The Eats Of San Francisco, Part One

Dungeness crab at The Crab House

​I once made and sold jewelry on the streets of San Francisco. Sometimes I'd sell by Fisherman's Wharf, other times in the courtyard of the Embarcadero Center downtown. Quite a tidy profit was made, especially during a short period when I found myself ahead of the curve of a monstrous puka-shell craze. I blew the money on everything but food.

That was a long time ago.

On a trip I made last week, things were different. My wife and I spent a week in the city, and a too-short two days in the Napa region. Here are highlights and impressions, reprinted not for nostalgia's sake, but to hopefully serve as some sort of vague suggestion list of things to do, where to stay, and places to eat - just on the chance you might be planning a trip to San Francisco sometime soon. Plus there are ideas to be grasped from the west coast that could improve Miami's food environment, so I'll be posting things that relate to the culinary scene out there the rest of the week.

San Francisco For $89 a Night

That's the deal we got at Crescent Hotel, with a central location right off Union Square. It's a clean and pretty boutique hotel, with an incredibly friendly and helpful front desk staff. Breakfast is included in the price, plus there's a cool, happening bar/lounge on the second floor with live music on weekends. If you don't want to spend hundreds a night during your stay, then Crescent is your place.

The Crab House at Pier 39

Best Place to Get the Crabs

That would be The Crab House at Pier 39 (The Embarcadero, San Francisco; 415-434-2722) on Fisherman's Wharf. Normally you want to avoid this touristy area, but when it comes to eating Dungeness crabs, there is no cooler place to be. The antique white tile walls are reminiscent of the classic Grand Central Oyster Bar - The Crab House is working class chic, and bustling with workers carrying large trays and diners digging into the shells with abandon. Executive chef/partner Andrea Froncillo hails from Naples and is adept at doing more than just steaming crabs (like, for instance, turning those crabs into a delectable chowder). The service here is friendly and sharp, and the scene is one of carefree vacationers having a damn good time. Bonus: Best bloody mary I've had in quite some time.


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Lee Klein

Just one of a thousand great foods at the Ferry Terminal Market

Ferry Building Marketplace

To say that there is more great food in this one San Francisco market than in all of Miami-Dade county probably sounds either exaggerated or just impossibly untrue. But it is not an exaggeration, and it is very much true. The collection of wines, coffees, chocolates, baked goods, olive oils, wild mushrooms, charcuterie, seafood, produce of every stripe, great restaurants - well, you cannot find foods as fine as these in our magic city, regardless of how much you search and how much you are willing to spend. We just don't have the shops that sell quality stuff like this. So when in San Fran, head right over here and spend a dozen or so hours walking around - especially during weekends, when the farmers converge with their wares. And if you go on a weekend, don't miss the porchetta sandwich at Roli Roti truck, which I'll write about in detail in the near future.

Lee Klein

Tasty Salted Pig Parts

Tasty Salted Pig Parts

That's the slogan of Boccalone in the Ferry Building Marketplace. The "artisan salumi hand made in small batches with pasture-raised heritage-breed pork" sure makes for a good sandwich. But it's also worth stopping here just to purchase a T-shirt emblazoned with "Tasty Salted Pig Parts". What better gift to bring back to a pork-obsessed foodie?

Chocolates

Michael Recchiuti started handcrafting artisan chocolates in 1997, and in a city chock full of boutique chocolatiers, Recchiuti's ginger heart (dark chocolate ganache with fresh ginger); cardamom nougat; burnt caramel; and caramel flecked with French fleur de sel were the most outrageously tasty.

Lee Klein

Best food in Chinatown

Don't Rent a Car

Get a San Francisco CityPass instead. Public transportation covers the whole city and runs effectively at all hours. No traffic hassles, no parking hassles, no hassles at all - just hop on and off cable cars, street cars, buses, BART, etc.

Best Chinatown Restaurant

Jonathan Kauffman, veteran restaurant reviewer of SF Weekly, our sister paper, and SFoodie, our brother blog, graciously responded to my request for dining suggestions with a detailed list of all sorts of interesting places. He even gave us a pick of Szechuan, Cantonese, or Shanghai restaurants in Chinatown. We window-shopped all three and chose Bund Shangai (640 Jackson St.; 415-982-0618), which was a fantastic choice - one of the best meals we had in the city. Great XLB dumplings, great noodle soup, even noteworthy sauteed greens.

Tomorrow: Part two, with a look at The Stinking Rose, Il Cane Rosso, and Cotogna, among other spots.