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Neighborhood: Nob Hill
Category: Local Flavor
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San Francisco City Market…
1 reviewNeighborhood: Civic Center/Tenderloin
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The TenderNob
Rating Details »
- Good for Kids:
- No
39 reviews for The TenderNob
As a recent transplant from the USF bubble known as the Panhandle...I was a little nervous about my new TenderNob abode. However after about two months of living here...I can't see how I lived anywhere else in this crazy city. The seedy bars, the overpriced corner stores run by flirtatious swarthy men, the hookers, the loquacious crackheads and the hipster kids blasting Grizzly Bear throughout my apartment building....what could be better?
I think the TL/TNob gets a lot of flac for being "scary" or whatevs...but honestly I rarely feel nervous walking around here. Yes I do get the occasional holla and lewd comment when I'm walking home at night but in general I think most of the life out here is harmless. The crazies and crackheads are more likely to harm themselves than anyone else. I also enjoy striking up conversations with my sidewalk familiars and they generally seem appreciative that this overly-suburbanized young white girl doesn't mace them to the ground and run off screaming into the night. Shout out to my buddy who lives by the 31 busstop!
My definite highlight of living in this hood was having a crazed old man freak out to me about the flesh eating turtles that the PGE company was installing in the man holes to feed off my Levi Button-Down Jeans...his words not mine.
So we leave the theatre and we are headed into the heart of the 'Loin. Oh yeah! I love it! Peeeeeeeee Pal Watching!!!! YES!
So, we drive around and around and around. We were not gonna leave until we saw some real life working girls. I havent done this a lot, but I have done it before. Its always kinda upsetting because you never get to see the "Pimps UP, Hoes DOWN" types from HBO. It got me to wondering if HBO pays some actors to have their asses out just for the sake of good docudrama. But finally, we see some real hoes and are then off to drive down Broadway to hopefully see some more freaks.
BUT....before we got too far we hit yet another red light. I look over to the car on my left and wouldnt you know a freak weirdo was naked from the waist down and watching me watching him play a game of WHACK-A-MOLE!
SCORE! My friend was kinda jealous she missed it!
We then went on to people see on Broadway and were quite disappointed. Either the bad economy is reflected here or the place is just not as jumping as it was in the days of the Paladium and the Stone.
Such is life!
Loud, obnoxious, and a block away from the methadone clinic houses a great row of eateries, bars and clubs.
As to any large city, this active spot houses the bums, crack addicts, and complimentary piles of crap along the sidewalk next to hypodermic needles and what not. My loser ex lives out here too, right above the alley where bums are shooting up. What ambiance!
THE place to go to for your fix of trannies flashing you a fake boob implant and strutting their stuff up and down Post and Polk. Divas is right on Post after you are too drunk at Lush. The firemen outside the station are cute, however, and after a good argument with the ex, I'd be rewarded with the sight of a couple of the good looking men standing against their engines wearing t-shirts. There are a bunch of dive bars around the corner: the Hemlock, Rye, Swig, Brick. Just be ready for all the parking spaces to open up around 1:30 am.
I don't miss the loser, but I do miss the kind shop owner who lives down the block (S & B Grocery & Liquor Store). His constant supply of Haagen Dazs barely kept the cellulite alive and kicking.
I think it is a funny thing that this colorful neighborhood has been witness to the breakdown of my relationship. Especially the firemen, who asked me if that "loser" was bothering me.
The saddest thing in the world is to watch a classic Tenderloin dive bar turn into a DJ-spinning, door -manned hipster club. Personally, I'd rather watch a church burn.
After all, I've lived in the TenderNob for 15 years precisely because it affords me such a breath-taking view of the decline of Western civilization. Why would anybody go and try to reverse that trend?
Yet witness the fall from grace of Bacchus Kirk (RIP), Tunnel Top (RIP), Joe's Cable Car (RIP) and, most recently and perhaps saddest of all, The Owl Tree (RIP). What's next? A sneaker signing at Specs?
I wept bitter tears when my beloved, urine-drenched cabby bar "The Overflow" became "Aces". Yet, I underestimated the bar's tenacious cadre of career alcoholics who--through sheer force of will and total dedication to debauchery--have managed to resist the Williamsburg-ization of the neighborhood and rip out the stitches in its cheesy anti-skid metal facelift. Stop in some morning at 8 am and behold the real pros who've been at it since 6 O'clock. Their level of commitment humbles me.
As for TenderNob dives that remain unadulterated, The Summer Place is a pretty good bet. While it lacks the pure dank filth of the Tenderloin's HaRa or Rich's 93, its magical syphilitic amber glow and hideous '70's façade imbedded with sharp boulders is not to be missed. If we can agree that a dive bar should, at a minimum, be so detached from the times that it qualifies as a black hole (in more ways than one), Yong San still delivers--AND is spitting distance from the all-male titty bar! Edinburgh Castle, while loveably divey and loiny, is much too roomy to be considered a true Tenderloin dive bar, and besides, dive bars never have food, let alone live music. In fact, dive bar purists will insist that music should be emitted only by a juke box of 45's or the occasional blindly drunk vetran.
Tenderloin upstarts like Whisky Thieves and Hemlock may respect your god-given right to smoke while you drink, but let's face it: it's impossible to dive deep enough to hit alcoholic pay dirt in a new establishment.
With even the world-economy-crippling mortgage crisis unable to lower SF real estate prices, and everyone trying to rent, the times they are certainly a changin'. As the Academy of Art swallows entire city blocks whole, belching out young "artists" who, strangely, don't seem to make any art, but more than make up for their lack of output with their amount of alcoholic intake, I fear that the TenderNob--a glistening golden droplet teetering on the rim of the toilet that is the central Tenderloin--may be losing its soul as it seeks to serve these hipsters. Sadly, toward the end of the Oughts, the TenderNob seems to be transitioning away from its roots in all that is truly bad, and diseased and unholy.
even though I'm technically a Lower Haighter now, I can't help but run by to say hi to Q as he gives people a hard time trying to get into Rye for the best "Amandahattan" or gimlet in town. I mean really, where else on the planet can you walk around in heels or in a blazer next to a little man smoking a crack pipe or rubbing his little index finger through the cracks on the sidewalk looking for his reflection as if it were a cool refreshing pond?
from Rye / Osha / B&B / Swig / Owl Tree (I miss you Bobby) / Cafe Royal / Colibri / the Ambass / the 800 / the (old) Red Room to that guy standing on the soapbox cussing up a storm, I simply love the Eyelash of the Theatre District... the TL, the TrendyLoin, the hood that every San Franciscan should live in at least one time in their tenure near the Bay, the good old TenderNob...
Shatangi has to agree to disagree with Brother Gourmet G. Any good realtor would call it the "Theater District" or "Lower Nob Hill" or Centrally Located" lol. As a reformed Tendernobian (now a full-on Loiner) it was hard to describe your quartier to the inexperienced. Tendernob for a real local just abbreviates Upper-loin/Lower-nob and is easier to say. These days I'm officially in the TL and have lost the Nob. I do get to walk home through the Thriller video every day, even in the rain 'cause crack don't melt gurl.
Shatangi told you
Hands down my favorite neighborhood in the city!!
I have been trying to move there for sooo long now but Berkeley just has a hold on me. Still, I spend an extraordinary amount of time there.
Dear TenderNob,
Given the recent gentrification of rough and tumble areas such as Western Addition (now NOPA) and SOMA (6th Street Gentrification project), I can only fear and suspect that you will be next. There was a time in the recent past when my humble abode at Sutter and Jones would have been considered part of the Tenderloin proper so even this handle of "TenderNob" is a result of encroaching Marinafication. Please, I beg of you, resist! Send out your fiercest roaches, rats, crackheads, prostitutes and crazies to do battle with the white-bread zombies best suited to Marina living. I don't want to sacrifice my pee-scented, garbage strewn 'hood for a hipster populated, yuppie visited, SUV parking garage. Where will I be forced to live if you forsake me? Dogpatch? Bitch, please.
Yours in times of crack and blowjobs,
Jill S.
I love my neighborhood, and was ready to write a witty review of the TenderNob until I saw that Jill S. has beaten me to the punch. Nice review, Jill! :)
Personally, I find this neighborhood convenient, hip, and architecturally interesting.
As a jazz musician, I love living right between the hotels near Union Square as well as the fancy-schmancy places atop Nob Hill. I never have to schlep my gear too far for those wonderful cocktail parties and wedding receptions.
I really dig the old classic hotels and old-school brick buildings that populate this area. You're not going to find these puppies in Noe Valley, North Beach, or the Marina.
Yes yes, let me count the ways I love the TenderNob
I love the fact that I have the unique opportunity to count crackheads instead of counting sheep before going to bed.
I love how I had to step over a homeless person sprawled over my doorway on the second day after moving in to my new apartment.
I love how when girls are walking down the street, one has to guess whether they're:
1) Hookers
2) Trannies
3) Tranny Hookers
4) Art school students
5) Lost
or 6) Drug-induced Hallucinations
Yeah yeah, you thought they were smoking hash weren't you?
Ha-hah! That'll teach you not to smoke out of random neighborhood crack pipes.
Seriously, I do love this neighborhood.
You get street cred for living within' striking distance of the 'hood, plus you still get the unique San Francisco experience of overpaying for your studio apartment.
Yay!!!
Ah the TenderNob, great rent prices, and relatively safe. I get propositioned for crack, or tranny hookers from time to time, but never have I felt in danger. There's good food around, it's close to the heart of the city, and I don't have far to bike to get to school. Also, I hear the cool kids affix Tender to all of their favorite things in the area e.g. "Hey, let's go get some TenderCoffee."
I don't know if that actually happens, but it should.
Some of my fondest memories of San Francisco come from my time spent in the TenderNob.
Hell, five stars, that's where I met Lethal Green!
"You can't depend on your eyes when your imagination is out of focus." ~Samuel Langhorne Clemens
So I've lived in San Francisco slightly over a year and have worked at an office in this neighborhood from day one. Now, my first day...week...okay, month working in this area was a little, well, uncomfortable, but now I adore it. There are actually a good amount of cute coffee shops and even a candy store in the area. I must say, I have grown quite fond of the tranvestite strippers, prostitutes and crackheads that hang around the hood. They add a certain charm that you can't find anywhere else. Oh, and I can't forget the crazy bongo man who plays what some may call "music" outside my office. Who need itunes?
Seriously, get it straight. Tendernob is not the Tenderloin. Tendernob is that particular area where you walk two blocks one way to buy fancy-pants antiques and two blocks the other way for second hand bargains.
Its also not the gentrified hot spot where you go slumming with your buds. Its a neighborhood. Lots of different people live there and you can walk just about anywhere else if you happen to get tired of it.
Where else can you take tourists to see local tranny hookers??
Gotta love the Larkin Street locale, those girls? are always down to make a buck.
And there I was thinking that TenderNob is what you get when you run a 12K in boxers...
My earliest San Francisco experiences were in the TenderNob. No, not those sorts of experiences! you dirty boy! What I mean is that before I lived here I was on a business trip to San Francisco, back when the dotcoms were still booming, and stayed at the Donatello hotel, which is just on the edge, the foreskin, if you will, of the TenderNob. So my first walking tours of San Francisco took me through this inviting neighboorhood. Back then it was a lot more Tender and a lot less Nob.
These days there's a lot more to see and do in the TN. I find myself there at least a couple of times a month. Either there's a show at the Great American, or I get an unnatural craving for Pho, or there's some gallery opening or something. TenderNob, look to 16th and Valencia if you want to see your future...
the TN! it has so much promise but this rose has some sharp thorns. the restaurant and club scene is fantastic and all within walking distance. fabulous drag queens are always available and sometimes look so good that beer goggles can make this a bit of a trap for the lonely guy at 2 am.
oh but the thorns. shit on the sidewalks and not always from dogs! this makes me furious being a dog owner and doing everything i can to reperesent dogs as a good neighbor.
crack heads and beggers at every turn, yelling on the hour sort of like an old fashioned bell tower.
dirty sidwalks, i have to wash my dogs feet all the time.
and the worst of it all is i have not had an 8 hour un-interupted night of sleep since i moved here thanks to station 3 fire station that has its sirens turned up to jet noise levels and i can sleep through a lot.
i can see big potential with some minor fixes for this area and it will probably be renovated some day to be one of the most expensive neighborhoods in the city.
As we were walking back to the hotel, we passed by an officer arresting a cross-dresser. I didn't hear any ambulance sirens or see any streetwalkers. Its a nasty neighborhood compared to Chinatown or Japantown. My auntie says people are proud to live here because there's a history of hippies but I don't believe. Sometimes the sidewalk is smelly as you're waiting for the bus.
Ok no one has reviewed the TenderNobby since Feb. '08 so it's due time kiddos. This is my hood, and I know most of you have graced our urine soaked sidewalks with your presence at one point or another. Of course, the fresh, spunky new spots, or revitalized hot spots, a.k.a., the "new black" have got to be the Ambassador, Rye, Red Box Sushi, Cup-a-Joe, the NEW Owl Tree, le Colonial, Red Room, the now closed Empire Plush Room, with some new drink joint opening in Autumn '08, Cheeky B Pet Boutique, Saha, the R Bar, about any hot spot on Polk Street, the noisiest fire station in SF, the busiest routes for 3 to 4-alarm fire trucks to wail down, (Hyde and Leavenworth), Lahore Karahi, Nitecap, Natasha's Apartment, the new Glass Dildo place on Geary, the ever-tasty El Colibri, Bourbon & Branch, Ace's, Pearl's Burgers, Canteen, KoKo's, and the list goes on and on...
Gotta love it.
Don't claim you are in the Tender Nob when you are in the heart of the TL ok. It makes you look like a dork. And don't claim you live in Nob Hill when you clearly live in the Tender Nob.
Tender Nob is cool. Great place to hang out with graffiti writers (art students) at their apartments and also a good place to meet some tranny hookers that really know how to give blowjobs (and steal your gold necklace at the same time).
lol
The TenderNob...my first SF neighborhood.
I moved to Sutter and Polk in 1988, straight from Washington DC. Compared to DC the 'Nob was cuddly, even if my new neighbors were crackheads, mental patients off their meds, or hookers. Moved on up to Pine/Jones, with a little better mix of neighbors in the crammed apartment building.
I don't think the 'Nob can gentrify. It *can* get more expensive, but, you know, if you have the cash, you live somewhere with, like, trees, and nobody urinating on your doorstep. That said, the 'Nob smells and looks worse than it really is. I never felt unsafe on my way to Little Henry's on Larkin St (best Italian restaurant run by Cambodian people) or to the anomalous Real Foods yuppie grocery which flourished briefly on Sutter St.
I have lived in this neighborhood for close to 10 years. Not in the same apartment mind you, but that's a story for another time. Anyway, I love this area. When I decided to move to SF from the east coast I specifically choose to live in the urban area of the city. I mean why the hell would I live in a city but live some where like the marina. If I wanted to live in Suburbia or some college town than I would have moved there but I didn't. Although I probably could have saved a shit load of money. Anyway, Jill S. fear not the Marinafication, this has been a topic for many years and there has been little change. In fact parts of the Tender Nob to Polk Gulch area have not improved one bit.
This review is dedicated to the prostitute on the corner. You go girl!!
Glad to be rid of it entirely! I moved down to the Peninsula years ago and couldn't be happier!
P.S. Shatangi -- YOU ROCK GIRL ruffin' it in da ghetto! Those days is gone for Ms. Ali. :o)
Only a creative realtor desperate to unload a decaying piece of property could have coined this cute name for one of the nastiest neighborhoods in town.
the TN is a great place to visit and an even better place to live. the best thing about it is you get to decide what your day will be like...
want to buy some drugs? head a few of blocks south.
want to pay too much for food? head a few of blocks north.
want to see some tourists? head a few blocks east.
want to see strippers? head a few of blocks west.
the TN is all of that and a bag of chips.
While I personally am campaigning for NobbyLoin to be made official, I have to say, by any name, I love this neighborhood. Cool without subscribing to any particular designation--lots happening, not defined by any style or scene.
Walking distance from my 'hood (Nob Hill). I love the TenderNob. Good hole-in-the-wall restaurants and bars. I love supporting local businesses in the neighborhood.
Owl Tree, Huf, Shalimar, Bourbon & Branch, The Hidden Vine Wine Bar and so many more.
I see you making Sutter the boundary and I live on Bush, but oh well. I am in the TenderNob despite the description under business info. I love living here. We have the best cross-section of people, i.e. prostitutes and yuppies, food, cool low key bars, and some cool South-North hills. I have one beef - I wish we were more accessible to the upper market area and the haight. Other than that we have the nicer hipsters (compared to the mission), the late night urban feel of NY, and the best locale for tourists to do what they came here for.
I miss you TenderNob. I love your urban streets, divey bars, swanky nooks and bohemian residents. I miss my quicky-mart, local movie theaters, walking to work, cheap dry-cleaners and 3am Osha runs. Those big bad housing developers pushed me out, but one day I will come back and make you mine again. I still tell people the "horrors" of living where I did, only to keep them away from your sweet architecture and large murphy bed closets. Don't forget me...we shall meet again.
My 2nd favorite part of town. I went here looking for 'nice boys' but was misled by the meaning of the 'hood. Alas, at least there are plenty of good, restaurants, bars and cinemas! On a busy night you can catch some excellent tranny drama on any given corner, but mostly they stick to the inner 'loin.
what more do people want? free entertainment & curbside service? HA!
I once lived on the 900 block of Sutter and it was a great place to be. I don't own a car so the lack of parking was not a problem for me. All the street walkers that make the Loin what it is were usually not on my block. You are right in the middle of everything and yet sorta insulated from it all. The ambulances are noisy, but you get used to it. Here's a list of the places I liked: Aces, Sugar Cafe, The Cellar, Canteen, and the Red Room. All are on Sutter St. You can really just walk from Union Square to Polk St. on Sutter and find plenty of fun places.
All I gotta say is the trannys watch out for me, they got my back at night! Probably the safest area to live in the TL. (No, I do not tell people I live in the "TenderNob," WHO actually calls it that?! It's the Loin baby! EMBRACE IT!) I can't imagine being anywhere else.
The Tendernob is a stupid name, but this is truly a great neighberhood...Although the actual boundaries change daily, I like to assume that the nob' starts above O'Farrell whilst the 'RTL" or "Real Tenderloin" starts below Ellis...than when you get to Turk street where I live...well we call that the "LTL" Lower tenderloin...yeah lots of good bars and boutique hotels, and art school girls, and international students, and hostels...a good time, for sure...
Sure, it ain't the nicest or prettiest kid on the block, but there's some damn tasty food (like http://www.yelp.com/bi...), and you've gotta admit - for neighborhood names, it just don't get much better than TenderNob. I mean, really.
Yes yes y'all. Tendernob is the best y'all. Dude. Can we have a get together of tendernob yelpers at a shitty dive and drink too much whiskey and beer and look like all the other degenerates stumbling around our hood? We can invite your favorite tranny hooker too. I know who mine is.
i miss my old neighborhood now that i live in oakland. however i don't miss the lack of foliage, people yelling at night and my old horrible apartment building, so minus 1 star. it's really weird everytime i walk by my old place on sutter and leavenworth :(
things i really loved about the tendernob: geary goodwill, edinburgh castle, the thai restaurant near edinburgh castle, whiskey thieves, the salvation army, polk street, walking down the hills on a sunny day, all the indian restaurants, the weird random shops that didn't seem like they belonged there or anywhere, the park next to grace cathedral where i used to swing, the summer place, the tonga room, the wherehouse that used to be on van ness where i could buy cheap dvds, dottie's, walking up the hills on a drunken evening, trannies talking to firemen on post near polk, osha thai on geary/leavenworth, how weird van ness is, the labyrinth at grace cathedral, the guys in the liquor store i used to go to, the weird christian thrift store, the pizza place with weird/slightly gross pizza that was somehow enjoyable. i have so many memories attached to this neighborhood where i spent most of my post-college formative years. oy, i'm getting choked up.
Humorous borderland between posh and uhhhh well.... not so posh.
Oh-I miss it so...moved away for the usual reasons...parking (lack thereof), noise, old lady SCREAMING out "can you turn the music down" at 3am every night when there was no music. But, I miss it dearly....sigh.
moved here bc funds are limiting, but love it because it's the best neighborhood i've ever lived in: close enough to the TL to see all the crazy shit but far enough up the hill to not be in the thick of it. i love the beautiful mix of people you pass on the street-- the upwardly mobile, the tourists, the homeless, the yuppies, the prostitutes, the hipsters, the poor crack addicts, the rich crack dabblers, the crack dealers, the art students, the drunken revelers, the local business owners, and overall the eclectic pulse of people going about their business. this really is a fantastic place to live. i've never felt unsafe on or north of my street (post). there are all sorts of bars and restaurants in short walking distance and in fact everything is very accessible from here. throw in the sounds of drunken foreign accents of late-night revelers returning to the hostels, the neon lights of hole-in-the-wall thai restaurants, and a little bit of urban grit and you have an amazing neighborhood.
