Grandiosity Agape

last night i walked through the new mall in downtown san francisco with my mouth agape. it is absolutely stunning. i have never been a fan of malls. i am not even a fan of shopping, but as i walked in to the new addition to San Francisco Centre, i found myself stunned at it's beauty and scale. the place is gorgeous. modern, but not cold. vast, but not overwhelming. instead of little wooden mall benches or cement planters to rest your booty on after hours of shopping, you get sculptural, low-lying modern, leather sofas and rich bentwood coffee tables upon which to rest your latte. the theater has plush, leather seats. while watching scorsese's The Departed, you are given the luxury of inhaling new leather for two hours, a pleasure on par with the usual genius scorcese and his visions.

and that's not all.

does it have a food court? uh, pardon me while i raise my arms up to the heavens in an act of speechless thanks. not only are the food options of tiptop quality, but there is a grocery store unlike anything i have ever seen in the city, anywhere. it contains gourmet everything with gorgeously laid out produce. my excitement level was ridiculous as i dug in to super fresh ahi salad and warm shrimp shumai. oh my god. it's incredible. a must see. a must go. a real pleasure.

they say the emporium has been closed for 10 years. i find that difficult to believe, on the other hand, i can't really remember the last time one was able to walk down the sidewalk without construction bearing its ugly self upon the people. the restored glass dome is breathtaking and has been raised 60 feet. this provides for some of the disbelief you feel, that the building once housed only one store. apparently, it is also two or three stories taller to equal a total of five stories, the top one holding 16 leather-filled theatres.

seeing as i'm about to re-enter the white collar world with my new job downtown, where people are invisibly insane, instead of outwardly drooling and scabby, i feel i am being appropriately greeted. downtown is all shiny and new and a previously sleeping part of me is waking up and it feels gooooooood.