Mystic Hotel by Charlie Palmer

San Francisco’s hotel situation has always been a high-pressure one. These, collectively, are the busiest hotels in the country, and they try hard to distinguish themselves from the crowd. So it’s refreshing that Mystic Hotel manages to be so relaxed. This is a hotel owned by a celebrity chef, after all — Charlie Palmer of Aureole and Dry Creek Kitchen fame — but it doesn’t go in for big branding gestures. Instead it’s a sensitive renovation of a 1906 building, leaving as much of the original architectural personality in place as possible, and the vibe, when all is said and done, is more akin to a classic prewar San Francisco apartment than a typical boutique hotel.