Take A Stunning Cable Car Ride Up to The Ritz

The front entrance of The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco

There's hardly anything more iconic than a cable car ride in San Francisco. The one in San Francisco is the world's last remaining manually operated system, and the cars themselves are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. Just for fun this spring on a trip to San Francisco, I loaded up my duffel bag on a cable-car bound for the California Street line so I could hear the double ding chimes announcing my arrival to The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco atop Nob Hill.

Perhaps this hotel is just as iconic as the cable cars themselves. It's at least, I’d argue, one of the most iconic hotels in San Francisco. Known as the "Temple of Commerce" since 1909, the striking Neo-Classical style building once housed the West Coast headquarters of Metropolitan Life Insurance Co. In 1920, the American sculptor Haig Patigian carved out nine terra cotta figurines depicting an "American family," which was protected by a benevolent winged creature. One can still behold this tableau on the top of the Ritz itself. Over the years, the building gained Ionic columns, a recessed seventh floor, lion's heads, balconies, and more flourishes until 1984 when it garnered status as an official San Francisco landmark, listed as an Architecturally Significant Structure. After four years of renovations, the building opened as The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco in 1991.

Door to door arrival from the cable car to the lobby of the The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco

Cresting over California street from a cable-car, The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco is a halting structure to take in. Many buildings atop Nob Hill are striking, but there's something dramatically alluring about this property. Every time I take it in, and I’ve been lucky to do so over the last several years, I feel at once important yet humbled, unsure if I got the invitation in the mail stay in what seems like the fanciest mansion in all the land.

Inside, the mansion doesn't disappoint but carries a California cool air of hospitality that I love. California cool is unstuffy and warm, generous and not formal in that way that makes one feel awkward for crumpling the sheets up or using the wrong soup spoon. The Club Lounge is a great example of California cool. The spacious lounge, accessed right on the same floor as a Club room, hosts breakfast, Hors d’oeuvres, cocktails and more every day. I popped in after a run to grab some fruit and a newspaper and later shuffled out in slippers to snag a cookie after a long day of meetings. When a property has California cool hospitality down, slippers or running shorts is welcomed.

The Club Lounge at The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco

Club lounge access or not, every guest of The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco should find themselves in Solaire Terrasse this summer, the popular restaurant and bar pop-up featuring the legendary Champagne of Veuve Clicquot. The hotel's rose filled courtyard carveout will once again transform into a French-inspired meeting place marked by crisp yellow and white umbrellas and chic patio furniture. I have marked my calendar as I love this ensconced corner right in the middle of the city. The terrace area already holds Executive Chef Patrick O’Sullivan's herb garden, and the mix of mint and rosemary along with yellow roses is an intoxicating scent as well as a striking contrast to the courtyard's visual of surrounding skyscrapers. The indulgence seafood tower for two featuring Beausoleil Oysters and World Master-winning gelatos are a few of the returning delights at Solaire Terrasse, both of which I remember from my visit in August of 2022. New this summer is the Madame Clicquot Afternoon Tea which will be held every last Sunday of the month. As the Veuve Clicquot motto from 1772 remains the same today, "Only one quality, the finest," I have little doubt this won't be the tea of the town.

Suite room in The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco

High tea and caviar are luxurious offerings, but The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco's ongoing environmental efforts are reason enough for why guests may chose this property over so many others in the area. I certainly consider properties’ ESG policies more than ever before, scrutinizing the details in any room I stay in, from the (often) plastic keycard to the (often) plastic shower cap. As a city, San Francisco already leads the way in mandating green initiatives, but this particular Ritz-Carlton takes the environmental and sustainability efforts further and has been doing so, increasingly, for years. It was already the first hotel in the world to install UTC Power's PureComfortTM 240 power solution which conserves energy via combined cooling, heating and power (CCHP) systems and fuel-cell power plants. Today, 100% of the hotel's energy is generated by natural gas-powered turbines. Seemingly everything, from fluorescent light bulbs to kitchen oil, is recycled and even old towels and linens are repurposed into cleaning rags, thanks to the handy work of on-site seamstresses. When the sustainability detail is down to the dishrag, that's worth noting and hopefully, worth choosing as a property to stay at.

As utterly fancy as a gleaming mansion on a hill looks, The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco has California cool hospitality perfected. It's the kind of place you can hop off a cable-car to check into and the kind of luxury hotel that still offers a fortune cookie upon checkout, a nod to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown just down the street.