Green Shoes And Nostalgia: An Afternoon At Al’s Attire Clothes are a very personal matter, and it’s obvious that some are just more interested in fashion than others. But in my experience, even the most disinterested dresser typically has one or two favorite items of clothing. It might be … Read the rest
North Beach’s Al’s Attire Reopens With A Flourish After over three months under a mandated shelter-in-place order, San Franciscans are eager to get back to their normal lives. And it can’t happen quickly enough for Al Ribaya, who has operated North Beach’s Al’s Attire on Grant Avenue … Read the rest
Lockdown In SF: Protect Yourself, Protect Small Business “May you live in interesting times.” -Chinese Proverb The transformation that we’ve undergone in San Francisco in the last 13 days has been jarring, to say the least. With the exception of those few blithe souls who believe they breathe … Read the rest
My Favorite Shirt, And Other Reasons You Should Visit Al’s Attire As much as the neighborhood has changed, North Beach is still crowded with creative types. You can’t swing a dead cat in these parts without hitting a poet or a painter or a chef, or maybe knocking over someone’s guitar … Read the rest
It’s All About The Kids: Bummer & Lazarus, A Dog Musical It’s a classic San Francisco story. Nearly as celebrated as their sometime companion Emperor Norton, Bummer and Lazarus were a pair of stray dogs that wandered the streets of the city’s rough-and-tumble Barbary Coast in the early 1860’s. As the … Read the rest
The Salesian Club Crab Feed: North Beach’s Biggest Indoor Party North Beach has always been a place unto itself. San Francisco’s most storied neighborhood, today it remains a place of anomalies, of quaint anachronisms and jarring contradictions. A cloistered little village in the middle of one of America’s busiest cities, … Read the rest
Seasonal Plumage And Al’s Attire: The Suit Arrives It’s undeniable: there’s just something about the pleasure of wearing new clothes. Anyone who has ever been on an important interview (or an equally crucial date) can attest to the truth of the cliché. Clothes do make the man, and … Read the rest
Suiting Up At Al’s Attire: The Boots Arrive Clothes are a funny thing. As humans, we collectively spend an awful lot of time thinking about the various items we wear on our bodies. Clothes make the man, they say, and there is undeniably some truth to it. In … Read the rest
Carlos Santana Rocks Al’s Attire At NBA Finals As we turn the corner into summer, It’s been a crazy couple of weeks here in San Francisco. And truth be told, it’s kind of a relief to have the NBA Finals and the big North Beach Festival behind us. … Read the rest
The Spurs’ Rudy Gay Visits Al’s Attire On Game Day North Beach is a place of hidden delights, and like any proper temptress, reveals her wonders slowly. For 15 years now, Al’s Attire has been one of those charms: a custom clothier and leathermaker that is as idiosyncratic as it … Read the rest