Where i go in SF

restaurants

  • Victor's (taqueria) in China Basin - 214 Townsend St. @ Third St, Open: M - F: 9AM - 4PM, Sa & Su: 10AM - 4PM, T: 415.957.1129
  • La Taqueria (25th + mission) - yum!
  • St. Francis Fountain (24th + york, the mission) - fun diner / ice-cream shoppe, with penny candy!
  • Saha - good arabic fusion food in the tendernob
  • Brick perfection in the form of tapas in the Tendernob - *brilliant* service, perfect food
  • Emmy's Spaghetti Shack - hardcore good italian food + wine in the mission
  • Foreign Cinema - outdoor patio, good food, great oysters and steak, projected movies on a brick wall. the kobe beef followed by the granitas can do no wrong.
  • Medjool - rooftop bar in the mission with a rockin view. feels like mexico city DF
  • Betelnut - tasty chinese in the marina
  • The Owl Tree - like your crazy aunt's basement -- knotty pine, strong drinks, johnny cash, tons of owls
  • Home - decent bar and restaurant
  • Luna Park - kitchen and cocktails. amazing mojitos, great steak and desserts. A+, super-jammy
  • Hotel Biron - wine bar and art gallery. hard to find, in a tiny alley. excellent atmosphere, very detroit.
  • Le ZiNC French Bistro - noe valley wine bar and café
  • Minako - an all vegan/vegetarian joint in the mission. 7-course meal. holy shit.
  • Pizza Orgasmica - voted best pizza in SF by matt dejong, who's eaten at pretty much all of the SF pizza spots
  • Zeitgeist , a rockabilly biker bar - nice location, a bit boring crowd, but a decent spot to talk and hang out.
  • Genki, on clement street. holy shit, excellent secret spot by matt delight. this is where i stocked up on tiny japanese treats, before GORGING myself on a huge, waffle-cone-style crepe with vanilla ice-cream and nutella. mmmmm.
  • The Red Room - fun, small, an aesthetic favorite. Nb. the wall of red-filled bottles.
  • Bliss Bar, noe valley. big ups. rad cucumber martinis. rob's story re: "why asian women are best" to follow.
  • SBI/Razorfish with brett. excellent, super-nice people. story later.
  • Koh Samui and the Monkey aka Monkey Thai. awesome offerings. great food plus great chopsticks. plus plus. beautiful tiny foor replicas! neat bathroom papered with lost dog, cat, and sandwich bulletins.
  • Thep Phanom. quaint, beautifully cluttered decor. good food. story tbd
  • Anime/VCD store on clement street (i don't remember the name) great selection.
  • SF Anarchist Bookfair - like a paranoiac's convention in a black-t-shirt factory. great fun, everyone was very nice. put on by Bound Together. met Vale from re/search and bought a butt-load of his backstock. attended Katyaa Komisaruk's lecture on how to deal with law enforcement. a good time.
  • the Arrow Bar. requisite dirty goth hotbox coke bar. strange cave-like decor in back. rad, hardscrabble location. sweetest discovery of the night -- aidan finding a super-intense black rubber-wrapped police-style handcuff chained to the parking meter in front.
  • Kan Zaman middle-eastern restaurant and hookah bar w/belly dancing - very busy yet cozy. solid maza, average-looking selection of entrés. top-notch dancing. hookahs were not well-maintained, with an average ma'asell selection. amazing, unending parade of hot-women, very good ratio of M to F. plus plus. MyKanZamanPhotos? (to be posted)
  • Cassanova Lounge, 2 - nice atmosphere, completely cozy and yet oddly sexy spot. must be the red christmas lights, and the fact that i accidentally used the girls' washroom instead of the guys' -- twice in one night.
  • Edinburgh Castle Pub - excellent, warm scottish bar on the edge of the tenderloin. powerful scotch selection, zero attitude incurred despite the fact that we look like kids with no money. went back the following night to put on Club Dare. the little hotbox room upstairs kicks much ass. more fotos (not by me, cruftier), another write-up
  • In-and-Out Burger - good, made-fresh fries, regular fast-food burgers. clean as hell, hits the spot. wash down with a krispy kreme next door. yum! Nb. a secret menu!
  • sushi-man - terribly slow service with really annoying tourist customers and acceptably good sushi
  • moda café in SOMA - yummy sandwiches, sodas and juice
  • Caffe Pazzo - more tasty trendy SOMA sandwichy bits and bites
  • Café Niebaum-Coppola - coppola's small italian corner cafe, by City Lights. excellent food. nice people-watching outside. a fun walk through chinatown from union-squarish hotel area.
  • Popscene - off-the-hook, underage, eighties-obsessed kids getting their sweaty rocks off on 330 ritch. whatever.
  • great american music hall (Low, timonium were nifty!)
  • the Hemlock - generous bartender who poured me a waterglass of oban. tiny performance area where telecommunication performed.
  • Blowfish - toney, extremely high-quality sushi w/ cute waitstaff
  • the Attic - a long, dark, bar in the mission with good music and beautiful, old ghetto theatre atmosphere. crowd is lame but the barmaid and barback were sweet and we were friends with the DJs, so we rocked it
  • Dos Piñas - near the old organic bldg in SOMA, super wicked-good prawn burritos and great salsa verde y picante ("nuclear!"). music++, they played Ednita Nazario's Tres Deseos!
  • Taco Rico taqueria - near organic, has horchata by the pitcher
  • Scala's - top 10 italian place in the sir francis drake hotel
  • Country Station - butoh-run sushi bar in the mission
  • Lipo ("Leep-Oh") - strangely overlit bar in the heart of chinatown. relatively friendly to round-eyes, but bartenders are pissy and the drinks are mad expensive. everyone in sight snuck in their hooch. the main activity of the evening was drinking surreptitiously and staying away from the big bouncer who walked around with a mag-light trying to bust people who snuck booze in. relatively boring. good selection of fairly cute marina girls (if that's your scene)

Misc

  • recombinant media lab
  • Workingman's Headquarters, a crazy used hardware store. 2871 Mission St. (282-2403)
  • Dark Sparkle at DNA Lounge (after hours so no drinks). not that interesting. goths who dance by themselves
  • the sidewalk in front of the apple store at 4am - cold. unforgiving. "fun as hell [http://jm3.net/galleries/sfo.xml.
  • best of thai - very bad thai food in the haight. AVOID.
  • tom wisdom's roof - beautiful 360° view of the city
  • dirty laundry - great clothes for guys (this is technically burlingame and not SF)
  • Rainbow Grocery Co-Op - so much goodness in this amazing store. smells great, staff is helpful and funny. prices a bit steep, but totally worth it. everything i bought was excellent.
  • Amoeba Records - huge, excellent. bought a stack of DVDs and some used electronic CDs. the jazz room is being moved and will soon be the dedicated DVD/movies room. plus plus.
  • Aquarius Records - Holy God. the most peaceful, happy place in SF music. wonderful, tiny, let you listen to stuff on the main store stereo, very high attention to quality and detail. plus plus luv.
  • eastbay junkyards - amazing find. all cars separated by manufacturer (gm, ford, euro, japanese), neatly arranged, and every car is carefully blocked up on a stand so you can get underneath and pull whatever parts you want. i found some great chrome badges (chevy LUV and a volvo Lambda Sond, plus a power amplifier for my subaru!)