San Francisco weekend, the dining blog entry

Many days later...

Tuesday night here, dinner done.  We got back from San Francisco eight days ago now.  EIGHT!  My, the time has gone by.  So let me talk about the dining we enjoyed there.  But let me state a few things first:

• It was easier to find good dining in San Francisco in a smaller area than Los Angeles.  Two cities of very different sizes and layouts, but I have to say, it was nice to walk to meals rather than plan for an hour to get across town.
• The seafood was fresher than what I feel we get in Los Angeles.
• The service was better than what I feel we get in Los Angeles.

All of which makes me sound like I am absolutely crapping on LA.  I've had many many good meals in LA and area, of course!  But although I love our local favourites, I am trying to recall the last meal I had out in LA where I was talking on and on afterward about how much I enjoyed it.  It's been a while.  The San Francisco weekend?  Scratched a culinary itch.

Onward... 

(And now more time has passed.  It's been a week, I tell you.  Sunday night after dinner here, and likely this won't see light of day until Monday morning.  Sigh.)

Up first:  Sorella.  Italian food.  Recognizably classic, but with things that caught my eye when I looked at the menu online.  And walkable from the hotel - uphill on the way back, mind you.  The food was great, though the lighting was low.  But such good oysters,

a delicious tuna dish,

a hearty timballo,

and Conrad enjoyed his pasta course. 

Plus:  dessert! 

I'm selling it short with such a description, sorry.  We loved the bottle of wine we shared, but most of all, we really appreciated our server, whose name I have now (sorry) forgotten.  She gave us terrific recommendations, and we enjoyed the meal so thoroughly, we asked to speak to the manager so we could tell him how very much we were enjoying it.  I would love to go back!

Saturday lunch:  606.  We had wandered aimlessly in Chinatown, intimidated by picking a place, until we did a quick search for best Chinese in SF.  That led us to this cafe, bright with sunlight.  The server made a few recommendations, and she was right about them.  Silken tofu and green beans,

a chicken dish. 

It was all tasty, and good fuel for the walking ahead!

Saturday dinner:  Sushi Sato.  First off, tasty cocktails. 

And the sushi (and other fare - there was an appetizer of eggplant in there)

was terrific, too.  The service was nice although it was clear to us that the server needed support.  He was deeply apologetic for not being attentive enough, and we assured him that we were having a nice, leisurely evening.  He deserved that grace, and he brought us a dessert on the house as thanks. 

A very kind touch, but I'd happily go back there.

Sunday brunch:  Mymy.  A crab and shrimp cakes egg Benedict. 

Satisfying!  A very cute little place with substantial breakfasts!!

Sunday dinner:  Zuni Cafe. 

YES!  I've been wanting to go there for so many years and try the famous roast chicken.  We were seated (then offered another table in a quieter spot by the windows), and our waiter let us know that the chicken would take an hour.  So we got that order in and went on with browsing the menu.  Cocktails to start,

and once I saw the loaves of bread in the kitchen (which we could see into in part), I knew we needed bread service. 

Oysters!! 

But we went light on the appetizers because we had a whole chicken coming out with bread salad (essentially dressing) and lightly wilted bitter greens. 

SO GOOD.  Worth it.  Oh, and pavlova for dessert. 

Our server was excellent once again - we delighted in his sense of humour.  Definitely a place for a return visit.

It's Tuesday night again as I finish this.  Sorry.  Lots going on.  I may be a little quiet on the blog for a bit, but if I wake up tomorrow with renewed energy, great!  In the meantime, enjoy this overdue look at some mighty fine dining in San Francisco earlier this month!

San Francisco weekend, the non-dining blog entry

It was a merry Christmas for Conrad this past weekend - as we get older, we need fewer things and instead value experiences, and so I gifted him with a weekend escape to San Francisco.  And there was a caveat:  although we know people in the city and in the Bay Area, this would be just me and him.  No connecting with others.  No work trip bringing us there and taking us away from enjoying a city.  Just the two of us and a few days out of town.  So it was, then, that last Friday we boarded a plane

at Burbank Airport and dozed for at least part of the flight north over California scenery

- hey, that's Monterey and Carmel! -

and arrived in the Bay Area mid/late-afternoon.

It had been seven years since last I was in SF, from what I can tell, a trip with Courtney and Robert in that instance.  It's been over twenty years since the first time I went to San Francisco with Conrad.  It's not a city that holds a special place in our hearts per se - ask me where my least favourite conference was, and I will readily tell you ALA Annual in SF in 2015 was it.  But it's not far from us, it's a different city and vibe, and I wanted us to stay at a hotel that years ago I treated Conrad to:  the InterContinental Mark Hopkins up on Nob Hill. 

A junior suite for us,

a nice enough room despite being immediately adjacent to the elevators.  We got to the hotel in good time, checked in, set out bags down, and headed up to The Top of the Mark on the 19th floor.  Beating the crowds there, we got a window table with some decent views

and had a cocktail each

as the sun went down.  Back to the room, unpacking, changing, and on to dinner!

I'll cover that dinner and other meals in a separate blog post.  We ate so very well in San Francisco, and I'd like to highlight that.  So, let's skip to Saturday morning and the start of a busy day on foot.

I will throw in our "breakfast" which was really a stop for coffee and a pastry each at The Coffee Movement,

a place that I think Conrad may have spotted on a map and picked out for us to stop at.  And we're glad we did.  It felt Italian, standing out at a counter on the sidewalk, sipping lattes and eating sweet pastries.  A fine morning for it - fine weather all weekend, in fact.  We wandered off from there, no real destination in mind.  It was still fairly early out, and not much traffic around.  I dragged Conrad up Lombard Street, the so-called crookedest street in the US. 

Like other tourists (not too many at that hour), we took photos.  We stopped a few times to get our bearings while on our amble,

but we ventured on,

ultimately finding ourselves enjoying a second latte each sitting at a table outside a Souvenir Coffee location. 

Fully (de)caffeinated, we headed back to the hotel for a morning nap before showering, dressing, and starting on the afternoon portion of the day.

It was lunchtime when we ventured out, and we wandered a bit up and down in Chinatown

before finally and quickly consulting a website to find somewhere promising for a meal.  From there, we headed into North Beach

with the aim of visiting the Cartoon Art Museum.  I remember seeing it in 1996, but I swear it was a different location.  It's not a big museum, and I sort of wish they had divided the gallery spaces among fewer exhibitions presented in even greater detail, but I did like the Sunday Funnies display,

and I'm delighted such a museum exists.

By this point, the two of us - old men that we are - were a little pooped.  We joined the queue at the nearby terminus for the cable cars, and after something of a wait, we were back up Nob Hill and ready to rest under dinner.

Sunday.  Our last full day in San Francisco.  We walked a bunch again, but not quite as much as the day before by a hair.  Certainly we did more downhill and relied on rides back up again!  Our afternoon adventure took us to ICA SF,

another little museum in a terrific space that had previously been a bank vault.  Loved the space. 

Some of the artwork was pretty cool, too,

though as with all contemporary art, there were things that I just didn't get or appreciate.  The Kathleen Ryan pieces were pretty awesome, though.

From there it was a stop for coffee and pastries at Delah Coffee, a nice treat,

then on to walk through the Ferry Building.  Bustling down that way.  What I really liked, though, was stopping through the Hyatt Regency nearby.  Very cool architecture and decor. 

I'd love to have a conference there!  And then it was, once again, a cable car ride up Nob Hill. 

We deserved it.  Oh, we walked to dinner, but that was pretty much only downhill, manageable.  But our time as tourists on foot in SF was pretty much over otherwise, save for a short walk back to Souvenir Coffee the next day for our morning latte and bite!

Next up, the meals, which - again - worth talking about in their own entry.