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I used to live in SF - here are some personal notes. I avoid Fishy Wharf like the plague....
Downtown – Financial District
USPS Office Rincon Annex – 180 Stewart St. – WPA murals in lobby were controversial: Sir Francis Drake has hand on entire globe, Commie Flags and Russian explorers, and scenes from Tom Mooney case (false charges over a bombing); Orlovsky worked driving mail truck here and Ferlinghetti helped protect the murals from right-wingers
Red’s Java Hut – the real waterfront experience
TransAmerica Pyramid – virtual observatory in the lobby; figure out a way to get up the bldg….
Vertigo on gnd. floor is a smart café; grove of Santa Cruz redwoods on east side of bldg.
Cable Cars – California-Van Ness terminal has fewer tourists than Powell-Market
Café Claude - shaded outdoor tables, comfort and fancy food. 7 Claude Lane, 392-3505.
Tommy Toy’s, 655 Montgomery, moderate – Tommy acknowledges only Chinese and French as great cuisines – trust the staff
Kuleto's - grilled radicchio. 221 Powell, 397-7720.
New Asia – dim sum – 772 Pacific
Clown Alley – 42 Columbus Ave. – has a new sign after it reopened
Yank Sing – 781-1111 101 Spear St. – Tower 1 Rincon Ctr.
Metal People, the bagpipe player, the Robot Guy, break-dancers, Windup Doll Lady In Union Square area
photo the tourists w/candid camera
Banker's Heart, black marble sculpture – Union Square, Powell at Geary; Banker's Heart (actually, Transcendence, by Masayuki), Bank of America Building, 555 California.
Occidental Grill – 453 Pine St. – martini invented here by “Professor” Jerry Thomas
Jack’s Restaurant – 615 Sacramento St. – Mimosa invented here
Maltese Falcon spots: Geary Theatre (where Joel Cairo takes in a show); John’s Grill (2nd floor is a Maltese Falcon dining room); Hammett once lived at 20 Dashiell Hammett Way (cuts up Nob Hill off Stockton; plaque across street for 1st murder in the book)
Jackson Square – Barbary Coast
find place where woman copulated with a wild boar to amuse the gold miners
Gold St. & Hotaling Place are interesting alleys near Jackson St.
Embarcadero
angular atrium in Hyatt Regency
Equinox -- rooftop revolving bar, very spendy so find their cheapest drink
Civic Center
Asian Art Museum – biggest in the West
Museum of the City of SF – local history
Hans Lilienthal House – 2007 Franklin St. @ Jackson, 441-3000 – Furnished 1886 Victorian Mansion; museum tours
British Motors Showroom – 901 Van Ness – designed by Bernard Maybeck in 1928
949 Market - a 2002 zine by a group of people who squatted an abandoned pool hall in a very public way and created a community center in San Francisco. $2-3 cash to: Lara, 3288 21st St. PMB #79, San Francisco, CA 94110
Ponzu, 401 Taylor, 4-5 blocks N. of Market – might be the best deal in town; cool bathrooms; Asian cooking style using local ingredients
John’s Grill, 63 Ellis St., between Market & Union Square – 1908 steak house was setting for The Maltese Falcon; good crab cakes
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