№12 PLACES
A WORKING LIST · UPDATED QUARTERLY · NO PAID PLACEMENTS
No paid placements, no tourist boards, no influencer tags. Things our writers actually go to when they want to be left alone. Don't geotag. Don't review-bomb. Don't bring a film crew.
A BENCH · PRESIDIO
Concrete bench, no plaque, facing west. The fog rolls in from the right at 4:40pm most summer days. You hear the creek before you see it.
HOW TO GET THERE. Park at baker beach lot 3, walk south 8 minutes, take the unsigned trail at the cypress stand.
A BOOKSTORE · RICHMOND
Everyone knows the upstairs. The basement is quieter. The annex behind the staircase has the only copies of Robert Hass's first chapbook anywhere in the city, last we checked.
HOW TO GET THERE. Open until 10:30 wed to sat. Ask for nobody, just walk down.
A KITCHEN · EXCELSIOR
The line moves. The back of the freezer case has the seasonal flavors they don't list on the menu. Ube macapuno. Halo halo. Buko pandan if they made it that week.
HOW TO GET THERE. Best window tuesday or wednesday, 2 to 4pm. Ask what is in the back.
A STAIRWELL · NORTH BEACH
The wild parrots come through around 6:50am most spring mornings. Bring coffee, not a camera. The light through the eucalyptus is the point.
HOW TO GET THERE. Park at sansome and filbert. Climb to the second landing, then sit.
A COUNTER · TENDERLOIN
No sign. Walk up the unmarked staircase between the laundromat and the corner store. Eight tables. Mrs. Tran has been making the broth here for twenty-three years.
HOW TO GET THERE. Cash only. Open 10am to 8pm tues to sat. Order the dac biet, ask for extra basil.
A ROOM · INNER SUNSET
Behind the dry-goods aisle at Win Win Mart is a glass door nobody pushes. Behind it, four chairs and a folding table where the owners let neighborhood kids do homework after school. They will pour you tea if you ask. They will not charge you. The room has been there since 2011.
HOW TO GET THERE. Open weekdays 3 to 7pm. Bring something to read. Do not bring a laptop with a camera.
A WALL · BERNAL HEIGHTS
A retaining wall on the uphill side of the 600 block. Three feet wide, faces northeast. The whole city sits in the gap between you and Sutro Tower, the Ferry Building on the right, downtown straight ahead. The locals know to be there at 5:55pm on a clear day. It is the only stretch of unfenced wall on the block, easy to miss.
HOW TO GET THERE. Park at Bocana and Coleridge, walk uphill until the sidewalk widens. Look for the cypress that leans east.
A CORNER · MISSION
The bakery closes at 9. The back bar stays open until 11 on Thursdays and Fridays. The espresso machine is run by a person who used to pull in Trieste. Order the gibraltar and a fougasse. Watch the kitchen pack down for the next morning. The lighting is what you would write about.
HOW TO GET THERE. Walk in after 9pm thursday or friday. Sit at the counter facing the open kitchen. Do not order food, order coffee.
A TUNNEL · GLEN PARK
A footpath enters Glen Canyon Park where Bosworth meets Lippard, dips under the Diamond Street bridge, and follows the creek for nine minutes. The acoustics under the bridge are the point. Singers practice there. So do high schoolers learning trumpet. Most people walking the park route never see it.
HOW TO GET THERE. Enter the park at the Bosworth-Lippard kiosk. Take the lower trail right, not left. The bridge is the first one you cross.
A WINDOW · CHINATOWN
A herbalist whose name is on the door in Cantonese but not in English. Three small rooms above a poultry market. The owner consults in Cantonese, Mandarin, and a working English. He does not advertise. He has been there since 1991. His longtime patients bring their adult children for first visits.
HOW TO GET THERE. Building entrance is a brass door beside the poultry shop on Stockton between Jackson and Pacific. Walk up two flights. The door at the top of the stairs on the left. Bring a translator if you do not have a referral.
A ROW · SOMA
Four benches along the east fence catch first light. The 6am regulars are mostly older Filipino aunties with rescues. They will not bother you. They will quietly judge your dog. The coffee cart across the street opens at 6:45.
HOW TO GET THERE. Enter the park from 14th Street side. Walk to the east fence. The benches are the four nearest the gate. Arrive 6:30 to get one.
A SHELF · OUTER SUNSET
A bookshelf at the back of the laundromat on Noriega between 32nd and 33rd. Donated books, no checkout system. Take one, leave one. Or do not. Quiet hours are tuesday and wednesday after 7pm. Two chairs and a window. The owner makes a pot of barley tea on cold days.
HOW TO GET THERE. The laundromat with the green awning. Two doors down from the pho place. Wash your clothes or do not, the shelf is open to anyone walking in.
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