South of Market: the new San Francisco

Buca di Beppo and The Thirsty Bear are both favourite dining destinations that my friends and I use regularly when we visit The City.

For the tourist, the Marriott's View Bar provides by far the best views of San Francisco.

Quick Tips:

Do not plan to drive here. Parking in San Francisco is next to impossible and very expensive if you do find somewhere. There is a BART (subway) stop right outside the Marriott. The Caltrain (commuter rail service to San José) terminus is a few blocks away down 4th Street. The Cable Cars do not run south of Market.

South of Market used to be a very rough part of San Francisco. The area around the Moscone Center is now highly yuppified, but go too far west (increasing street numbers) and you will find yourself in the Tenderloin and wondering how to get out of there in a hurry. As in any big American city, stick to the tourist areas, do not explore.

Best Way To Get Around:

Public transport in San Francisco is a mess. BART, the subway system, runs along market street. It is regular and efficient but expensive. Also it is designed for commuters who know where they are going, not for tourists. The same route is used by the Muni light rail (below ground), and by antique streetcars (above ground). Tickets for these are interchangeable, but are not useable on BART.

You see the city''s plans for its municipal buildings were ambitious. That much is plain from looking at the City Hall today. But that meant they would take a long time to come to fruition. In the meantime the council needed a home. Would Mr. Whitcombe, they asked, be prepared to let them use his hotel for a few years? Well of course he would. What better advertising could one have for a hotel than to say it came to the rescue of the city in its hour of need?

And so it turns out that you too can stay in a hotel with the words "city hall" still faintly visible above the main entrance and jail cells in the basement. Not that you would recognise the building as a government office. The Ramada combines the elegance of European hotels with the space, price and convenience of America. It is, these days, a little run down, and the bathrooms are a little cramped, but renovation is in progress. The main function rooms are delightfully opulent and the hotel still boasts the largest parquet dance floor in the city. It is easy to imagine the rich citizens of 1920''s San Francisco twirling the night away in that ballroom.

The Ramada is located on the south side of Market Street immediately outside the Civic Center BART/Muni station. If you walk to it along Market you will pass quite a few sex shops and beggars. The area is safe during the day but don''t venture south from the hotel at night.

Kevin and I stayed in the Ramada for a convention and the price quoted includes the convention''s bulk discount. We were at the low end of the range.

Brazilian food is not something that I know a lot about, but the purpose of going to this place was to sample the Churrasco Rodizio, the Brazilian Barbecue. As with so much in America, this is touted as an all-you-can-eat meal, but at $18 for the basic meal it is quite expensive. Initially you will be disappointed. The buffet turns out to be only 8 dishes, most of which are vegetables of some sort: couscous, potatoes, carrots, rice. There were some chicken portions, and a black bean and shredded something dish, but it wasn't very impressive.

Then, however, they start bringing the meat: skewers and plates weighed down with the stuff. Lots of meat. More meat than you can eat. It just keeps coming. If you are a confirmed carnivore, this is the sort of place for you. Sadly the evening I tried this place Kevin had gone off to talk business with some friends. He would have loved this.

Most of the rest of the menu is disappointingly familiar, having more of a Mexican theme to it than Brazilian. There are a few speciality dishes, and one day I must go back and try them. After all, Kevin is bound to want to try the barbecue.

Given the large quantities of meat that we were expecting, we decided that some red wine would be appropriate. We ordered two bottles of exactly the same wine. The year on the label was the same, because we checked. Quite why they tasted so very different we have yet to work out.

You should be aware that the restaurant provides live entertainment on Saturday nights. We ate early and missed it, but knowing the Brazilians it could get very loud. If you prefer to eat in relative silence, check before you go.

Buca di Beppo is a favourite destination for many of my friends. A non-profit corporation that I work with has a tradition of heading off to the restaurant after board meetings. This is a good plan, because Buca is ideal for large parties with big appetites. It is even better if you can manage to get a booking in the Pope Room: a large, private room with one big, circular table. In the centre of the table is a lazy susan adorned with a splendid bust of John Paul himself. Nice of you to join us for dinner, Your Holiness.

This flippant attitude to Italian tradition carries through to the rest of the décor. The walls of the restaurant are covered in pictures of Italian life (and the occasional Italian celebrity). It is a fabulously fun place, and the staff are trained to encourage the mood without being offensively pushy about it.

It is, however, the food that is really important. Don't panic when you look at the menu. This is a "family style" restaurant. Each dish is intended for at least two people, possibly a lot more if you are small or on a diet. You are supposed to order a selection of items and share. The staff are very considerate and always try to discourage us from ordering more than we can possibly eat. They always fail, and without complaint package up the leftovers for us to take home.

The signature dish of the restaurant is spaghetti and beachballs, er, I mean meatballs: very, very big meatballs. However, just about everything they do is good. Last time I went they had a special of shrimp arrabbiata, which was absolutely awesome. They have some of the best garlic bread I have ever had, and the desserts are great too, which is a real shame as I'm normally too stuffed to have any. I have only two complaints. Firstly, don't order the house wine, it isn't very good. And second, when are these guys going to listen to my pleas for them to add zabaglione to the dessert menu?

The Thirsty Bear took its name from a newspaper report of a tale of thievery with violence in Moscow. An escaped circus bear wandered into a city centre bar and, being a mite thirsty began demanding beer from the clientele. Not wishing to tangle with the bear, the drinkers gave up their pints quietly. After several drinks, the bear wandered off and was apprehended by the local constabulary whilst sleeping off the effects of the alcohol on a park bench.

I know very little about beer, being not at all partial to the warm and bitter brews that my fellow Brits are so fond of. Fortunately Thirsty Bear caters for all tastes. Alongside the IPA, ESB and Brown Ale are a wheat beer, a pilsner, a stout and a vanilla flavoured beer that even Kevin, a devout beer-hater, found delightful. The Bear also offers a couple of seasonal speciality beers. Check the web site to see what is available.

Food at the Thirsty Bear can mean anything from munching away at olives and bread while you drink to a full-scale Spanish meal. A quick look at the menu is sufficient to tell you that these guys know what they are doing. How many restaurants do you know that serve three different types of paella? Fish, by the way, is a common feature of the menu, and the restaurant's star dish is the Kokotxas Donostiarra starter: sautéed fish cheeks in garlic and sherry.

I love this place: good beer, superb food, what more could you ask for?

The food at any branch of Max's is very good, but what I really like about the chain is their fun attitude to the whole thing. Along with your menu you will be given a copy of Max's Laws, a document that contains such eloquent provisions as, " We bring ice cream sauces from New York City. Eat here. Save the airfare." And, " Our desserts are excessive because nothing succeeds like excess. We encourage sharing if you're not super hungry."

The Laws also make it quite clear that the restaurants believe in customer service. For example, " This restaurant is run for the enjoyment and pleasure of our customers, not the convenience of the staff or the owners." And, " We hate soggy fries. If yours aren't crisp, the way you like them - send them back - maybe the kitchen will get the message." With an attitude like that you can't help but love the place.

By the way, while they are quite serious about the fact that you can pig yourself rotten, Max's is also aware that not everyone wishes to acquire a rotund physique. Low fat options are available, and they will even grill food fat free for you if you ask.

Now let's be honest here: this is not really a dining report. This is a hotel bar we are talking about here. Sure you can eat. If you want to hang around here you will need to snack away on some over-priced sandwiches and over-priced beer. But it is worth it for the view.

You will want to pick your day. San Francisco is famously foggy, and there is no point going up there if the city is swathed in a blanket of white. On a clear day, however, you can see the Golden Gate from one window and the Bay Bridge from the other. If you are really lucky you will pick a summer's afternoon when the fog is just rolling in. You will see it creeping over the Marin hills and winding its way through the skyscraper canyons, starkly white against the deep blue California sky. If you are going to leave your heart in San Francisco, make sure it has a window table at the Marriott View Bar.

Going in there, I was struck with the question of how I might feel if I were a refugee from somewhere in Africa recently arrived in the USA. The tables were positively groaning with food. There were serried ranks of Sashimi, huge basins of Chinese dishes, vast steamers full of dim sum, and mountains of oysters, mussels and prawns. And for one single down payment you could eat as much of this as you wanted. Just take a look at the photos and you will see what I mean. If ever there was an embodiment of the Land of Plenty, this is it.

What is more, the food was good. There's no way Kevin and I could have sampled everything, but we had no complaints about anything we tried. The only warning I would give is that you should try to go for lunch midweek. The weekend and evening price has around a 100% mark-up. I'm not sure whether the same massive array of food would be available at the midweek lunch price, but if you are on a budget the saving will make a big difference.

The service was very good. Food arrived very quickly indeed, and I was impressed at being left a bowl of parmesan rather than have the waiter sprinkle some over my pasta and run off. That, by the way, was with my seafood linguine, which was fabulous. Kevin tried the New York Steak, which was OK, but not spectacular. For an appetizer we tried their calamari. That came with a very tasty dipping sauce and also mushrooms and caramelized onions, a welcome innovation.

To start with the Metreon is a movie theatre. It has 15 standard screen theatres and the largest IMax theatre in North America, a grand total of 3,900 seats. If you are spending the week in San Francisco you can catch two movies a day and not exhaust the Metreon. So far so good.

Then there are the attractions. Airtight Garage is a video games arcade styled after the work of French comics artist Jean Giraud, known as Moebius. The games are quite expensive, but they do include a multi-player combat game, which I gather is very popular with office parties. I preferred the bowling simulations, especially the one that allows you to send a giant bowling ball up and down the switchback streets of San Francisco.

The Way Things Work is, of course, a science exhibition based on David Macaulay's famous book. It was very busy when I went and we didn't fancy the half-hour wait to get in, but the accompanying shop was full of wonderful gadgets.

On the top floor is Where the Wild Things Are. This area is aimed squarely at younger kids, young at heart parents and all fans of Maurice Sendak's wonderful book. I went to Metreon with Kevin's sister, Kelli, and her son Shane. The lad was of course very taken with the Airtight Garage, but Kelli and I fell firmly in love with the Wild Things and could have played there for hours. Poor Shane's embarrassment knew no bounds. You can't take adults anywhere these days.

In addition, of course, there is shopping, including speciality stores from Discovery and Microsoft. And there is dining: nine restaurants, a bar and the inevitable Starbucks. As and when I manage to eat my way around this lot you will get reports. Kelli and I fell into Montage for a drink because we were dead on our feet. I know nothing about cocktails, but Kelli does and she was very impressed.

Use of Metreon's attractions (food, shops and movies excepted) is charged on a points basis. You buy a swipe card with a certain number of points on it when you arrive, and use that to gain access to the attractions or play video games. Points are cheaper if you buy more at once, and you can keep the card and come back another day.

The Gardens exist on either side of Howard Street on top of the (underground) Moscone Convention Centre. To the north of Howard is a beautiful park with a splendid water sculpture memorial to Martin Luther King and a small, open-air theatre. Despite being hemmed in by the vast bulks of the Metreon, the Museum of Modern Art and a bunch of hotels the park has a wonderful air of tranquillity. On a warm summer's day office workers from blocks around come there to eat their lunch.

South of Howard is the kids area. There is a playground, a small science museum (called Zeum) and, best of all, a fabulous old carrousel. The latter has had a chequered history. It was hand carved in 1906 by Charles Looff of Rhode Island. The carrousel was originally intended for San Francisco but, due to the earthquake, got diverted to Luna Park in Seattle. In 1911 Luna Park burned down, but the carrousel was saved and brought to Playland-at-the-Beach in San Francisco. That park closed in 1972, and the carrousel moved to Long Beach where it worked near the Queen Mary until it was rescued and brought home again in 1998.

For older kids the area also includes a bowling alley and ice rink. Not really my cup of tea, but ideal if you like that sort of thing. In fact I find it hard to think of any sort of taste that the area doesn't cater for.

Indeed they do, and much more besides. San Francisco's Cartoon Art Museum is devoted to all forms of the cartoonist's art, from the superhero comic book to the newspaper strip to animated films and underground comics. It was established in 1987 with an endowment from the Bay Area's most famous cartoonist, Charles Shulz, the creator of Charlie Brown and Snoopy. Since then it has struggled along, under-funded, but thanks to the generosity of many people and organisations it has managed to acquire a substantial collection of around 11,000 pieces of original artwork.

There is far too much stuff to display in the small space that the museum has available right now. This is exacerbated by a tendency on the part of the museum to leave the walls relatively bare. I'm sure it is the right way to display quality art, but it does leave the visitor thinking that they haven't actually seen much for their $5 admission. This is rather sad. I have been reading comics since I was a small kid. I grew up on the likes of the X-Men and Batman. I want to recommend this place because I love what they are doing, but I have to say that you should regard your admission fee as a donation to a good cause and not payment for services. The Museum is a non-profit organisation, so you money will go to keeping them running and expanding the collection.

One potential good sign is that the museum will be moving in April 2001. Hopefully the new premises, apparently somewhere on Market Street, will be rather more spacious and will allow more of the collection to be on display at once.

The main shopping areas are Union Square itself and the San Francisco Shopping Center. The former is just off the north side of Market and boasts the giant department stores of Macy's, Neiman Marcus and Saks Fifth Avenue. It also has the famous FAO Schwartz toy store that almost, but not quite, gives Hamleys a run for its money. The latter is a nine-level mall on the south side of Market. It is centred around the Nordstrom department store, but also contains a wide variety of small specialty shops. The Shopping Center features one of the few spiral escalator systems in the world. It is also home to the Build-a-Bear Workshop, of which more in a separate entry.

The only other place on Market I can think of that is worth mentioning is the giant Virgin Megastore opposite the Marriott. The really interesting shopping in San Francisco is not on Market itself; it is in the side streets that lead off it. You need to explore, and you need good, stout shoes because that part of the city is very hilly.

The Build-a-Bear Workshop is one of the stores on the below ground level of the San Francisco Shopping Center. The idea of the store is very simple. You get to choose a bear from a wide range of potential designs. Armed with an empty (but usefully pre-sewn) skin, you then get to stuff and fluff your very own bear. The store also has a wide range of bear clothing and accessories for you to choose for your very special friend. The prices are very reasonable too, with a bear cub available for as little as $10.

Actually the name is a bit of a cheat, because you can also buy puppies, kittens, bunnies, ponies, frogs, monkeys, turtles and koalas if a bear doesn't quite take your fancy. But whatever you choose, it will be yours, you will have made it, and you will thus be honour bound to cherish it for life.

Build-a-Bear is a fabulous idea for kids, and great for adults too. The shop is part of a chain with branches across the USA. Check out their web site for a store near you.