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"  Xelina Leyba, 28 Hometown: San Diego Hostess at: Commonwealth, San Francisco ESQUIRE: So it&amp;#039;s cuh-lee-nah, not cha-leen-a, which means it&amp;#039;s not the Catalan &amp;quot;X,&amp;quot; right? XELINA LEYBA: It&amp;#039;s actually Aztec. ESQ: Great. So how does it feel to be hostess of the week? XL: Super awesome. I never knew there was such a thing.  ESQ: Oh, there is such a thing; and you&amp;#039;re the lucky winner this week. Does growing up in San Diego make for a good hostess of the week? XL: It does. You never realize it while you&amp;#039;re there in Southern California, but everybody has a sunny disposition, and everybody&amp;#039;s so friendly there. You don&amp;#039;t realize until you go elsewhere that people aren&amp;#039;t like that everywhere. ESQ: Where is that &amp;quot;elsewhere&amp;quot;? XL: I mean in general, not in regards to hosting. Even the Pacific Northwest \u2014 it might have something to do with the weather \u2014 and even on the East Coast ... I wouldn&amp;#039;t say people are unfriendly ... It&amp;#039;s just that people are definitely more open in SoCal and much more willing to say hello. ESQ: Hello is a major part of your job. XL: The first thing. ESQ: I do have to say, I&amp;#039;ve been up to San Francisco and noticed that drinking on the street is okay. XL: Yeah. Particularly in this neighborhood, there&amp;#039;s brown-bagging everywhere. ESQ: And what about work? You make a job of being happy, whether brown-bagging or not.  XL: It&amp;#039;s great. There&amp;#039;s nothing better than people absolutely loving their experience here from top to bottom. ESQ: Would you say the generalization about San Francisco as a bunch of Birkenstock hippie liberals is true? And if so, is it a good or bad thing? XL: Yeah it&amp;#039;s a great thing. And it&amp;#039;s true. There are two levels of people in San Francisco: the ones that really are out and out \u2014 you know, hippie liberals \u2014 and the other half that make fun of the extreme. But we&amp;#039;re all hippie liberals on the inside.  ESQ: Which is a good thing. Do you have a favorite outfit to wear when you&amp;#039;re hostessing? Is there a uniform? Is there a piece of clothing that&amp;#039;s optimal for hostessing duties? XL: There&amp;#039;s no dress code. It&amp;#039;s a pretty casual neighborhood. I&amp;#039;m always bored by what I wear. ESQ: Well, if there were an optimal item of hostess clothing, what would it be? A pair of Nikes? XL: I already have one. It&amp;#039;s an unfortunate button-down. ESQ: Unfortunate? Well, what is it about the button-down? Is it more aerodynamic? XL: No, it&amp;#039;s just ... It&amp;#039;s very versatile. You can wear it with anything. ESQ: You can wear it with all of the other unfortunate hostess clothing, maybe. XL: [Laughing] Yeah. ESQ: With your work, a smile is a very important thing. Have you found yourself practicing it in the mirror to perfect it? XL: No, not recently. Not since I was about 12. I did a lot of that when I was 12. ESQ: Obviously all of that adolescent practice has paid off now. XL: Yeah, I hope so. MORE: Check Out Our Full Archive of Hostesses of the Week &amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;gt; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/food-drink/restaurants/interviews/a9315/commonwealth-san-francisco-012511/>