Frommer's San Francisco 2012 - Matthew Poole [3]
Nightlife & Entertainment It’s true: San Francisco sells more theater tickets per capita than any major city in America. We love to watch our recycled Broadway musicals at the A.C.T. and transgender tragedies at Theatre Rhinoceros. The San Francisco Symphony, Opera, and Ballet are three great reasons to dress up. Sunday’s are a Drag (show) at Harry Denton's Starlight Room, while anything goes down at the Endup. Maceo Parker’s playing at Yoshi’s, Stanton Moore is at the Boom Boom Room, and Tainted Love is sold out at Bimbo's 365 Club. Let’s end the night with a Golden Gate Martini at Top of the Mark.
Restaurants & Dining With more than 3,500 restaurants in San Francisco, you could eat at a different restaurant every night for 10 years and still not visit them all. Try Afghan, Burmese, Cambodian, Cajun, Moroccan, Persian, Ethiopian—or better yet, follow the street food craze at roaminghunger.com/sf in search of Sam’s Chowdermobile, Chairman Bao, and Waffle Mania food trucks.
THE BEST ONLY-IN-SAN FRANCISCO EXPERIENCES
• A Powell–Hyde Cable Car Ride: Skip the less-scenic California line and take the Powell–Hyde cable car down to Fisherman’s Wharf—the ride is worth the wait. When you reach the top of Nob Hill, grab the rail with one hand and hold your camera with the other, because you’re about to see a view of the bay that’ll make you all weepy.
• An Adventure at Alcatraz: Even if you loathe tourist attractions, you’ll dig Alcatraz. Just looking at the Rock from across the bay is enough to give you the heebie-jeebies—and the park rangers have put together an excellent audio tour with narration by former inmates and guards. Heck, even the boat ride across the bay is worth the price.
Alcatraz Island.
• A Walk or Bike Ride Across the Golden Gate Bridge: Don your windbreaker and walking shoes and prepare for a wind-blasted, exhilarating journey across San Francisco’s most famous landmark. It’s simply one of those things you have to do at least once in your life.
• A Stroll Through Chinatown: Chinatown is a trip—about as close to experiencing Asia as you can get without a passport. Skip the ersatz camera and luggage stores and head straight for the food markets, where a cornucopia of critters that you’ll never see at Safeway sit in boxes waiting for the wok. (Is that an armadillo?) Better yet, take one of Shirley Fong-Torres’s Wok Wiz tours of Chinatown.
• A San Francisco Giants Game at AT&T Park: If it’s baseball season, then you must spend an afternoon or evening watching the National League’s Giants at one of the finest ballparks in America. For only $10 you can buy a bleacher seat on the day of a game. Even if the season’s over, you can still take a guided tour of the stadium.
THE BEST SPLURGE HOTELS
• The Ritz-Carlton, 600 Stockton St., Nob Hill ( 800/241-3333 or 415/296-7465; www.ritzcarlton.com), is the sine qua non of luxury hotels, offering near-perfect service and every possible amenity. Even if you can’t afford a guest room, come for the mind-blowing Sunday brunch.
The Ritz-Carlton lobby.
• Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco, 757 Market St., south of Market Street (SoMa; 800/819-5053 or 415/633-3000; www.fourseasons.com), is the perfect combination of opulence, hipness, and class. I can’t afford it either, but I sure love to hang out at the bar and pretend.
• The Mandarin Oriental, 222 Sansome St., Financial District ( 800/622-0404 or 415/276-9888; www.mandarinoriental.com/sanfrancisco), is perched so high above the city that the fog rolls in below you. Take in the view from your glass-wall bathtub. Maybe I really did die and go to heaven?
• The St. Regis Hotel, 125 Third St., SoMa ( 877/787-3447 or 415/284-4000; www.stregis.com/sanfrancisco), has these touch-screen remote controls that