San Francisco's Downtown Galleries

See museum-quality art in an intimate gallery setting in downtown San Francisco.

IF YOU LOVE CUTTING-EDGE ART, you can of course head to San Francisco’s Museum of Modern Art. But if you want to see amazing works in a more intimate setting—before they wind up in SF MOMA or in the hands of a private collector—check out the galleries tucked discreetly in the upper floors of buildings around Union Square. The most notable is 49 Geary Street, two blocks from Neiman Marcus.

MORNING

Most galleries in 49 Geary Street open around 10:30. Galleries migrated here after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake destroyed the spaces they occupied in other buildings around Union Square. On the third floor, the Stephen Wirtz Gallery (415-433-6879, wirtzgallery.com) represents such notable East Bay artists as Deborah Oropallo (whom Diablo featured in December 2007).
Photo-centric galleries include the Fraenkel Gallery (415-981-2661, fraenkelgallery.com), which showcases top photographers from Diane Arbus to Richard Avedon, and the Robert Koch Gallery (415-421-0122, kochgallery.com).

Toomey Tourell Fine Art (415-989-6444, toomey-tourell.com) made national news in 2007 when it debuted Torture, a series based on photos of Abu Ghraib detainees by South African photographer Clinton Fein. Art Exchange specializes in the resale of modern and contemporary art (415-956-5750). Recently for sale were works by Richard Diebenkorn, Wayne Thiebaud, and Elmer Bischoff.
Lovers of rare books can stop in at the second-floor shops owned by Orinda husband and wife John Windle and Chris Loker. Windle (415-986-5826, johnwindle.com) specializes in original prints and manuscripts by poet and illustrator William Blake, some of which have sold for more than $1 million, while Loker’s Children’s Book Gallery (415-986-5826, childrensbookgallery.net) handles fine-condition children’s books dating from 1750 to 1950.

AFTERNOON

Debate the aesthetics of neo-Expressionism while sampling wines from Northern California vineyards at the Press Club (415-744-5000, pressclubsf.com), a new tasting room in a lounge-like space beneath the Four Seasons Hotel. At 20 Yerba Buena Lane, this wine cellar and shop is just around the corner from the new Contemporary Jewish Museum (415-655-7800, thecjm.org).

EVENING

Great restaurants abound in the area, especially in the hotels. The romantic restaurant at Campton Place has a tradition of attracting top chefs, who create artful multicourse meals. You can enjoy that artistry in a more casual way by dining in the elegant bar. Try the spicy chicken tikka and mint sandwich on grilled sourdough, a delicious hybrid nodding to the South Indian heritage of chef Srijith Gopinathan (340 Stockton St., 415-781-5555, tajhotels.com).
If you want to stay overnight, Hotel Abri, a newly renovated upscale boutique hotel, is a quiet, stylish oasis in the middle of all the Union Square action (127 Ellis St., 415-392-8800, hotel-abri.com).