North Beach Redux

A walk up this street is steep and steeped as it were in its own juices -- espresso, booze, and spittle. That doesn't dimish the fact that, like Montmartre, it has rough edges but is a city on a hill. The techtonic frisson between the plates on either side of Columbus Avenue make this particular intersection forever bewitching. To the east along Broadway is 'Thughaven,' with its strip clubs, hip hop heroics, knife fights, and speed. To the south is the tourist spine of Grant Avenue keeping the uninitiated away from Stockton Street, the true market-heart of Chinatown. To the west is good Vietnamese dining and then a tunnel through to Polk Gulch, under Russian Hill. To the northwest is my own strip of Columbus, up to Green St. and Vallejo, the easterly side, the 500 Block, Il Triangolo, not far from Caffe Pucini, my Italian kitchen. To the southeast is that pyramid, I.M. Pei's ode to Gold Mountain, and beyond it, the stacked pennies and banker's heart of the darkest, tallest tower in town. This is a true cross roads, an ever-changing frequency set in pavement.