Action! Hollywood Meets San Francisco at Hotel Bijou

The Maltese Falcon flickers in gritty black and white against a tiny movie screen just blocks away from the San Francisco setting where Humphrey Bogart's hard-boiled detective Sam Spade sought after the mystical, elusive bird in the Warner
Brothers 1941 classic. And in the audience, film fanatics -- teen-aged, middle-aged and seniors -- devour the suspense, thrills and intrigue along with fresh popped pop corn, each thinking to themselves: 'Hollywood sure doesn't make 'em like this anymore.' But no Bogie festival nor Film Noir retrospective, this.

Welcome to a random classic evening screening at San Francisco's Hotel Bijou, a quaint six-story boutique of 65 guest rooms and suites inspired by the City By The Bay's rich cinematic history. Portraits of legendary Hollywood glamour-pusses such as Marilyn Monroe and Sophia Loren line the hallways and film titles like Mrs. Doubtfire, Vertigo and Guess Who's Coming To Dinner highlight each door. Every bright, comfortable guest room is named for a movie shot in San Francisco with original movie stills as decorative room accents. Some rooms are postage stamp small, others more spacious, -- even bordering on lavish. But each is clean, charmingly kitchy and offer one of the best lodging values in town.
The philosophy here is to imbue California visitors with the best of both worlds: San Francisco AND Hollywood.
And Hotel Bijou pulls off that mission quite nicely.

Each night at the Petit Theater Bijou double-feature bills like Dirty Harry and Vertigo run in the miniature movie palace screening room which seats about 15.

The hotel itself is a movie freak's fantasy complete with a candy counter in the lobby, a direct line to the San Francisco Film Commission for current city filming locations and casting opportunities and even complimentary issues of Movieline Magazine.

Located at 111 Mason Street in the city's vibrant Union Square, Hotel Bijou is equally distant from the funky shops, boisterous bistros and cafes of the once rough and tumble (now under gentrification) Tenderloin and the fabulous Union Square Macys.

Nearby is the towering Westfield San Francisco Centre where Nordstrom's reigns supreme from a spiraling circular escalator leading down to high end boutiques and mainstream retailers such as Ann Taylor, Victoria's Secret, Abercrombie & Fitch and Coach.

Chinatown, Fisherman's Warf, North Beach and the Moscone Convention Center are all just a clang, clang, clang away, accessible from the Powell Street Cable Car line available just around the corner from The Bijou.
After feeding you a complimentary Continental Breakfast complete with a daily USA Today, the obliging Bijou staff will arm you with pinpoint directions, a city map and point you on your way.
Beware: the cable cars fill up quickly. But San Francisco cabs are plentiful and can be a bargain. You can usually get close to any neighborhood you want in the city from Union Square for about ten to twenty bucks. Then jump on a trolley, bus or just hoof it up and down the steep Streets of San Francisco. Tell 'em Sam Spade sent you.

Hotel Bijou
111 Mason
San Francisco, Ca. 94120
415-771-1200
Reservations: 800-771-1022