Tartine Bakery opens at 8 am and the line is already growing with couples and young families.
It’s a beautifully COOL morning and we’re starting the day with pastries, sourdough bread, and eggs back at the house. Bi-Rite market is spectacular. We pick up cheese, wine, nuts, and fresh strawberries for later.
Fisherman’s Warf, Lombard Street, Coit Tower, and hills. So many hills. So many great views. We take a break at La Rocca’s corner tavern (um, they have free watermelon) and pick up tips on a few more places to stop in North Beach, which we all dig immediately. A Little Italy neighborhood vibe with friendly people, quiet streets, and plenty of 100-year-old dive bars like Gino and Carlo’s Cocktail Lounge.
It’s too hot to eat, but we manage to sample a few items from New Sun Hong Kong.
- Pork buns, shrimp dumplings, and everyone’s favorite, garlic green beans
Beatnik bookstore, City Lights deserves a pop-in and Vesuvio Cafe is a delight, but hard to describe. This excerpt from their website does a pretty good job:
This world-renowned San Francisco saloon located in North Beach just across from the infamous City Lights Bookstore, was first established in 1948 and remains an historical monument to jazz, poetry, art and the good life of the Beat Generation. Vesuvio attracts a diverse clientele: artists, chess players, cab drivers, seamen and business people, European visitors, off-duty exotic dancers and bon vivants from all walks of life.
We’re sweating into our drinks, so we move on but feel good about checking off another area of town.
Next up, Chinatown.
Need a ninja sword? A good luck buddha statue? A whoopie cushion? A snarky t-shirt? A 12-foot carved mermaid dolphin statue? This is the place. Gobs of people, a never-ending street and every store about the same. Moving on.
It’s still hot and we’re wiped so we head back to the air BnB to chill for a bit. Out of sheer obligation, we peel ourselves off the sofas and head to a few local bars. It’s hot in there, too. So we order Neopolitan pizza from Pizzeria Delfina to go, pop into a liquor store and make it a night of games and drinks at the kitchen table.
Good call.
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