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- SF 101: Best of the Basics
As much as the fake news media loves to hate us, our tourism industry is recovering. It can be hard to balance visiting the touristy spots your insta followers demand with exploring the local haunts that make SF so special. Luckily, you can do both.
So welcome to San Francisco :) we hope you’ll agree it’s a pretty cool place. There’s a lot of ways to experience the city for the first time, but let’s stick to the best of the basics. Dig in:
🧇 Cracked and Battered / crackedandbattered.com
image credit: Cracked and Battered
If it’s your first time in the city, the Golden Gate Bridge is probably at the top of your need-to-see list. It’s also an excellent excuse to send it to Cracked and Battered for textbook chicken & waffles and other halal brunchy delights.
From there you should walk west on Chestnut, through The Presidio to Tunnel Tops Park before descending through Chrissy Field to (and maybe across) the most famous bridge in the country.
Order This ⬇️
Hummus
Chicken and waffle
Shakshuka
Zesty ricotta pancakes
Eat Here 🔗 Reservations: N/A | Takeout & Delivery: N/A | Map
🧆 Beit Rima / beitrimasf.com
The full spread // image credit: me
SF is the birthplace of the jam band movement and if your parents (or you) were cool in the ‘60s they probably have fond, blurry memories of Grateful Dead shows. So pack it up and head to the corner of Haight & Ashbury where you’ll find the free love movement lives on, if slightly more commercialized than the hippies intended.
Once you’ve had your fill of psychedelic tchotchkes take a short detour south to Beit Rima, where you’ll order too much Arabic food and try (and fail) to eat it all. From there you can spend the rest of the day meandering through Hippie Hill, the Botanical Gardens, and the Bison Paddock in Golden Gate Park. Bonus points if you make it all the way to Hook Fish Co. at Ocean Beach.
Order This ⬇️
Lebne
Muhammara
Baba ganoush
Hummus
Falafel
Chicken shish tawook
Ganan braised lamb shank
Samir’s hand kneaded bread
Eat Here 🔗 Waitlist | Takeout & Delivery | Map
🍜 Chong Qing Xiao Mian / chongqingxiaomian-sf.com
Guilin rice noodle soup // image credit: me
No visit to SF is complete without a trip to Chinatown. I spent my first year living there and still get nostalgic when I need to scurry through the thronging crowds at the open air markets hawking everything from live fish to roasted ducks to standing room only dim sum.
So hop on a cable car from Union Square to Jackson & Mason, home of the Cable Car Museum and my old apartment, and walk down the impossibly steep hill to Chongqing Xiaomian for spicy sichuan noodles (although nobody would blame you for making a beeline to Z&Y, it is where Obama ate after all). If you have any appetite left after that, North Beach is calling.
Order This ⬇️
Spicy beef noodle soup
Guilin rice noodle soup
Pork belly with spicy garlic sauce
Cucumber salad
Eat Here 🔗 Reservations: N/A | Delivery & Takeout | Map
👀 psst: if you know someone that’s new to SF, do them a favor and smash that forward button