Hotel Spa, Restaurant Provide Escape from Holiday Hubbub

A hotel with a spa and restaurant perched atop San Francisco's Nob Hill offers locals and visitors alike an escape from the holiday hubbub of the nearby Union Square shopping district.

The Scarlet Huntington Hotel, at 1075 California Street, kitty corner to Grace Cathedral, is home to the Nob Hill Spa, which is offering a special Gentleman's Quarters package that includes a 50-minute deep tissue massage, followed by an artisan flight of three selections of whiskey, scotch or cognac that can be consumed poolside or outdoors on a patio with a bird's eye view of the hillside neighborhood.

Taking up the hotel's offer to experience the spa firsthand, I headed over one recent weekday for a 5 p.m. appointment. If you forget to bring along a bathing suit, the spa has ones guests can use during their visit.

Post-massage, I took advantage of access to both the men's only steam and dry saunas before enjoying a dip in the pool, housed in a two-story glass atrium. My scotch flight arrived at 6:15 p.m., perfectly timed for me to enjoy a purple/orange sunset while ensconced in a deck chair outside wrapped in a robe for warmth.

Although the Talisker 10-year single malt scotch was a tad too smoky and peaty for my taste, I thoroughly enjoyed both the Glenrothes select reserve scotch and the Macallan 12-year single malt scotch.

The Gentleman's Quarters package costs $205 per person, gratuity is included and provides access to the pool and saunas and a Zen relaxation room. Also available to be booked is a private Spa Suite in the hotel that adjoins a spa room. It costs $300 to reserve for four hours and services such as spa treatments, food, and beverage cost extra.

The hotel is also home to the Big 4 Restaurant, housed in a corner space off the lobby with its own street entrance. It derives its name from the four railroad barons who used their fortunes to construct massive mansions nearby back in the late 19th century.

The men - C.P. Huntington, Charles Crocker, Mark Hopkins, and Leland Stanford - started out running shops in Sacramento that equipped those seeking their fortunes among the Sierra's gold mines. The quartet struck its own payload with the construction of the Central Pacific Railroad.

Their homes may no longer exist, destroyed by the 1906 earthquake and fire, but a taste of their lavish lifestyle lives on through the decor of the Big 4 Restaurant's piano bar and dining room with green banquettes.

Last Saturday my husband and I enjoyed a dinner of lobster bisque soup, oysters, chicken liver mousse, rack of lamb, and filet mignon. The average price per diner, excluding cocktails and wine, is roughly $71, according to Zagat.

Our waiter that night was Ron Henggeler, a local gay photographer whose work adorns the Nob Hill Masonic Center across the street. He was a wealth of knowledge about the local history the restaurant honors.

To see the Big 4 Restaurant's seasonal menus, overseen by executive chef Kevin Scott, or to book a table, visit http://www.big4restaurant.com/.

For more information about the spa and to make reservations or purchase gift certificates, visit http://www.nobhillspa.com/.

Site Sells Gay Men's Used Furniture

A locally owned website that resells gay men's used furniture is winning accolades for its clever video marketing campaign.

Dubbed Previously Owned By A Gay Man, the site is the brainchild of Oakland resident Michele Hofherr. Launched in the summer of 2014, the online marketplace features various home decor items their onetime gay owners have tired of and replaced.

The website is the outgrowth of Hofherr's own experience of seeing her gay friend, Douglas Light, and his partner redecorate their various homes over the years and not know what to do with their now out-of-favor but still-in-good-condition furnishings.

"They didn't want to deal with eBay or Craigslist and had this stuff that was still real good, so they would just give it away to people," recalled Hofherr, who is married and now raising a child with her husband. "One time it was to their gardener and another time to their dog nanny."

Yet Hofherr, herself into interior design and upholstering used furniture, saw a business opportunity in her friends' unwanted home decor. So she inquired about selling their old sofas, patio furniture, paintings, and light fixtures for them.

"Their stuff was barely used. It was in such good condition, I thought someone would pay really good money for that," said Hofherr. "It got my brain thinking, 'I bet people are now more comfortable shopping online and willing to take sort of that leap because eBay paved the way for everybody.' There is nothing greater than getting a great piece of furniture with some history but a lot of legs still left in it."

Light and his partner moved from San Francisco to the Oakland Hills last year and have owned houses in Palm Springs and elsewhere. An artist and onetime interior designer, he met Hofherr years ago when they both worked at a Los Angeles talent agency.

"She got fed up seeing me give the McGuire table to the maid or an antique sofa to the dog sitter. She came up with the website for selling high-end curated furniture," said Light.

He turned over an entire storage unit of old home furnishings to Hofherr to sell on the site when it first launched with the condition that she "pay the storage bill and take it out of my life. That is how it happened."

Regarding the name, it is somewhat of a misnomer, as the site carries furniture not only owned by gay men but also wholesalers and designers looking to offload their old inventory.

"I would imagine most people buying the furniture off the website are probably not gay. The people listing, I would think are gay, which makes sense," said Light, who has teamed with Hofherr to pitch a television show based off the website's name, in which he would star. "It would be like Antiques Roadshow with a gay bent to it."

For now, there is no information posted with the items for sale on the website about who the previous owners were, though Hofherr said the "vast majority" of items come from individuals looking to sell two to eight pieces of furniture.

"The idea is the name does not have to be taken so literally. That can be the essence of what we are doing," explained Hoeffher, adding that the concept is "of course a generalization. Not every gay man has good taste."

The playing off the stereotype about gay men was used effectively in a video created for the website that was named "Best Video of the Year" at the 2015 Internet Retailers Conference. It depicts a straight twenty-something guy coming out to his parents about using the website. (It can be viewed at https://vimeo.com/99872968)

There has been some confusion, said Hofherr, about who the site is trying to target due to its name.

"We had people ask, 'I am not gay, can I buy or sell?' Of course, it is open for everyone," she said. "We thought the name said a lot about the type of stuff we are trying to sell and the aesthetic principle behind it."

The popularity of the site came quickly and caught Hofherr by surprise, as she at first was focused just on the Bay Area. To service orders from across the country, she scrambled to find partners to store and ship the items for sale.

"Demand outside of the Bay Area is growing quickly. We have shipped out of state more than in state," she said.

At any given time there are roughly 1,000 items for sale on the site, the majority listed by the person trying to sell it. The listing includes the original price, a photo of the item, and a detailed description including any marks or scratches.

"We try to represent things as best we can in the photos, point out any flaws, and talk about any damage," said Hofherr.

The average price for items on the site is $700, with more expensive items such as sofas priced at $5,000, whereas cheaper items such as pillows can cost $50.

When the item sells, the seller receives 80 percent and the site gets a 20 percent cut. Hofherr will also handle the listing and selling of items for owners, in which case the split of the sale is 50/50.

"It is a fulltime job and then some. It is a lot of work but it is really fun," she said.

The website is at https://previouslyownedbyagayman.com/.

Castro to Ring in Christmas

The Castro Merchants group will once again be ringing in the holidays with a Christmas tree lighting celebration the Monday after Thanksgiving.

The annual tradition in San Francisco's gayborhood returns at 6 p.m. Monday, November 30 at the corner of 18th and Castro streets. B.A.R. society columnist Donna Sachet is set to once again play hostess to the festive event, which will include Santa Claus with his elf escorts and seasonal songs from the SF Lesbian/Gay Freedom Band, the San Francisco Gay Men's Chorus, and the Lesbian/Gay Chorus of San Francisco.

The business association is also in talks with Congregation Sha'ar Zahav, an LGBT Jewish synagogue, about hosting a menorah lighting this year, possibly in Jane Warner Plaza, to celebrate the first night of Hanukkah, which begins Sunday, December 6. Details, however, are still being worked out.

Castro Merchants will be decorating the palm trees in the center median along Market Street with oversized bows and is expanding the number of lighted trees along the sidewalk on both sides of Market Street between Castro and Church-14th streets.

The second year for the tree lights, Market Street businesses are being asked to adopt a tree in front of their storefronts and cover the electricity bill, roughly $300 per tree. PG&E provided the Castro Merchants with a "really, really generous," grant to help offset the cost for members, said the group's president Daniel Bergerac .

Although he declined to reveal the amount of the company's donation, the money will reduce the cost by $100 per tree for Castro Merchants members. The lights should be switched on by November 20, though there will be various gaps along the streetscape as not every business or property owner has agreed to sponsor a tree.

"In a perfect world we would love to have them all the way down Market Street to warm up the upper Market Street corridor for holiday shoppers," said Bergerac, a co-owner of Mudpuppy's Tub and Scrub on Castro Street. "It will just continue to grow on itself we hope."

Hot Cookie Changes Hands

The longtime Castro treats purveyor Hot Cookie has changed ownership. But it continues to be a gay-owned local business.

In late October Dan Glazer sold the cookie shop on Castro Street to his boyfriend's best friend, Tony Roug, and Paul Perretta, Roug's son. Glazer, who declined to disclose the sale price, had owned Hot Cookie since 1997.

Roug, who is currently living in Santa Cruz, and Perretta, an Oakland resident who is overseeing the day-to-day running of the shop, are both gay. They would like to open other Hot Cookie locations in cities across the country and are working on building a website for delivery of online purchases.

"We have to find the right place in the right neighborhood," said Roug.

As for the 57-year-old Glazer, he is focused on his music career. He is in a new band and working with a videographer on his new song, "Mr. Bear."

As for the name of his band, Glazer said, "It might be Hot Cookie Music. I am working on a name right now."