Day One

The American Sentinel Building in North Beach.
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Hungry and tired I spilled out of San Francisco International Airport and onto the BART to begin my three day California adventure. The weather was warm and sunny as you'd expect in California, though not always in the Bay Area, but I was too bleary eyed from the long flight from New York to fully take in the sights at first. Note to self: next time spend a couple extra dollars and fly on an airline that doesn't starve their customers to death.

About 30 minutes later (I think?) I crawled out of the depths of the Powell Street station and called my buddy Travis. We grew up in Maine together and I was crashing at his place just off Union Square. He was at work, so I set off in search for food. And despite my near delirious state of starvation (thanks Delta Airlines!) I walked all the way up to the end of Market Street to the Ferry Building. This was originally a transportation hub, but now houses several upscale food stores. Keep an eye out for free samples of freshly baked bread, chocolate and other culinary goodies. Also advertised for that afternoon was a farmer's market, though I couldn't find it. I ended up at Taylors Automatic Refresher and ordered the California Chicken sandwich and some fries. Taylor's looks like a cross between a fifties diner and a chicken sandwich factory, but the food was quite good. Refreshing, in fact.

After strolling down the rest of the Ferry Building and taking advantage of the free samples, I trekked back into the city in search of the cafe culture of nearby North Beach, which is neither a beach nor all the way to the north. Specifically I was in search of Café Trieste, which some claim to be the birthplace of the beat movement and local hangout for Jack Kerouac and Allan Ginsberg back in the day.

North Beach has a fantastic, rustic, bohemian atmosphere. I came across the Specs Twelve Adler Museum Cafe which I had read was one of the major spots in the area for creative types over the years, but strangely it was closed. Heading down Columbus Avenue I came across the American Sentinel building which houses Cafe Zeotrope at street level and Francis Ford Coppola's production company upstairs. The building really stands out with its copper facing and its position on a narrow corner of Columbus. Definitely worth a picture.

At about that time Travis called and I changed course towards Union Square, making a quick trip through [the extemely touristy part of] Chinatown. Dropped my stuff off at his place, then we headed down to Lefty O'Douls for some grub. Lefty's is part cafeteria, part pub, part piano lounge, and part sports bar. I think they do karaoke, too. I got the mac & cheese, BBQ ribs and little bottle of white zinfandel, and we watched part of the Mets game on the many, weirdly discolored television sets across the place.

Bellies full it was on to the Cellar, an underground bar just off Union Square. The place was half-empty (or half full, depending on your outlook on life) and once the Mets game ended (the ALCS Game 7 loss to the Cardinals) it cleared right out even though it was only about 9pm. The Cellar gave me the feeling of being in a high school cafeteria and lunch had just finished. I had a terrible tasting Jack and Coke, maybe made with Diet Coke, and we followed the crowd out of there. After a short ride on the BART we went to a bar in the Mission called Kilowatt. It's a cool place that's been transformed from an old fire station. My Red Bull and Vodka was better than that nasty Jack and Coke, but not enough to keep me awake. End of day one.