Isaia

Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa

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In 2017 this upscale Italian menswear boutique slid into San Francisco's only Frank Lloyd Wright Building. Originally designed as a VC Morris gift shop in 1948, the store now brims with mostly handmade cashmere blazers, fine sweaters, smart ties and even a $10,000 wool suit.

Isaia had to work around the interior's original details, which means the wall plaster, millwork, trim, flooring railings and bubbled ceilings are all untouched. The store did manage to add a red lacquered piano, a Campari bar at the top of the iconic, spiraling ramp, and a super-classy Frank Lloyd Wright Library.

Lonely Planet's must-see attractions

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  • APRIL 24, 2018: Victorian-style homes in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco.

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  • SAN FRANCISCO - SEPT 2, 2017: The Beat Generation lives on at City Lights bookstore in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco.

    City Lights Books

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Nearby Downtown, Civic Center & SoMa attractions

1. Frank Lloyd Wright Building

Shrink the Guggenheim, plop it inside a yellow-brick box with a round Romanesque entryway and put it where you'd least expect it: on a shady SF alley that…

2. Ruth Asawa's San Francisco Fountain

0.07 MILES

Covered in local landmarks and colorful SF characters – burlesque icon Carol Doda, psychedelic rockers Jefferson Airplane, protesters declaring themselves…

3. I Magnin Building

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When Timothy Pflueger’s radical design was revealed on Union Sq in 1948, SF society was shocked: San Francisco’s flagship clothing store appeared…

4. Union Square

0.1 MILES

High-end stores ring Union Sq now, but this people-watching plaza has been a hotbed of protest, from pro-Union Civil War rallies to AIDS vigils. Atop the…

5. 49 Geary

0.11 MILES

Pity the collectors silently nibbling endive in austere Chelsea galleries – at 49 Geary, First Thursday art openings mean unexpected art, popcorn and…

6. 450 Sutter St

0.13 MILES

A 26-story deco dental building fit for the gods, this 1929 Mayan-revival stone skyscraper has a lobby covered floor to ceiling with cast-bronze snakes…

7. Lotta's Fountain

0.15 MILES

Lotta Crabtree made fortunes as San Francisco's diminutive opera diva, and she never forgot the city that paid for her trademark cigars. In 1875 she…

8. Dragon's Gate

0.16 MILES

Enter through the Dragon archway donated by Taiwan in 1970, and you'll find yourself on the street formerly known as Dupont in its notorious red-light…