In
the evenings, the people parade on the sidewalk thickens,
as tourists and locals join in on the great North
Beach tradition of bar hopping that began here during
the Gold Rush days. We opted to hit City Lights Bookstore
before imbibing, and found it to be a golden Saturday
night hangout.
The landmark literary institution began as a publishing
house and first-ever paperback bookstore in the 50s,
to showcase the breakthrough writing of the Beat generation.
Though it's now expanded to three floors, it still
retains a subversive artsy ambiance; complete with
creaky wooden stairs, worn out linoleum floors, and
walls thumb-tacked with flyers for experimental theater,
political events, and readings going on about town.
We
completely lost track of time browsing the store's mind-candy: a large selection
of poetry, foreign titles and literary journals, along with top choice classic
and modern books. The customers were equally entertaining -- from a fired up oldster
launching into a lefty political discussion with the cashier, to a young couple
snuggled up on a bench, cracking up as they thumbed through illustrations in "Fear
and Loathing in Las Vegas."
Intellectually
sated, we slipped into Tosca for a nightcap, where
opera
played from the jukebox and artsy types filled deep
red booths. The house special, called cappuccino,
contained no coffee, but rather a perfect mixture
of hot chocolate and brandy served in curvy stemmed
glasses. It was invented as a prohibition cocktail,
and remains "what to order" in this spot
that's been around since 1919. It was just the right
finish to take us out past the colorful blinking
lights of Broadway and home to our hotel.
As
we crossed the street, a glamorous tourist next
to us flipped her shining chestnut hair, turning
from left to right to take in the bustling night.
Her ecstatic reaction to it all would have made
any Beat poet snap his fingers in approval, as she
exclaimed, with a breathless gasp, "Che bello!"
(...BACK)
|
IF
YOU GO...
|
HOTEL
BOHEME
444 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
T: (415) 433-9111
F: (415) 362-6292
www.hotelboheme.com
|
|
SAN
FRANCISCO VISITOR & INFORMATION CENTER
900 Market Street
San Francisco,
CA 94103
T: (415) 391-2000
F: (415) 362-7323
www.sfvisitor.org
|
|
ROSE
PISTOLA
532 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
T: (415) 399-0499
|
|
L'OSTERIA
DEL FORNO
519 Columbus Avenue
San Francisco, CA 94133
T: (415) 982-1124
|
