My Two Cents on San Francisco

Favorite Coffee: Caffe Roma. Probably my favorite coffee ever. We start off every morning with a cappuccino there.

Favorite Bookstore: I’ll stick with City Lights. Each time I go in I find something I like. I liked Black Oak quite a bit, but it has since shut down. I was also quite taken with Cody’s, which I visited for the first time this trip, but their SF branch will be closing soon, too.

Favorite Beer-flavored Gelato: Budweiser gelato at Yoogo. It tastes pretty much exactly how you’d expect it to taste: sweet, with a clear taste of cheap, American beer. Worth sampling, but nothing else.

Least Favorite Beer-flavored Gelato: See above.

Favorite Roni: Rice-a-roni.

Favorite way to get to SF: North up Hwy 1 through Big Sur (of course!).

Favorite place to browse froo-froo gastronomic shops: The Ferry Building. It’s a wonder, and one if its restaurants serves my…

Favorite Grilled Cheese Sandwich: Hog Island Oyster Co.’s “Cowgirl Creamery GCS,” which features fromage blanc, mezzo secco, and gruyere on ciabatta bread. It’s divine. The cheese comes from Cowgirl Creamery, which is also in the Ferry Building.

Favorite Way to Kill an Hour or Two before Dinner: Sharing a bottle of wine with friends in the lobby of the Hotel Cartwright.

Favorite Church: For exteriors, I’ll go with the Church of Sts Peter & Paul, in the North Beach neighborhood. It’s famous for being the site of Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe’s wedding. For interiors, it’s the Cathedral of St Mary of the Assumption. Rather plain-looking on the outside, the interior is like no other worship space I’ve seen. Imagine what a cathedral would look like in EPCOT center, if it didn’t look hokey. That’s St Mary’s. The runner-up in both categories is Grace Episcopal Cathedral.

Favorite Movie Set in SF: Bogart’s The Maltese Falcon. I also liked Dark Passage, despite the gimmicky beginning.

Least Favorite Movie Set in SF: Star Trek IV: The One with the Whales Voyage Home.

TV Show Set in SF that I’m Most Embarassed for Having Watched More than One Episode: Full House. Let’s just move on.

Favorite Giant Bridge: The Golden Gate Bridge.

Favorite Way to See the Above Mentioned Bridge: On a bicycle, with sunny weather, on the way to Sausalito.

Best Town in the Bay Area Named for a Pepperidge Farm Cookie: Sausalito.

Favorite Site where the Federal Government Has Treated People Like Cattle in the Name of National Security: San Francisco International Airport. Runner-up: Alcatraz.

Favorite Song about SF: Otis Redding’s “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” I’m not wild about it, but it’s the best of the bunch.

All-Time Crappiest Song about SF: Starship’s “We Built This City,” a song excelled in crappiness only by their “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now.”

Favorite Guilty-Pleasure Song about SF: Journey’s “Lights.” Alone in the car, I’ll belt out this song and “Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)” in my pitch-perfect falsetto. Am I proud of it? No. Will I continue to do it? Absolutely.