Frommer's San Francisco 2012 - Matthew Poole [153]
6 Columbus Tower
If you walk a little farther, turn around, and look back down Columbus Avenue, you’ll be able to get a better look at Columbus Tower (officially the Sentinel Building). The flatiron beauty, a building shaped to a triangular site, went up between 1905 and 1907. Movie director and producer Francis Ford Coppola bought and restored it in the mid-1970s; it is now home to his film production company, American Zoetrope Studios. The building’s cafe offers panini, pasta, pizzas, and antipasti; the store showcases all things Coppola, including his wines, olive oil, and Parmesan cheese. It’s a great place for a glass of wine, an espresso, or a snack.
Across the street from Columbus Tower on Columbus Avenue is:
7 140 Columbus Ave.
Although it was closed for a few years, the Purple Onion ( 415/956-1653), famous for its many renowned headliners who often played here before they became famous, is again host to an eclectic mix of music and comedy. Let’s hope the next Phyllis Diller—who was still struggling when she played a 2-week engagement here in the late 1950s—will catch her big break here, too.
The Purple Onion.
Continue north on Columbus Avenue and then turn right on Pacific Avenue. After you cross Montgomery Street, you’ll find brick-lined Osgood Place on the left. A registered historic landmark, it is one of the few quiet—and car-free—little alleyways left in the city. Stroll up Osgood and go left on Broadway to 1010 Montgomery St. (at Broadway).
8 1010 Montgomery St.
This is where Allen Ginsberg lived when he wrote his legendary poem, “Howl,” first performed on October 13, 1955, in a converted auto-repair shop at the corner of Fillmore and Union streets. By the time Ginsberg finished reading, he was crying and the audience was going wild. Jack Kerouac proclaimed, “Ginsberg, this poem will make you famous in San Francisco.”
Continue along Broadway toward Columbus Avenue. This stretch of Broadway is San Francisco’s answer to New York’s Times Square, complete with strip clubs and peep shows that are being pushed aside by restaurants, clubs, and an endless crowd of visitors. It’s among the most sought-after locations in the city as more and more profitable restaurants and clubs spring up. Keep walking west on Broadway and a little farther up is the current location of the:
9 hungry i
Now a seedy strip club (at 546 Broadway), the original hungry i (at 599 Jackson St., which is under construction for senior housing) was owned and operated by the vociferous “Big Daddy” Nordstrom. If you had been here while Enrico Banducci was in charge, you would have found only a plain room with an exposed brick wall and director’s chairs around small tables. A who’s who of nightclub entertainers fortified their careers at the original hungry i, including Lenny Bruce, Billie Holiday (who sang “Strange Fruit” there), Bill Cosby, Richard Pryor, Woody Allen, and Barbra Streisand.
On the road named after the writer.
At the corner of Broadway and Columbus Avenue, you will see the:
10 Former Site of the Condor Club
The Condor Club was located at 300 Columbus Ave.; this is where Carol Doda scandalously bared her breasts and danced topless for the first time in 1964. Note the bronze plaque claiming the Condor Club as BIRTHPLACE OF THE WORLD’S FIRST TOPLESS & BOTTOMLESS ENTERTAINMENT. Go inside what is now the Condor Sports Bar and have a look at the framed newspaper clippings that hang around the dining room. From the elevated back room, you can see Doda’s old dressing room and, on the floor below, an outline of the piano that would descend from the second floor with her atop it.
Carol Doda, the Condor Club’s most famous dancer, celebrates a court victory in 1965.
When you leave the Condor Sports Bar, cross to the south side of Broadway. Note the mural