My Favorite Corner of SF
This article is part of My Favorite Corner of SF, a feature series that pays homage to a special place in the city.
Given that I live in Oakland, you may find it unusual that I drive an hour and change to spend many of my free days in the Outer Sunset. But to me, it’s worth the trek to soak in the charm of the old San Francisco neighborhood, its proximity to the ocean, and the smell of fish tacos from Hook Fish Co. wafting down the street. I can’t help but feel the pull of what has become one of my favorite corners of San Francisco: Java Beach Café at the corner of La Playa Street and Judah Street.
This is where the city ends and the ocean begins. Everything moves slower out here. This little slice of San Francisco is the California of my childhood daydreams. As the mural across the street at the N line’s Judah and La Playa Street Muni stop indicates, this marks the first and last stop in San Francisco. Here, trains sit until it’s time to start back the other way. Dogs trot off-leash along the Great Highway, a miles-long pedestrian path running along the Pacific coast.
At Java Beach Café, most people opt to sit outside, even on days when a jacket is needed (frequent in this neighborhood). The large patio outside the blue and yellow building faces nearby Ocean Beach, depicted in a large mural on the side of the cafe. I often come here and sit on this patio, laptop open in front of me, with every intention of getting some writing done, but I spend the day people watching instead and sometimes chatting with the customers who come and go.
The smell of the sea and the slow pace of the passersby make it difficult to take anything too seriously.
There’s not just one type of clientele who comes and goes — there’s the middle-school soccer team stopping by for vanilla cream sodas after practice, families picking up sandwiches to bring to the beach, and surfers stopping by after a sunrise outing to warm up. In the sun, San Franciscans wait eagerly for a spot to free up and then unwind with actual print copies of newspapers alongside large cups of coffee.
The ocean makes itself known with the sound of waves lapping and the salt in the air. The smell of the sea and the slow pace of the passersby make it difficult to take anything too seriously.
There’s a scent in the air that I wish I could bottle: fresh ground coffee and salty ocean water swirling together.
I’m surrounded by local law students on a recent afternoon, their heavy textbooks in front of them untouched as they mourn the top-10 schools that rejected them and wonder what clerkship they might land next year. Later, a high school boy overhears and asks their advice on law school. The older gentleman next to me, who has been buried in his copy of the New Yorker, perks up and tells the students about his past life as an attorney. I look around and realize a group of strangers, from all corners of the United States, ranging in age from 18 to 70, are talking about their lives as if this is a family reunion we all didn’t know we’d be attending.
The sun changes angles and indicates that it’s beginning its journey down, and one by one, people start to pack up and make their way across the street to watch the sun set over the Pacific Ocean. There’s a scent in the air that I wish I could bottle: fresh ground coffee and salty ocean water swirling together.
This corner is a place I think I could stay forever, and later that night, I find myself looking up rent costs on the block. Once I’m back in Oakland — after dealing with traffic and masses of pedestrians in the FiDi crosswalks with heads buried in their phones — I can’t wait to return to that sleepy California block.
Do you have a favorite corner of SF and want to write about it? Submit your idea to info@thebolditalic.com.
