The LINE SF

Serif, the flatiron-shaped building containing The LINE SF, stands proudly at the corner of Turk and Market, at the edge of San Francisco’s very colorful Tenderloin district, its curving forms and offset grid of windows striking a futuristic, even utopian note amid the city center’s mixture of Victorian commercial buildings and modern glass towers. And it’s optimistic in more than just its aesthetics; this is a hotel that brings the warm and convivial side of boutique hospitality to a city whose hotels often feel insular and over-private.

Its rooms, of course, do offer a respite from a neighborhood that can often feel overwhelming. Raw concrete ceilings and visually austere modernist furnishings lend them a Zen aspect, while the graffiti-inspired art above the headboards is a reminder that your environment is a decidedly urban one. Meanwhile the comforts are substantial, if not ultra-luxe — for that sort of thing, the Financial District is another mile or so down Market Street.

Here in Mid-Market the hotel works hard to engage with the streetscape; Joe Hou’s lobby-level restaurant, Tenderheart, serves inventive multicultural Northern Californian fare in an indoor-outdoor space, and the first Bay Area outpost of the Los Angeles–based Alfred Coffee is a neighborhood institution. Soon to come are Rise Over Run, a rooftop solarium bar with far-ranging views, and Dark Bar, a nightspot by the local cocktail wizard Danny Louie.