Girlfriends in North Beach

Nothing in the annals of Mother's Day requires that we sit home, wait for phone calls or expect to be brunched, lunched and dined. We girlfriends spent the weekend in San Francisco shopping. With so many neighborhoods with their own style, we picked Upper Grant Avenue in North Beach, an extension of Chinatown renowned for its Italian identity. This three-to-four block area, which spills onto Green Street and Union Street a block each direction, is a mix of hip urban clothing, colloquial galleries, baby chic, leather, jewelry and vintage. It's the type of mixture that does best when you walk into a shop, as we did at Paparazzi (1421 Grant Ave., 415.399.1117) and the sales woman starts bringing us clothing from her shelves that fit our style. Otherwise, who would know where to begin in these very idiosyncratic boutiques? Anchoring one corner is the famous Caffe Trieste, home of the original espresso and hangout of the famous Beat writers in the 1950s and 1960s, while the hot lunch and dinner resto is The House, a tiny pan-Asian/California cafe at 1230 Grant Avenue, with inventive noodle dishes, entrees and ample-sized appetizers. Be prepared to stand in line, but service is fast and attentive.