The Modern Gentleman's Blog

At the corner of Fell and Franklin, on the footprint of a torn-down autobody shop, a Hathaway Dinwiddie construction crew that numbers over 100 on a busy day is working toward a rapidly approaching deadline. They have handled big projects before, like our neighbor to the West, the Trasamerica Pyramid, and if all goes smoothly, [...]

This weekend marked the beginning of SF Opera’s 90th season, which kicked off with Giuseppe Verdi’s classic, Rigoletto. (If you’re not an opera fan, it’s the one that goes like this.) We got down to opening night to see what sort of attire a black tie affair warrants these days. And little surprise, the tux is [...]

We’ve been doing a little bit of research on our new neighborhood, specifically our intersection, and found a few tidbits: – The intersection of Clay and Montgomery (then water) is where Captain James Montgomery landed the Portsmouth in 1846 to claim California for the US. “About eight o’clock on the morning of July 9th, Montgomery [...]

In 1918, a Peruvian immigrant named Napoleon Marquez, who had been reared on the Ecuadorian style of straw hat-making, emigrated to the United States, and opened City Hat Works on Geary Boulevard in the Outer Richmond. It was a boom time for hats. Take a look at this excerpt from a 1921 American Hatter magazine article: [...]

Saturday. 1pm. Justin Herman Plaza. They come from the city’s haberdasheries, barbers, and milliners; from bike shops, and bowling greens. Behatted, mustachioed, and–most importantly–tweeded, the bikers will assemble for their summer ride, which will take them on an undisclosed, but assuredly “not too hilly,” route through the city, that will wind its way to Goorin Bros. [...]

DC Shoes Co-founder and rally car driver Ken Block takes to the streets of SF in the fifth installment of his popular Gymkhana video series. The whole 10 minutes are worth watching, but we were particularly excited to see our own neighborhood (from California Street to the piers) from about 2:00–3:30. We will always have a soft [...]