Blocker: 3400 Sacramento
Exploring San Francisco through the lens of city blocks, Blocker is a weekly series by Charles Hodgkins. Look for it on SFist each Wednesday, around the lunching hour.
Blocker, No. 10: Sacramento St. in Presidio Heights
In San Francisco’s continuing battle of needs vs. wants, Sacramento St. between Walnut and Laurel proudly sides with the throng promoting antique galleries, fancy-dan hat shops, and other finer things.
Everyone knows it can’t be soup kitchens and public libraries on every block in town. Just the same, every city worth its salt has a well-coiffed neighborhood or set of blocks where it’s OK to fly one’s sophistication flag high and proud. San Francisco is endowed with several such areas, and if Presidio Heights’ business district isn’t at the head of the class, it’s at least kissing the teacher’s ass a hell of a lot to get there.
The retail space at the northeast corner of Sacramento and Laurel which formerly housed Martin Christopher – not just the guy, but also the eponymous “haberdashery for young gents” – may be available for lease, but this prime spot’s vacancy hasn’t diminished the local clientele’s purchase power. Whether folks are rummaging through sale items (e.g. $110 blouses) al fresco at a Saturday sidewalk sale at Button Down, dropping a mint on antique home furnishings at Threshold by Kendall Wilkinson, or just pulling up in the Benz with Boney the Toy Dog on the lap and ducking into Presidio Heights Salon for a quick touch-up, it’s clear this is a block that enjoys telling itself how ravishing it looks in the mirror.
Along with a handful of street-level homes, residences loom over most businesses here, and the hodgepodge of architectural styles is a feast for the eyes. The rounded bay windows are the featured attraction of the dwellings above toddler learning store The Right Stuff, while the pink-and-white tile front over Presidio Heights Salon is a pleasant jolt from the red brick, brown shingle, and occasional Victorian buildings along the block. These places boast presence – the good kind.
Sidewalk runners of both sexes, often dressed in college sweatshirts and low-slung ballcaps, prove that the Marina doesn’t have the local market cornered on the gussied-up-and-vaguely-sweaty look. It’s a well-dressed crowd around here, with the token, well-moneyed slob poking about to keep the visiting notebook/camera-wielding crew honest. And there are nearly as many leashes around kids as there are around dogs! We’re not even kidding.
Past the Biofeedback Institute / Stress Management Center on the north side of the street, a husky man in a Borsalino cap approaches a rack of sport coats on the sidewalk outside consignment shop Goodbyes. The red banner overhead blares, BIG SALE. But after a few seconds of sifting through the dressy wreckage, he scoffs before muttering to a bystander, If this stuff’s on sale, I’d hate to see it at full price.
A few steps up the block, heading west toward the erstwhile haberdashery, Monique Arnon adds to the block’s number of shops (past and present) that use full names in the business title. And why not? It’s a lovely name, and perhaps Arnon’s All About Art Antiques is too alliterative for most tongues.
