Frommer's San Francisco 2012 - Matthew Poole [115]
At the southeast corner of SoMa at the south end of the Embarcadero (bounded by King, Second, and Third sts.). 415/972-2000. www.sfgiants.com. Bus: 10, 15, 30, 45, or 47. Metro: N line.
AT&T Park.
Boudin at the Wharf ★ After more than 30 years of being an inconspicuous bread shop in the heart of Fisherman’s Wharf, the Boudin Bakery was super-sized a few years ago. The new, ultramodern, 26,000-square-foot flagship baking emporium is now nearly half a block long, housing not only their demonstration bakery but also a museum, gourmet marketplace, cafe, espresso bar, and restaurant. The Boudin (pronounced Bo-deen) family has been baking sourdough French bread in San Francisco since the gold rush, using the same simple recipe and original “mother dough” for more than 150 years. About 3,000 loaves a day are baked within the glass-walled bakery; visitors can watch the entire process from a 30-foot observation window along Jefferson Street or from a catwalk suspended directly over the bakery (it’s quite entertaining). You’ll smell it before you see it: The heavenly aroma emanating from the bread ovens is purposely blasted out onto the sidewalk.
The best time to arrive is in the morning when the demo bakery is in full swing. Catch the action along Jefferson Street; then, when your appetite is stoked, head to the cafe for an inexpensive breakfast of sourdough French toast or their Bread Bowl Scrambler filled with eggs, bacon, cheddar, onions, and bell peppers. After breakfast, spend some time browsing the museum and marketplace. On the upper level is Bistro Boudin, a full-service restaurant serving lunch, dinner, and weekend brunch. Tours of the bakery are available as well. Tip: If the line at the cafe is too long, walk across the parking lot to the octagon-shaped building, which serves the same items—Boudin chowder bowls, salads, pizzas—in a serve-yourself setting.
160 Jefferson St. (btw. Taylor and Mason sts.). 415/928-1849. www.boudinbakery.com. Bakery/cafe/marketplace daily 10am–7pm.
Cable Cars ★★★ Although they may not be San Francisco’s most practical means of transportation, cable cars are certainly the best loved and are a must-experience when visiting the city. Designated official moving historic landmarks by the National Park Service in 1964, they clank up and down the city’s steep hills like mobile museum pieces, tirelessly hauling thousands of tourists each day to Fisherman’s Wharf at the brisk pace of 9 miles per hour.
As the story goes, London-born engineer Andrew Hallidie was inspired to invent the cable cars after witnessing a heavily laden carriage pulled by a team of overworked horses, slip and roll backwards down a steep San Francisco slope, dragging the horses behind it. Hallidie resolved to build a mechanical contraption to replace horses, and in 1873, the first cable car made its maiden voyage from the top of Clay Street. Promptly ridiculed as “Hallidie’s Folly,” the cars were slow to gain acceptance. One early onlooker voiced the general opinion by exclaiming, “I don’t believe it—the damned thing works!”
Even today, many visitors have difficulty believing that these vehicles, which have no engines, actually work. The cars, each weighing about 6 tons, run along a steel cable, enclosed under the street on a center rail. You can’t see the cable unless you peer straight down into the crack, but you’ll hear its characteristic clickity-clacking sound whenever you’re nearby. The cars move when the gripper (they don’t call themselves drivers) pulls back a lever that closes a pincerlike “grip” on the cable. The speed of the car, therefore, is determined by the speed of the cable, which is a constant 91⁄2 mph—never more, never less.
The two types of cable cars in use hold a maximum of 90 and 100 passengers, and limits are rigidly enforced. The best view (and the most fun) is from a perch on the outer running boards—but hold on