Going to be in the bay area...Recommend me some stuff

[Stuckinagroove]

A sequel to my new york thread awhile back. I'm going to be in san fran august 30 through september 5....anybody no of anything going on then? Perhaps some club recommendations, food, artsy stuff, etc. I'm gonna be in oakland next week actually, I'll be checking out eddie palmieri at yoshis. That should be good. So I'll actually be in the area for 2 1/2 weeks.

.....

[GoodSpeak]

BFrank will be a wealth of information on this one.


But...if I may...here is a short list of things you might like:

Go to:

Palace of the Arts.
SBC Park to take in a game.
Fort Mason and Golden Gate Park for a stroll.
Golden Gate Bridge-walk from one end to the other.
Ferry to Sausalito and spend the day.

Food:

Rin's Thai Restaurant on 24th and Douglass
Millie's on 24th
A martini at the Top of the Mark [Hopkins].
John's in Ocean Beach off Sloat Ave.
Brews at the Gordon Birsch Micro-brewery on the Embarcadero.

Transportation:

Park your car at the hotel and BART it in from Oakland and/or ride the Muni [underground or bus]....you'll be glad you did.


I hope this helps.


Tim

[RainyDay]

In SF:

*The Thirsty Bear brewery at 661 Howard St. Great brew and incredible Spanish tapas.
*Yank Sing for dim sum in Rincon Annex on Mission and Spear. Its' expensive but if you like dim sum, you will be sooo glad you went. The restaurant is gorgeous and the food is excellent.
*Destino - Peruvian tapas, great food - 1815 Market St.
*Ozuma 161 Steuart St - great food, sushi, trendy but nice
*Ferry Building. Nice shops for window shopping--expensive--they have a caviar bar. The restaurant that has the outdoor patio has lousy wine but it's a great place to sit and people watch strolling, skateboarding. Food is okay. Stick with beer/ale.
*Asian Museum - I've been inside for lunch but what I've seen is spectacular and everyone says it is a wonderful museum; in the Civic Center area
*SF City Hall - just go, it's beautiful


In Oakland:

*Yoshi's - great jazz club and terrific food. Take a stroll around Jack London Square.
*Phnom Penh - 8th St. & Alice in Chinatown. Cambodian food and it is delicious, one of my favorite places. Closed on Sunday
*Purple Plum on Park Blvd in the Glenview District, nice upscale soul food-like restaurant in trendy neighborhood, very good food
*Fat Lady on 2d and Washington in Jack London Square (around the corner from Yoshi's. This is my favorite place for brunch and brunch is served on Sat. & Sun. Crab cake eggs benedict, baby.
*Oakland Museum - 10th & Oak St. This is a real gem that surprises people. The History Gallery features an assay office and artifacts going back to the days of Native Americans. Nice little restaurant inside, also. On the weekend, sometimes there is jazz in the dining area.
*If you can get ahold of maps from the East Bay Regional Park District and will have a car, visit Redwood Park up in the Oakland Hills. All of the ridgeline parks, Redwood and Tilden in Berkeley, feature breathtaking views and it's hard to believe such a short drive can take you so far away from urbia.
*Get a copy of the East Bay Express and see if there are any outdoor concerts or festivals happening. It's online.
*Park Street movie theater. They sell beer and pizza and you can settle into a comfy couch and watch a movie. very nice unusual place.

Goody's right. A car in SF is a real pain and public transit is very good. From the Oakland airport, you can shuttle to BART and go wherever you want. Good connections in Oakland. BART goes directly into the SF Airport. You'll need a car in Oakland, sadly.

Have fun.

Oh, yeah. Amoeba and Rasputin records on Telegraph Ave. in Berkeley near campus. And don't forget to stop by Fat Slice for pizza.

Goodie's are all good recs, but what the hell, Goodie? No rec for going to SBC Park for a Giants game?

49 Geary is a building filled with terrific art galleries, located at (no surprise) 49 Geary Street in the Union Square area.

My favorite neighborhood for great ethnic restaurants is the Mission.

Ameoba Records in The Haight is a must stop. Bring a list or you'll be overwhelmed.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by achilles

Goodie's are all good recs, but what the hell, Goodie? No rec for going to SBC Park for a Giants game?

49 Geary is a building filled with terrific art galleries, located at (no surprise) 49 Geary Street in the Union Square area.

My favorite neighborhood for great ethnic restaurants is the Mission.

Ameoba Records in The Haight is a must stop. Bring a list or you'll be overwhelmed.

Streetlight Records in Noe Valley [not far from The Haight] is a good second CD shop to go to as well. Lots of quality used CDs and at good prices.

Oh and there is an excellent cookie store in The Castro across the street from the Rainbow Flag next to the theater. The best chocolate chip cookies in The City, IMHO.



BTW, Achilles...I did mention SBC Park in my post

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

BTW, Achilles...I did mention SBC Park in my post

I missed that! I would have thought that's *all* you'd recommend!
I mean the garlic fries and a beer, followed by an It's-It, why bother
with anything else?

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by achilles

I missed that! I would have thought that's *all* you'd recommend!
I mean the garlic fries and a beer, followed by an It's-It, why bother
with anything else?

Now yer talkin'


One day, you me and Surfer need to link up and take in a game.




I'll buy the first round of brewskis.

[Pete C]

Rainy: Yank Sing is great, but I'll stand by Ton Kiang as the best dim sum in the U.S.

Here's a LINK to my post about my culinary exploits during my last Bay Area trip.

[RainyDay]

one other thing, if you are going to be using public transit a lot in SF, you can get day and week passes for ulimited use, including cable cars, which are not cheap. http://www.511.org/

[RainyDay]

Originally Posted by Pete C

Rainy: Yank Sing is great, but I'll stand by Ton Kiang as the best dim sum in the U.S.

Here's a LINK to my post about my culinary exploits during my last Bay Area trip.

I'll have to check it out.

[Pete C]

I also second the It's It recommendation.

[GoodSpeak]

Originally Posted by RainyDay

one other thing, if you are going to be using public transit a lot in SF, you can get day and week passes for ulimited use, including cable cars, which are not cheap. http://www.511.org/

Exactly.

And the Muni guys are usually pretty good about telling you which connection takes you to your eventual destination.


Main thing is, if you don't get a week pass, be sure you ask for and use your transfer....it will save you a few bucks.

[Cem]

If you haven't yet checked it out, I'd recommend Church of Coltrane near The Haight. Go for a Sunday sermon, if you can.

And I'll second the Ton Kiang rec.
I've tried maybe 3 others in the City, and Ton Kiang is best.

[jesus marion joseph]

I can't figure out how to post a link to it, but if you search you'll find a thread from 2003 entitled "Need some San Fran advice", in which I detail my visit there a couple years ago.

[BFrank]

Originally Posted by Cem

If you haven't yet checked it out, I'd recommend Church of Coltrane near The Haight. Go for a Sunday sermon, if you can.

It moved. I think it might be on Gough St. now (pronounced: 'goff').

Before I chime in....what do you like to do?

In the meantime, here are some jazz links:
Jazz at Pearl's
JazzWest
KCSM Jazz Datebook

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by jesus marion joseph

I can't figure out how to post a link to it, but if you search you'll find a thread from 2003 entitled "Need some San Fran advice", in which I detail my visit there a couple years ago.

Here's the link to jmj's 2003 thread he mentions above. With 172 posts on that thread, you should find something worthwhile in addition to the wonderful suggestions you've already received here, Stuckinagroove.

May I just say that I'm envious?

Wasn't the Church Of Coltrane going to go under a few years back?


And no, I don't wish for it to, my son's middle name is Coltrane for christs sake.


But I swear I heard something about that.

Yeah, I think it's gone, and has been for some years.

I went to it years ago when it was on Divisidero. It was fun.

[Sergio Zamora]

Amoeba, baby! The on Haight and the one in Berkeley are both delicious, but I dig that whole stretch of several blocks on Telegraph where Amoeba Berkeley is. Just a block away you have a quite serviceable Rasputin Records, and there are a bunch of bookstores and restaurants all over the place.

And if you park in public parking where I usually do, you get to pass by Revolution Books - maybe you can stop by and hang out with the octogenerean maoists there.

[BFrank]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Wasn't the Church Of Coltrane going to go under a few years back?
And no, I don't wish for it to, my son's middle name is Coltrane for christs sake.
But I swear I heard something about that.

I did a quick Google search and came up with this. I don't know how up to date this website is, but it does mention the Gough St. location. I know I've seen the sign, anyway.
Saint John Coltrane African Orthodox Church

[Ron Thorne]

Originally Posted by Scott Dolan

Wasn't the Church Of Coltrane going to go under a few years back?


And no, I don't wish for it to, my son's middle name is Coltrane for christs sake.


But I swear I heard something about that.

Here's an informative link. Looks like their luck and lease ran out a few years ago, sadly.

Beefy and Ron, thank you for the link.
Looks as though they may still be operating.

God bless those folks. I saw a great program about their church on tv some time back.

Although I am agnostic, I can certainly get behind what they are doing!

I am going to contact them at their e-mail.

[kedoane]

If you are heading towards San Jose, I can recommend Original Joe's in Downtown as a great place to eat.

If you want to go to a couple of clubs to see live jazz/blues, I recommend JJ's on Stevens Creek for blues and the Agenda Lounge in Downtown for jazz.

Also, unlike San Francisco and Oakland, our public transportation in San Jose leaves a lot to be desired. So if you are planning to head down towards the south bay, you'll want to take your car.

[Stuckinagroove]

Wow guys. Thanks for all the input! Two things I definitely have planned are walking the gg bridge and checking out a giants game. Probably won't have time for all the stuff mentioned but we'll see...yeah, I'll be in san jose between oakland and sf. Basically in one bay city each week. Thanks guys, feel free to add more all this should be plenty.

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by RainyDay

In SF:


*Ferry Building. Nice shops for window shopping--expensive--they have a caviar bar. The restaurant that has the outdoor patio has lousy wine but it's a great place to sit and people watch strolling, skateboarding. Food is okay. Stick with beer/ale.


.

Ferry Building has a nice Japanese tea place. I think its called the Imperial Tea House. Great place to relax for a few and drink great tea and snacks.

North Beach is always fun to walk around too. City Lights Bookstore and Specs for a Jameson across the street. The ol' Beat hangouts.

MOMA is always great.

Drive to the Headlands (just across the GG Bridge, first exit) for a spectacular shot of the Bridge and city. You'll feel like you're flying.

Drive down Rt. 1 to Santa Cruz ( ).

Berkeley is always worth a short BART ride under the Bay. Telegraph is fun to walk up and down, as is the campus.

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by GoodSpeak

Now yer talkin'


One day, you me and Surfer need to link up and take in a game.




I'll buy the first round of brewskis.

If the Giants arent around, dont forget the A's! Easy BART ride drops you right at the foot of the Coliseum. Walk up tix available.

[BFrank]

Also, if the Giants aren't around you can take a tour of SBC Park, which is a lot of fun. Includes dugout, locker room, executive boxes and interesting inside info.

The Ferry Building (end of Market St at the Embarcadero) has a really great Farmer's Market on Tues/Thurs/Sat in addition to all the inside stalls and restaurants. Check out the upscale Vietnamese/fusion place, the Slanted Door, which has a great bar and bayside view.

The Cliff House has been totally renovated and rebuilt. Fantastic view and I've heard decent things about the restaurant. But it's not about the food ...

If you're just looking for a view, there's the Twin Peaks lookout. It's just about the highest point in SF and you get a 270 degree N/E/S view of the Bay.

A nice Bayfront stroll is in the Presidio at Crissy Field. Take a jacket (you'll need one for SF anyway if the fog is in) for the wind and enjoy one of the best views of the GG Bridge, Marin, Alcatraz, etc.

[Surfer]

Originally Posted by BFrank

The Cliff House has been totally renovated and rebuilt. Fantastic view and I've heard decent things about the restaurant. But it's not about the food ...

Which reminds me, the uber-cool Musee Mechanique, which USED TO be housed under the Cliff House, is now (ugh) on Fisherman's Wharf, but if you find yourself over there, its worth a visit. The Wire acutally did an article on it many moons ago. Love that place.

http://www.museemechanique.org/

[Surfer]

Also, in the "weird and unusual places Surfer likes to haunt" file, is the Wave Organ over in the Marina. Best at high tide. Nice views of the Bay while you're out there.

http://www.exploratorium.edu/visit/wave_organ.html

http://roadtripamerica.com/places/waveorg.htm (map and directions at the bottom of the page)