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101 Music
You'll have to bend over those bins to let DJs and hardcore collectors pass (and, hey, wasn't that Tom Waits?!), but among the thousands of discs are rare releases still sealed in their original plastic shrink-wrap. At the sister shop at 513 Green St, don't bonk your head on the vintage Les Pauls, and check out the sweet turntables that were state-of-the-art in the 1970s.
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A Different Light Bookstore
Dare to be, you know, different - you'll be in excellent company at SF's premiere queer literary venue, hosting revelatory reading series, magazine soirees, open mics and coming-out stories since 1979. One-stop-shopping for the racy anime adventures of Stonewall and Riot, queer theory anthologies and seating-chart advice for your same-sex nuptials.
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Adobe Books & Backroom Gallery
Every book you never knew you needed used - and cheap - but only if you can find it in the obstacle course of sofas, cats, art books and German philosophy. Head to the tiny art gallery in back to discover local artwork at reasonable prices.
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Ads Hats
Hats come in handy in SF almost year-round, and this local hatmaker sells super-fly lids to keep the fog from freezing your scalp, plus fancy fedoras and floppy numbers that would do Janis Joplin proud. For little ones who need no occasion for costumes, try the hats shaped like melons or the ones with built-in puppy ears.
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Ambiance
Maybe it's the cute cuts, or the no-fail sales pitch: 'Oh. My. God. That looks sooo cute on you!' Whatever the case, you'll emerge clutching some little number for a very special occasion you've yet to invent: a silk smock covered with mod wine glasses for a wine-tasting, say, or a jacket with a double-helix DNA pattern for a biotech lecture. The shoe-and-sale store next door encourages you to keep the retail rush going. There are also stores at 1458 Haight St and 1858 Union St in the Marina.
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American Cyclery
If you've been lusting after a banana-seat Stingray, you might just find it here. The oldest indie bike shop in SF and one of the best places to buy a two-wheeler, American Cyclery carries contemporary mountain and hybrid bikes as well as the occasional vintage model (the owner's a collector). For the right price, staff will work with customers to tailor a bike to very specific needs. Though the shop hosts events and rides, alas, there are no rentals.
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Amoeba Records
This indie music megastore lures the masses with listening stations, a free music 'zine with spot-on staff reviews, a free concert series featuring Tenacious D, The Killers and mash-up master DJ ZTrip, and a foundation that's saved 950+ acres of rainforest. If you leave penniless yet craving more, sell some CDs back to Amoeba, load up again and repeat…forever.
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Anthropologie
The big sister to co-ed fashion-victim Urban Outfitters, with versatile graphic-print skirts, sensible yet cute cardigans and romantic, vintage-inspired dresses. The house-wares lean a touch too heavily toward precious rustic chic, with the occasional mod splash of color: speckled orange and green bowls, Marie Antoinette-ish Baroque hand-towels and house numbers apparently pried off some unsuspecting cottages in Provence.
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Anubis Warpus
Warped and proud, Anubis Warpus has got your alternative lifestyle needs covered. While you wait to get some pendulous part pierced, you can catch up on your 'zines, DIY manuals, vintage smut and comix. They also tattoo, but their piercing rep is stronger.
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Aquarius Records
When pop is played out, it's the dawning of the age of Aquarius. Aquarius Records that is, featuring found sounds, trippy Latin American tropicalia, Japanese noise rock and other sonic avalanches. Recent staff favorites include local bands, far-out groups like Assemble Head In Sunburst Sound, and Finnish headbangers.
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Aria
All the accoutrements you need to turn your attic into an artist's garret: English etchings of songbirds, 19th century letters in French still in their glassine wax-sealed envelopes, large Italian metal letters to spell out your feelings far more poignantly than fridge magnets. These relics seem perfectly placed atop well-worn benches and curio cabinets, and yet they're just forlorn enough that you'll feel obliged to give them a good home.
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Atys
Tucked away in a courtyard, this design showcase offers version 2.0 of essential household items: colorful wall-mounted rubber straps stylishly replace bulletin boards, credit-card-sized flashlights are handier in any emergency than a clunky torch, and locally designed, floppy-eared, wide-eyed Reddy the Rabbit earns instant pride of place on any kid's bed.
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Bella Pelle Skin Studio
Cheerily bright, clean and full of candy, this chic spa has a treat around every corner, from the free mimosas and muffins on Sundays to the hands-on, down-to-earth staff. Whether you're braving up for the Itsy Bitsy Brazilian Wax, the Pumpkin Antioxidant Peel or the 'Man-scaping' grooming treatments for men, you'll be made to feel comfortable - or at least somewhat distracted from what they're actually doing to you. The studio also makes its own high-quality scrubs, balms and custom-blended mineral makeup, and even a numbing cream for the pain (youch!)
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Benefit
Get cheeky with BeneTint, the dab-on liquid blush made from roses, or raise some eyebrows with Brow Zings tinted brow wax - they're two of Benefit's signature products invented in San Francisco by the twin-sister team. Surgery is so LA - in SF, overnight Angelinas swear by LipPlump and Lindsay Lohan dark-eye-circles are cured with Ooh La Lift.
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Best In Show
Your dog would be one proud puppy in that crystal collar and your cat tickled pink by the fuchsia faux-fur kitty couch. Give them George Bush squeak toys to chew or catnip-infused bubbles to chase, and they'll be blissed out like hippies c 1967.
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Betsey Johnson
Shameless flirting is the natural reaction to putting on a Betsey Johnson number, cut for dangerous curves, nights out and high kicks. Since the '60s, the American designer to rockers and rebels has been adding trademark playful feminine touches to urban designs. Couches welcome the fashion-weary.
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Bi-Rite Market
.Weekends are busy, busy at the Bi-Rite Market which showcases local farmers, vintners, chocolatiers and cheese mongers. Sample the season's best regional organic fruits, then take sandwiches to Dolores Park up the street.
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Black & Blue Tattoo
This women-owned and operated tattoo parlor gets it in ink with designs that range from simple to spectacular. Check out the seven different artists' work at the shop or online first for ideas, then ahead for a consultation with the artist who interests you most. Only then can you book your tattoo - you'll need to show up sober, well-fed and clear-headed for your transformation.
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Bluebird
Girls are free to be girls in these flouncy, fun frocks and shoulder-tie sundresses inspired by designs from the 1940s and '50s, when kids weren't expected to strut around like baby Britney Spears. Designer Stephanie Scarpulla is finally launching a line for women, so that moms and kids alike can be free to be you and me.
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Bound Together Anarchist Book Collective
You don't have to be a lifetime subscriber of Eat the State to be awed by this bonanza of free speech, including well-reasoned academic arguments against marriage, conspiracy theory comics and contrarian-chic arm bands that read 'F - all boy bands' (um, is that a challenge?) Since 1976, the all-volunteer staff of this nonprofit bookstore has kept regular hours, coordinated the Anarchist Book Fair, and even restored their 'Anarchists of the Americas' storefront mural. Makes us tools of the state look like slackers.
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Britex Fabrics
No reality show can compare to the four floors of nonstop fashion drama at Britex. First floor: designers bicker over who gets first dibs on yellow silk organza for a spring collection. Second floor: prom queens and their chromosome-challenged doppelgangers compete for sequins. Third floor: European buyers are snapping up all the antique Bakelite buttons. Top floor: fake fur flies and remnants roll as costumers prepare for Burning Man and Halloween.
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China Bazaar
Wire racks are perilously overloaded with bargain novelty items in no discernable order, except for the Tiki section which will add some aloha to your home bar. Just when you thought home decor couldn't get any cheaper, check out the ceramics sale section downstairs. Send the kiddies upstairs to the toy and gag gifts section if you don't want to have to explain the anatomically correct pens on the main floor.
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Chinatown Kite
Be the star of Crissy Field and wow any kids in your life with a fierce six-foot-long flying shark, the classic goggle-eyed golden carp, or 'Pink Floyd,' the goofy pink flamingo (shouldn't that be a pig, really?). The wind chimes may seem like a fine idea to scare off hungry ghosts, but some of them are loud enough to scare off the living in a windstorm - if it's feng shui you're after, go with the noiseless ba gua, a mirror inside an octagon.
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City Lights Bookstore
'A kind of library where books are sold,' reads the classic understatement in the front window of this landmark bookseller, publisher and free-speech champion. After City Lights owner and Beat luminary Lawrence Ferlinghetti and bookstore manager Shigeyoshi Murao were arrested 'willfully and lewdly' printing Allen Ginsberg's magnificent Howl and Other Poems . They won a landmark 1957 ruling against book banning and published Lenny Bruce, Paul Bowles, William S Burroughs and Zapatista Subcomandante Marcos, among others inspiring generations of booklovers to discover favorite titles on the main floor and Nirvana upstairs in Poetry.
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Clarion Music Center
The minor chords of the erhu (Chinese string instrument) will pluck at your heartstrings as you walk through Chinatown's alleyways, and here you can try your hand at the bow yourself with a superior student model. With the impressive range of African congas, Central American marimbas and gongs, you could become your own multi-culti one-man band. Check the website for concerts, workshops and demonstrations by masters.
