San Francisco - Alison Bing [55]
ROSS ALLEY Map
1, 30, 45; Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde;
The colorful murals lining Ross Alley hint at the colorful characters that once roamed SF’s oldest alleyway, which has been known variously as Mexico, Spanish and Manila St after the ladies who once staffed its notorious back-parlor brothels. More recently, Ross Alley has been occasionally pimped out to Hollywood production companies as the picturesque backdrop for sequels like Karate Kid II and Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.
GOOD LUCK PARKING GARAGE Map
735 Vallejo St; 1, 15, 30, 45; California, Powell-Mason, Powell-Hyde
Each parking spot at this garage comes with fortune-cookie wisdom stenciled onto the asphalt: ‘You have already found your true love. Stop looking.’ These omens are brought to you by artist Harrell Fletcher and co-conspirator Jon Rubin, who also gathered the vintage photographs of local residents’ Chinese and Italian ancestors that grace the entry tiles like heraldic emblems.
COMMERCIAL STREET Map
742 Commercial St; 1, 15, 41, 45; California;
Back when the red lights of Commercial St could be seen down by the waterfront, this strip provided many provocative answers to the age-old question: what do you do with a drunken sailor? Conveniently located across Portsmouth Sq from San Francisco’s City Hall, this hot spot caught fire in 1906. The city banned its 25¢ Chinese brothels in favor of white-run ‘parlor houses,’ where basic services were raised to $3 – watching cost $10 at the faux-French Parisian Mansion. Today that much gets you a couple of hot dishes – of dumplings, that is, at City View.
Return to beginning of chapter
CHINATOWN RAMBLE
Walking Tour
1 Dragon’s Gate (opposite) Enter the Dragon, heading through the green, tile-topped gate with its triple portals, past Grant Ave souvenir shops and dragon lamps.
2 St Mary’s Square (opposite) Glimpse skaters practicing revolutionary moves beneath Beniamino Bufano’s statue of Sun Yat-sen, who plotted the overthrow of China’s Manchu dynasty not far from here.
3 Waverly Place Off Sacramento St are the flag-festooned balconies of Chinatown’s historic temples, which have survived earthquakes, fires and politicians. In San Francisco author Amy Tan’s bestselling novel The Joy Luck Club, a Chinese mother names her American-born daughter after this history-making street.
4 Spofford Alley Stop and listen to clicking mah-jong tiles, a Chinese orchestra warming up and beauticians gossiping indiscreetly over blow-dryers. Generations ago, you might have overheard here the whispers of Sun Yat-sen and his conspirators at number 36 plotting the 1911 overthrow of China’s last dynasty, or gunfire blasts during 1920s bootlegger turf wars.
5 Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company Enter mural-bedecked Ross Alley, where you can get your fortune while it’s hot, folded into a warm cookie on vintage machines at Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Company.
6 Portsmouth Square Check out historical markers ringing San Francisco’s Gold Rush–era town square, strike a pose next to the Tiananmen Goddess of Democracy, or even challenge regulars to a game of pick-up chess.
7 Commercial Street (opposite) Pause to picture what the view from here must’ve been like 150 years ago, when ships were abandoned to rot at piers and red lights lured sailors along ramshackle docks to Commercial St.
8 City View Feast on plump dumplings shaped like Chinese gold ingots, and you’ll feel like you struck it rich in Chinatown.
* * *
WALK FACTS
Start Dragon’s Gate
End City View
Distance One mile
Time 40 minutes
Exertion Moderate
Fuel stop City View
* * *
* * *
Return to beginning of chapter
NORTH BEACH
Drinking;