Finding Bay Area waterfalls and undisturbed mushroom rings, a self-guided tour of SF libraries, and a cavalcade of custards in San Jose. Plus, a new all-ages club in Richmond, the best view via SF’s public-private open spaces, and how artist Morisot was more than Manet’s muse.

A map for wandering

The San Francisco Public Library’s Explorer Map turns the city into a low-stakes scavenger hunt: visit all 27 branches, collect a sticker at each, and see how far curiosity will take you. Library patron Matt Spitz, who visited all 27 locations, described how the map makes you notice distance differently — some branches fit easily into a day, while others require intention and planning.

SFPL’s website includes staff recommendations for nearby places to stop while visiting each branch, and the library is offering a chance to win a grand prize for those who complete the quest. — SFPL, Matt Spitz

Above the workday

San Francisco’s privately owned public open spaces are easy to miss, tucked inside office buildings and marked by small signs, but they’re open to anyone who knows where to look. One spot that’s pretty easy to access is One Kearny, where an elevator ride leads to a compact rooftop terrace on the 11th floor.

The main draw at One Kearny is its spectacular view — Market Street unfolding below, rooftops stacked into the distance. The entrance is at 23 Geary Street, and visitors just need to let security know they’re heading to the public rooftop; there’s also a restroom key available at the front desk. — AllieEdition, SF Privately Owned Public Open Spaces

In close company

The Legion of Honor’s Manet & Morisot exhibition looks at the long artistic relationship between Édouard Manet and Berthe Morisot, pairing their paintings to show how closely their work developed over time. Moving chronologically, the show highlights shared subjects, recurring figures, and moments where one artist clearly responds to the other.

Curators also acknowledge the ambiguity of their personal connection without trying to resolve it, focusing instead on what can be seen on the canvas. The exhibition brings together loans from several museums and is now on view at the Legion of Honor. — KGO

Off the beaten block

A small all-ages venue called The Planetarium opened Thursday in the East Bay city of Richmond, with room for about 120 people and a calendar already filling up with lesser-known band names. Run by longtime DIY scene organizers, the space is geared toward local and touring acts still finding their footing, alongside performance art, comedy, film screenings, and monthly variety shows.

The founders describe it as a place where younger audiences can show up without alcohol shaping the room, and where stranger ideas are welcome on the bill. The Planetarium is located at 5327 Jacuzzi Street, with its January shows now underway. — Richmondside

Lunches made with care

Since 2017, Joy D’Ovidio has been assembling lunches for unhoused San Franciscans with the same care she once brought to specialty foods — soft brioche buns, ripe fruit, and ingredients chosen to be nourishing and easy to eat. What began the day after the 2016 election as a small act of resolve became A Meal with Dignity, a volunteer-run nonprofit operating out of her home.

The meals are intentionally restaurant-quality, funded by donations, and designed around the realities of life on the street, from dental health to portability. Volunteers distribute 30 to 150 lunches a month to people living outdoors and in RVs, primarily in the South of Market district. — KPIX

Small custards, long lines

A&M Patisserie is a San Jose pop-up turning the familiar egg tart into a rotating cast of flavors, from yuzu and pistachio to honey garlic and corn cheese. Started during lockdown by Alice Ngo and Minh Pham, the operation has grown into a fixture at makers’ markets, where long lines form around a banner listing 18 variations at a time.

The tarts sit between Portuguese pastel de nata, Macau-style egg tarts, and Cantonese dan tat — deeply flaky crusts, lighter custard, less sweetness — shaped by Pham’s bakery training and the flavors the pair grew up with. The menu changes as they test new ideas, with savory versions and a salted egg yolk tart planned around Lunar New Year, and regular appearances at SJMade fairs and other South Bay pop-ups. — KQED

Rings after rain

On Christmas morning, content creator Divya came across a rare sight on a forest hike: a full fairy ring of fly agaric mushrooms, glowing red against the wet ground. Divya explains that fairy rings are very delicate and take years to form, relying on consistent soil, undisturbed space, and just the right amount of rain to bloom at once.

Divya recommends places like Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park in Santa Cruz, Claremont Canyon in Berkeley, and the redwoods of Portola Valley near La Honda for potential sightings. — WeekendWanderersInc

Waterfall season

After the record-breaking King’s Tide and heavy rains, Bay Area waterfalls are sure to be at their most spectacular. Cataract Falls via Rock Spring on Mount Tamalpais offers a 6.5-mile loop with about 1,500 feet of elevation change, winding through shaded forest and past the Laurel Dell picnic area.

The trail passes multiple cascades and wooden bridges, making for plenty of scenic stops along the way. — OutdoorWiseLiving

Top image: The Planetarium/Google Reviews

Previously: Field Notes: Tamales, New LGBTQ Club in Oakland, and 21 Artists From ‘90s Mission School

Around 3 p.m. on Friday, Oakland's Diving Dog Brewhouse posted indisputable proof that they have officially opened and are serving at least one customer. According to Diving Dog's Facebook, the lucky first patron was "Sam" who enjoyed at least two IPAs before posing for a handshake.

Diving Dog's grand opening is a bit of a triumph for Bay area beer nerds. Owner Rob Bailard explained to Inside Scoop that while Diving Dog is your average bar-brewery by night, during the day beer enthusiasts can try their hands at actually making their own beers. Two-hour-long guided brewing appointments will be available to get folks started brewing on-site, and in two weeks, the beer will be ready for pickup.

There's no real indication on the website or Facebook page as to how much these DIY brewing sessions will cost, but SFGate reports that each session produces "12 to 15 gallons" of custom beer. And they'll even add custom labels.

Maybe the best way to find out more is to actually go there. You might be their second or third customer today.

Diving Dog Brewhouse - 1802 Telegraph Ave., Oakland (right across from the Fox Theater). Bar is open 7 days a week starting at 4 p.m.

Do you procrastinate until the end of December, hoping against hope that a natural disaster will save you from holiday gift-giving duties? Conquer your crippling shopping phobia with the San Francisco Bazaar, an independent art and craft festival that boasts over 200 local venders to answer every gift-giving challenge in the books.

Next weekend, browse the stalls for everything from art, ceramics, cocktail accessories and knitted everything to soap and skincare, chocolate, jewelry and, for the hardest-to-shop for-dudes in your life, this magnetic bottle opener. A DIY section will provide relief from shopping (and distract children) with cards, jewelry and screen printing, and a special gift-wrap station will leave you with nothing to do before December 25th but deal with an endless brigade of festive social engagements (note: stock up on Tums and Advil now).

Now in its seventh year, the SF Bazaar is also showcasing local nonprofits like La Cocina, the San Francisco Public Library, the Crucible and SF Youth Employment Coalition with booths at the show. And with a staunchly "shop local" mission, any money you spend here will go to support Bay Area artisans and designers, which should help erase residual guilt from any and all involvement in the 1996 Tickle Me Elmo stampede.

SF Bazaar
Concourse Exhibition Center’s East Hall
December 7th and 8th, 11am to 6pm

This Sunday Indie Mart marks its seventh year of crafty people, cheap beer, and rock n' roll with an all-afternoon street fair on Wisconsin Street in Potrero Hill. This year the celebration includes six bands, three different kitchens, and over 100 local makers, artists, and vendors.

Sunday's event is the biggest of the year for the champions of DIY at Workshop SF and the open street market will feature everything from vintage threads and designer jewelry to handmade truffles and bacon jam. Inside Thee Parkside, the neighborhood punk rock dive will host a miniature music festival featuring the S.F. Rock Project (who, as we have already mentioned, are awesome), Hungry Skinny, Cannons & Clouds and others from 3 p.m. - 9 p.m.

Because even locally sourced retail therapy (and the bloody marys from the bar) will undoubtedly make you hungry, two of our favorite food trucks — Docs of the Bay and Brass Knuckle — will be in attendance with their burgers and ridiculous sandwiches.

$3 cover gets you music all afternoon and you should probably pair this with the 20th Street Block Party on Saturday for maximum weekend enjoyment.

Indie Mart: Year 7
Street Fair: Noon - 6 p.m.
Music: 3 p.m. - 9 p.m.
Thee Parkside & Wisconsin Street (between 16th and 17th)
[Event Details]

Cronuts, the avant-garde brainchild from Dominique Ansel Bakery, have taken over New York City. What is a cronut, you ask? It's croissant dough, shaped like a donut, then fried in grape seed oil and topped or stuffed with a creamy treat. It's only been three weeks, but it has since gotten a stranglehold on the pastry scene. It's the new cupcake, basically, and we want it bad.

The cronut has also created the perfect storm for a $40-a-pop black market. Given our culture's adherence to all things cute and twee, as well as our unyielding desire to wait in impossible lines for food, it makes sense. And the sweet treats are so coveted in New York already that the bakery has capped customers to an enforced six-cronut limit.

"I don't even care what it tastes like," Katherine DeVita told NY Daily News while waiting in line. "I just want one!" So do we... but when will the cronut make its way West Coast? WHEN?! Until that day arrives, we have been left to make our our own cronut (which cannot be called a "cronut," because Ansel has trademarked the name already), using harrowing store-bought ingredients. Brace yourselves.

Jessy Ellenberger of Oakland, California has concocted the perfect platter for your gory All Hallow's Eve party. See, it's a Human Torso Appetizer plate (aka the "ManWich"), and it sounds as delicious (screw you, San Francisco and France, cream cheese is the world's finest cheese) as it does revolting.

As Laughing Squid notes, "She uses puff pastry to create the majority of the organs, white bean dip and hummus for the lungs, pâté for the liver (how apropos), smoked salmon for the skin, cream cheese for the (cheeseball) stomach, a dark red beet for the heart, a salami for the colon, and then tops it off with a tiny pickle for the gallbladder."

Mmm, cream cheese stomach. Oh god, do we love cream cheese. You can put it in everything, really. You should put it in everything, really. Anyway, follow these easy instructions from Instructables and you'll be digesting a digestive tract in no time.

[LS, via Eater]

Want to grow mushrooms to get sparkly high? Then go someplace else, Timothy Leary. This class isn't for you. Those of you who want to know more about real mushroom cultivation, listen up: Paul Taylor, a graduate of the Solar Living Institute, will teach a class on growing different types of fungi this Sunday. Why mushrooms? Well: "Mushrooms are an easy way to support a healthy diet and powerful allies in our health," Taylor explained to SFist, adding, "One of the wonderful thing about growing fungi is that the materials can be sourced for free. DIY fungi cultivation for gourmet and medicinal mushrooms at low cost can be a great way to grow some of your own food."

Check out the "Fungi for the People: Basic Gourmet & Medicinal Mushroom Cultivation" class on Sunday, August 5, from 2 pm - 5 pm at PLACE Kitchen & Barn, 1121 - 64th Street (at San Pablo Avenue), Oakland. $25.

Details.

By Alissa de Vogel

Faced with an internet full of uninspired Etsy shops, we here at SFist consider ourselves fairly jaded to the twee, DIY sensibilities that seemed so unique just a few years ago. Then every once in a while we're faced with an idea so genius that we can’t help but take notice. Illustrator Kyle Wilson's instructions on how to fancy your own DIY bike hanger out of old bike parts has been making the rounds about the internet this week. Constructed out of some old drop bars, a quill stem and a few nuts and bolts, this space-saving bike hanger is both classy. Check it out:

Click through to Kyle's post for the simple instructions; all you really need is a set of drop bars, a quill stem, an old tire, some steel piping and a few basic tools.

Not all of us have enough spare bike parts lying around to execute a project like this. Here are a few Bay Area resources for scoring cheap used parts:

Refried Cycles: Located in the Castro on 17th & Sanchez, this shop offers all used parts with little hassle and no pretense.

Citizen Chain: Slightly pricier than Refried, this North Beach shop also specializes in used bike parts.

Re-Cyclery Bike Thrift Shop: San Rafael, CA. This store is a great resource if you have the time to head out of the city for a few hours. They offer a full stock of used bike parts of all varieties for very little money, including drop bars for about $10-15. Sixty percent of their proceeds benefit Trips for Kids, a non-profit that provides mentoring for at-risk kids through cycling.

The Bike Kitchen: Pay a small fee or volunteer for a few hours to earn the right to dig through their extensive stockpile of donated bike parts.

While we would never endorse spending a whole afternoon making something you can buy at your nearest Walgreens — and in much more uniform shapes in much brighter, more deliciously artificial colors — the DIY lovers over at CHOW have provided this handy tutorial in how to make your own, artisanal, organic marshmallow Peeps. You can even drop ten bucks on some crazy, limited edition, lavender-inflected sanding sugar from Bi-Rite. Happy Easter! [CHOW]

Untitled photo by Darwin Bell.

Here's an enjoyable thing: a 1/1000th scale model of San Francisco's most well-loved, peak-topping TV tower. This adorable wooden version of the once hated landmark is cut from 1/8th inch plywood using fancy high powered lasers, which just sounds high tech. Also: it would look nice on a desk.

The assemble-it-yourself models are a joint project between local blogger Burrito Justice and laser cutter owner Aidan, who has set up an Etsy store where you can buy the little guys. Although, you might want to be quick - the first batch of models sold out in a hurry, but Aidan assures us he can quickly whip up a few more if the orders are there. Here it is with a couple of pints of beer for scale:

For more on the manufacturing process or suggested uses for the toy that you know you totally want to buy, pop over to Burrito Justice. Or observe the laser cutting for yourself in this highly informative video:

[Etsy Store]
[BurritoJustice]

Put down the mouse and stop trolling Etsy.com for handmade accoutrements, San Francisco's original twee craft fair, hip goods bazaar and excuse to order bloody marys while shopping will return to Wisconsin Street in Potrero Hill this Sunday after a lengthy eight-month break.

In addition to the usual lineup of entrepreneurial craftspeople, this weekend's Indie Mart includes impromptu versions of local shopping favorites like Shotwell, Gangs of SF, Pretty Penny, San Franpsycho, and Workshop among others. Because it wouldn't be an event without it: a fleet of food vendors will be on hand to supplement Thee Parkside's tater tots-and-beer menu. If you're feeling crafty yourself, there's a DIY competition in the afternoon judged by local celebrities Broke-Ass Stuart and the Hard French DJs, while sultry types should definitely investigate the sex kitten makeovers.

Sunday's events run from 12 noon - 7 p.m. inside at Thee Parkside and outside on Wisconsin Street at 17th Street. The Indie Mart blog has all the info.

"You know, you can make Kombucha yourself, right?"

Yes. We know this. You don't have to tell us this every single time we spray a freshly opened bottle of Kombucha on our outfit at Whole Foods. We prefer buying it. We like packaging. We like stuff. We like buying packaged stuff. It makes us happy. However, for those of you who enjoy living a DIY lifestyle, the Urban Interstice Gallery will host a Kombucha Workshop on Saturday, 1/29.

As noted in Mission Local: "In this workshop we provide you with an alternative to commercially produced Kombucha by teaching how to brew your own, saving you lots of money and getting unique flavors. I will show how to safely brew a supply at home. Plus each participant will go home with their very own S.C.O.B.Y. baby, the ‘symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast’."

You will need to bring with you a large glass jar, a dish towel, green or black loose tea,a and sugar. The brewing happened at Urban Interstice Gallery, 34434 26th Street. Class cost: $15 to $25 sliding scale.

[Mission Local]

LITERARY: Join The Rumpus and SMITH Magazine for some Beautiful Beginnings, featuring music by Dave Smallen and Amores Vigilantes, comedy by Will Durst, and authors Richard Ferguson, Piper Kerman, Raina Bird, Lisa Brown, and the Six-Word Memoirists. When you're there, be sure to pick up a copy of Nikko: Concrete Commando, the Rumpus' first chapbook, about the story of Nikko, an SF kid who etched his name in over 1000 local sidewalks in the '60s.

7 to 9:30 p.m. // The Make-Out Room (3225 22nd St) // $10

PANEL: At Make It: How to DIY, Adam Savage, host of Mythbusters, will speak with Mark Frauenfelder and Dale Dougherty of Make Magazine about the publication's role at the forefront of DIY movement, providing readers with a "can-do" attitude during this time of financial hardship.

6 p.m. // The Commonwealth Club (595 Market St, 2nd fl) // $7-20