My Favorite Corner of SF
This article is part of My Favorite Corner of SF, a feature series that pays homage to a special slice of the city.
How many dates has your favorite street corner helped you land?
In the San Francisco dating scene, you need all the help you can get. So, when I met a local on Hinge and asked him his favorite street corner, it felt like fate when he responded, “6th and Clement.”
“You know that’s where I live, right?” I texted him back, a little creeped out. He did not. We were a match.
At least we thought we were. It only took one date with Hinge Man to realize we weren’t a good fit, but regardless, it was good to know that my home could inspire such devotion in men. Of course, the actual room I lived in was so small I could barely fit my double bed into it. But the street corner — that was a hot commodity.
I left San Francisco shortly after meeting Hinge Man to pursue a master’s degree in Ireland. During the grueling winter where not a day went by without rain, I’ve often thought of that street corner in the Inner Richmond. Because Hinge Man was right: 6th and Clement is the best corner in San Francisco.
Of course, what makes 6th and Clement the best corner in San Francisco is that it is the home of the original, iconic, and best-beloved bookstore in the city: Green Apple Books
There are many reasons to love 6th and Clement, even if one isn’t living in the rainiest city in Ireland and missing the California sunshine. For starters, you can’t beat the location: only a few blocks north of Golden Gate Park, three blocks from a library, right along a bus line, and at that sweet spot where the summer fogs end and the warmth begins.
There are also the culinary reasons. Two of the best Burmese restaurants in the city are located within one block of it: the famous, and famously impossible to get a table at, Burma Superstar and the less well-known, cozy, and warm Mandalay, where you can order a blooming flower tea and the best coconut rice in the city.
There’s also Toy Boat Dessert Cafe, a favorite among locals. Located underneath a sign that wouldn’t look out of place inside the pages of a children’s book, Toy Boat is famous for its ice cream, its range of children’s toys and collectible action figures, and its large slices of chocolate cake. Many a Saturday night I ate those cake slices in bed and listened to the bands playing next door at Neck of the Woods — the legendary music venue and another reason to love 6th and Clement.
But of course, what makes 6th and Clement the best corner in San Francisco is that it is the home of the original, iconic, and best-beloved bookstore in the city: Green Apple Books. Green Apple’s new location on the Park is breezy and slick and a favorite of mine for reading staff recommendations. But the original location on 6th and Clement is where I go to browse. It’s the place I go to get lost. It’s the place where I wouldn’t be surprised to find a vintage first edition of Moby Dick that would be worth millions on Antiques Roadshow.
What this says about San Francisco encourages me: It may be a city obsessed with tech, but it still loves to read.
I could sit in Green Apple for hours and read on one of the low stools in the classics section — and I have. Open late, Green Apple is the perfect place to take a date after a successful dinner or the best place to hide out when you’re lonely and convinced you will never find true love.
This Green Apple has two entrances and two separate sections. In one, you will find the hardback new books, glossy and enticing. Upstairs are shelves upon shelves of philosophy, art, and criticism. Next door is the used fiction section and my favorite: the fantasy aisles. It is here that 6th and Clement once again helped out my love life. While searching for a book late one Saturday night, I met a young man between the fantasy bookcases. Forgetful of the name of the book, I described it vaguely as, “by a famous fantasy writer and about a young woman who’s really badass.” Without batting an eye, he directed me to Mistborn by Brandon Sanderson. Was this man my soulmate? Probably not, but it still felt like the corner’s doing.
The best part of Green Apple is that it’s always full of people. In an age when critics are crying that the novel is dead, and when authors are paid pittances for their book deals, this bookstore survives. And it is filled, every weekday and every weekend, with patrons. Patrons looking for recommendations or old favorites or just a place to escape the busyness of life.
What this says about San Francisco encourages me: It may be a city obsessed with tech, but it still loves to read.
Do you have a favorite corner of SF and want to write about it? Submit your idea to info@thebolditalic.com.
