Eco-Friendly San Francisco

San Francisco’s Café Gratitude was founded by Matthew and Terces Engelhart after Terces read a book about live foods (foods that have not been exposed to temperatures above 105°F. The 100% vegan restaurant, located in the Mission District, emphasizes the use of live (or raw) foods and serves dishes created from organic produce provided by local farms, including the cafe’s own farm, Be Love Farm. Diners can sample dishes like I Am Elated, an enchilada in a live spinach tortilla, and I Am Complete, a Mediterranean plate with almond hummus.

Address:
2400 Harrison St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 830-3014

The Museum, in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park, extends green, sustainable architecture in unprecedented ways. Pritzker laureate Renzo Piano’s airy, luminous building replaces the original 150-year-old San Francisco institution, damaged in the 1989 earthquake, but preserves an original Neoclassical limestone façade from the beloved African Hall (where South African penguins now cavort) within a sleek glass-and-concrete building. The innovative plan combines energy-efficient technology—a "living roof" of native California plants provides the building with natural insulation and prevents 3 million gallons of rainwater runoff annually—with state-of-the-art exhibitions. The largest of the seven undulating "hills" on the roof form the skylight-studded tops of two 90-food domes. One houses the biggest all-digital planetarium in the world, which employs real-time data from NASA to show spectators cosmic events as they take place in space. Under the other, visitors explore rain-forest habitats, from the canoby (butterflies, macaws, and fruit bats) down to ponds filled with fish (piranhas and electric eels) from the Amazon. The watery world is a centerpiece of the Academy’s Steinhart Aquarium, whihc now contains a wave-shaped tank wall filled with exotic sea creatures. Piano has also recast other elements of the original Academy, including coffered ceilings and the former aquarium’s Doric colonnade—seamlessly integrating the museum’s past and its earth-friendly future.

Address:
55 Music Concourse Dr., Golden Gate Park
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 379-8000

As Alice Waters travels the world, spreading her gospel of “local, seasonal, sustainable,” Chez Panisse chugs steadily along in its two-story Craftsman-style home. Chefs David Tanis and Jean-Pierre Moulle (each cooks for half the year) keep the standards high in both kitchens: the downstairs one, which provides the nightly menu for the original 1971 restaurant; and the upstairs, which turns out à la carte dishes like chicory salad with persimmon, pizette, and wood-oven-baked lasagne Bolognese for the less-expensive second-floor café. Downstairs, your meal might center on a pork scaloppini with sage, capers, and romano beans, maybe on a cassoulet de mer, maybe on baby lamb with fried artichokes. You’ll probably have made your reservations well before the week’s menus are posted, though, so you’ll just have to trust Alice.

Address:
1517 Shattuck Ave.
Berkeley, California
United States

Phone:
(510) 548-5049

In 2001, Ian Schrager took over this 1915 Theater District landmark (it’s also close to the not-so-scenic Tenderloin), and the entire city agonized over what he might do to the beloved Redwood Room. Today, the bar looks better than ever, and the 363-room hotel (now part of the Morgans group) has been fully Schragerized: a dimly lit lobby littered with art furniture, lavender-hued corridors, and guest rooms done in restful beiges, grays, and more lavender. (The orange Lucite cubes flanking each bed echo the color of the Golden Gate Bridge.) The old TV’s have been switched out for flat-screens, which helps dispel a faint 1990’s air. Perhaps the miniblinds could go, too.

Address:
495 Geary St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 775-4700

The Spread: Some 85 vendors and growers spread out around the waterfront Ferry Building on Saturdays in San Francisco, the No. 7-ranked city for markets in our America’s Favorite Cities survey. Well-known local chefs (like Annie Somerville of Greens and Craig Stoll of Delfina) vie here year-round with home cooks for specialty ingredients like Maitake and Bear’s Head mushrooms; Meyer lemons and Tahitian pomelos; persimmons and Mission figs; and squash blossoms and cactus pears.

Most Unusual Find: The odd-sounding but wickedly satisfying Korean-style street snacks-including garlic-chicken rice balls wrapped in thin egg pancakes and kimchi-spiked, seaweed-wrapped short rib "tacos"—from Namu (an outpost of the eponymous local restaurant).

Best Bites: Chef Daniel Patterson’s Il Cane Rosso (Marketplace Shop #41) has terrific fried-egg breakfast sandwiches and note-perfect salads. An outpost of Blue Bottle Coffee Co. (Ferry Bldg. Shop #7) delivers exotic micro-roasts and ethereal Belgian waffles. On Saturdays, local chefs queue up at Primavera Tamales for organic-masa mole tamales doused with roasted-tomato salsa.

Address:
1 The Embarcadero
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 291-3276

The newly relocated plant store is run by Flora Grubb, well-known for her selection of palm trees. She also stocks a fascinating collection of plants called Echeveria, desert succulents that look like undersea creatures. She’s using them in a civic project, replanting the median strip of Guerrero Street. The store is housed in an airy, light-filled, industrial-style shed designed by architects Bonnie Bridges and Seth Boor and has 72 photovoltaic panels on the roof. Solar energy supplies the needs of the plant nursery and the in-house coffee bar, a branch of Ritual Coffee Roasters that’s a magnet for the neighborhood’s workforce. Not only is the building set on a slab that’s engineered to float if the ground beneath it liquefies in a quake, but the solar-powered espresso machine will keep running no matter what.

Address:
1634 Jerrold Ave.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 626-7256

The most famous of the Marshall oyster purveyors sells unshucked oysters—but unfortunately they charge $5 per person merely to sit at a picnic table.

Address:
20215 Hwy. 1
Marshall, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 663-9218

Part eco-friendly, part rock-and-roll, the Triton is most famous for its seven “celebrity suites,” individually designed by music stars like Carlos Santana and Jerry Garcia (heavy on the psychedelic art and groovy multicolored fabrics) and Anthony Kiedis (whose “Red Hot Love Nest” has furniture made from recycled touring equipment). Equally popular these days, though, are the seven “eco-rooms,” decorated with environmentally safe paints, furniture made from salvaged forest-fire wood, and organic hemp bed and bath linens. All have New Agey amenities like free yoga mats (there’s 24-hour “YogaTV” on the flat-screen TV’s), aromatherapy bath products, and recycling bins for waste disposal. If you’re traveling solo, you can book one of 28 “Zen Dens”—petite rooms with daybeds for both sitting and sleeping, mechanical wind chimes, and bamboo plants.

Tip: Though the Triton is super pet-friendly, dogs and cats aren’t allowed in the eco-rooms (which are also reserved for those with allergies).

Room to Book: Sweet-toothed guests might not be able to resist the Häagen-Dazs suite, with its fridge full of complimentary ice-cream pints, cups, and bars.

Address:
342 Grant Avenue
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 394-0500

Location, location, location…the 199-room Vitale has it in spades. Not only is the hotel right on the Embarcadero—three minutes’ walk from the Ferry Building and facing the bay—but it sits all alone on its own block. From the outside, the nine-story brick structure looks nondescriptly “contemporary,” but inside, it’s Tahoe ski lodge meets Finnish sauna: rough limestone alternating with warm pine. Sprigs of lavender are tucked behind the number plates next to each room’s door, beyond which are designy, circa-1996 sleek wood desks, rectilinear chairs, and chaises in varying shades of sand. Caveat: In the deluxe city-view and the superior category, the bathrooms are disappointingly motel-like.

Address:
8 Mission St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 278-3700

Although its collection is a tad out of balance (strong on New Guinea art, historical American paintings, and Anatolian kilims; light on anything contemporary) and critics carp that the current director opts for style instead of substance, this museum itself is definitely an eyeful. Designed by Swiss starchitects Herzog & de Meuron, the aggressively 21st-century recycled-copper-clad building looms in the park like an avant-garde aircraft carrier with a crazily torqued tower. From it, you can see the Transamerica Pyramid, Sutro Tower, and the top of the Golden Gate Bridge. Gaze north and the view is of the Richmond district, an endless, timeless, monotonous swath of small-scale pinkish stucco houses. But swivel east and you look directly across the shady Music Concourse at the new Academy of Sciences. The tower closes 45 minutes before the rest of the museum—don’t leave it till the end of your visit. The tower’s café serves food from growers and providers within a 150-mile radius.

Address:
50 Hagiwara Tea Garden Dr.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 750-3600

The flagship restaurant of the eponymous chef (who runs nine other hotel restaurants around the country) has one of the most showstopping dining rooms in the city. Grecian columns, soaring ceilings, and enormous arched windows frame the linen-clad tables here, where the velvety chairs, carpets, and artwork all echo each other in tones of pearl and opalescent gray. Shoppers fresh from sprees at adjacent Union Square settle in for three-course dinners, where the choices revolve around a single central ingredient (Galapagos shrimp, for example, are prepared a la plancha—grilled, butter poached over basil-infused pasta, and in a crunchy tempura with red-pepper remoulade).

Address:
335 Powell St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 397-9222

Set in San Francisco’s tiny, unofficial French Quarter, the Orchard Garden feels exactly like a spiffy little Left Bank hotel—one that’s LEED certified. This is the first “green” hotel in town, which means eco-friendly cleaning products; separate trash cans for recyclables; and key cards that automatically kill the (compact fluorescent) lights when you leave your room. The 86 guest rooms are cheery, with blond-maple furniture, down comforters, and leaf-patterned fabrics.

Address:
466 Bush St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 399-9807

Not only do they recycle everything from beer cans to house paint (which its workers pick up in alternatively fueled trucks, remix, and give away to developing nations), they also have a meandering sculpture garden full of rusted springs and discarded soda bottles transformed into aesthetic object in addition to an artist-in-residence. Once a month, the public is invited to tour the dump, and quarterly there’s an art exhibition, complete with an opening-night party.

Address:
501 Tunnel Ave.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 330-1415

Unlike its predecessor in NYC, this St. Regis is modern—Jean-Michel Frank modern, that is—in both style and amenities: master panels that control all the lights and shades; a fax/copier/printer in each room; “rainforest” and regular showerheads; plus the usual flat-screen TV’s, DVD/CD players, and Wi-Fi and Ethernet Internet access. The hotel and its 260 rooms are furnished in a symphony in beige and wood grain. (In the vestibule, the walls are covered in beige leather; behind the headboards, a beige faux shagreen.) Even in the standard rooms, the bathrooms feel monumental, like the Met’s Temple of Dendur; each has a separate tub and shower stall with bench.

Address:
125 Third St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 284-4000

At Chris Tavelli’s wine bar, located in southeast San Francisco’s up-and-coming Dogpatch neighborhood, it isn’t enough just to serve certified-organic and biodynamic wine. The space also utilizes eco-friendly building materials, such as a boomerang-shaped bar and wine shelves backed by opaque glass cubes. Every wine is available by the glass, whether it’s a French Viognier from Domaine de Fonfile in Languedoc or a Pinot Noir from Fieldfare in Monterey County. Food is similarly sustainable, with a more localized focus. Executive chef Kevin Schuder cooks wine-friendly small bites like Chevre-stuffed dates and grilled flatbreads, as well as offers the requisite cheese plate.

Address:
2490 3rd St.
San Francisco, California
United States

Phone:
(415) 401-8984