San Francisco - Alison Bing [56]
Standing at the apex of the Filbert Street Steps, you can understand what Italian fishermen and Beat poets saw in North Beach: tough climbs and giddy vistas, a place with more sky than ground, an area that was civilized but never entirely tamed. The fishermen and poets are mostly gone now, but wild hawks and parrots have taken their place, circling above the neighborhood as though waiting, as poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti once put it, ‘for a rebirth of wonder.’
Or maybe they’re just looking for a parking spot. The North Beach parking situation is so dire that locals tend to avoid the entire neighborhood at weekends, missing out on conspiracy theory one-upmanship at Specs’ Click here, Sean Penn sightings at Tosca Cafe and Italian accordion sing-alongs at Caffe Trieste. They also miss out on serious finds in the boutiques along upper Grant Ave, including rare records, one-of-a-kind fashions by local designers, and 19th-century love letters still in their glassine envelopes Click here.
But true to North Beach fashion, there is poetry even in parking misfortune. On foot, you’ll notice alleyways named after Beat writers, such as Jack Kerouac Alley and Bob Kaufman Alley. To discover these and other authors’ works and stranger-than-fiction biographies, you can’t beat the Beat Museum and City Lights Bookstore, San Francisco’s literary landmark and home to the Beat movement.
Often the neighborhood gets by on cheerfully inauthentic Italian charm, with restaurant touts attempting to grab the attention of passersby with an emphatic ‘Ciao, bella!’ Works every time – everyone is just vain enough to respond to bella. But too often such restaurants serve disappointingly bland, overcooked pasta, while many cafes along the main drag of Columbus Ave serve unforgivably weak espresso. But veer off onto a quiet side street and enter a cafe and you’ll hear the soft consonants of Tuscan-accented Italian. A few upstanding locales staunchly resist the California impulse to throw goat cheese and sun-dried tomato pesto onto everything, and maintain authentic recipes that make Italian immigrants nostalgic for home. Ristorante Ideale, Liguria Bakery, Cinecittá Click here and the deli counter at Molinari transport taste buds to that other peninsula, minus the cost of airfare.
You won’t find an actual beach in North Beach – the nearest these days is in Aquatic Park. But the intrepid will discover natural beauty atop Telegraph Hill. The dramatic cliff was formed when a ruthless 19th-century entrepreneur decided to quarry here – never mind that explosions rattled the neighbors – and only after a chunk of the stone hill was gone did City Hall demand that the dynamiting stop. Staircases and garden-lined pedestrian boardwalks became the best way to navigate the sheer rock faces of Telegraph Hill, and all the bucolic splendor drew a flock of escapee pet parrots here into a kind of hippie bird commune. Capping this already surreal scene is the enormous nozzle of Coit Tower, commissioned in the 1930s by the eccentric honorary firefighter Lillie Hancock Coit. North Beach may have its commercial downsides, but looking up from your salami sandwich at the parrots circling that great fire hose in the sky, you have to admit: this neighborhood elevates you out of the fog of everyday life.
Columbus Ave bends sharply off Montgomery St at the edge of the Financial District and cuts diagonally through North Beach. Despite what the Columbus Ave touts may tell you, most of the best dining and shopping is off Columbus along side streets such as narrow upper Grant Ave and Washington St. Midway up Columbus, Broadway joins North Beach to the Embarcadero on the east, Chinatown just to the west and Russian Hill via the Broadway Tunnel. Although Filbert St and other equally steep parallel streets will get you to the top of Telegraph Hill, a more indirect route along stairways breaks up the strenuous trek with views that will make you glad you came this way.
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top picks
NORTH BEACH
City Lights Bookstore
Coit Tower
Filbert Street