Jennifer Bewerse’s A Gently Tilting Planet

Before

Long walk · 0.7 mi · 15 min walk; 2 min ride - Chinatown

Opened in 1908 and at the Alameda Street address since 1951, when the original building was taken for the 101 freeway. Sawdust covers the floor. Long lines form at carving stations where you order by shouting your sandwich. The tables are communal. Coffee is still famously cheap.

After

short ride recommended · 3 min - Downtown

The last of the great American railway terminals, opened in May 1939 to a Donald and John Parkinson design that blends Spanish Colonial, Mission Revival and Art Deco into something usually called Mission Moderne. The main hall runs about 140 feet by 80, under six bronze Art Deco chandeliers that weigh over 3,000 pounds apiece, with thirty-foot windows and red quarry tile underfoot. There are 254 original-pattern wooden chairs and nobody minds if you sit in one. It stays open from 4am to 1am.