A Brief On Our San Francisco Trip by Bob

[Bob wrote this to our dear friend, Amy Bayley, who lives in San Fran and with whom we had dinner at Perbacco--a terrific and very popular Italian restaurant--one evening.}

Hi Amy,

We enjoyed the brief time we spent with you at Perbacco (a fine meal) and thank you for the BART passes, which we used with great delight. Please send me your current mailing address so I can return them. We never made it to the Modern, so I'll send that pass back, too.


Want to know what we did? If so, continue reading. If not, delete this email at your own risk.


1. Walking tours: www.sfcityguides.org . We particularly enjoyed these: Nob Hill, Pacific Heights, and North Beach. We had a rotten guide for Chinatown, so it was a waste of time (we cut out early). The tour of Gold Rush SF was okay, as was the tour of the financial district. Regrettably, there was too much overlap between those.


2. Museums. Since we like Asian art, we visited the new Asian Museum ; a wonderful renovation and an extraordinary collection. Went to Golden Gate Park to the deYoung Art Museum, well worth the trip. And not to fault the collections, the Observation Tower was a wonder.


We also visited the Contemporary Jewish Museum (downtown in the Yerba Buena complex). There's a great Chagall and the Russian Theater exhibit and a curious exhibition called Jews on Vinyl that lets you listen to a range of Jewish entertainers, c the 50s and 60s. Loved their Cafe's matzoh ball soup and latkas (among the best I've had). Didn't get to the Modern.


At both places, we had wonderful docent tours.

Also made it to Mission Dolores. It's much more humble than the mission here in San Diego.

3. Food. If you're in the Castro, try the home cookin' at Chow, on Church at Market (in front of bus stop). We also liked Home, catty-corner to Chow. Farther up Market, but before Castro, on the up-town side of the street, is Catch, which is primarily seafood, but I instead had a burger at brunch. When we were in North Beach, Reuel's step nephew took us to dinner at an Italian (Roman) restaurant named Ideale, on Grant, small and intimate with really good food. Before dinner, Joe and his girlfriend Jasmine (who's a published author) served us nibbles and wine in their garden (damned cold but an intensely urban experience). The charming Jasmine served bread and cheese, both of which she'd actually made. Joe, who makes beer, had just bottled and stored his latest brew.


Here's a coup. We had the $24 fixed price lunch in Berkeley at the Cafe at Chez Panisse. Must have been a slow day as we waltzed right in.


We also enjoyed Emporio Rulli, in the Marina, which we stumbled upon with Reuel's niece and her son. In fact, as I looked back at your email, I was delighted to see you'd mentioned it.


We had great burgers and drinks (martini for Reuel and a 1/2 bottle of wine for me) at the Bar at the Palace Hotel; the glorious dining room was too bright and expensive.

The day we toured Pacific Heights, we lunched at a casual place named the Elite Grill. Very yuppy, as you might guess. But not pretentious and the prices were good.


The day we trekked to the deYoung, we also walked over to Ninth Street (in the neighborhood through which the N Judah passes) and ate at a Mediterranean bistro named, appropriately, Bistro 9. A successful middle-eastern twist on most dishes.


There's also a chain of Italian restaurants all over SF called Pomodoro, which we experienced in the Castro and liked. Not at all bad.


4. Excursion. We took a morning ferry to Sausalito, window-shopped, ate lunch and came back in the afternoon. We liked Spinnaker, which you can see from the ferry slip jutting out into the bay. Good food and a to-die-for view. Also, as you noted, for an upscale Farmers' Market experience, visit the Ferry Building. Now that's class. We bought Acme bread and cheese at Cow Girl Creamery (Jasmine works there).


5. Theater. We saw a play (inexpensively) at Rhinoceros Theater (www.therhino.org). [These were readings from various gay works including Gertrude Stein's and Armistead Maupin's. Excellent.] Also saw a Terrence McNally play at NCT (National Conservatory Theater); the players, alas, were inexperienced and seemed to be at odds with one another. [Sort of gay 20th c historical epochs typified by romantic relationships--very much like Untold Decades by Robert Patrick which RKO directed at Diversionary Theatre--and also not a very successful treatment by the, otherwise often brilliant,author.] By all means, try and see, You Nero, at the Berkeley Rep. (An hysterical, deliberately over-the-top romp. All stars aligned.] We also saw Wicked, which neither of us liked much. And we got to the symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas conducing Schubert and Berg, quite a coupling, but in all a satisfying concert. I don't mean to wound your civic pride, but I think Disney Hall in LA has better acoustics. Afterward, we walked by Absinthe, packed with dot.com billionaires. Scary.

I think that about does. Hope all's well with you. Let us know if you plan to be in San Diego.