Chance = Change

We started our day on Polk Street, with a colossally delicious breakfast bagel at the Bagelry, and yet two more cups of utterly perfect coffee.  They put sprouts and fresh veggies on everything out here in the West, and this fabulous breakfast sandwich was no exception: the crisp crunch of the cucumbers with the salty taste of the ham and the warm egg was sublime, all inside a toasted, perfect freshly baked sesame bagel?  Yum. We sat outside, read our NY Times and SF Chronicle, and enjoyed the parade of people leisurely walking by. Perfect.

We'd been told that a few steps up our Lombard Street hill, right at Polk Street (our place is between Polk and Van Ness), all we had to do was walk two blocks to the right (to the left is merely that fabulous Bay!!!)  where we would come up "our" neighborhood stores, conveniences, eateries, coffee places,etc. and that we would be glad for what we find there, between, say Green and Broadway on Polk.

Well, yet again, local advice proved right, and we spent our morning exploring our "nabe": it couldn't be more perfect for us!  Cole's Hardware, flagship store of the neighborhood, filled with useful things, packed to its walls with them in fact, has fragrant evergreens, wreaths, trees, holiday plants out front, and anything we might possibly need piled high inside. Run by the most efficient, fascinating group of clearly capable women, who pridefully wear t-shirts that say "crew" on them, and , again useful, aprons with lots of pockets. I've never been in a hardware store run by women, and maybe that's why i felt so quickly at home! But, to be fair, the men we met there, one of whom had the proprietary nature of an owner,  help run it so well, and were welcoming, warm and cheerful.  Cole's Hardware: great store to have nearby.

There's an essential Real Food grocery anchoring another block - a smaller version of the store I've shopped near Paul and Stephen's - and I could spend hours in there, the foods they carry are so interesting, healthy, organic and delicious-looking. The meat counter looks wonderful, as do the rare cheeses laid out in a refrigerated area -and each shelf has stuff with labels I've never seen before, colorful, detailed, naming goods I so want to try: so many flavors, so many new local brands to discover...we received our Preferred Customer cards, so I anticipate spending time and money in our local Real Foods. Not your ordinary Safeway (though there's one of those near us as well, but that's another stroll.) So glad for Real Foods: I may finally begin to know what real vegetables and fruits are actually supposed to taste like, since they're grown nearby!

La Boulangerie - we ate lunch there the day before - is perched like a bountiful French matron, on the corner of yet another block, and from what I could tell of the baked goods in their front display counters, I could easily do some serious damage there! Flaky, sweet, chocolate-ty, fresh, crunchy, creamy, delicate, melt-in-your-mouth, are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind, as I stand there, ordering my fresh salad (so many healthful lettuces), while my mouth waters to taste each baked item....if I order another salad, maybe, one day soon, i can also have one of their confections for dessert: I can only imagine what their coffees must taste like, especially accompanied by that little piece of heaven over there in the corner of the display shelf!  Complex breads, fresh greens, a great place: La Boulangerie.

Russian Hill Book Store:  i mean come ON....imagine your favorite ideas about a bookstore, all contained within the walls of a couple of storefronts with a wall knocked down between them, so the place seems to go on and on, filled , packed to the walls, with used books of every description -ones you've either always wanted to read, or have recently gotten rid of and want others to read - but also salted throughout with new items for sale, like odd notecards, calendars, games - they have a vintage board game section that is a walk down the History of Games - ornate datebooks for 2011 (you must know how hard that was for me to pass by, but I've got mine already, and how many can a 2011 datebooks can a girl have?), clever book bags, toys, water bottles for those readers who must stop along the way to quench several thirsts - more note papers, stationary, pens, enticing blank journals, and all those stunningly interesting books brought in by others for your delight.  This store looks old,well-worn and genteel-y shabby, yet clean and totally engaging.  No Barnes and Nobel this...oh no...and absolutely no danger of ever being put out of business by one - this Russian Hill Book Store?  Well....they even have Shakespeare Quotation Chewing Gum!!!! Need I say one word more?

AN ever-useful Walgreen's, at Broadway and Polk - marking the end point of the several blocks we will probably walk many times on errands - where we registered with the pharmacy. When you walk in the door, there's a rack of pamphlets filled with the week's bargains, and we've already saved money there, thanks to them. It also helps that the friendly and helpful staff remind you of the bargains, in case you are at the checkout counter with a certain item, and you failed to notice you could have gotten one more of the same for free, with that special coupon in the booklet (that happened to us yesterday: a lovely woman at the checkout area leaned over and whispered to tell us that if we go back to where we got those Foster-Grant reading glasses , three-to-a-pack, we could take one more pack of them for free, since that was one of their specials this week!  So, thanks to this helpful employee, we got 6 pairs of reading glasses for under $15.00! You know I"ll return to that drugstore!) The pharmacy folks also text message you when your prescription is ready! Nice.

This is just the tip of the Polk Street ice berg, as there are also many lovely nail/hair/facial salons, an outstanding cigar and new stand with papers from all over the place, and countless magazines of interest,
antique stores and gift shops, one particularly interesting clothing store with unique stuff, sandwich shops, a rice pudding shop (!!!), bakeries and one brilliant place called BowWow/MeeOw: a doggie and feline heaven!  But I think I'll have to spend an entire blog entry on that place!  I've not even dared to enter it yet, because i think it will joyfully consume me for an hour at least! We're told "everyone" buys their pet food there, to support the nice local owners. And we probably will too!

This was just our first real pass through this delightful neighborhood, with many more to come, so there'll be more blogging about it as well, I'm sure.  For now: onward to more unpacking and settling.
Will the boxes never end?? Still, having this much of our familiar stuff with us (amazing, considering how much we sold or gave away before we left Virginia), makes us feel more comfortable and at home more quickly, so, though I complain, it's good to open these boxes and be reminded of what we have.
Here. In our new home.

Labels: San Francisco life