The People's Guide is Curbed SF's tour o' the nabes, lead by our most loyal readers, favorite bloggers, and other luminaries of our choosing. Have a piece to say? We'll be happy to hand over the megaphone. This time around, we welcome Curbed contributor Mallory Farrugia.
Neighborhood: Cow Hollow
Tell us something we don't know about Cow Hollow: The proliferation of babies and nail salons, and its rap for being a snooty, upscale neighborhood keeps Cow Hollow, by and large, a hipster-free zone.
Local customs of note: Taking your wine glass with you while you walk your dog.
Hidden Gems: The most beautiful yoga studio in the city: Aha Yoga. Second floor, on the corner of Union and Laguna. Nearly floor-to-ceiling windows that look out into trees, and vaulted skylights. It's my personal tree house. And although I griped for awhile about the lack of good coffee shops to visit after early morning yoga, I finally realized that there was one hiding right under my nose: SF Rapha Cycle Club, on Filbert and Fillmore. They brew Four Barrel and serve Starter pastries.
Are your neighbors "Rotten Neighbor" worthy, why or why not? My building is, luckily, very quiet, because I rent directly from an owner in a condo building. The building next door, however, has a roof deck that can get pretty rowdy at 2:30 AM with fedora-wearing sleazeballs trying to woo the Marina girls they picked up at a bar on Chestnut Street with talk of the last big deal they closed.
Inflate the bubble or burst it: I'm a beach girl at heart, so I'll take the strollers, the bro-brahs, and the endlessly overheard "Oh Mai Gawd"s in exchange for the bay breeze and the ability to wear flip flops every day without feeling like I'm committing a crime against urban hygiene. But perhaps the best part of living in Cow Hollow is that it gives me options. When I want better food and divey-er bars, Russian Hill's Polk Street is only a five-minute walk. And when I want to splurge on Tacolicious or Delarosa, Chestnut Street in the Marina is right there as well.
The final word on Cow Hollow: Beach vibes, walkable streets, beautiful sunsets. A neighborhood where you can live the good life without a bunch of hipsters making you feel bad about yourself for wearing flips flops to brunch.