// San Francisco
and your bike back to the bay if you don’t fancy the return eight mile cycle. A two bedroom flat in this area starts at over £2m and the properties are to die for.
The dining scene is incredible. Where do you start? Wherever you dine in SF you won’t be disappointed, but we loved John’s Grill, one of the city’s oldest and most famous restaurants, established in 1908. The walls are decorated with pictures of all the old Hollywood greats and mafia types who have dined there and the waiters still carry that old charm. Famous for their delicious steaks, fresh seafood, huge salads and pastas, I highly recommend their Clam Chowder – in short, it’s to die for – the best in SF. They’re famous for their cocktails too. Eat here and be entertained not just by its history, photos and delicious food, but also the pianist, who sets the scene in the background.
burger, chilli fries to beat all chilli fries and then, despite feeling full, we just had to dive into a pastrami sandwich on rye with Swiss cheese and a host of trimmings that made it stand a foot tall… or so it seemed. Yes I know, how could we eat all that at 9am, but it was for review purposes…or so we said, as we waddled around the market later! We then headed into the Ferry Building itself where artisanal food shops sold everything from freshly squeezed juices to rare cheeses, foreign teas to fresh fish from local suppliers, ranchers and farmers. Glyn Purnell would have done a backflip with glee! This is food quality and diversity at its best. Everyone from families with dogs to cool types and romantic elderly couples head to the market to indulge – we saw a couple in their sixties tucking into a mile high sandwich and Champagne at 9am! Way to go!
The Bay area is the hub of activity from bars and shops to nightlife and boat trips and so much more. Be warned, Pier One is a very long walk from Pier 39! Be prepared for the walk and to take all the atmosphere in or grab a cab or be cycled there by one of the cycle rickshaws!
Blazing Saddles
This bike tour company give you maps for your journey and have teams and out of hours
teams if you have problems with your bike.
www.blazingsaddles.com/san-francisco
For a stylish experience head to One Market; refined yet welcoming, the list of specialty gins and whiskies is longer than your arm. This is upmarket and worth the effort, the food is delicious, over generous like everywhere in SF and clearly the place to be seen. We went straight from Alcatraz, so we hadn’t time to change, I wish we had had the time to make an effort, as it’s worth dressing up for this venue, although not obligatory – everywhere is welcoming, genuinely welcoming, in SF. For something a little different, try Dirty Water with its 52 rotating draft beers, 100 plus wines and rare and fine spirits by the glass. The focus may be on the beverage offering, but make no mistake, this ‘American Primal’ menu by Chef Jarad Gallagher may be limited, but won’t disappoint. This is the ultimate adult beverage destination. Whilst it looks like you’re entering an office block at the front – in fact it is a multi-use building – the décor inside the restaurant doesn’t disappoint and you’ll find cuts of meat not offered elsewhere and the beers are some of the quirkiest and tastiest around!
On the subject of food, the experience of all experiences is the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, both inside and outside of the Ferry Building. You can visit on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 10am to 2pm and this is most definitely the place to meet on Saturday mornings from 8am until 2pm; this is ‘the foodie’ experience to end all foodie experiences. Stall after stall of artisan foods and even the restaurants pop up on Saturday with stalls to showcase their fayre. At 9am we tucked into an award-winning
There are so many things to see and experience that you’ll be torn between them all. I’m often accused of being a big kid, and hands up, I am, it would come as no surprise to anyone who knows me that high on the agenda for me was visiting Mrs Doubtfire’s house, which actually is a privately owned property on an upmarket street of an upmarket area of SF. The Fillmore area is very yummy mummy, gorgeous boutiques and well known and more unique brands sit alongside exquisite eateries and cafés and then up the hill (I can remember that hill looked steep in the film) and past some mega expensive houses that are all exquisitely manicured, there it was! I could visual Mrs Doubtfire struggling up the steps with bags…the big kid in me had to run up their steps cheekily for a pic. Fillmore is a district that is most definitely worth a visit, if simply to admire the architecture and layout of SF, as well as those very cools shops and eateries.
If you’re the type of traveller that likes to know about things before they become well known, the Dogpatch area might be for you, as yet there aren’t many shops and boutiques, but a great wine warehouse (where the owners just like to party, I think, rather than sell wine) and some great craft beer places. It’s an area that’s undergoing huge regeneration to transform it
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