Best Lunchtime Napping

Hidden amid high-rise senior centers a short walk from Moscone Center lies a tiny, green oasis. Alice Street Community Gardens -- nestled at the end of the one-block Lapu-Lapu Street, off Harrison between Third and Fourth streets -- offers the SOMA wanderer a leafy respite from the glass and steel of downtown. Over 160 small plots in wooden containers burst with flowers and vegetables, from irises, roses, and daisies to chard, fennel, taro root, and bok choy. At the back of the garden, a handful of wooden benches and tables beckons tired locals. Birdsong greets you as you enter -- as might one of the seniors who live nearby, busy tending a plot. (As Dee Ann Hendrix, caring for her potatoes in Plot No. 2, says, "It gets me outside.") The garden is open from about sunrise to sunset, rain or shine; the flowers and food are notfor public consumption, but the refuge is.