San Francisco is an Art Deco Lover’s dream city. This year’s Art Deco weekend is Saturday, June 7 and Sunday, June 8, 2008. The highlight of the weekend is the ART DECO AND MODERNISM sale, the largest in the country. It is held twice a year, the first weekends of June and December, at the Concourse Exhibition Center, 8th and Brannan Street, San Francisco. This is a great sale and I attend every year. There are over 200 dealers from across the country selling furniture, accessories, jewelry (I am always on the look out for carved Bakelite bracelets), vintage clothing and collectibles from 1900 to 1980 including Arts & Crafts, Mission, Monterey, Art Nouveau, Art Deco, Streamline Modern, Vintage Western, Mid-Century Modern...The hours are Saturday, 10 am to 6 pm and Sunday, 11 am to 5 pm. Admission: $10. But join the Art Deco Society and get in for only $8.00. Don’t miss the Vintage Fashion Show on Saturday at 2 pm or the Swing Dance performance Sunday afternoon. They also have a great collection of CDs with music from the era for sale. Go ahead, immerse yourself in a different decade.
If you would rather be outside enjoying the fresh air consider taking advantage of the two architectural tours offered by The Art Deco Society of California. The weather is usually sunny this time of year but do dress in layers just in case the fog rolls in. Saturday’s tour is of the Downtown District featuring Art Deco commercial buildings including the Pacific Stock Exchange and the 450 Sutter Medical Building. The tour lasts 1 ½ hours and meets at 450 Sutter Street at 11 am. Sunday’s tour is of the Marina District that has San Francisco’s greatest collection of surviving Art Deco-era buildings. The tour includes 40 buildings. This tour also lasts 1 ½ hours and meets at Marina Middle School, Fillmore at Chestnut Street, at 11 am. I have taken the Downtown tour and found it fascinating.
What’s the best way to extend the excitement of this day of vintage shopping and walking tours? A glamorous night on the town, 1950s style! From cocktails on the top of posh Nob Hill to dinner at an elegant restaurant at the foot of Russian Hill, it is still possible to have a swanky 1950s era evening out in this city that prides itself on innovative cuisine.
Resembling a scene out of the Alfred Hitchcock movie Vertigo, The Big Four cocktail lounge in the HUNTINGTON HOTEL is one of the last places in San Francisco where well-dressed men still wear jackets with ties and chic women can wear mink coats. The private men’s club feeling here is helped along by dark wood paneling, deep green leather banquettes and a roaring fireplace. Dry martinis are served ice cold. Salty cocktail nuts (no peanuts, thank you) are served from small silver nut bowls. The bartender knows your name and your ‘usual’. You might consider having brunch at the restaurant. The Easter Sunday brunch we enjoyed this year was as perfect a brunch as I have ever had. (The piano player was quick to note my chapeau and played Irving Berlin’s song ‘Easter Parade’ as I walked to my table).
It is a quick cab ride down the hill to the restaurant Herb Caen described in 1950 as “a bit of England” in San Francisco, the HOUSE OF PRIME RIB. Silver carts holding prime rib
roasted in rock salt are wheeled across the thick carpet of the dimly lit dining room. The waiter carves at your table side. He spoons the smooth creamed spinach onto your plate
next to the Yorkshire pudding. What would you like on your baked potato? The works? “This is one of the few places in San Francisco that feels the same way it did in the 50s”, says Neil Anzalone, a retired musician and regular customer since 1952. “But back then I would have been wearing a hat and gloves!” whispers his wife, Anne.
A cable car ride over the hill ends the evening in North Beach. The strong aroma of roasting coffee beans is coming from Caffé Trieste, the unofficial living room for this bohemian neighborhood since 1956. Caffé Trieste was the first coffee house on the west coast to serve espresso. Sit back with a creamy cappuccino, a slice of rich tiramisu made with their own espresso and enjoy watching the regulars who look like retired Beat poets. Could it get any more authentic than this?
