The New Dining Destination

The Castro is known for a lot of things, but for a being a great dining hub it's not. One new restaurant is poised to change that. Introducing Starbelly. Taking California comfort food to new levels with Mediterranean and European flourishes, the menu has an arsenal of snack as well as entrees. Some of my favorites on the seasonal menu are the house cured meats, the roasted porchetta with salsa calabria, a pizza with figs, blue cheese and proscuitto, and for dessert a warm fig crumble with balsamic caramel ice cream. The drink menu, while sans hard liquor, is bold and creative. With an extensive wine and beer list, it also features cocktails like Micheladas and a Madeira cobbler. The decor is minimal and spacious featuring a bar that extends into a long communal table made of recycled wood. During dinner time be prepared for a wait as this place is the new hot spot all the foodies in San Francisco seem to be flocking to, and with reason. Accessible prices for standout quality dishes, the service is knowledgable and unpretentious and the atmosphere is lighthearted and fun. Finally a worthy reason to dine out in the Castro.

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Restaurants • Castro / Lower Haight

SF Through and Through

For a more authentic taste of SF culture check out Needles and Pens. The things you will find here you cannot get at any tourist gift shop. This space carries a large and thoughtful selection of zines, comics, books, jewelry, clothing, and art, all by local designers and crafters. Part art gallery, that is hosting monthly art shows, part boutique. This space has a charming thrift store feel. You can find pins, buttons, wallets, stickers, patches, postcards, silk screened tees, and reconstructed clothing and bags. Whether it be something for yourself or if you're struggling to find a gift for someone back home, this place is worth the stop. Most everything here is one of a kind, handmade, small press and in limited quantity, and following with the green trend, a lot of items are made from recycled material. Needles and Pens is true San Francisco in every stitch.

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Shopping • Castro / Lower Haight

It's Easy Being Green

Among the art galleries, clothing shops, painted walls and restaurants of Fillmore Street, you'll find the green aura of the Three Twins Ice Cream shop beckoning you to come in. This is no ordinary ice cream shop. Everything is green including the ice cream. Green as in organic. Luscious. Curiously different. Earth friendly. Recent selections included Roasted Peach, Mint Confetti, PBC3 (peanut butter, cookie confetti crunch) and Bittersweet Chocolate. Flavors vary by the day and with the seasons. What you taste today will not be there tomorrow, which means you'll be a repeat customer because the ice cream is amazing. Bring about six friends so you can taste everything at once.

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Shopping • Castro / Lower Haight

A Day in the Park

If it's one of those rare hot days in SF, be warned that it might be difficult to find a quiet place in Dolores Park. Locals love this spot. The park and its people can be divided by sections. On the lower side (by 18th and Dolores) there are more bicycles than people. This is Hipster Hill. Here you'll see the latest and tightest skinny jeans worn by impossibly hip twenty-somethings who walked right out of an American Apparel ad. On the same side towards the top of the park you'll find hoola hoopers and the family friendly portion near the children's playground. At the very top you'll find a majestic view of the city. And last but not least, on the upper terrace you'll find Speedos and muscles. The six packs here are different from the six packs on Hipster Hill. Welcome to the Manshelf. Gays come prepared with their bubbly and tanning lotion ready to soak up the sun. If you want to cruise bulging biceps and washboard abs, this is your place. If you stroll through Dolores Park, you can find a bit of everything, stay long enough and you might have trouble finding your way home.

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Landmarks • Castro / Lower Haight

The Land of Frogs and Kids

Tucked away on a hill on Page and Buchanan Streets is the Koshland Community Park. It's a little oasis in the middle of apartment living and shopping. A great spot to eat a sandwich in, or pull away from the madding crowd, or take pictures of flowering plants and lush shrubs. There's a playground for the kids and a community garden there, too, where local elementary school children learn organic gardening and nutrition. Lining the walls of the park are a series of tiles painted by children that add to the creativity of the park. But most of all it's a place to regain your equilibrium after the day's chaos.

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Playgrounds • Castro / Lower Haight

True Brew

What do Pliny the Elder, Big Daddy, and Blind Pig have in common? No, they're not characters in a gangster movie. Hint: They're on tap? You guessed it--beer! Beers are on rotation at Toronado, so things are always changing. One week Blind Pig, the next who know...maybe Dogfish Head. If you like beer and haven't been to this holy mecca of brew, I highly recommend you stop what you're doing and go down right now. With so many draught beers and bottles to choose from, it can be a daunting decision. But that's what the beer-tenders are there for. They may look gruff and sleep-deprived, but they don't bite. Don't be afraid to ask for a recommendation. There's plenty of entertainment here, too. If you're not mesmerized by the thousands of provocative beer stickers that cover the walls, there's always at least one person who falls off their stool, shouts a few obscenities, and crawls back up only to order another round.

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Nightlife • Castro / Lower Haight

Hawkin'

This storefront on Divis has been hawking its wares since the days of the Coltrane Church. Step inside from the soot-choked street and you find yourself amid the kitchen clutter of yesteryear. If you came for something specific, please ask; there is no way you will find it on your own. But if you've come for nothing in particular, and decide to wander about, you will soon find yourself navigating a maze of wares, a plethora of pots and myriad spoons, dishes, trinkets and thingummies. Among the treasure trove you might stumble on a fine enameled cast iron for a good price or that cheese grater from your childhood. Behind the counter, however, the owner has a way of striking conversation. She who some have referred to as the "Kitchen B*tch" I find to be a charming reminder that this city is full of restless natives like me hell-bent on speaking their minds.

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Shopping • Castro / Lower Haight

Munitions: Chocobombs

This gourmet munitions factory cranks out homemade velvet chocobombs that fuel my personal insurgencies. Owners Santos and Julio will pack up 10, 60, or 1400 (call ahead) of these compact morsels in natural flavors that will just mess you up with ambrosial mouthfeel. Jim Beam and dark chocolate, anyone? Just let one of their truffles melt in your mouth. There. See? We can win this thing. Order online if you don't want a free truffle with your coffee.

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Coffee , Shopping • Castro / Lower Haight

WTF?

I'm giving this place the same stink eye that our server gave us on our 2nd visit. We got stink eye, stink service, and for the price, not enough fishbang for our fishbucks. Yes the food was tasty. Just don't slam our dishes down, ignore our requests for water, and generally act like you could give a shit towards paying customers. With so many quality seafood choices to be had in the same neighborhood for better prices--Chow for example--Woodhouse needs to wedgie that pissy server and pile a bit more on the plate.

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Restaurants • Castro / Lower Haight

Who’s There?

Noc Noc might be San Francisco’s most palpable bar. There are strange painted appendages that come through the floor, and the bumpy walls beg you to run your fingers across them. If we one day found primitive alien caves, they’d probably look something like this Tim Burtonesque space, with its bizarre drawings painted on the walls and its eerie enclaves, some of which have guests drinking on the floor (cushioned, of course). The décor alone distinguishes Noc Noc from other Lower Haight dives, but DJs spinning each night of the week seals the deal. The bar only serves beer, wine, and sake, so don’t plan on coming if you want a cocktail. Or if you’re not ready to hole up in a dark corner.

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Nightlife • Castro / Lower Haight

Dolores Park Movie Night

During these seven slightly warmer months, on the second Thursday of each, this friendly, neighborhood-focused organization shows a free film in Dolores Park. It’s as simple and brilliant as that. Show up early—by 90 minutes for the best seats—and enjoy some local music, and independent short films while you imbibe and picnic as freely as if you were on your own davenport. The city-renowned tamale lady is on hand, dishing out one of the best things that pairs with beer besides more beer. But be sure to buy some popcorn and donate cash to help defray the costs of putting on this event. The audience picks the following month’s film by round of applause, and at the April event, after three nail-biting rounds in the Charlton Heston in memoriam head-to-head, Soylent Green squeezed out a victory over Planet of the Apes. It will screen May 8th, at 9 pm. Check the website each month for updates.

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Landmarks • Castro / Lower Haight

Hair Care by Sarah

I live in North Oakland and travel to the Lower Haight to get my hair did. I'm sure there are great places to go in the East Bay, but still I choose Edo. Here's why. My hair stylist Sarah Moore knows exactly what I want when I give her my sort of vague sort of specific instructions, for example: 'I want to continue growing it, don't want the top to flow over and get annoyed when the back gets too long'. Then she cuts it exactly how I imagined it. I've learned to use the words 'choppy' and 'angled' which makes me think I know what I'm talking about. It's a nice establishment and has rotating art installations, which matches the hipster-like quality of much of their clientele and stylists. Not that it's a bad thing. I get in and out in less than 30 minutes and they offer me tea, wine or water when I get there. The price for my shorter hair is $50. Though I'm still living in the days of my youth when a haircut meant $8, I've come to realize that if you go any place other than Sal's Barber Shop, you're looking at $40+. So, next time you're shopping around for haircuts, I highly recommend Edo Salon.

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Shopping • Castro / Lower Haight

Not Too Shabby

Never underestimate hole-in-the-wall ethnic joints, especially in Lower Haight. Even when you expect the offerings to be nothing more than basic, no-frills but perfectly fresh and tasty grub, they’ll serve up a delicious meal presented in a way you thought you’d only find in some posh restaurant that was completely out of your league. Chilli Cha Cha, despite the name, provided me with a wonderful Thai meal on a cold Friday night, amid the slightly sketchy Lower-Haight surroundings. Paintings depicting scenes from Thailand added a bit of ambience to the otherwise humble setting. My companion and I had a pretty memorable meal that brought back memories of own travels in Thailand, with traditional noodles and a duck curry as well as the nicest surprise, our appetizers of ahi tuna balls drizzled in chili mayonnaise, soy sauce and Thai hot sauce. That night, we feasted like royalty—and didn’t have to empty our wallets.

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Restaurants • Castro / Lower Haight

Noir City

The 6th Annual Noir City film festival is stocked with 20 cinematic treasures cherry-picked from the country’s best archives; many of the selections have yet to debut on DVD. These films were sparked by the notion that WWII veterans returned to the states to find that their dames weren’t interested in housewifery, but had instead become power players in the veterans’ old lines of work. The gents sought new schemes, but were always double-crossed by the femme fatales. Crime, corruption, seduction, and exploitation followed suit, leaving in their wake one of the great American film traditions: films noir. This year’s opening night is a double-feature tribute to Joan Leslie, who will be in person for a Q&A between screenings of two of her films: Repeat Performance and The Hard Way (January 25th). Contemporary hard-boiled prose stylist James Ellroy will introduce a newly-restored print of screenwriter Dalton Trumbo’s The Prowler on January 26th. That same evening, curator Eddie Muller will give his short film, The Grand Inquisitor, its world premiere screening. Lies! Blood! Action! Deception! Everybody has an angle at this ten-day festival.

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Landmarks , Movie Theaters • Castro / Lower Haight

Studio 3579

One in a crop of specialty boutiques that have popped up in the Mission over the past few years, Studio 3579 is the brainchild of former business woman-cum-designer Priya Saraswati, who opened up shop just over a year ago. Studio 3579 is an artist-run endeavor: Saraswati’s own line of colorful, well-tailored digs, Saffron Rare Threads, saddles up against the wares of jewelry designer Joy Opfer (Joy O Designs) and Illustrator Hannah Stouffer (Grand Array). Warning: the store’s obsessive arrangement may conjure fear in the visitor; I, for one hesitated for a moment before touching anything. Saraswati’s collection appears as a rainbow that’s lost its curve: it is organized by color, and hung meticulously along the straightest of metal rods. Opfer’s necklaces snake artfully along the bottom of the glass display case, their tags tucked discreetly in order to obscure prices. Stouffer takes the cake: her menagerie of illustrations, t-shirts, and other assorted hipster ephemera (read: lots of silk-screened t-shirts, pillows, and even panties) stack atop one another in a tableaux so cluttered that it is almost difficult to look at. Studio 3579 is worth a few extra moments of perusal, however. Objects this beautiful deserve the attention.

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Shopping • Castro / Lower Haight

M&L Market

She's mean, that Mae, and she’ll have you trembling as you try to place your order *just right*. Like the Soup Nazi in NY, she's a local legend, and it's a point of SF pride to have her rip you a new one at least once. It's hard these days to get yelled at by Mae herself (she often works the register), but you can still go in for some of the best and cheapest (around $5) lunch food in town. It’s a standard deli menu, but everything is super-fresh, and all the sandwiches are fat and flavorful. The Reuben is the serious stand out, and cannot be missed. Oh, and by the way, DON'T try and take her picture, and CHOOSE YOUR BREAD FIRST!!

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Restaurants • Castro / Lower Haight

La Fajita

If you’ve lived in the city over a month, you already have your favorite taquería; over a year, yours is the best and all others suck by comparison. I’ve seen evenings ruined and friendships end because one person thinks Azteca is better than Pancho Villa (obviously not), or that Cancun is the place to go even when the clearly superior La Taquería is only blocks away. Always the diplomat, I’ve taken to keeping a list of good, lesser-known alternatives to help out when fights erupt. La Fajita is one of the best of these—almost nobody’s been and everyone likes the food once they get there. The meats are all well-seasoned, the guacamole is rich and tangy, and the homemade salsas are uniquely flavored and super tasty. I go for the spicy, fat-filled Super Quesadillas. Others LOVE the fish tacos, even though the fish is fried—which I think is wrong, and a little suspect. Everyone agrees that the chips are the freshest, lightest, and crispiest in town. The space itself is cramped, with uncomfortable seats, and exceptionally unattractive décor, but that’s a small price to pay when long-term relationships are at stake.

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Restaurants • Castro / Lower Haight

Book, Inc.

It’s hard to be an independent bookstore these days, what with Amazon, the big B’s, and the fact that nobody reads anymore. So many of my favorites have closed, and others just linger with sad, sparse shelves and quietly resigned sales clerks. Books, Inc. is a local chain that has been able to thrive—they now have 11 stores—despite the hostile competition and literary devolution. It’s no City Lights, but they have all the things you want from an indie bookstore: a big selection of not-so-easy-to-find titles alongside the bestsellers, a number of cool book clubs, helpful salespeople who actually write recommendations for good books, and lots of great author events. They’re also good at tailoring the selection to neighborhood interests. I go to the Castro store, and the last time I went in, I was happy to see a huge front door display featuring Armistead Maupin’s new novel alongside a big stack of The Butt Book. Like I said, there are 11 of them, so go see what’s on display in your neighborhood.

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Bookstores • Castro / Lower Haight

De La Sole Footwear

If the mega-plex shopping scene isn’t cutting it for your urban-hipster footwear needs, step to where the locals go: De La Sole Footwear on 18th and Castro. Fashion gurus Joseph Costa and Barry Schmell stay on top of what’s hot without being ridiculous about it. At De La Sole you can indulge your funky footwear fetish and still have enough to actually go out that night, (sporting your fresh new puppies, naturally). It’s all here: Ted Baker, Frye Boots, Fly London, Pony, BC Footwear…you get the idea. From core collection basics to sexy uber funk—we guarantee you won’t leave empty footed.

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Shopping • Castro / Lower Haight

Harvest Ranch Market

Let’s talk about the last time you paid $1.50 for a friggin’ banana. For me, it was the first time I stumbled into this “upscale” organic market. I was strung out from low blood sugar, and didn’t even realize what I’d done until after I’d left. I’d like to say I never went back, but I can’t. That’s because, despite the criminal prices, they have THE BEST SALAD BAR IN TOWN, maybe anywhere. It’s priced by-the-pound, so I pop a Xanax to put the internal accountant to sleep, and go to work. Everything is fresh and delish: rice, bean, potato, pasta, and noodle salads; sushi; marinated tofu; tons of different greens and veggies; feta and other cheeses; fat dripping olives; couscous; and other worldly items I don’t know the names for. They also have—just to the right of the salad bar—a bunch of super-yummy vegan desserts that I sometimes need—I mean, get. I still don’t know what’s on the vegan blacklist, but it’s definitely not sugar, because these things are SWEEEET. And when you’re the type whose blood sugar dips low enough that you’ll spring $1.50 for a banana, that’s a good thing.

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Shopping • Castro / Lower Haight