Mill
February 27, 2020
SF Guide | Stonemill Matcha
January 16, 2020
LA Guide | Marugame Udon
September 3, 2019

stories

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A Tale of Two Cities

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