San Francisco: Always a Bedazzler : Change is in the wind in the South-of-Market area known as SoMa.

Two weeks ago, I was a tourist--a see-the-sights, go-with-the-flow tourist--in that most generous of tourist cities: San Francisco.

From classic destinations (Fisherman’s Wharf, Chinatown, Telegraph Hill) to dazzling new neighborhoods (the blossoming Embarcadero south of Market Street), the romp was rewarding.

No matter how many visitors come to call, San Francisco seems to cope and, beyond that, to entertain. Bedazzled outsiders are made to feel welcome , not just tolerated. Perhaps that is because the natives have been bedazzled, too.

Or perhaps it is because, for all its perceived sophistication, San Francisco is a relatively small place when it comes to population and geography. While many cities brag of millions of residents, San Francisco’s count hovers around 720,000. Its landscape, although hilly, is compact. Visitors can cover much of it in two full days.

On a recent Sunday, I explored a newly restored neighborhood near the old Ferry Building, a beloved waterfront landmark that survived the Great Earthquake of 1906. Small hotels and stylish restaurants have replaced warehouses and shipyards on four-block-long Steuart Street, which parallels the Embarcadero south of Market. Spiffy awnings and sidewalk tables add to the Old World mood.

On one side of Steuart is Rincon Center, with offices and apartments built around the recently restored San Francisco Post Office, a WPA-era gem from 1939. The Art Deco lobby, lined with California murals and pale-green marble, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It is linked to a remarkable atrium restaurant--Wu Kong, which is open every day for dim sum lunch, dinner and cocktails. Every day, that is, except the Sunday I was there when the courtyard, centered by a mesmerizing waterfall called Rain Column, was being set up for a Chinese wedding feast.

Other Rincon Center restaurants offer menus from Tuscany, India and the Arab world. Opening in September, according to a sign, will be Maximiliano’s, which promises “cuisine Franco-Mexicana.”

Change is in the wind throughout the area south of Market, popularly known as SoMa. Here, along the Embarcadero, palm trees are being planted after a brief battle in which one San Francisco contingent voted against palms as “too Southern Californian.” They clung to the notion of redwoods--despite their slow growth--until reluctantly convinced that palm trees had been part of life at the Spanish missions in Northern California as well.

In the 100 block of Steuart, you’ll find Umberto’s Italian Ristorante; the 59-room Hotel Griffon with its cozy, open-hearth bistro called Roti and the Harbor Court Hotel, a dazzling restoration in the shell of a 1907 YMCA, with a high-ceilinged penthouse that some say was the Y’s martial-arts studio. The Y moved into new facilities next door, available as the hotel guests’ health club.

Harbor Court is adjacent to the already-booming Harry Denton’s Bar and Grill. The trendy brew-restaurant, Gordon Biersch, is nearby where Steuart meets Harrison Street.

But the main attraction in this new-old quarter is a restoration that no one could have predicted: a startling, close-up, fill-the-frame view of San Francisco Bay and its ferries, its sailboats, its arching Bay Bridge.

The infamous stub of freeway--that long marred the face of the Ferry Building--is gone. More than 30 years ago, during California’s great freeway binge, irate citizens halted the plan to continue the elevated roadway along the Embarcadero. But it took structural damage from the 1989 “World Series Earthquake” to have that section of freeway dismantled.

Never to return, swear San Franciscans, in the tone Texans save for the Alamo.

The restaurants on Steuart Street are often packed during the work week with crowds from the nearby Financial District, as San Franciscans pursue their delightful obsession with fine food. But on weekends, you can still stroll in to an empty table.

Unfortunately, it was too early for lunch when I explored the neighborhood. I ended up joining a happy throng at the open-air food stands along Fisherman’s Wharf. My only pressing decision was whether to order a bay shrimp sandwich ($3.25) from Guardino’s stand No. 1 or hot clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (a hollowed-out roll with a crusty lid) for $3.50 at Cresci Brothers No. 2.

I decided the sandwich would be easier to handle as I followed other tourists toward Telegraph Hill.