Saturday October 19th was the semi-annual meeting of the fragrant Facebook group known as SF Sniff. The day started off for me at 8:30 am at Café de la Presse where I met Hilary Randall for breakfast. Lovely Laura my new favorite waitperson at Café de la Presse (and in all of San Francisco in general) took great care of us. Café de la Presse is my morning hang out on weekends when I am downtown. With its authentic Parisian ambiance and the incredible magazine stand in its center it is like a slice of Paris with American waitpersons. They are so attentive bright and cheery at the Café and serve in double time the best breakfast in town. (The almond croissants are killer!)
I walked Hilary to work at Barney’s (we would see her later on) and then headed over to Fresh on Grant Avenue to meet up with the SF Sniff gang.
Our itinerary for the day was Fresh, Gump’s, Hermes, Diptyque, the Chanel Boutique then a break for lunch (a scrumptious ironic twist back to Café de la Press). After lunch we hit Neiman’s, and finished off with a real party at Barney’s where we ran into Mario Gomez and his partner and Mik of Mik Moi and his soon to be (this coming Monday) husband Jasper. We wound down the day at the fabulous food court at San Francisco Center. To my surprise everyone pulled out bags of samples and unwanted perfumes and there was a huge swap! Our feet may have been barking like dogs but our hearts were full of friendship, joy and the mutual love of great perfumes.
I got to meet some old fragrance acquaintances from SF Sniff and some new ones too including Sebastian Jara from Man Loves Cologne dot com. I have to thank our great leader of SF Sniff Tama Blough for organizing the event and being ever graceful and charming throughout our olfactory adventure. And we could not have had all that fun with out the glowing, welcoming participation of everyone at the stores we hit, including Hilary, Christina, Chase, and Sue at Barney’s as well as Irene, Rami, Suzetta and Fati at Neiman’s. And the wonderful folks at Diptyque were a highlight And of course a very special shout out and tip of the hat to the entire team at Fresh who gave us not only tea and cookies but a spectacular beginning to our fragrant journey across the perfume palaces of San Francisco.
What follows is a photo essay of the epic ten and one half hour day.
GRANT AVE. EARLY MORNING
THE MANNEQUINS WORE PRADA
THE DRAGON GATE ENTRANCE TO CHINATOWN
MARATHON RUNNERS ON GRANT AVE.
THE BEST PLACE TO GET FRENCH AND ITALIAN MAGAZINES
CAFE DE LA PRESSE
THE ENGAGINGLY BEAUTIFUL HILARY
MY FAVORITE MADEMOISELLE LAURA
FIRST STOP, FRESH!
TAMA, TEA, AND COOKIES AND FABULOUS FRAGRANT FRIENDS!
WHAT COULD BE BETTER?
IF I AM NOT MISTAKEN THIS IS TRISH FROM FRESH WHO WAS SO HELPFUL
AND INFORMATIVE ABOUT THE FRESH LINE.
HERMES
CHANEL
ALEXANDER SAMPLES DIPTYQUE, SEBASTIAN FELL IN LOVE WITH VOLUTES.
A PEEK AT BULGARI! ON THE WAY TO NEIMAN’S 
THE DOORS WERE WIDE OPEN FOR US AT DIOR.
SMELLING THE ATKINSONS LINE AT BARNEY’S NEW YORK.
THE SWAP!
IN THE END WE ALL GOT TO GRAB SOMETHING WONDERFUL.
PHOTO STOLEN FROM B.B. BAIRD (FORGIVE ME SWEETIE?)
Sebastian Jara’s blog Man Loves Cologne: http://www.manlovescologne.com/
Sebastian’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZZFHNMNvhKOefgISblmxuw
19 Comments
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SCENTS MEMORY 
What a marvelous San Francisco tale of your day with SF Sniff and beautiful shots of the city’s finest along with Tama, Hilary, Mik et al!
We missed you Mary!!!
What a beautiful montage of photos! You captured the energy of the city and the spirit of the event just perfectly. These events are always so fun and I am glad we were both a part of it. BTW, Hillary looks stunning in that photo!
Thank you dear Brooke! I am coming to treasure all of my SF Sniff friends. And you are always so much fun! I can’t wait to see you again.
How fun! Thanks for the journey!
You are welcome Scented Hound! I wish you could have been with us! I know you would have loved it.
Scented Fun for 10+ hours. Thank you for sharing this day. What was in those white funnel things? Feet ‘barking like dogs’ – hilarious.
Those were amphora filled with perfume! Just like at Guerlain in Paris.
That looks like one very fun day. Thanks for sharing. And a surprise swap makes it even more fun.
It was a pure blast Poodle… I am still recuperating LOL.
What a marvelous time! And that Fresh storefront makes my heart go pitter-patter, or makes me twitterpated, or you know what I’m talkin’ about 😉 .
I know exactly what you are talking about. I will take you and Mr. Lester there someday if you like.
SUCH FUN!!
Thanks for including me, dear Michael! H
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Reblogged this on Ligeo's Blog.
Dearest Lanier
What frills, what frocks
What broads
What furs, what rocks
They’re beautiful
Why, I’ve never seen such gaiety… what a sniff party that was!
Lovely words and pictures Monsieur L.
See you at the Cafe de le Presse… someday.
Yours ever
The Perfumed Dandy
You bet dear Dandy! I have my own high top table at the cafe de la press and you are on the reservation list. See you there!
SF Sniff indeed, I say with a small lump bobbing up and down in my throat . .. what a fabulous day and thank you so much for reminding how I much I miss SF, and you!
I have spent so many mornings sitting either at the bar or one of the high top tables of Cafe de la Presse with my poached egg, toast and coffee (have we been there at the same time I wonder???) watching the world go by outside. Waiting for the Cat Lady to make an appearance!
What a fabulous day and so happy to tag along from afar!
Thanks for the shout out here Michael! 😀 wonderful pics, interesting blogs. See you around
Thank YOU Laura! Hilary and I think you are the best and we adore Café de la Presse! We will be back soon to share more fun and surprises with you.