San Francisco Hit List - Part I
From West Coast Classics to Hip Local Hotspots
AU: WELP. I’m just gonna come out and say it: up until last week I had never been to San Francisco. I know, I know, I KNOWWW!!! “How have YOU, of all people, never been?!” (asks literally everyone). The real answer is… I just haven’t!
EK: You said it, but at least you have rectified it!!
AU: But the important thing is that I made it (finally). And when I tell you I ate and drank my way through the city… This one’s heavy on the pictures, so let’s jump in!
Day 1: Ferry Building & Bar Sprezzatura
AU: My husband Josh and I took an early morning flight up to SFO (a quick flight from LA). We landed around 10am, dropped our bags at the hotel, and started exploring! Our hotel was in the Nob Hill/Union Square area of Downtown. We passed through SF’s Chinatown to the Embarcadero where our first stop was the famous Ferry Building on the city’s Eastern shoreline. From there, we caught our first views of the ocean and the Bay Bridge.
EK: The Ferry Building is my first stop in SF, so I’d say you went from “never visiting” to being on the inside track as soon as you landed!
AU: Ha! Well naturally, we were starving. Our friend, Casey (@travel_proper), who’s a travel editor and writer that sniffs out some of the best spots in any city you can name said, “you can’t go wrong with Hog Island Oyster Company for lunch on the water.” And she was right!
EK: One of my absolute favorite places to eat oysters and those grilled oysters are perfection.
AU: After lunch we explored the city some more. One thing I noticed: SF’s downtown shopping district is D-E-A-D. It was sad to see all the empty department stores and shops that have closed up. Lots of “For Lease” signs in the windows. Soooo I wouldn’t recommend that area of SF for shopping—stick to Fillmore street or Pac Heights area!
One thing about me is that I love a plan. Sure, sometimes I can be easy breezy and go with the flow (lies), but if I’m visiting a place for the first time, I at least need to have some goal posts in place. Usually these are meals (or as my family lovingly jokes “our next feeding”).
In the interest of full disclosure: we had a dinner reservation at the Korean restaurant Bansang… but before that we visited Bar Sprezzatura.
AU: When I tell you that the most SURPRISING and utterly delightful meal we had, was at Bar Sprezzatura… I mean it! We originally were just going to go to the stunning room on the second floor of the One Maritime building (near the Embarcadero) for pre-dinner cocktails and “light bites.”
Bar Sprezzatura is already known for their excellent Beverage Program, so we were excited to whet our whistles with some of the most finely crafted cocktails in SF. I started with a quirky take on a Negroni with pickled-strawberry-infused gin. And that strawberry is hulled, frozen, and stuffed with creamy goat cheese. They said to take a bite and then take a sip, so I obliged. It was fantastic! Definitely add Bar Sprezzatura to your list. The room is stunning, the service is impeccable, and the cocktails, wine, and food are all top notch!
AU: Josh ordered a spritz that came with a sidecar of “Carbonic Grapes,” which were grapes that had been infused with prosecco. When you popped one in your mouth and bit into it, you felt the fizziness of the prosecco—like nature’s pop rocks! Elizabeth, have you ever had anything like that??
EK: No, but I know what I am making this weekend!
AU: Every item at Bar Sprz (as they call it) was surprising and the food… omg the FOOD!!! We started with the crudos, and then moved onto the “cooked” side of the menu. Our eyes widened with the arrival of each plate! Needless to say… we canceled our Bansang reservation. :)
Day 2: Sight Seeing & Chez Panisse
AU: The next day we woke up and wanted some GOOD coffee, so we went where the cool kids go and that’s The Mill on Divisadero Street. Here’s the great news: you can grab an excellent coffee (with a Cinnamon-Sugar Babka or a Mushroom-Goat Cheese Boreka… or both like we did!) and then walk literally two blocks to the famous Painted Ladies (aka Alamo Square Park).
AU: We left Alamo Square Park and walked up Fillmore Street to see the shops along there. I found an adorable spice shop called Oaktown Spice Shop. They have a few locations, and we found out they just opened one in the Silverlake neighborhood of Los Angeles! I can’t wait to cook with the new blends I purchased.
This day was Josh’s birthday, so he got to choose what we had for lunch, and naturally that was Mexican Food and margaritas (the food taking second chair to the margs). We found a cute place in Pacific Heights called Flores. We wanted to save room, though, because that night we knew we had a special dinner at Chez Panisse in Berkely! Neither of us had ever been…
EK: I can still remember the first time I went to Chez Panisse like it was last week! It really is a pilgrimage for anyone in the food industry, or just loves food. My favorite thing about Chez Panisse is that the food speaks for itself. There are no gimmicks, the atmosphere is casually sophisticated and it has a distinct “voice.”
AU: Chez Panisse is a restaurant I’ve been coveting for years… To dine at the birthplace of Farm-to-Table/California Cuisine??? A real treat. The craftsman-style building seems like it’s from a bygone era and the kitchen overflows with the latest produce from local farmers and freshly-baked breads from that morning.
AU: You can choose-your-own-adventure at Chez Panisse. Upstairs is the cafe, where they serve a full a la carte menu (and where you can enjoy a pre-dinner glass of champagne before dinner downstairs). We opted for the four-course menu in the downstairs dining room, and it did not disappoint! I may have gotten teary-eyed at my first bite!
AU: Each course was like tasting food for the first time. The lemony asparagus and sweet crab, the perfectly-Springy-tasting agnolotti with the richest and cleanest broth, the pork loin spiked with cumin that reminded me to clean out my spice cabinet—every dish was a hit!
EK: I haven’t been to SF since just before the pandemic and it’s been even longer since I’ve been to Chez Panisse. I am so glad to hear that it still is all that, even after all these years!
AU: I have much more to say—and more meals to share—but this newsletter’s already too long! I guess I’ll do a Part II soon!!
Amazing trip! The best of SF!!
Love this! Reminds me of the chilled oysters and cucumber mignonette recipe I adapted from hit NYC restaurant Via Carota for easy home cooking!
check it out:
https://thesecretingredient.substack.com/p/get-via-carota-recipe-chilled-oysters-with-cucumber-mignonette