Things to do in 'Frisco (other than not call it 'Frisco)

GnomeTank

So I'm going to San Francisco this weekend to hang out with my biological father, and I'm looking for suggestions of places to go and any good places to eat.

Some things to know:

I fly in Saturday morning and will be flying out Monday night, so I effectively have three full days. Sunday we are going to the Fleet Week air show, so most of Sunday is taken up. We have a completely free day Saturday and Monday.

We are not renting a car, so we will be public transiting it...so nothing way out of the city. We are pretty aware of most of the obvious tourist stuff (Alcatraz, Golden Gate et al), so I am sort of looking for more local flavor things to do. Any famous stores or land marks that aren't going to show up at the top of a tourist list? What are the decent non touristy shopping spots?

Money is not really an issue, but obviously things that are crazy expensive probably won't fly.

Deebaser

do you like drinking?

mts

on eo fmy favorite places to eat is Pacific Catch on chestnut street. amazing poke.

north beach is little italy which is right next to china town.

GnomeTank

Deebaser wrote: »

do you like drinking?

Yes and no? I'm not a huge beer and win guy, but I'll drink a cocktail every now and then.

GnomeTank

mts wrote: »

on eo fmy favorite places to eat is Pacific Catch on chestnut street. amazing poke.

north beach is little italy which is right next to china town.

We're actually staying at a place in Union Square, so I don't think we're far from China Town. We'll check out Little Italy, I bet there are some good Italian places down there. I'll do a Yelp aroundme search when I'm in the area.

mts

I like House of nanking but it gets crowded and I am sure there are less well known awesome places.

North Beach pizza is pretty good, but depending on where you are visiting from , the pizza may not be good.

i have been to Pinocchio's cafe , pretty good, but again probably are better places.

I would avoid the Stinking Rose. i thought the food was not very good, but its a touristy place so everyone says they love it

Donovan Puppyfucker

Of course it's not 'Frisco. It's San Cisco:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ukNOaKeUEQY

GnomeTank

I'm visiting from Portland, so I would assume your pizza is no worse than our pizza...that is to say, edible, but nothing like you'll find in Chicago or New York.

Skeith

I always suggest Tommy's Joynt on Geary and Van Ness to people. If you're staying by Union Square it should be pretty convenient.

GnomeTank

I'm staying on Geary, so yeah, it should be pretty convenient. I will note it in my little EverNote list of places to check out.

schuss

Note - it will be insane this weekend with Hardly Strictly Bluegrass in the Park (if you like bluegrass, pack a picnic lunch and go, it's free) and the America's Cup Finals out on the Marina (which will be badass to watch, but packed).

There are some decent places in SOMA, but other than $$$$ there aren't a ton of great places up that way. There's an interesting basque place, as well as a great tapas place (http://www.yelp.com/biz/bocadillos-san-francisco). If you want to avoid the crowds, head down to duboce triangle and hit up nopalito, or go further down valencia to some of the spots there. Great spot for cocktails in Hayes Valley (http://www.yelp.com/biz/two-sisters-bar-and-books-san-francisco) that's right near the beer garden, a great german place (suppenkuche) and Absinthe (which I hear is good)

GnomeTank

It's going to be doubly crazy this weekend as it's Fleet Week (as noted in my OP, we are going to the Fleet Week air show on Sunday).

schuss

Technically triple, as Hardly strictly is huge, Americas cup is huge and fleet week is huge. There will not be any parking ANYWHERE in the city.

superhappypanda

Meh, you're doing the right thing by no car. I've been 3 or 4 times, only once was driving and while it helped get us to far away places like Outer Sunset and Twin Peaks, I'd say most everything is doable with a bus/BART pass.

Obvious touristy stuff abounds, Golden Gate park is nice but I say check out the Presidio instead, visit Lucasfilm/Lucasarts while you're by the Palace of Fine Arts, take in Fort Point under the Golden Gate Bridge. If you do go to Alcatraz, spring for the night tour, it's way cooler at dusk and if it's clear, it's an amazing sunset over the Golden Gate (BRING A CAMERA!!!)

The Castro is a great old theatre for movies. It looks like Saturday is a double feature with Pee Wee's Big Adventure and Beetlejuice. Friday is Candyman and District 9. I saw MASH here as part of a double feature and really enjoyed myself, but I love old movie theatres.

If you're down at the Marina you can check out Ghiradelli, the chocolate guys, for a tour. Haven't done this yet, but I hear it's pretty good. There's also the Tall Ships which was cool, and Pier 39 has a bunch of touristy stuff and there's usually seals to watch on the platforms there.

Take a trolley ride, it's actually kind of fun, I took one from the Marina back to Union Square. Check out Haight Ashbury.

If you find yourself by city hall, stop in for a photo op as it was used for the last scene with Indy and Marion in Raiders of the Last Ark right before it cuts to them wheeling the box with the Ark into the warehouse. There's also the church used in Dirty Harry over in North Beach, not too far from Union Square, especially if you head over there for some Italian food.

Honestly, with 2 days to roam, there is a ton of stuff to do in that city. Have fun, I'm jealous I'm not going!

Melinoe

If you end up in the Richmond District for any reason Clement street between Arguello and 12th avenue is sort of like a little mini Chinatown that isn't filled with tourists. There isn't a whole ton of stuff but there are some good cheap Dim Sum places and a fair few neat little cheap stores. There are also some good restaurants in the area. Mandalay is a Burmese restaurant on 6th avenue and California street and is one of my family's favorite places to eat. People rave about Burma Superstar nearby but we all think Mandalay is better.

Whacktose

For a fun cocktail experience, go to Bourbon & Branch, which is a speakeasy near union square. Google it, you'll need the password from their website to get in without a reservation (last time I checked it was "books," since the open bar is a library).

For food near Union Square I'd recommend Kim Thanh (607 geary st). It looks unassuming but the garlic crab special is a pile of salty garlicky heaven.

For goofy stores I'd hop on the BART and head down to the Mission. Paxton Gate (taxidermy and other odds & ends) and 826 Valencia (Pirate Supply Store) are near each other and great to check out. Photobooth is also near there, I think, if you feel like going old school and getting a tintype portrait.

GnomeTank

Are there any parts of the city we should expressly avoid? I'm sure like any major city, common sense will keep you safe 99% of the time...just want to make sure we don't stumble in to a bad neighborhood or something.

schuss

Tenderloin is the only gritty part, and you probably won't find yourself there ( don't go too far west from union square). Just be aware on any dark street at night, as my GF got mugged on a luxury street next to Duboce. Mission can be gritty as well, but unless you're digging into the guts of it, you probably won't go there either.

GnomeTank

I'm pretty street wise, I've been around and I used to roam NYC at 3 AM and got pretty smart about avoiding bad situations. I should be fine, just wanted to know if there are certain places you just don't go. That seems to be more of an East Coast/Southern city mentality. I know Houston for instance has some places you just don't go, period, unless you live there.

Inquisitor77

Compared to other big cities, San Francisco is not at all dangerous. Even the Tenderloin is relatively safe unless you're a woman walking alone at 2:00am.

Here's a map of the major events going on in the city this weekend. There are about a dozen other "smaller" events going on as well, like the Castro Street Fair, the Italian Heritage Parade (in North Beach), etc. etc. etc. It's pretty much the biggest weekend of the year, so be prepared for tons of people everywhere.



You picked a great time to come - this is one of those weekends where you can literally just wander around and see cool stuff everywhere. There's no need to go out of your way to visit Alcatraz, etc. unless you really wanted to see those tourist spots.

Melinoe

Most of the Mission is alright. The specific corner of 16th and Mission is not a great place; nothing bad will happen to you if you happen to walk through there during the daytime, but I've never been there at night and don't really plan on it. It just isn't really a pleasant place to be and afaik there isn't much there anyway. Most of the interesting stuff in the Mission is between like, 18th and 24th on Mission and Valencia.

Another thing, Smitten Ice Cream is on Octavia and Linden (near Hayes) and they make made-to-order liquid nitrogen ice cream. It is the creamiest, best ice cream ever and you guys should definitely try to make a point of stopping by. It can get pretty busy in the afternoon though, so if you want to try to avoid the lines I'd suggest going either early or late. I don't remember their hours offhand but they have a website. They always have vanilla and TCHO chocolate, and then two other flavors that they used to rotate out weekly and now I have no idea what the rotation schedule is. They're usually pretty unique flavors though.

GnomeTank

Oh man, I kind of want to hit up stubhub and see if I can get tickets to the 49er's game...I wonder if they are playing an afternoon or evening game.

GnomeTank

Sitting in the airport getting ready to board my plane. Thanks again for the suggestions everyone.

(Sort of off topic, but I just had a good TSA experience. Not only was every one of the agents very nice, I lost my boarding pass and they couldn't find it, so I ran to my gate to get another printed....and about two minutes behind me came the first TSA agent running up, "Sir, we found it!"...I was shocked. Even the TSA in Portland is nice!)

Esh

Bourbon & Branch is ehhhhh. It's gotten pretty touristy. I love 15 Romolo and they have a peanut butter bacon cheeseburger that's so. fucking. good. It's in North Beach.

California Academy of Arts and Sciences is pretty fun. Zazie is an incredible breakfast, but it's busy like whoa. Most of the other places I went to were pretty much just hole in the walls and while good, not really worth going out of your way for.

Oh, Japan Town is pretty fun! I don't know if your dad would be into that though. Basically a giant Japanese shopping mall.

GnomeTank

Of course, I don't realize until I'm here that my hotel is in Tenderloin, or very near it anyway. Quite a few homeless people and rough looking characters on the way here, which wouldn't have been an issue, except that I was carrying 2000 dollars worth of various electronics between my backpack and luggage. Since I am leaving late at night, I'll be taking a cab from here to the BART station me thinks.

Now that I have all my really expensive stuff in the room, I feel better. The area didn't look that rough, not nearly as rough as some of the place I've been in NYC and Houston.

What can you do though. This is a huge weekend in SF, and this was the only place with nightly rates that didn't make me crap myself, so we'll deal. The good news is that there are plenty of local hole in the wall places right near here, which are my favorite places to eat.

I think we're going to head out and do some shopping today, and just relax, since we have a big day planned tomorrow. We'll probably take a street car around for the day, and then cab it back to the hotel at night, just because I don't want to be walking through the Tenderloin with a bunch of shopping bags from high end stores.