San Francisco

California Classic

Like Paris and New York, San Francisco is a city you want to check in on every so often.

By: Cathy Cavender

New sites beckon (Renzo Piano’s California Academy of Sciences has just opened in Golden Gate Park), and old favorites demand a return visit. If you’re a food lover, it’s tough to beat a trip to the Ferry Building Marketplace, now four years old.

Recently, a friend recommended Sunday brunch at Boulettes Larder, one of several restaurants set among the building’s specialty shops, and it didn’t disappoint. My husband and I enjoyed a salad dressed with Australian olive oil (so exquisite that I bought a bottle to bring home) and a dessert of feather-light beignets sprinkled with macha (green tea) powder. Not your typical brunch perhaps, but downright transformative.

Later we hopped a cable car -- that time-honored San Francisco treat -- and climbed up steep California Street back to The Fairmont Hotel (fairmont.com), Nob Hill’s glamorous grande dame since 1907 and still putting on a great show. From the kitschy-cool Tonga Room downstairs to the elegant lobby to the sweeping views from a Tower Suite, it’s the kind of tradition that keeps you coming back. Rooms start at $289.