On our one-night journey to San Francisco recently, my wife Sarah and I wrapped up day one with dinner at Mister Jiu’s, 28 Waverly Place in Chinatown.
Our seat at the bar gave us a front-row taste of the goings on at the popular and heavily crowded spot for Asian fusion food.
By plan, we next walked about eight blocks to The Punchline for live standup comedy. Though the place was crowded and full of excitement, the three comedians, we felt, were a little flat. But comedy is always good therapy and it’s fun to be in a room full of laughing people.
On our walk to Union Square we ran into Hila Gelato Caffé, 951 Valencia St. Being that it was thronged with business, we ventured in for a few scoops of their handmade gelato that are based on Sicilian Recipes. It was even better than it sounds—creamy, rich and fresh—and they served it in a way that made the gelato rise up out of the cup like a blooming flower.\
We took a seat in Union Square in the cold night air as the statue of Alma de Bretteville Spreckels, atop the 85-foot Dewey Monument, stared off into the night from the center of Union Square.
After breakfast in the Hotel Triton lobby we packed up and drove along The Embarcadero, past the historic 1898 Ferry Building. According to Ferry Building Marketplace, the harborside hub served as a transportation focal point for anyone arriving by train, ferry, on foot or horseback. From the Gold Rush until the 1930s, arrival by ferry became the primary way for travelers and commuters to reach the city. At its peak, as many as 50,000 people a day commuted by ferry around the Bay Area. My great aunt Emily told me of numerous ferry trips she and her friends took from Sacramento to San Francisco, sometimes just for the day. Nowadays the place features scads of businesses and eateries as well as a farmer’s market where we’ve seen several vendors from the Pajaro Valley. Open year round, the market runs Saturdays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 10am-2pm.
We left The Embarcadero through China Basin past Rincon Point, and Pier Potrero Point past scores of abandoned factories, warehouses and shipping yards punctuated with numerous brick and glass buildings in deep decay. We rolled past Hunters Point and amid the widespread ruins, we noticed a vast uprising of new apartment complexes.
That’s when we came upon Candlestick Point State Rec Area, a meager, largely ignored park laced with walking trails, a few picnic benches and restrooms. Besides being home of the San Francisco Giants, who played there from 1960-1999, it held major concerts, including the Beatles final commercial concert on Aug. 29, 1966. Named after the candlestick bird (long-billed curlews), it was demolished in 2015.
We caught the Bayshore Freeway out of the city and aimed for San Jose. Starving for lunch we capped our trip with a stop at our long time favorite eatery, the Falafel’s Drive-In, 2301 Stevens Creek Blvd. It’s been standing there since 1966, serving freshly prepared Middle Eastern and Mediterranean food. There’s almost always a line of customers, friendly service, and plenty of indoor and outdoor seating. Their onion rings, gyros sandwich and falafels, complemented with their homemade orange freeze put a fantastic lid on a rich and rewarding one night trip.
