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If you want champagne, or just a nice drink in a nice restaurant. Like one of these: IN BOSTON: Grill 23 & Bar Rialto Top of the Hub 29 Newbury West Street Grille IN CHICAGO: Bistro 110 Harry's Velvet Room Shaw's Crabhouse and Blue Crab Lounge Trader Vic's Yvette Wintergarden IN NEW YORK CITY: An American Place Gramercy Tavern Grange Hall Odeon Rainbow Promenade Bar IN SAN FRANCISCO: 42 Degrees Mecca Stars Vertigo Zuni Cafe IN SEATTLE: The Cloud Room Cucina! Cucina! McCormick's Fish House and Bar Moe's Mo'roc'n Cafe Queen City Grill

Behind rows of neatly folded sweaters, just past overflowing racks of winter coats, and beyond the legions of polyester and rayon blends of Misses' Coordinates lies San Francisco's best kept secret. It's the Champagne Exchange at Nordstrom, tucked away on the third floor of the San Francisco Centre, and overlooking the ever-changing sprawl and seediness of Market Street.

San Franciscans pride themselves on doing things their way, so it makes sense that this softly pastel dining space ­ with it late '80s chrome and wicker chairs, and deep, beginning-to-wear burgundy carpet ­ should turn out to be the only champagne bar in San Francisco. None of these goggle-eyed, trend-seeking Bubble Lounges for us, no sir. Here at the Champagne Exchange at Nordstrom are the older, upper-middle class shoppers looking for quiet respite and a pampering glass of Veuve Cliquot, and the tired, suburban couples with a verging-on-fussy baby seeking out the very good garlicky bruschetta (a healthy portion for $2.75) to accompany their glasses of Roederer Estate and Jordan J. Occasionally, a reporter or city desk editor from the neighboring San Francisco Chronicle wanders in, wondering why the Exchange, with its lunch and dinner menu of Caesar salads, pesto turkey sandwiches, and daily soups, is absent of his colleagues, usually so good at sniffing out the value-for-money venues in the area.

Which, surprisingly, the Champagne Exchange is. It is less a champagne lounge that serves food than a cafe that serves champagne by the glass, and only one of which (Veuve Cliquot brut at $13 a glass) is a true Champagne. Those with something stiffer in mind may gravitate toward the frozen vodkas, of which there are thirteen. Bottles of Dom Perignon 1988 top the high end of the list, at $115. But, most of the guest here in the sparsely-filled 50-seater may be just as happy with a bottle of non-vintage Bollinger at $45.

Every year, there is some discussion among the Nordstrom mucky-mucks about closing the inconsistently patronized Exchange, or at least modernizing it. And every year, there is an outcry from the usually silent regulars, who come out of the woodwork in droves by writing querulous letters of protest. Not insignificantly, it is John Nordstrom ­ a board member with, one assumes, some influence ­ who always vetoes extermination. Nordstrom is, after all, about customer service, and that's what the Exchange provides in its unobtrusive way.

The Champagne Exchange thus quietly lumbers on, a dinosaur among the high energy, ultra-loud, mega-hip Lulu's and Red Rooms of the city. Sitting at the window, with a glass of Scharffenberger (a steal at $5.75) raised delicately, teeming mobs below jockeying for position at the cable car turn-around on Powell Street, the newly refurbished historic Flood Building winking its golden lights from across Market Street, you may just feel a transformation coming on, no matter what your age or gender. The hat and gloves start to emerge, your purse gleams brightly, your violet-scented handkerchief is perfectly starched....yes, you've become one of them: The Ladies Who Lunch.

And it feels marvelous.