Canine care includes doggy play dates and sleepovers with Puptown’s Corey Danner. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

We came from far away, the land of tract houses and grade schools, of drive-thrus and dry cleaners clustered in strip malls near freeway exits. We came longing for less sprawl and a closer relationship with our city. We came Downtown.

The nearly 20,000 of us who have moved in the past five years found a lively place, great clubs and restaurants just steps from the door, ballgames and theater where our lawns used to be. We jog along the bay and play in Balboa Park — or on our rooftops. Even our morning coffee now includes people-watching and great views.

But our dogs still need exercise, our garments still need cleaning and there are nights when we just want to grab a bite to eat and sprawl in front of the television set. What’s a Downtown resident to do?

Reach for the phone, say concierges and service providers who care for 92101ers every day. From SRO hotels to the Pinnacle penthouse, services ranging from gourmet food delivery and petsitting to grabbing a charter flight or runabout for an hour on the bay are just beyond the dial tone.

Many of the more than 100 residential projects thriving Downtown have some form of concierge to help find services that make life more convenient, whether it’s a hand-culled list or an electronic bulletin board.

Most buildings are home to people with vastly different incomes and needs, from studio to penthouse, and service providers for Downtown residents abound.

Seriously upscale buildings like the Meridian and Pinnacle have full-time staff dedicated to signing for packages, valet parking and layer upon layer of terrific amenities, where other buildings have less staff and service built in.

Yet residents hardly go without, because lots of portable professionals cater to the booming neighborhoods. World-class hair stylists and massage therapists tend to clients at home in virtually all of the neighborhoods, property managers say.

Dry cleaner Rick Morton makes stops three times a week at four Downtown condo towers and even does the cleaning himself. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Rick Morton, owner of Genesee Plaza Dry Cleaners, makes the Meridian one of his four stops three days a week, while Uptown Cleaners, on Cortez Hill, serves a dozen buildings in the neighborhood. Both deliver clothes and terrific results, clients say.

With online shopping, more and more Downtown residents get their groceries at their door for a minimal fee. Fans of Trader Joe’s, Henry’s and Whole Foods, like Sandy Simmons of Viva-City, still trek to Hillcrest to shop, but Vons, Albertsons and national outfits like Netgrocer.com will bring those groceries to your door on your schedule. Downtown also is home to two supermarkets, Ralphs at G and Front Streets behind Horton Plaza in the Marina District and the still freshly new Albertsons at G and 14th streets, a perfect stop not only for the growing East Village population but commuters on their way to Highway 94.

Personal chefs, including Geoffrey West and Betsy G, will come and prepare meals when it’s just too much work. Both are members of the American Personal and Private Chefs Association (personalchef.com), and they arrive to make one meal or a week’s worth, for about $50 an hour.

“I have terrific clients Downtown, and find more as the area grows,” says personal chef Betsy G, whose salad days were in the Chicago area. “Beyond cooking for parties, my clients are busy professionals who want to come home and find a meal just the way they want it.”

Personal chef Betsy G is stirring things up in Downtown kitchens, where clients appreciate her custom cooking. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

Clients love their comfort foods — brisket and meat loaf — as much as they love adventurous food, Betsy says. And they get personal attention — no green onions in this and a touch of ginger in that — or a great low-carb or vegetarian recipe.

“My clients like fresh food — that’s why they hire me, fresh food made with superb ingredients. And they like portion control,” she says. “I’ve done everything from macaroni and cheese, homemade, of course, to an Asian-infused guacamole with wontons, all prepared in my clients’ homes.”

Personal chefs can cook for a single event or lay in a week’s worth of meals.

“I plan my clients’ meals so their food is fresh on the days they stay in,” says West, who trained in French cuisine and later cooked in a spa setting. “I can do the grocery shopping, and pick up some healthy snacks — and I do everything from special diets to meals that freeze really well — with instructions on cooking attached.

“It’s so awful to come home from a difficult day when you don’t want to go back out and there’s nothing in the fridge,” he adds. “I get to know my clients and help them not have those evenings.”

If it’s too late to call your personal chef, there’s always delivery. Though concierges agree that Domino’s dominates, they also see companies like Expressly Gourmet, which arranges deliveries from fish tacos (Rubio’s) to farfalle al salmone (Villa Capri, Del Mar). With menus from dozens of San Diego eateries — the Adams Avenue Grill to Zanzibar — the company promises delivery in just over an hour for a $6.95 fee and the cost of the food.

Last year, getting your daily bread became much easier when Rado Kella and Robb Kohn — both Marina District residents — teamed up with Bread & Cie to create Downtown delivery for that vital loaf of bread in the morning.

“We have about 30 clients in a half-dozen buildings,” Kella says. “We deliver seven days a week.”

The idea for the young business came simply. “I live in a high-rise and I wanted to figure out how to get fresh bread in the morning,” Kella says.

Downtowners also can place special orders with Bread on Market, though the loaves won’t be delivered.

And there are people who will come to help 92101ers burn off those delicious calories. Properly fed and exercised, Downtowners look for help keeping their best friends just as well-fed and exercised.

Downtown pets have lots of caretakers, from all-day play centers, including Puptown Doggie Daycare, to licensed pet lovers who will walk dogs, take pets to the veterinarian and the groomer, and even visit with tortoises.

Corey Danner opened Puptown in 2001, and says half her pack is Downtown dogs. From the littlest, a Yorkie named Jackson, to the largest, Great Danes Zeus and Justice, about 100 dogs come between one and five days a week for indoor and outdoor play — and stay overnight when their families are traveling.

Puptown screens dogs to make sure they’re dog- and people- friendly and up-to-date on their vaccines, then takes up to 30 a day to play together in separate little and big dog areas.

“We get a little bit of everything,” she says of Puptown’s pack of purebreds and mutts. “It makes a huge difference for dogs to socialize with other dogs regularly and it sure wears them out.”

Along with happy, worn-out dogs, Puptown parents (Disclosure: I’m one) also get training tips, photos and special treats for their pets. And when a dog isn’t going to fit in at Puptown, Danner refers the owners to dog-walking and pet-sitting services.

Downtown dogs also have special friends who visit at home, including Dori and Tevia Schriebman, who run the Wizard of Paws. With 150 regular clients, the sisters walk, play with and feed pets — dogs, cats and birds — as well as take them to grooming and veterinary appointments.

“Some dogs need to walk twice a day, some once,” says Dori. “We have dogs who walk at 6 a.m. and dogs who go at 9 p.m., we have owners who call us because they’ve got a last minute business trip or a canceled flight, and we take care of everything.”

The Schriebmans also bring in mail and newspapers, water plants, give medicines to pets and pick up pet food for clients. They’ve even looked after a pair of tortoises. “We had a desert tortoise and an African tortoise, about the size of a tennis racket,” Dori says. “They love to be held and have their arms stroked.”

After the dry cleaning is done, the pets are fed and walked, and dinner’s over, there are still special Downtown amenities just out the front door.

Like the chance to zoom around the bay in a 16-foot speed boat from Seaforth Boat Rentals at the base of the Marriott Hotel. For less than $100 for two hours, a variety of motorboats and sailboats are available — safety gear included.

Damien Salerno, assistant manager at Seaforth Boat Rentals, provides Downtowners with water toys that take them from sidewalk to surf. (photo/lambertphoto.com)

“We get a lot of Downtown residents who just walk in and pick up a runabout for a couple of hours on the bay,” says Damien Salerno, an assistant manager. “On a weekend with great weather, even in the middle of February, we can get slammed with Downtown residents.”

Many 92101ers belong to Seaforth’s sailing club, which gets them a discount on hourly rates and the ability to reserve sailboats — something not needed just five years ago, Salerno says.

Perhaps the ultimate Downtown service, though, is being less than 10 minutes away from a chartered flight to — wherever! — from Jimsair.

Jimsair routinely flies charter clients to Cabo, Seattle, Sedona, Santa Barbara and Palm Springs, and to ski areas including Mammoth and Telluride, says Richard Cloward, who manages Jimsair’s new shared ownership program.

“Our clients are post-first class, people whose time is worth extra money or whose business pays for it,” Cloward says. “But if you fill the plane and make it a short trip, it’s comparable to flying everyone first class.”

While it may cost more, it’s a life-changing event to be able to show up at the airport and go when you want — early or late, by minutes or days — which chartering lets you do.

“You’ve got air charter — and the airport — less than two miles from where you live,” says Cloward. “And people who live Downtown are enjoying that.”