By Jennifer Reese

Quaint and pretty it is not. The stretch of Market Street between Franklin and Guerrero in San Francisco is heavily trafficked and gritty. But it also offers a wide spectrum of urban experiences: uncommon shops, creative restaurants, and a cluster of dealers selling art deco antiques. Area code is 415.

▪ Judy Rodgers’s Zuni Cafe is a longtime neighborhood anchor. The menu changes daily but it always features Rodgers’s fabled Caesar salad and roasted chicken. 1658 Market St., 552-2522.

▪ A meal at Zuni Cafe is an event; DeLessio is for anytime. The kid-friendly, buffet-style café serves doz-ens of homey dishes, including a super mac ’n’ cheese. Save room for cupcakes. 1695 Market St., 552-5559, www.delessiomarket.com.

▪ You stop in the vast and wondrous 68-year-old Flax Art & Design for a glue gun. You leave, breathless, with charcoals, a Milanese ink set, and handmade paper. Flax carries 10,000 different paper patterns. 1699 Market St., 552-2355, www.flaxart.com.

▪ Collectors of art deco pieces may swoon when they step into Another Time, which specializes in birch furniture manufactured by New England’s Heywood-Wakefield company. 1710 Market St., 553-8900.

▪ L’Art Deco Français focuses on shiny, showy, and pricey European art deco: gleaming 1930s rosewood dining chairs from Lyon ($8,200 for six), dramatic Baccarat crystal bowls, and a pair of handsome Danish end tables. 1680 Market St., 863-5483.

▪ Once you’ve seen enough boomerang-shaped deco, check out New Deal’s zany cowhide-upholstered beds, contemporary candleholders carved out of rock salt, and cushions embroidered with images of suburban tract houses. 1632-B Market St., 552-6208, www.newdealhome.com.

▪ Perhaps the quirkiest store in the enclave is the petite Bell’occhio, which sells exquisite oddities: vintage ribbons, candles shaped like Parisian macaroons, and CDs of birdsongs recorded in the Alps. 8 and 10 Brady St., 864-4048, www.bellocchio.com.