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Hayes Valley: Where Upscale Meets Offbeat
Hayes Valley has up-and-come from its gritty roots in just the last twenty years: once-blighted, it’s now aggressively upscale. The central attraction in Hayes Valley is Hayes Street itself. East of Laguna St. and West of Van Ness are located some of the most chic shops, restaurants, galleries, and nightclubs that San Francisco has to offer. You’ll find a top-end men’s suit store, weird designer furniture treated with epoxy resin, and chocolate sculptures that are frankly too beautiful to eat all on the same block here.
Hayes Valley is also home to a public park, a community garden, and a recently-constructed public playground for children. (Sidenote: playground technology has come a long way since I was a kid. The Hayes Valley Playground has a climbing wall, exercise equipment, and several constructions for which I don’t even have names for. The kids seem to know how to play with them intuitively, though.)
Not to be missed: there’s a Blue Bottle Coffee kiosk hidden away on Linden St., a small side street parallel to and just south of Hayes St. It’s next to a corset shop called Dark Garden and a really fancy ice cream stand named Smitten Ice Cream. It’s kind of a perfect microcosm of Hayes Valley as a whole, where upscale meets offbeat. (Offscale, I call it.)
In the great square that is our beautiful San Francisco, Hayes Valley is located almost exactly in the center. The Lower Haight, Mission District, and Civic Center are within walking distance. The 21, 5, 6, and 71 can take you Downtown or to the Richmond, Sunset, or Marina in less than half an hour.
Hayes Valley is also home to a public park, a community garden, and a recently-constructed public playground for children. (Sidenote: playground technology has come a long way since I was a kid. The Hayes Valley Playground has a climbing wall, exercise equipment, and several constructions for which I don’t even have names for. The kids seem to know how to play with them intuitively, though.)
Not to be missed: there’s a Blue Bottle Coffee kiosk hidden away on Linden St., a small side street parallel to and just south of Hayes St. It’s next to a corset shop called Dark Garden and a really fancy ice cream stand named Smitten Ice Cream. It’s kind of a perfect microcosm of Hayes Valley as a whole, where upscale meets offbeat. (Offscale, I call it.)
In the great square that is our beautiful San Francisco, Hayes Valley is located almost exactly in the center. The Lower Haight, Mission District, and Civic Center are within walking distance. The 21, 5, 6, and 71 can take you Downtown or to the Richmond, Sunset, or Marina in less than half an hour.
Raphael is a host on Airbnb. Check out his sweet, sweet pad here: Sunny Hayes Apartment!.
