San Francisco's sights are intertwined with its history. Like many port cities, it is the quintessential example of the American melting pot, where wave after wave of newcomers struggled to survive, and then to succeed, making way for the next wave. California's much-vaunted Native Son was originally a native of somewhere else.
Franciscan missionaries from Spain came the same year that the Liberty Bell rang out independence in Philadelphia; California was still a wilderness in 1776. It wasn't until 1848 that the sleepy little settlement woke up with a start, when gold was discovered in Sacramento. Almost overnight, San Francisco became a port bustling with clipper ships bringing hopeful prospectors and supplies, and entrepreneurs reaping the benefits of riches flowing from the goldfields.
The first Chinese immigrants came shortly after, followed by the Italians, many of whom became farmers in Napa and Sonoma valleys. The Japanese came in the 1890s. Each ethnic group established its own neighborhoods with bakeries and butchers providing familiar foods and restaurants where people gathered and spoke a common language. Food traditions were the last to assimilate, and it was food that began bringing others into these neighborhoods, to eat in the restaurants.
Today, these neighborhoods, still constantly morphing as the ethnic mix continues to change, are among the most appealing experiences for visitors. Different sights, sounds, music, languages, smells and tastes fill the air, creating a mini round-the-world adventure. And they combine to make the Golden Gate the gates of paradise for a dedicated foodie.
Begin your cook's tour at Embarcadero, at the Ferry Plaza Farmer's Market (415/ 353-5650, www.cuesa.org) year-round on Saturday and Tuesday mornings, spring and fall also on Sunday and on Thursday afternoon. Even if you're not shopping for fresh organic vegetables or farmstead cheeses and sourdough bread, go for the sensory pleasures — the aromas and the beautiful displays.
North Beach provides a choice of tantalizing bakeries whose shelves are filled daily with fresh-baked temptations. Stop in Danilo Bakery (516 Green Street, 415/989-1806) for the array of bread sticks, mini biscotti, fruit-studded panetone, and pignoli cookies. Italian French Baking Co. (1501 Grant, 415/421-3796) bakes most of the breads served in North Beach restaurants, in brick ovens that have rarely cooled since they were first fired up in the 1920s. Best known is sourdough Bastoni bread. Even older – here since 1911 – is Liguria Bakery (1700 Stockton Street, 415/421-3786) specializing in focaccia, hearty enough for a lunch and in a variety of flavors.
While you're sampling historic North Beach places, stop at San Francisco Brewing Co. (155 Columbus Avenue, 415/434-3344). It's San Francisco's oldest brewpub, serving since 1907, when this neighborhood was still the scandalous Barbary Coast. World Heavyweight Boxing Champion Jack Dempsey was once the bouncer. The beer brewed there is as good as its history, made traditionally, unpasteurized and unfiltered, and only drunk here (a bargain during happy hours, daily 4:00 – 6:00 pm and midnight – 1:00 am).
North Beach and Nob Hill Dining
U.S. Restaurant (515 Columbus Avenue, 415/397-5200) isn't fancy or chic, but the Formica tables are laden with giant portions of homestyle Italian specialties from all Italy — the Veneto to Calabria — including osso buco and their own gnocchi.
No more fancy is the market-style Swan Oyster Depot (1517 Polk Street, 415/673-2757)whose marble counter has supported San Francisco elbows since 1912. Impeccably fresh seafood — Dungeness Crab (November to June), at least four varieties of shucked-to-order oysters and rich chowder made with real cream — is its claim to immortality, as are the reasonable prices.
From North Beach's Italian accents, it's a cultural leap, but only a few steps to Chinatown, where Golden Gate Fortune Cookies (56 Ross Alley, between Washington and Jackson, 415/781-3956) turns out thousands of thin disks daily, each one quickly pealed from baking irons and rolled around a rod to become a fortune cookie. The instant one cools, it becomes too brittle to fold around the paper. Mee Mee Bakery (1328 Stockton Street, 415/362-3204) has been turning them out even longer, and Chinatown residents claim that the fortune cookie was actually invented in San Francisco. Los Angeles also claims the honor, but one thing's certain: they aren't from China, at least in the form we know them.
To go with the bag of fortune cookies you're bound to come away with, stop for tea at Ten Ren Tea Co.(949 Grant Street, 415/362-0656, www.tenren.com) where the third generation is now importing teas from Taiwan, ginseng from Wisconsin, and organic, flavored and rare teas from all over the world. The pot is always on to sample. The local Asian population shops on Stockton Street, leaving Grant's souvenir shops to the tourists.
The city's other major Asian neighborhood is Japantown, between Fillmore and Webster Streets, where the Japan Center and several others house shops, food emporia and even an onsen — a Japanese bath. Kintetsu Mall (1737 Post Street) includes the tea shop, Shifuku Tea Company (415/922-4155) and Isobune (415/563-1030), with its Tokyo-style floating sushi bar where an array of sushi arrives on little boats. Mifune (415/922-0337) serves Japanese udon and soba noodles, in steaming hot bowls in the winter or refreshingly chilled in summer. Café Hana serves sweet mochi, a rare treat in the US.
In the Soma (South of Market) district is Tu Lan (8 6th St, 415 626-0927) one of earliest Vietnamese restaurants in the city, still popular for spring rolls and cilantro-scented chicken, which people crowd the tiny space to eat at lunchtime.
The Mission district is the heart of San Francisco's Latin Quarter, and at La Palma Mexicatessen (2884 24th Street) you can watch tortillas being patted out and grilled on the fire. They make good accompaniments to noshable takeout chile rellenos. In the next block La Victoria Bakery (2937 24th Street) and Dominguez Bakery (2951 24th Street) make pan dulce, a table bread with a sugary crust. A block off Mission Street, near Mission Dolores — the oldest building in the city — La Rondalla Restaurant? (901 Valencia Street, 415/647-7474) serves huevos rancheros at breakfast and has mariachi bands on weekend nights.
You'll want to ride on one of the ferries, if for no other reason than to see the city from the water. If you choose the blue-and-gold Oakland ferries, walk through the Historic Housewives Market (904 Washington Street and 534 9th Street) on your way to Oakland's Chinatown and Ratto's (821 Washington Street, 510/832-6503). This Oakland institution was founded in 1897 by the great-grandfather of the current owner, so fellow immigrants could find familiar foods. In its cavernous depths you'll find their own label olive oils and wine vinegars. Next door, Café 817 (817 Washington Street, 510/271-7965) serves polenta with poached eggs and maple syrup for breakfast, and delicious sandwiches at lunch.
Hong Lih Food Products (102 Fourth Street, 510/839-1355) is a family business, making noodles of rice and wheat. The brother-sister team from China welcomes visitors to their noodle factory, where big steaming machines turn out a variety of Asian pastas.
If the prospect of finding all these places is daunting, or you'd rather visit with fellow food-lovers, join a tour with Local Tastes of the City (415/665-0480, 888/358-8687, www.localtastesofthecitytours.com) and let long-time city resident Tom Medin take you inside a neighborhood to find its hidden places and flavors. Tours cover the local culture and arts, as well, but sampling the foods is a high priority. Choose from North Beach (fresh roasted coffee, focaccia sandwiches, pastries, breads just out of century-old brick ovens, fresh truffles and olive oil tastings), Chinatown (dim sum, fortune cookies, herbalists, Chinese pastry) or Fisherman's Wharf (crabs, sourdough, chocolate). Optional meals at a restaurant typical to the neighborhood can end each tour.
Barbara Radcliffe Rogers is co-author of the food guidebook, Eating Napa and Sonoma.(WW Norton 2005)
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