Santa in the Slow Lane

The place was Fillmore Street. The day, Christmas Eve 1999. About 4:45 p.m., a desperate hour. I still had one person to shop for. Frantic, I dashed into the only place that looked open, a Smith & Hawken garden shop. Many shelves were bare.

On one table, like the last grade-schooler waiting to be picked for kickball, sat a sorry basket of nameless flower bulbs. Its moss covering was mangled, the green ribbon was untied. I grabbed it.

Behind me, there was a crash and a muffled shriek. A woman shopper had spotted the bulb basket too. Trying to beat me to the prize, she tripped and fell. For a split second I smiled unintentionally. What a sorry sight. The woman didn’t look good either.

This year, things would be different. No mad Christmas Eve rush. No fruitless circling in packed parking lots. No Scrooge-like fits of ugliness.

That’s how I found myself back in San Francisco earlier this month. To me, the city is a classic holiday place, and not just because I grew up in the Bay Area. It’s the crisp air. The surge of winter-wrapped pedestrians crossing windy streets. The twinkling lights. The musical chestnuts on store loudspeakers making spirits bright.

Most shoppers in the city head straight for Union Square, which has the same stores I could find in L.A. With time to look for the unique, I browsed the eclectic Noe Valley; the unexpected galleries and gift shops in Hayes Valley; and the artful, unusual shops along Fillmore and Union streets in highbrow Pacific Heights.

The weekend began with a Friday night flight from LAX to Oakland. I rented a car and 20 minutes later was crossing the Bay Bridge.

My destination was the Hotel Diva, a block from Union Square. Its rates usually top $200 a night, but some Internet searching landed me a price of $115 (plus tax and parking) through a consolidator, Central Reservation Service (https://www.reservation-services.com).

The Diva’s decor is contemporary funk, with a $2-million renovation completed last year. My comfy king bed had a duvet of gray satiny moire and a steel headboard soaring to the ceiling. A table, desk, chairs and other furnishings were sleek black and shiny silver; an electric blue carpet and a tangerine shower curtain provided hip splashes of color. I awoke Saturday morning amazed at how a hotel in such a bustling part of town could be this quiet.

My friend Heather, who lives in the city, had agreed to help me sniff out some good gifts. Our noses led us to 24th Street, the heart of Noe Valley, about four miles southwest of Union Square. This unassuming residential neighborhood is quintessential San Francisco: cool, laid-back, full of character.

The main browsing strip, which starts at 24th and Castro streets and heads west, is chockablock with little shops and cafes. Given that San Francisco is the capital of political correctness, it was only fitting that our first stop was Global Exchange (4018 24th St.; https://www.globalexchange.org). It’s crammed with trinkets and crafts from Third World nations; proceeds go to the human rights organization of the same name.

Beautiful Zimbabwean Shona sculptures--human figures in a circle carved from a single stone--shared shelf space with Peruvian munaiwarmi, ceramic heart-shaped pendants. A note explained that the word translates to “women’s love stone” in the Quechua language, and that a woman gives the heart to a man to assure his fidelity and help him resist temptation.

In late afternoon we moved on to Hayes Valley, a once-scruffy neighborhood near City Hall. Around Hayes and Laguna streets is a five-block stretch of galleries, boutiques and restaurants.

The art stops include the San Francisco Women Artists Gallery (370 Hayes St.), a co-op founded in 1925, and the F. Dorian gallery (388 Hayes St.), where I found a unique Christmas ornament: A tiny corked glass orb holds a swirling sea; an old-fashioned tall ship plies the waters inside, its sails stiffened by the wind ($12).

Octavia’s Haze (498 Hayes St., https://www.octaviashaze.com) proved to be a browser’s treat. When the sun shines through the windows, the magnificent vases and bowls in this art glass store seem to dance in a spectrum of lively colors.

At Worldware (336 Hayes St.; https://www.worldwaresf.com), a miniature schnauzer named Rison and a toy fox terrier called Carmel welcomed us into a maze of elegant housewares and gifts. I bought a handcrafted music box ($40) that could have come straight from Santa’s workshop. It was a long rectangle covered with mossy green and cranberry red silky fabric, crowned by a lion’s head wearing a ruff and jingling bells.

Dinner time found us a few doors down at Absinthe (398 Hayes St.; https://www.absinthe.com), a warm, cozy brasserie. Heather ordered a mesclun salad ($6) and fettuccine ($14). My French onion soup ($6) was the best I’ve had, and the coq au vin ($18), served in a tureen and rich with field mushrooms, pearl onions and bacon, was perfect for a chilly night.

With some good finds already in the bag, Sunday progressed a bit more leisurely. I slept in, bade adieu to the Diva and drove northwest to Pacific Heights. On weekends, Fillmore Street between Bush and Clay streets is packed with locals grabbing lattes at Peet’s, leafing through the fine fiction at Browser’s Books, or perusing tony housewares at emporiums of “artful living.”

Here I snagged my best find, at Cedanna (1919 Fillmore St.; https://www.cedanna.com), a veritable vegetable garden. Oakland artist Margaret Dorfman, the woman behind the Turning Leaf Handmade Paper company, takes parts of fresh vegetables and fruit, and cures and presses each piece by hand, using no chemicals. After drying for days, the result is what she calls vegetable parchment.

Translucent slices of papaya, lemon, beet or daikon formed small bowls (for decorative use only). Purple cabbage, yellow and green squash, and green leek were even more colorful.

Twenty-five dollars may seem like a steep price for dried veggies, but I admired the ingenuity and artistry. I couldn’t decide which one to buy, so I got two: one made of bok choy, the jade leaves threaded with cream-colored veins; the other a red and yellow bell pepper, its fiery pulp dotted with white seeds.

A half-mile north, around Fillmore and Union streets, is another Pacific Heights shopping district. My first stop was Ambassador Toys (1981 Union St.). I found a whimsical wooden “watch” ($6)--a stocking stuffer for my nephew, who can pretend he’s old enough to care about time.

Twigs (2162 Union St.) had decked its halls: Christmas tree twinkling by the door and handmade Santa dolls awaiting visits in the back. My eye went straight to a shelf of vibrantly colored handblown glass, perhaps not as sophisticated as the works at Octavia’s Haze, but more in my price range. I bought a bud vase shaped like a tall ice cream sundae cup, its rim split and peeled back ($49). Swirled and striped with aquamarine, cobalt and caramel hues on the outside, it looked like a Dr. Seuss drawing captured in glass.

More shops beckoned. Four blocks north is Chestnut Street, another retail row, but my Sunday dinner date was approaching fast. With two shopping bags brimming with goods, I stowed the credit card. My work was done. In fact, it wasn’t much work at all.

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Craig Nakano is an assistant editor for the Travel section.

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Budget for One

Round-trip air fare,

LAX to Oakland: $125.00

Hotel Diva, two nights: 262.20

Dinner, Absinthe: 43.86

Other meals: 47.66

Car rental, two days: 56.80

Hotel parking: 44.00

Gas, bridge toll: 17.06

FINAL TAB: $596.58

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Hotel Diva, 440 Geary St., San Francisco, CA 94102; telephone (800) 553-1900 or (415) 885-0200, fax (415) 346-6613, Internet https://www.hoteldiva.com.

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More Weekend Escapes

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