Braeside

The Braeside off-leash park pulls a reliable morning crowd — the kind of spot where people end up on a first-name basis with the dogs before the owners. Braeside School anchors the residential streets around it, and the commercial strip tilts toward dining rather than daily errands, which sends most people to Cedarbrae or Acadia for bigger grocery runs. Two Orthodox churches sit within a few blocks of each other here — Saint Andrew Romanian Orthodox Church and St. John of Shanghai and San Francisco Russian Orthodox Church — which you notice on a first walk and don't forget.