09 January 2014

san francisco - adventures in food & beat lit


Below is a list of places to visit while in San Francisco.  Chosen based on my love of music, food, art, nature, or free / low cost activities.  Here are my Daytrip Reviews- followed by Food Reviews- followed by a more detailed index list of these places that includes their addresses and hours of operation.  But first let me share a little Beat influenced music for you to enjoy (for those who know “Naked Lunch” by Burroughs) during your read ...


Locals often travel on foot or by public transportation.  Parking can be expensive (up to $65 per day in some neighborhoods).  Strongly recommend visiting a Walgreen's to buy a Clipper Card, which is good on most public transport and can be refilled as needed.  Bikes are seen everywhere, but so are steep hills (not for novices).  Taxis are abundant and reasonably priced.  You have to love a town where you see businessmen in suits riding skateboards to work in the Financial District.

I visited neighborhoods like Chinatown, Japantown, North Beach, Mission District, museums in the Financial District and Muir Woods north of the Golden Gate.  I did not bother with the overpriced and tourist populated Fisherman’s Wharf.  Really enjoyed staying with friends in Oakland, where their beautiful backyard full of fruit trees perked up our breakfast and good times were had winding down in their salt water hot tub during the evenings.

DAYTRIP reviews --

Treasure Island is just over the Bay Bridge (which was twinkling with thousands of white lights when I visited).  In a warehouse on the island there is a working artist collaborative that stores & builds monolithic sized art sculptures on-site together (often they are kinetic art).  The LED illuminated sculpture outdoors is called “Bliss” and was part of the documentary film “Spark.”  Like the Chinati Foundation in Marfa, this is an amazing repository for many large scale works.  Incredibly impressive and recommended.


Bliss Dancer by artist Marco Cochrane


Heartfullness by artist Katy Boynton

Charon by artist Peter Hudson (a ferris wheel sized zoetrope of the styx boatman)

Jewish Contemporary Art Museum offered an exhibit of Allen Ginsberg’s photographs.  Several were published in Ginsberg’s book “Beat Memories“ which is available on amazon.  An intimate collection of artfully snapped candids featuring the stalwarts of the Beat literary movement such as William Burroughs, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady, etc. often with handwritten captions.  Very much enjoyed the audio/video that floated throughout the room of Ginsberg reading his work.  Excellent soundtrack for a literary art exhibit.  I was recommended SFMOMA frequently but they were closed during my visit in August 2013 for construction, it is said they have a phenomenal collection of contemporary masters.  SFMOMA did loan a small exhibit to the Jewish Contemporary under the exhibit umbrella of artwork made with spiritual fervor.  Fun, modern architecture in this museum with lots of vaulted ceilings and a well curated collection.





City Lights Bookstore 
There is an independently owned bookstore in North Beach with three floors of books designated as a Historical Landmark.  The top floor holds classics and poetry, there portraits of great writers line the wall near the ceiling.  This upper room is also used for smaller poetry readings and has windows that look out into Kerouac Alley below as well as eyeshot of the cheap tenement rental across the street.  Quite appropriate to look out the window at a clothesline of working class people who use a rooftop as a soccer field for their kids.  

The Beat movement in art & literature grew out of earlier movements like dada surrealism, bauhaus, french bohemian and grew into a counter culture movement that includes hippies (Beat is often tied to jazz music, spoken word, modern art, cinema verite and french new wave film).  Described as non-conformists, who rejected materialism, living often as transient bohemians, with interest in experimentation, alternative sexuality, esoteric mysticism, and spontaneous creativity in art, music and writing known for "explicit portrayals of the human condition." Kerouac defined Beat to be like "beatific, upbeat, on the beat," somehow divine and in synch with the flow of the universe. 

When I visited City Lights Bookstore I was led up those stairs by the sound of poetry being read aloud, drawn to the smell of printed text on paper.  Words had rolled up the walls of the alley & into the window, sound emanating throughout the building so that you could hear the poets' beckon.  Poetry can be so essential and down to earth.  Some primordial & intrinsic expression, uttered outloud on the street itself for whomever chooses to listen. It was pretty great to get to the top of the stairs & realize the poets were actually outside in the street and the sound simply carried by the speakers, delightful.  I found my way outside & enjoyed a large poetry reading.  Diverse range of writers mixed with poetry devotees and occasional interested passerby.

The bookstore opened in this location in 1952, later venturing into publishing during 1955 with Lawrence Ferlenghetti, raided in 1957 for selling what was considered obscene poetry such as Ginsberg's "Howl", and defended by the ACLU in protection of First Amendment free speech rights.  In what became known as a precedent establishing verdict for the publishing industry, that case helped paved the way for what we know as modern American literature, more free of the constraints of over-reaching legal censorship.  

"during the trial of Ferlinghetti, respected writers and professors testified for the defense. Judge Horn rendered his precedent-setting verdict, declaring that Howl was not obscene and that a book with 'the slightest redeeming social importance' guarantees First Amendment protection. Horn's decision established the precedent that paved the way for the publication of such hitherto banned books as D.H. Lawrence's "Lady Chatterley's Lover" and Henry Miller's "Tropic of Cancer". The media attention resulting from the trial stimulated national interest," - from wiki

All of the books mentioned above were on the Pope's Banned Book lists for decades (meaning ex-communication for readers).  For example, Henry Miller was an American writer who had to publish in France during the 1930's due to his home country's puritanical censorship practices and difficulty in shipping and distributing such literary work (his work wasn't printed in America till 1961 with even more obscenity trials for the 30 year old book). The bookstore's trial sensationalized several of the writers and by 1958, 'beatnik' had become a pop trend much to the originators dismay.  So unfortunately instead of being respected for taking the legal risk that freed publishing from many shackles of censorship, the beat movement got written off as some sort of fashion statement to be rolled out into a trite, static, tv stereotype (e.g. Mayard G. Krebbs off "Dobie Gillis" 1959-1963) wearing berets and beating bongos.  I was more attracted to Beat literature due to its influences of Buddhism, Taoism, meditation, Algerian mysticism, jazz as spontaneous expression of trained musicians, writing as stream of consciousness on the level of automatic-writing.

I could devote an entire blog to this one bookstore.  But, I really like books even in the age of Kindle (someone recently told me books will always exist, if nothing else as art objects to be collected & displayed).  So I felt lucky to visit the mecca of the literary Beat Movement.  I bought an illustrated hardback copy of poetry from 1794, written and illustated by William Blake called "Songs of Innocence and Experience" instead of a t-shirt. I skipped the "beatnik" kiosk at vesuvius & went to caffe trieste where they roast their own beans instead.   http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/eng/sie/ 





^one of many quotes on the sidewalk in Kerouac Alley\/ between City Lights and Vesuvius

 
San Francisco has some amazing parks, including famous Golden Gate park.  I visited Washington Square Park in North Beach near City Lights Bookstore, then later went to Delores Park near the sanctioned & vibrant graffiti painted walls of Clarion Alley skirting the Mission District.   

 
 


Nature is an essential way to take a moment during travels and ground your energy, rejuvenate yourself & save a little money while you catch your breath.  I am a big fan of park picnic baskets, brown bag liquid lunches, sitting in the grass, humming on a pipe and people watching.  Apparently Jack Kerouac was known to lounge around daytime drinking in Washington Square Park, nurturing his alcoholism and scribbling genius prose.  The author even documented a nap in this North Beach park in his later book “Big Sur” which documented his further descent into the addiction that eventually killed him.  Below is a quote from the book about his day in Washington Square park: 

“So Ben ... sees I’m going overboard crazy and I need sleep — ‘We’ll get a bottle!’ I yell. But end up, he’s sitting in the grass of the park smoking his pipe, from noon to 6 P.M., and I’m passed out exhausted sleeping in the grass, bottle unopened, only to wake up once in a while wondering where I am and by God I’m in Heaven with Ben Fagan watching over men and me. And I say to Ben when I wake up in the gathering 6 P.M. dusk, ‘Ah Ben I’m sorry I ruined our day by sleeping like this’ but he says: ‘You needed the sleep, I told ya’—‘and you mean to tell me you been sitting all afternoon like that?’—‘Watching unexpected events’ says he …  ‘What happened while I was asleep?’—‘Oh, people went by and came back and forth and the sun sank and finally sank down and is gone now almost as you can see, what you want, just name it you got it’—‘Well I want sweet salvation’—‘What’s 'sposed to be sweet about salvation? maybe it’s sour’ …  I feel good because I’ve had my sleep but mainly I feel good because somehow old Ben (my age) has blessed me by sitting over my sleep all day and now with these few silly words … It’s been the only peaceful day I’ve had in California, in fact, except alone in the woods”


 

SUTRO BATH RUINS & SUTRO HEIGHTS garden park--
If you love nature and ruined architecture, then put on some good walking shoes and take a hike around Sutro Baths along Ocean Beach.  Beautiful crashing waves, rocky boulders cresting from the earth, dramatic ruins of a bygone era, mysterious cave tunnel, precarious staircases... its enough to make you want to wear dramatic victorian garb & write poetry.  Sutro Baths was built around 1896 as the largest indoor pool complex in the world with grand vaulted ceilings, glass skylights, pools and eventually an ice skating rink.  A fire in 1966 utterly destroyed the facility leaving only geometric and angular pools for algae & wildlife to reclaim.  However now it is under the watchful eye of the NPS & open to the public.  Next door is the still open & updated, Cliff House Restaurant (which offers Sunday brunch for $50 per person with bottomless mimosas) and across the street is Sutro Height Park and garden.  Lots of free parking in the immediate area.  The National Park Service offers a map that includes miles of hiking trails that go from the stone parapet observation deck overlooking the garden in Sutro Heights, down to the crumbling ruins of Sutro Baths and the not-to-be-missed cave to the north of the bath ruins.  A staircase to the North of the ruins leads to a trail around the Golden Gate Park area and USS San Franciso memorial that runs along the beach of the Pacific Ocean. Lands End trail is in the same area.  South of Sutro Baths, is the Cliff House restaurant that has beautiful ocean views and was built by the same Adolph Sutro who created the rest.  Cliff House offers public restrooms, $$$ dining, and a gift shop for tourists.  Self guided tours of the Sutro Bath Ruins, Cave and Sutro Heights garden park are all free.


 










View of the Sutro Bath ruins taken from with a Canon PowerShot S70 suspended from a Delta Levitation Light kite. The veritical line running thru the photo is the kite line.  Photo Credit: Kato4 taken 11 June 2007

Daiso is a small chain of dollar stores that sell small Japanese products including kitchen gadgets, stationary supplies, beauty accessories & lots of little whimsical, practical objects.  I was disappointed to have missed their shop in Japantown, but they have another location near Market Street by my hotel which even my boyfriend found fun.  They have an online shop but it is very limited in comparison to the inventory at the storefront location.  This is not an anime shop, however if you love random kawaii characters, unusual shapes & colors then you will be on cloud nine. 


Its a lonnnnnnng , breathtakingly lovely walk from the parking lot to the mountain-top paradise known as Nature Friends Tourist Club.  A beautiful drive along the Panoramic Highway north of San Francisco takes you to the town of Mill Valley.  Nestled in the Muir Woods, the spot is perched on a mountain with a spectacular view.  Styled like a German chalet in the Alps, typically only open to private members however they are open to the public one Saturday out of the month if you check their calendar.  So say you wanted to start your own fraternal organization, base it on a love of community & hiking in the green mountains, then you end up building your own amazing German influenced biergarten/clubhouse chalet then you have the right idea.  Nature Friends Tourist Clubs are found all over the world and are based on the concept of hiker cabins you would find in the Alps to rest in, these depend on the honor system to maintain.  Nature Friends Tourist Club serve beer till their supply runs out and it is CASH ONLY, with nary an ATM to be found in the trunks of any of these lovely trees.  Beer, Forest, Hiking, Clean Air and they even offer board games to guests.  Delightful place to bring a picnic.  Members have the luxury of RSVPing one of the handfuls of cabins on their property for overnight visits.  Wear good footwear, LNT & enjoy the beautifully groomed & maintained hiking trails where you find the occasional bench after walking much incline.  So nice of them to share their beautiful space with us.  I feel like I should keep it a secret so it doesn’t become overrun, but the smart folks there keep it to themselves the rest of the time & that is a good thing for everyone.







FOOD Reviews (addresses listed at the end of the blog)--

Had fresh seafood at both Swan Oyster Depot in Nob Hill and R&G Lounge in Chinatown.  Swan Oyster Depot is over 100 years old and serves the freshest seafood remarkably fast.  Tasty crab and serious selection of oysters, divine clam chowder.  Worth the wait. Simply delicious, fresh seafood, understandably the best seafood in the city and frequently voted so. On the other hand R&G Lounge recommends reservations, but the chinese food is authentic and crab looked as good as Anthony Bourdain said it would be.  Chinatown is full of cheap chinese food featuring carnival barkers on the curb hawking to bring in tourists.  R&G was full of local asian diners, tasty food and no hype.
 

The Ferry Building is on the Embarcadero near Pier 1.  It is like a food court / mall that ONLY sells foodie fabulousness in little shops.  Tons of shops who produce their own fare, such as locally made cheese, sausages, vinegars, regional raw honey and the like.  A few days a week they allow a farmers market to spring up outside on the sidewalk.  Great place for a cheap but refined lunch bought inside & enjoyed outside in back where the pier views the Pacific Ocean.  This place is a must for any chef or serious home cook.



Bang San Thai is near enough to the Financial District to deliver and the food did not disappoint.  Had papaya salad, curried chicken, rich succulent Tom Kha soup was delivered still hot, savory and happily enjoyed from my hotel room the one night we chose to stay in.

Mario’s Bohemian Cigar overlooks Washington Square Park near North Beach & City Lights bookstore.  Excellent Italian food, full bar and coffee.  Service was quick & polite.  While in the North Beach area we visited Caffe Trieste to taste their in-house roasted coffee.  This place is serious about coffee, they are not starbucks so don’t roll in their talking venti bla bla bla.  Caffe Trieste is a landmark on any Beat History tour & it is still visited by Lawrence Ferlinghetti.

Over in Mission District we hooked up our soda fix at The Fizzery which offered hundreds of specialty soda pop & microbrew like colas.  This candy & soda fix was an accidental find before I gave up walking up hills and waited inside before calling a cab.

The most fulfilling foodie adventure of my entire trip was the tour at Sunce Winery north of the city, in Santa Rosa which is tucked into the Sonoma Valley wine country.  Lovely drive across the Golden Gate Bridge.  Owned by a family & less fancy that some of the bigger wineries, but down-to-earth, super nice and generous with the pour.  Loved the educational part of the tour where we saw how casks are stored, cared for and later bottled.  After the wine tasting (from white to red), we took a stroll through the vineyards before heading back to the hotel.  This winery is not as old as some of the other Sonoma Valley wineries, but this family kept vineyards in their home country of Croatia for generations before moving to California.  This artisinal skill is evident in the flavor spectrum of their wine and blends.  Excellent wines and they do ship.




INDEX LIST
Transportation / Daytrip Activities & Restaurants by Neighborhood:
Random / Financial District / North Beach / Telegraph Hill / Ocean Beach / Japantown / Mission District / North of SF / Nightlife spots

Transportation
- Daily visitor passes available on BART & MUNI or get a
* $30 Clipper Card from Walgreens (works on all BART, MUNI, F Line Streetcar, Commuter Ferry) refill as needed.
- Mike’s Bikes Rental - chain open since 1964, original location at 1233 Howard St 94103.
* $6 Tollway on Golden Gate Bridge to return (free to leave) one time payment 877-229-8655

Random Places of Excellence
*Swan Oyster Depot $$, 1517 Polk St. (bt. Sacramento & California in Nob Hill) – local seafood.  Open 10:30a – 5:30p everyday closed on Sunday.  Won Best of sf for last 14 years. Only 20 seats, super friendly & not rushed.  AMAZEBALLS fresh crab & oysters (no veg).
* R& G Lounge $$ Chinese 631 Kearny St., Chinatown San Francisco; (Bourdain recommended salt & pepper crab). Vegetarian friendly full bar
* American Steel (burning man art whse in Oakland)
* Treasure Island (bm art whse in Winery Bldg, gives tours) http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/treasure-island


Financial District area
* The Ferry Bldg. closes at 6pm (acme bakery, cowgirl creamery cheeses, far west fungi, boccalone salumaria, beekind honey, stonehouse oil & vinegars) 1 Sausalito (embarcadero @market street, pier 1)- San Francisco Ferry Bldg  San Francisco, CA 94111 with farmers market, cafes & artisanal food stores, via F streetcar running along Market Street that turns north at the embarcadero.  http://www.ferrybuildingmarketplace.com/merchant_list.php 

 -SFMOMA closed for renovations when I was there Sept 2013

- Yerba Buena Center for the Arts $10 12-8 701 Mission Street SF, gallery/performance hall/lovely garden park with free lunchtime outdoor concerts

- Jewish Contemporary Art Museum 736 Mission @ 3rd $12 11a-5Allen Ginsberg photo exhibit & part of SFMOMA’s collection currently on display

- Bang San THAI $, 505 Jones St. (in tenderloin, but has free delivery to our hotel)

- Cartoon Art Museum 655 Mission Street $7  11am -5pm, closed monday

North Beach (pier 7ish)
* City Lights Bookstore 261 Columbus Av @ Broadway 94133 10a-midnight (literary mecca of SF) www.citylights.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Lights_Bookstore  
* Mario's Bohemian Cigar (Italian food & Coffee), 566 Columbus Ave. $ 10a-11p
* Washington Square Park (beautiful green space, next to marios & cathedral, chill space) http://www.rudyrucker.com/blog/2006/06/02/jack-kerouacs-nap-in-washington-square-park-sf-ca/
* Caffe Trieste $, 601 Vallejo St. (produces, roasts & brews coffee, beat history)
- Green Tortoise Hostel (Kearney at Broadway) Green Tortoise Hostel $37 per night
- Beat Museum $8 – 540 Broadway 10a -7p tiny museum includes neat gift shop
- Vesuvius coffee (full bar, coffee shop, beatnik t-shirt seller)
- The Saloon 232 Grant (bt. Columbus & Vallejo) est. 1861 blues bar  http://www.sfblues.net/Saloon.html

Telegraph hill
- Exploratorium Science & Interactive Museum (6-10 Thu $15. All other days is $25) Willard Aylum suitcases exhibit in West Gallery– near Pier 15 on Telegraph Hill
-  Telegraph hill staircase & Coit Tower - both free to explore, observation deck
- TCHO Chocolate at Pier 17 near Telegraph Hill-free samples, hour tour by reservation at 10:25 & 1:55pm http://www.tcho.com/tour/

Ocean Beach
*Sutro Baths Ruins 48th @ Point Lobos Ave. cave & free nature area -National Park Area. Beautiful and free entry.  Lots of free parking nearby.
*Sutro Heights Park across the street from Cliff House & Sutro Baths.  Lovely view
Ocean Beach – free parking, free admission way too cold to swim in
- Cliff House, 1090 Point Lobos Av. – expensive restaurants but nearest restrooms to Sutro
Map for hiking around Sutro Baths at:

Japantown (west of 101 north of market)
ichiban kan and daiso are dollar stores full of fun random japanese items, but maido has costly variety.
- Maido - 2nd floor 1581 Webster St, San Francisco (variety)
- Ichiban Kan 1625 Post St - Miyako Mall 22 Peace Plz, Ste 540 - (between Buchanan St & Laguna St)
* Daiso 22 Peace Plaza (in the same building as Ichiban Kan, has own generic. Also has location in financial district on Market Street) www.daisojapan.com
- Kissako Tea House: Japan Center, 1581 Webster Street, #195, San Francisco, CA $8.75 bento meal
- Super Mira: 1790 Sutter Street (supermarket with hot take out counter in back)

Mission District
* sanctioned Graffiti Alley (“Clarion Alley” off Mission bt 17th & 18th)
* Delores Park (south on delores st @ 18th)  simple casual, nice people smoking, less touristy that golden gate park
* make out room, bar & lounge - 3225 22nd St @ Mission, SF – free entry, divey lounge bar w cheapish drinks. Stopped in for a poetry reading & drinks.
- five & diamond clothing store.  510 valencia near 16th. Alt wear
* The Fizzery (allllll the bottled soda pop varieties) 2949 Mission St, 11:45a – 7pm

North of San Francisco (lovely drive across golden gate bridge)
* Nature Friends Tourist Club – chalet style hiking 30 Ridge Ave., Mill Valley 94941 open select days to guests (check their website) north outside city, cash only beer, byob allowed, picnic baskets encouraged. off Panoramic Hwy.  http://touristclubsf.org/
* Sunce Winery 1839 Olivet Rd  Santa Rosa 95401 (707) 526-9463 operated by Frane Franicevic.  Family owned & operated in Sonoma Valley.  Free tours for groups of less than 6 people. www.suncewinery.com

Nightlife (check fb for times & djs)
Underground SF - 424 haight (djs)
Monarch 101 6th St  10p- 3am (djs)
Public Works, 161 Erie Street, SF, CA - 21+,  (djs)
Lounge 3411 in Oakland (djs)
Boom Boom Room (oldest blues club west of Mississippi)  in fillmore, motown & soul
Yoshi’s Jazz Club (big room, expensive meals) 1330 Fillmore, SF 94115

Gallery of my vacation photos at (mostly grafitti, nature & sunce winery):

HUGE gratitude to my friends, guides & hosts for helping me enjoy california – much love to heather blaikie, kelli lewis, stacy young, rudy peev, mike clagg & mike steele. Without their help this travel blog would not have been possible. 

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