.jpg) |
|
City
Lights Bookstore in San Francisco
|
"
Allen
Ginsberg slept here," said the desk clerk, as he filled my sherry glass at
the Hotel Boheme in San Francisco. A 1955 photograph of the late great poet, smiling
with Jack Kerouac and Neal Cassady in front of the nearby City Lights Bookstore
had caught my eye. Part of the hand-scrawled caption under the row of rascally-looking
guys read: "We were just hanging around." Last
November, my husband and I found "just hanging around" San Francisco's
North Beach neighborhood, many years after that photo was taken, can still evoke
the carefree happiness that picture captured. We, like the Beat writers of the
50s, had been lured here by the European atmosphere of the area, which had been
created by a nineteenth century wave of immigrants who wanted in on the Gold Rush.
It was the Italians who took hold; stayed on and opened bakeries, cafes, and restaurants.
This was the perfect spot to indulge our craving for an Italy fix, sans the rising
euro and jet lag.
But
between delicious bites, we discovered other appeals
of the neighborhood. North Beach is Little Italy
blended with a boisterous bar scene that originated
during the Wild West Barbary Coast days, and the
jazzy legacy of the Beat generation.
This mix is packed into a 6-by-3-block wedge, bordered
by Chinatown, Fisherman's Wharf, and the Financial
District. It could easily be circled on foot in
twenty minutes. But its many enticements are seductive,
so we took it slow, hanging around to the pace of
its old world rhythms.
The Hotel Boheme, smack in the middle of Columbus
Avenue (the neighborhood's main drag) was key to
making us feel part of the North Beach family. A
15 room former transient hotel, it's been expertly
remodeled in Bohemian chic style. Cozy rooms are
romantically decorated and accented by whimsical
canopies of mosquito netting over the beds and lampshades
decoupaged with faded Beat era newspaper clippings.
 |
|
Hotel
Boheme - Bright Rooms
|
Our
second floor bay window offered a sidewalk show
of local hipsters and sophisticates settling in
to read, write, and drink espresso at the Caffe
Greco, camera-toting tourists being lured into restaurants
by enthusiastic aproned waiters, and elderly Chinese
women in quilted jackets toting bags stuffed with
fresh vegetables. The sweet aroma from Stella Pastry
just below us drew us down to taste the family's
specialty: Sacripantina - a heavenly Genovese cake
filled with zabaglione cream. (CONTINUED...)
