These are a Few of My Favorite Things: Part I

Having been a hotel concierge for thirty plus years, it is not unusual for a guest to come to my desk and ask for a restaurant recommendation.  Sometimes they have one in mind they read about before arriving at the hotel.  Like I do for many visitors to the city, I try to find out what kind of cuisine they like.  Every now and then, I get the question,  "What are your favorite places?"

With over three thousand restaurants in San Francisco, and I don't know how many bars, there is no shortage of personal recommendations I can make.  In fact, I used to joke with my hotel guests and inform them that San Francisco has 3000 restaurants, and I am unfortunately woefully only familiar with just 600 of them, I disclose hanging my head.

In addition to places to eat, I have spots for good views, cheap dates, hiking, and many other varied activities and locations I've discovered over the years.   Therefore, and without fanfare, here are a few of my favorite things.

Eating and Drinking

Roam Burgers has three locations in the San Francisco Bay Area and is excellent at catering to customers with dietary issues.  Just about everything on the menu is grass-fed and preservative-free.  If you order a burger on a gluten-free bun for example, they don't just treat it as a lifestyle choice, but a medical condition.  For those who suffer from Celiac disease, for whom if gluten is ingested could result in a trip to the emergency room, being asked if the customer has a medical condition are rare and welcome words.

If you want just a regular burger, with preservatives on a gluten bun (with extra gluten on the side), then go no further than Sam's Burgers in North Beach.  This is one of those classic burger joints that has been open since the Lyndon Johnson administration, but the interior hasn't changed since then either.  And thank god!  Sam's wouldn't be Sam's if they replaced their chipped Formica counter or the rotary-dial phone on the wall.

According to an October 11th , 2023 article in the SF Standard,  "Sam’s tradition of all-hours neighborhood service and tasty classic grilled and fried cuisine has drawn praise over the decades, but perhaps most notably during the San Francisco-focused 10th episode of Anthony Bourdain’s two-season Travel Channel show “The Layover.” In it, Bourdain sampled a burger at Sam’s before saying, “That’s a good burger. Top three in the world!”  A sign outside frames the quote for posterity.

Tu Lan's on Sixth Street, is in what outside observers would call a bad neighborhood, even Skid Row.   It served as a backdrop for New York's Hell's Kitchen in the 2005 film Rent.  They serve hearty Vietnamese food at a very reasonable price.  But the area was not so bad for proto-celebrity chef,  Julia Child to seek it out.  Blazoned across the entrance to Tu Lan's is a picture and quote from the author of Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  If it's good enough for Julia Child, I think you may find some value there.  For me, the atmosphere and other diners make for interesting people watching.

Equally stark, but equally delicious is the Indian restaurant, Shalimar in the Tenderloin section of San Francisco.  It is actually in a sub section of the neighborhood, which has become kind of its own neighborhood, where many South Asians have settled.  In fact, so many immigrants from Pakistan, India, and Bangladesh have moved into the area over the last two decades that is affectionately known as the TANDOOR-loin.  When I first walked into Shalimar, it reminded me more like a surgical bay than a restaurant.  The walls were covered with white tiles in an overly lit room.  I would say the theme of the design is Silicon Valley clean room, however many people I know from the subcontinent go there when they eat out.

Before the pandemic, there were half a dozen good vegetarian/vegan restaurants, which are now mostly out of business.  But the restaurant Greens is still around.  Located in a renovated former military supply depot called Fort Mason, this collection of buildings also houses theaters, galleries and event spaces. 

Fort Mason

Their menu is unique and upscale, so the dishes are well presented.  Greens is not the first place local vegetarians and vegans usually go.  However, the commending views of the Golden Gate Bridge and an eclectic menu that carnivores can find something tasty in, makes Greens one of those restaurants that has something for everyone.

There are many quaint cozy restaurants with a varied classic menu.  Brazen Head in the Cow Hollow neighborhood is darkly lit, save for the pools of light emanating from the lamps on the tables.  Many of the tables are in little nooks in what looks like a tight space but feel secluded once you sit down.  The best part is they serve food until 11:00pm.  

This is a rare and wonderful thing in a city where even the Jack-In-The-Boxes close at 10:00pm.  It sort of reminds me of Cheers, with a loyal cadre of hangers-on at the bar and a small kitchen that produces a number of different dishes, which range from prime rib to fish.  Dining with anyone who has food allergies?  Brazen Head is one of the few restaurants which can offer comparable substituents for patrons with a restricted diet.

For the classic, classic menu, another one in my pantheon of greatness is historic John's Grill. Opening in 1908, John’s Grill was the first downtown restaurant to open after the 1906 Earthquake.  To this day it has been the premier gathering spot for political and financial movers and shakers.  Author Dashiell Hammett was a real detective and worked for the Pinkerton Detective Agency.  As it was in the same building as John’s Grill, he was a frequent patron.  Sam Spade, Dashiell Hammett’s fictional detective from the Maltese Falcon, was also a regular patron of John’s Grill. 

Their famous seafood salad was named for fitness pioneer Jack LaLanne, who himself was a San Francisco native.  But what about the food?  The menu is a menagerie of classic steaks, chops, and seafood.  The food is good, the atmosphere is old school, but my favorite feature is live music!  Too few restaurants do that anymore.

San Francisco used to be filled with little cafes which often sported a disinterested counter girl and a bulletin board covered in political flyers and 3X5 index card ads an inch thick .  Sadly, the Tech Boom soldiers moved into the cool areas of the city, once populated by seekers, dreamers, activists, and artists.  The once ubiquitous little cafe soon found themselves replaced by juice bars and Pilate studios. 

However, waaaay out in the Outer Richmond District is the little oasis of Simple Pleasures.  It has all the standard cafe accoutrements: mismatched furniture, old thumbed-through books, and the giant chalk board menu.  Photographs and paintings from neighborhood artists are prominently displayed.  In the evenings you might find local musicians, poetry readings, or a small group in the corner who have commandeered a table and are usually engaged in some political discussion.

If you want to get a feel for San Francisco's maritime past, there is no better spot than Specs in the heart of North Beach.  Part bar and part waterfront museum, Spec's gives you a sense of the neighborhood's stevedore and Beatnik past.  Their patrons are some of the most loyal I've ever seen.  If you go to the bar, you will find little boxes filled with postcards from around the world. From all corners of the globe, Spec's customers send greetings from whatever country they are in, and then collected at the bar for all to read.