24 hours

San Fran, Pacific City

By Elizabeth Payton

San Francisco is a city of sophisticated pan-Asian influences – from history to food to design.

Hotel Kabuki

The Chinatown and Japantown districts in San Francisco aren’t like other big Asian communities in North American cities. They aren’t just neighbourhoods where new immigrants settle; they are places that have grown up with the city. Their history is also the city’s history, and discovering their culture is discovering San Francisco’s unique relationship with its ocean mates.

Start your tour with dim sum from Hang Ah Tea Room, reportedly the first Chinese restaurant in San Francisco; then join a City Guides tour, which starts from Portsmouth Square. Sponsored by the San Francisco Public Library and led by a historian, this walk skips the clichés to criss-cross Chinatown’s back alleys, revealing 160 years of heritage. For a modern taste of Asia, hop a cable car down to the tucked-away shopping court of Yerba Buena Lane, where you’ll find the only U.S. branch of Liuli Glass Art, selling exquisite Chinese sculpture and tea sets, as well as a Beard Papa outlet for the addictive cult-favourite Japanese cream puffs.

Next stroll through the grand Civic Center plaza to the hip Hayes Valley shopping district. There’s eye candy galore for the design aficionado (Propeller Modern) and jet-setter (Flight 001), not to mention the only retail store of hip local courier-bag company Timbuk2. But continuing on a pan-Asian track, pick up some Issey Miyake look-alikes at a fraction of the price at UKO or pop into America’s only sake boutique, True Sake, for more than 200 varieties, including cute 300-millilitre picnic-suitable Tetra Paks of Tamanohikari. Have lunch, with a side of social justice, at bakery/café Citizen Cake, where the menu explains that a surcharge is added to your bill for staff health benefits. The burger with blue cheese and caramelized red onion with lemon zest and parsley-dusted frites is a win-win proposition.

From Hayes, you’re a 10-minute stroll north to Japantown, a six-block concentration of Tokyo-style mini-malls with food outlets, boutiques and oddity-packed variety stores like Ichiban Kan (for dozens of weird flavours of Pocky and Pretz) and Soko Hardware (with everything from Toto Washlets to Japanese woodworking tools). The footsore should dip into the Kabuki Springs & Spa, where a 50-minute Grounding Foot Treatment (US$85) includes a hot mudpack to cradle your spine during an exquisite foot massage, plus entry to the Japanese-style onsen baths. Hot and cold pools, salt scrub, steam, sauna and individual bathing stations are good for a couple of hours of downtime. Just around the corner, grab a glass of wine or beer and settle into your cushy reclining seat at the Kabuki theatre (one of two Sundance-branded cinema complexes in the city), which favours alternative, foreign and smart Hollywood fare, with Japanese movie posters adding exotic flavour.

For dinner, start by picking a nationality. For Cali-inflected Japanese, Bushi-tei is Japantown’s most elegant spot. Chef Charles Phan of Slanted Door, often called the best Vietnamese restaurant in the country, has just opened a late-night Chinese restaurant and lounge called Heaven’s Dog in the Soma Grand. Or find haute pan-Asian dining at Silks in the Mandarin Oriental, one of the most elegant luxury hotels in the city. For less conventional hotel options, Japantown has some unique properties, from the upscale Hotel Kabuki (request a welcome tea at check-in) to the funky manga-themed, cartoon-coloured rooms of the Best Western Hotel Tomo.

Don’t leave before making a late-night stop at the city’s coolest bar, the speakeasy-style Bourbon and Branch. Look for the “Anti-Saloon League” sign at the slightly sketchy corner of Post and Jones streets, ring at the black door and give the password “books.” The cocktail list is made up of the pre-Prohibition era’s finest – the perfect nightcap to a visit to San Francisco, a city of many secret, hidden delights.

(Elizabeth Payton is a freelance travel and lifestyle writer living in Vancouver.)

Useful information

UKO, 350 Hayes St., 415-252-7719

TOP IMAGE: JOIE DE VIVRE HOSPITALITY
CHINA TOWN: SAN FRANCISCO CONVENTION & VISITORS BUREAU
TRUE SAKE: SVEN WIEDERHOLT
KABUKI SPRINGS AND SPA: JOIE DE VIVRE HOSPITALITY
CITY SCAPE: MANDARIN ORIENTAL HOTEL GROUP