HOTEL REX-JOIE DE VIVRE

In all of its bohemian glory, the boutique Hotel Rex sits in the heart of the pulsating theater district, only one block from Union Square's swank shopping and entertainment, one half mile from Chinatown, one mile from the Moscone Convention Center and quick cable car rides to Fisherman's Wharf and North Beach. But the Rex's cultural pursuits set this place aside from all the others. Named for local poet Kenneth Rexroth, the Rex pays homage to the literary salons of the 1930s, with period furniture, antique dial phones and typewriters, a well stocked library of antiquarian books and original paintings. The Rex organizes tours of area art galleries during monthly wine and cheese receptions and new exhibits. The lobby lounge spices up the hotel's bohemian aesthetic with regular jazz concerts, literary readings and complimentary evening wine hours. The Rex's Café Andree, the French bistro with a San Francisco flair, reels in the hungry with such signatures as Churrasco with Argentine chimichurre on pain rustique