I always say that San Francisco is my home; although, it is not where I currently live or where I grew up. It is the first place I chose to live as an adult, though. The place I went to college, married, and got my first real job. I could probably list the names of every street, in order, and I could tell you what MUNI line to take to get there. I could also tell you all the tourist traps to avoid, but I find that people are determined to go to those places, regardless. However, with just two glorious days and nights in my city, I devised this itinerary which, I think, showcases some of the best of "Hidden San Francisco." Wear walking shoes!
Friday morning - drove into the city via the Bay Bridge and drove directly to Hotel Carlton, arriving about 10:00AM. The hotel has a parking package, and we arranged to arrive early, unload our luggage, and park without any additional charges for being early. What ended up happening is that they had an open room available at 10:00AM, and it turned out to be an upgraded room with sweeping views of the skyline all the way out to the Bay. I can't say enough good things about this hotel. It has a great location in Nob Hill bordering the Tenderloin, in an area affectionately referred to as the Tendernob, full of cafes and restaurants. The hotel has the old Victorian feel, but the rooms have been renovated, and the whole place has been decorated with a Middle Eastern flair that corresponds with the ethnic background of the neighborhood. If you're not sold already, the hotel has free wine in the lobby everyday at 5:30PM.
And here's my delicious waffle and cute table by the window:
When I first moved to San Francisco, I stayed in a hotel for the first few nights with my mother while I found a college flat to live in. The manager of the hotel provided us with a map of San Francisco and promptly took a pencil and grayed out a large triangular section of the map just west of Union Square and said, "Don't go there." That was my introduction to the Tenderloin. Later, when I worked in the 450 Sutter Building to the north of Union Square, my husband would pick me up from work, and we'd drive west on Sutter Street through the Tenderloin on our way home to the Haight. We would pass strip clubs, prostitutes and drug dealers on the street corners, and we'd roll up the windows and the lock the doors and prepare for stray gunfire. I'm not sure what exactly alleviated some of our fears -- the mass of humanity that we encountered daily, the projects a block away from our apartment, or the homeless man that wandered into our church wearing a diaper only, but we soon came to realize that the Tenderloin is just a place full of refugees and poor people, and honestly, the majority of the drug dealers don't even live in the neighborhood. Much has been done over the years to try to "clean up" the Tenderloin, from making the high number of SROs (single room occupancy hotels) into a historic neighborhood to plans for the Uptown Tenderloin Museum in the Cadillac Hotel. Cool local businesses have moved into the neighborhood, and gardens and art spaces have popped up everywhere. Being a lover of the outdoors and gardens, I was very enthused to check out The Tenderloin National Forest which was created by artists from the Luggage Store. From Little Bird Coffeehouse, we continued east on Geary then right on Leavenworth and left on Ellis. The forest is across the street from the Tenderloin Children's Playground, with happy kids jumping around having a good time. I admit that there was some loud yelling with a group of unusuals on the street in front, but once inside the gate, the forest is a sanctuary and a tribute to the power of people to make changes. Here are some photos from my first stop on my "Hidden San Francisco" tour. This place is really something:
Leaving the Tenderloin National Forest, we went west on Ellis and right on Hyde to Hooker's Sweet Treats. The plan here was to fuel up on candy to-go at this steampunk cafe to get us through the rest of the day and night. We decided on a box of 5 chocolate-covered salted caramels and 5 plain salted caramels, but we could've definitely ordered more stuff and hung out here drinking coffee and listening to good music for a lot longer. I think the guy knew we were going to break into that box shortly after walking out the door because he took special pleasure in wrapping the box all pretty and taping it tightly, finishing the job off with a tightly-wound piece of twine. The box made it sealed all the way down the 38 Geary bus to Montgomery Street before we stopped for coffee (aka: "wi-fi") and broke into the caramels. Mmmmmmm . . . Go here!
Next stop was to meet a San Francisco City Guide at 1:30 at the Native Sons Monument on the corner of Market & Montgomery for the "City Scapes and Public Spaces" FREE walking tour. Downtown San Francisco has a network of 68 POPOS, or privately-owned public open spaces. Although there are a few large urban parks downtown, like Union Square and Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco lacked open spaces right down in the bustling downtown financial district. So the Planning Department created the 1985 Downtown Plan which encouraged businesses to create POPOS for all to enjoy. The San Francisco Urban Planning & Research Association, SPUR, does a good job of chronicling the awesome work leading up to theses great parks, and they even have a map to them, but I wouldn't download their map since it is a LARGE file; instead, a more concise map can be found at SFist, or you can do like we did, and have a guide lead you around and tell you history, too. You can't beat the price of the tour, and any donations you give go to the San Francisco Public Library and the San Francisco Parks Trust. I saw some of our major landmarks, for example the Transamerica Pyramid and the Palace Hotel, from an entirely new camera angle. Here are some photos from the tour:
The City Scapes tour ended at Portsmouth Square so we could've taken any number of horizontal MUNI lines back to the Hotel Carlton. That's the beauty of this hotel -- public transportation is everywhere, just print out one of these MUNI maps before you go, or you can do like my husband, and download the map onto your iTouch. Fares are $2 so keep ones handy in your back pocket and always ask for a transfer. Transfers are good for 90 minutes, plus or minus 3 hours (just look at the time on the particular transfer the driver gives you) so in most cases you can use the transfer for your return trip. However, instead of going straight back to the hotel after the tour, we walked back down to Union Square to pick up an iTouch charging cable at the Apple Store since we forgot ours at home. By the way, the Apple Store gave us the cable for free so kudos to them. I do hate Union Square though. Along with Fisherman's Wharf, I would include Union Square on my list of "places to avoid in San Francisco." It was somewhat tolerable when I would walk up to work from the Powell Station in the early morning and watch the flower vendors unload their trucks and the pigeons wake up. So if you have to go, I would recommend before 7:00AM. If you like crowds of annoying people, then go here at 3:30PM on a Friday like we did.
Back at the hotel, showered, and dressed for a night out -- don't forget free wine in the lobby at 5:30! We always seem to want Italian food when we are in San Francisco. The natural thought is to head to North Beach and look for that idyllic little cafe that serves delicious Italian food from Italians themselves or struggling poets. During our years in San Francisco, we never found that special Italian food place. The places in North Beach are all very expensive and cater to tourists. The closest we came was Little Joe's on Broadway, but it has since closed down. We decided to try Fino Ristorante because it was located near our hotel, looked to be the right amount of fancy for "I'm going out to dinner in San Francisco" but not "I had to buy a whole new wardrobe just to get in here," the pasta dishes weren't so expensive that we would need a second mortgage, and . . . they took reservations -- Friday night in San Francisco, yes, I recommend reservations. I had the Gnocchi with a Gorgonzola sauce and it was delicious, but I was checking out everyone's food around me, and it all looked yummy. They also have old photos of San Francisco on the walls, giving it a sort of old-city feel. We really loved the place, and we would definitely go back.
Continuing the theme of old San Francisco, our next destination was Wilson & Wilson inside Bourbon & Branch. These places get a little confusing to explain, but here's the scoop from multiple internet stories and a long conversation with Jayson the tattooed bartender at Wilson & Wilson. Bourbon & Branch came before Wilson & Wilson, and it is another bar from the group, Future Bars, Inc., that started Mr. Lew's Win-Win Bar, Anu, Swig, and Rickhouse. Bourbon & Branch is designed like a 1920's speakeasy, and it is, in fact, the site of an old speakeasy from the Prohibition era that ran under the name "JJ Russell's Cigar Shop." The bar's history goes back even further, and it is documented that some form of a bar has operated at this location since 1867, really cool for history buffs. I tried desperately to get a reservation for Bourbon & Branch from the online reservation system on their website without any luck, and I was trying 3 weeks ahead of the Friday night that we wanted to go. There was the possibility to just arrive and try to be allowed into their "library" which doesn't operate on reservations, but it sounded too unlikely that we'd get in, and we'd spend our evening hanging out on a street corner in the Tenderloin. As much as I'm trying to convince people that the Tenderloin is changing, I still wouldn't want to stand around on the street at night over there. I felt no sense of danger walking down Jones Street en route from Fino, but I would still use caution walking at night further into the heart of the 'Loin. For me, that means walking on brightly lit streets, preferably near groups of other walkers, and walking confidently like I know where I'm headed.
Anyway, after almost giving up on my speakeasy night, I stumbled upon a review of Wilson & Wilson. I went into their reservation system and was able to grab an 8:00PM reservation for the Friday night we wanted. Awesome! After setting up an email account, a password is emailed to you to get into the bar. Although Wilson & Wilson has an entrance on Jones Street guised as "Wilson and Wilson Private Detective Agency," you still must enter through Bourbon & Branch underneath the "Anti-Saloon League" sign. We knocked on the big, heavy door while a street person with a green tongue asked me if she could have my shawl. A lady dressed like a flapper answered the door and asked us for the password, which we botched up as "Maytag" when it was actually "Maytag Shop." Luckily, she corrected us and let us in. Phewww, dodged that bullet. Getting into this place is not easy! She asked for our name, and found us on some sort of computer, using a penlight. This place is plenty dark so we were thankful for a minute to get our eyes adjusted. She used a telephone/CB radio/telegraph (not sure what she was doing) to call someone about us (getting very nervous at this point), and then she told us to follow her. We were led past the bar, up some stairs lit by votive candles on the steps, past tables of large groups, and then to another big, heavy door. Here, the flapper pulled out a large skeleton key to unlock another big, heavy door. (At this point, I'm thinking about fire codes.) Inside was a little room of 2-person cocktail tables against the wall and a long bar with barstools and two bartenders. On the frosted window at the end of the room, I saw the "Wilson and Wilson Private Detective Agency" signage so I knew we must've worked our way all the way around again. This window looks really cool with the iron bars shadowing against it, or when police cars drive by and briefly light it up. Very cool ambiance. Two steel tractor-seat barstools were open at the end of the bar, and this is where we were escorted to. This is our only complaint with the place is these damn barstools. There was no way to get comfortable on these things, and I have to wonder if this is intentional so people won't try to stay longer than the allotted 90-minute reservation time. The menu itself is really cool and reads like a case file. My husband and I are not heavy drinkers so we spent a long time just reading the menu, and I really wish I'd thought to read up on "Hard Alcohol 101" before coming here. Luckily, Jayson the bartender introduced himself, and he gave us the run down. He was super friendly, and we like to talk so he also told us all about the history of the Wilson & Wilson side of things. Apparently Wilson & Wilson used to be a Thai restaurant, and when construction/expansion of Bourbon & Branch began, they found a woman's purse in the wall which started the whole mystery-themed side of the speakeasy. The menu tells you what was in her purse and some info about the woman, Lorraine Wilson, so between sipping drinks, you can try your hand at being Dashiell Hammett. I started out with a Skull Island Sour and Mike had a Fu Manchu, and they were both really good. I couldn't tell you what all was in them even though Jayson was making them right in front of us, but it seemed like 50 ingredients went into the making of each drink. I can tell you that they have some of the prettiest, most uniform ice cubes that I have ever seen. After that, we decided to split a Lost Temple from the "punch" section of the menu. The punch is served in a fancy silver teapot with two teacups like we were having "high-tea" at the speakeasy. Mike stopped after one cup of punch, and I had two cups of punch, and we still had stuff left in the teapot. I hated wasting it, but this was some lethal stuff, and I was worried about having my wits about me to battle the green-tongued street-alien outside.
Next morning, and reservations again. This time we were going to try a 10:00AM brunch at Canteen, just a short walk right down Sutter Street from Hotel Carlton. I selected Eggs Benedict and Mike selected Blueberry French Toast with Sweetened Cream Cheese from the menu that included excerpts of writings from Edgar Allan Poe. I asked to keep my menu a little longer after ordering since I was still reading it. I must say that this is a much better way to start the day than reading a newspaper full of the morning's tragedies. There are also books lining the shelves in this cozy little space so I could've spent a lot longer in here reading everything, except that they are super busy on the weekends with brunch customers. The coffee is also strong and dark, the way I like it, and it's served with real half-and-half and brown sugar cubes. A great way to start our Saturday morning.
From here on our "Hidden San Francisco" tour, the traveler has a choice: after leaving Canteen and walking right down Sutter Street, you can either stop at Powell Street and take a cable car to Union Street (either the Powell-Mason line or the Powell-Hyde line will get you there), or you can continue down Sutter Street to Stockton Street and take the 45 bus through Chinatown to Union Street and get off at Leavenworth. Having ridden enough cable cars in my lifetime, I opted to take the 45 through Chinatown and watch the hopping Saturday market craziness over there. Be forewarned that this bus line is very popular on Saturday mornings, and several already-full buses passed us by without stopping before entering the Stockton Street tunnel, but we finally got on one. On a side note, live chickens are no longer allowed on this bus so that was a bit of a change and a disappointment from previous trips through Chinatown. I was able to brush up on my Cantonese as I was the only white girl on the bus, and I was towering above all the other passengers while standing and holding on and listening in on their conversations. Once through Chinatown, the bus heads west on Union Street through Russian Hill, and it is easy to get off at Leavenworth, and taking the bus will actually get you closer to your destination than taking the cable car.
Along Leavenworth, between Union and Green, is the start of Macondray Lane. This quaint little lane is what Armistead Maupin used as the inspiration for Barbary Lane in his Tales of the City novels. This first section of the lane, between Leavenworth and Jones, is the less-scenic section of the two parts of the lane, but there are still some sweeping views of the bay all the way out to Alcatraz Island. Here's the secret entrance from Leavenworth:
And here's a view through the foliage along the lane to Alcatraz Island:
The real scenic part starts after crossing Jones Street and the lane looks like a little European village. To me, this section between Jones and Taylor is quintessentially San Francisco. I know people like to photograph the Painted Ladies near Alamo Square, but I think Macondray Lane showcases more of San Francisco's best sides with views of Alcatraz, Angel Island, the bridges, Coit Tower, Saints Peter and Paul Church, and Victorian architecture. Here are some shots of the second section of Macondray Lane:
The picture above is where you exit Macondray Lane down the steps, and it puts you out onto Taylor Street. From here, we turned left on Taylor and right on Union to walk down the hill to Washington Square. The plan was to meet another San Francisco City Guide at 1:00PM for the "Telegraph Hill Hike" that starts at the Marconi Monument in Pioneer Park. An easy way to do this is to take the 39 MUNI bus from Union Street across from Washington Square, and it'll take you up Stockton and then up Lombard to the meeting spot. However, depending on how your morning has gone, you may have extra time on your hands, as we did, so we stopped into Mario's Bohemian Cigar Store. We've actually been to this place a few times before, and it's a great place to share a focaccia sandwich and an Italian soda, and sit at the outdoor tables facing Washington Square and people-watch. And no, cigars are not sold here, but they do make a nice cappuccino. After our light lunch, we didn't see any buses going by so we hiked up to the start of the hike. After the hike, we hiked down from the hike so ours is a new and improved Telegraph Hill Hike so I'll write about that one in Our Hiking Mystery.
After hiking all over Telegraph Hill, we hopped on the 1 MUNI bus at Sacramento Street, just south of Portsmouth Square, and we took it to Polk. Here, we walked down Polk and right on Bush to Leland Tea Company. This is a cute little tea place (with free wi-fi), and I think, at this point, we were dragging. We scored a little window-seat table in the front, and the place had a laid-back 1920's Paris vibe going on. I am a little concerned about its future because there weren't a lot of people there on a Saturday afternoon at the high-tea hour of 4:00PM, and that's sort of a shame. I am a bit of a tea snob, and this place turns out tea the way I like it: strong, hot, and with plenty of milk and sugar to go with it. I had "Tiffany's Blend" which is their house black tea blend and a mini Vanilla Chai Cupcake made by Kingdom Cake, moist and perfect with the tea.
Back to the hotel that was just two blocks away and now showered (and don't forget the free wine at 5:30), we had reservations for Saha, the Arabic "fusion" restaurant in the lobby of the Hotel Carlton. Now, this place was a bit of a gamble. We knew we didn't want to go anyplace far because we had tickets to a show at the Great American Music Hall afterwards. Also, it seemed a little pricey so I really had to fight with myself to justify this place. The main problem I saw with the place was the "fusion" crap. As a rule, I avoid anyplace that lists itself as a "fusion" restaurant because I see this term as a lame marketing gimmick. Really, aren't most restaurants a "fusion" of different things? Aren't most cuisines a "fusion" of the other geographically surrounding areas? You could just as a easily say that Saha is "Arabic-inspired" or heck, just "Arabic," and I would get the same idea. However, convenience won out, and I can honestly say that this was the best meal I have ever eaten. Period. The menu is confusing, and we really wanted to try a variety of things so we opted for the 3-course "prix fixe" meal, and between my husband and I, we got to sample six different items on the menu. For the salad choice, I had the Stuffed Avocado and Mike had the Fattoush. Both were really good, but we declared the Stuffed Avocado the winner here -- it was unlike anything I've ever had where this soft avocado mutant was coated in some crunchy stuff then filled with Tabouli and sauced up with a raspberry-vinaigrette-like sauce. Mmmm... For the small plates choice I had the Bastilla and Mike had the Kofta. The Bastilla is actually a Moroccan national dish with a spicy meat filling on the inside, and a phyllo-dough-like crust on the outside, and then sprinkled with powdered sugar on the top. Sounds strange, but it works. The Kofta is like a spicy lamb meatball served with Zahaweg which is best described as a Yemeni salsa. There was no clear winner here. Then for the entrees, I had the Sage Duck and Mike had the Lamb Tagine. Once again, both were really good. The Tagine was like a tasty lamb stew with the addition of some unusual ingredients like Maftoul which is like a very large Couscous which is like Semolina. The Sage Duck was outrageously good with flavors of cinnamon and orange so moist and tender; the only reason I could see someone not liking this dish is if they are put off by the slightly medium-rare way that they cook the duck. You'd think that after all this food that we would pass on the dessert, but no we didn't. We shared a Knaffe which is a dish that goes by slightly different spellings depending on which country in the Arabic world that you are in, but it is basically shredded phyllo, cheese, and lots of honey. Mmmmm... so good, especially with a cup of coffee. I've spent all this time talking about the food at Saha, but the decor is also really cool with dark reds and oranges, candles, pillows, and fabric shades everywhere. Love this place.
Last stop on the San Francisco tour, the reason why we came to San Francisco in the first place, was to see my cousin-in-law's band, The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit play at the Great American Music Hall on Saturday night as part of the "Big-Ass Hillbilly Tour." I see that they have a new website now, and that's him at the pedal steel. You might ask yourself, "Why is a girl who grew up listening to Oingo Boingo, Joy Division, and The Sisters of Mercy going to a hillbilly concert?" And to that I say, "Why is a guy who wrote, 'AC/DC Rules' in my wedding guest book playing in a hillbilly band?" And herein lies the genius . . . This style of music, whether it be called hillbilly, bluegrass, Americana, folk, or roots rock, can be enjoyed by anyone. I'm always curious when people say stuff like, "I like anything but . . . " My natural instinct is to find a song of that genre that they like and point out the error in their thinking. This band has so much going for them that I can't imagine someone not liking them. Their stage energy is awesome, and they've layered some pretty hefty string riffs around two different vocalists so that every song has its own feel. Then they throw in some banjo, Dobro, and harmonica, and the songs take off on their own. I am partial to "The Burden of Sea Captains," but I definitely found a few other favorite songs after seeing them performed live. Everyone in the audience was jumping around that night, and the historic Great American Music Hall rocked with a sold-out show. The Good Luck Thrift Store Outfit was the headlining band, but we totally fell in love with The Brothers Comatose, a local San Francisco band, from seeing them that night, too. Even my 11 and 13 year-old kids like, "Church Street Blues," by The Brothers Comatose, and we can't get enough of listening to that fiddle, mandolin, and stand-up bass around here. Sadly, we had to leave San Francisco the next day for the long haul drive back to Arizona, over the Grapevine and down the mountainside, but here's The Brothers Comatose song that got us back home. Maybe it'll be the Our Tripping Mystery theme song . . .
** UPDATE ** Sad to report that Little Bird Coffeehouse has gone out of business. The story: http://blog.sfgate.com/cwnevius/2011/11/01/tenderloins-little-bird-cafe-shut-down/
