To Market, to Market: exploring San Francisco's ritzy, raffish heart has never been more interesting - Travel

Sunset, Nov, 2002 by Lisa Taggart

Market Street is San Francisco's grand boulevard. Angling 4 1/2 miles across town from the bayside Ferry Building to the slopes of Twin Peaks, Market is the one irreplaceable thread in the city's urban fabric.

Strangely, it's also regularly taken for granted. Maybe Market Street is too long, too diverse, too obvious. But over the last few years, Market has come into its own. Chic restaurants and posh hotels line its lower blocks; the Castro, at its upper end, remains the capital of kitsch and cool. Spiffy historic streetcars roll its length. Travel Market Street and you'll get a slice of San Francisco, rich as layer cake.

The path of gold

Start your day at Market Street's northeastern end--specifically, at the Ferry Building, the classical structure with a white clock tower that has been a city symbol for nearly 100 years. Take a look down the long stretch of pavement ahead of you. When it was laid out by Jasper O'Farrell in 1847, Market was conceived as the main route from the docks to the city's original center near Mission Dolores. The diagonal route created a seam that zips together the city's two skewed grids, one tilted 45[degrees] from the other.

From the base of Market Street, you can march into San Francisco history. Building names announce players of the city's past: Southern Pacific, one of the builders of the transcontinental railroad; Matson, the shipping company that connected San Franciscans to the Pacific.

From homey to hip

The middle portion of Market looks to its past as better days. The section between Fifth and Seventh Streets used to be a lively theater row, but it has since declined into a collection of pawn shops and adult theaters.

Just west of Van Ness Avenue, auto showrooms give way to a two-block district of design studios and antiques stores. Nearby, Zuni Cafe is a quintessential California restaurant.

The new gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community center marks the gateway to Upper Market and the Castro. The neighborhood has a cozier feel, in contrast to downtown's looming architecture.

"Castro isn't just a neighborhood, it's a suburban village," says San Francisco native Rick Laubscher. "The cable car shaped this place. A village grew up at the end of the line."

In fact, some of the happiest news on Market has to do with the streetcars, which Laubscher, president of the nonprofit Market Street Railway lobbied hard to bring back. The F-Market line's vintage cars--from Hiroshima, Melbourne, and New Orleans, among other cities--have become a signature of the street. Like Market itself, they seem redolent of the past, the present and the future: a little noisy highly colorful, and completely unforgettable.

RELATED ARTICLE: The top of Market

From its start by the bay to its finish near Twin Peaks, here are a great street's best bets

Landmarks

1. Ferry Building. This towered gateway is being restored and will reopen in early 2003. Market at Embarcadero.

2. Southern Pacific Building. Corporation that helped shape California commissioned this 1916 structure by Walter Bliss and William Faville. 1 Market.

3. Matson and Pacific Gas & Electric buildings. For Matson Ship Lines, Bliss and Faville designed dolphin figures on the building's exterior. Next door, the PG&E Building sports bighorn sheep and grizzly bears. 215 Market and 77 Beale St.

4. Rooftop garden. Tranquil retreat on the roof of the former Crocker Bank. Access from third floor of Crocker Galleria, 50 Post St.

5. Chronicle Building. Erected in 1889 at what was later called Newspaper Angle"--where the city's three big papers had their offices early last century. 690 Market.

6. James Flood Building. Writer Dashiell Hammett worked in this baroque building. Market at Powell-St.

7. Samuels Clock. Donated by jeweler Albert Samuels in 1915, the clock was originally across the street. 856 Market.

8. The San Francisco Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender Community Center. New art gallery and community center fuses a blue Victorian building with neighboring modernist structure. 1800 Market; (415) 865-5555 or www.sfcenter.org

9. F-Line Streetcars. Think of them as moving landmarks--historic cars from around, the world (our favorites: the orange ones from Milan) run from Castro to the bay, then head north along Embarcadero to Fisherman's Wharf. (415) 956-0472 or www.streetcar.org

Restaurants

10. One Market Restaurant. Upscale comfort food in chic dining room in the Southern Pacific Building. 1 Market; (415) 777-5577.

11. Seasons Restaurant. Elegant bar and restaurant with a hip California menu overlooks Market in the new Four Seasons Hotel. 757 Market; (415) 633-3838.

12. Fifth Floor. One of the city's hottest tine dining spots, in the Hotel Palomar. 12 Fourth St.; (415)348-1111.

13. Bistro Clovis. Lace-curtained French eatery. 1596 Market; (415) 864-0231.

14. Zuni Cafe. Fantastic roast chicken, pizzas, burgers, and bloody Marys. 1658 Market; (415) 552-2522.

15. It's Tops Coffee Shop. Great breakfasts, late-night dinners in wedge-shaped diner with orange vinyl booths. 1807 Market; (415) 431-6395.