About The Bay: Sugerman Tips His Hat To A Bay Area Institution

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) - The Bay Area is full of treasures that sometimes are hiding in plain sight. During his travels About the Bay, Mike Sugerman found one that was just too good to keep under his hat.

"Welcome to Paul's Hat Works," Sugerman is greeted when he enters the boutique on San Francisco's Geary Street.

Sugerman was treated well at the shop but he was by no means the most well-known customer the store has seen.

It turns out President Barack Obama has a hat from the shop, too.

"After he put the hat on he said 'I'll wear it my whole second term,'" a Paul's Hat Works employee recounted the visit.

That employee calls herself Paul Number Two, even though that's not really her name. And she's not the only one going by Paul in the shop. She says there are four Pauls, though none of them were named Paul at birth.

"Paul's Hat Works is...a 93-year-old business that's been here in this location since 1918," she described the shop's longtime roots.

"The closest hat shop I know of like this, doing what we do, is in Busby, Arizona," she said.

And what they do is sell high end hats - running hundreds of dollars. They also look carefully at the customer to make certain that he or she is getting the hat that suits a face and body the best.

KCBS' Mike Sugerman Reports:

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