San Francisco - Alison Bing [59]
1 City Lights Bookstore At the home of Beat poetry and free speech, get some lit to inspire your journey into the heart of literary North Beach – Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s San Francisco Poems is a good bet.
2 Caffe Trieste Order a potent espresso, check out the opera on the jukebox and slide into the back booth where Francis Ford Coppola allegedly wrote his first draft of The Godfather. This place has been beloved since 1956, with the local characters and bathroom wall poetry to prove it.
3 Washington Square Pause to admire parrots in the treetops and octogenarians’ smooth tai chi moves below: pure poetry in motion.
4 Liguria Bakery Focaccia hot from a hundred-year-old oven makes a worthy pit stop for ravenous readers.
5 Bob Kaufman Alley This quiet alley renamed for the legendary street-corner poet, who broke a 12-year vow of silence when he walked into a North Beach cafe and recited ‘All Those Ships That Never Sailed’: ‘Today I bring them back/Huge and transitory/And let them sail/Forever.’
6 Beat Museum Don’t be surprised to hear a Dylan jam session by the front door, or see Allen Ginsberg naked in documentary footage screened inside the museum: the Beat goes on here in rare form.
7 Specs’ Begin your literary bar crawl here amid merchant-marine memorabilia, tall tales, choice words worthy of a sailor and a glass of (what else?) Anchor Steam.
8 Vesuvio Jack Kerouac once blew off Henry Miller to go on a bender here; try the house brew and see if you have the will to continue this walking tour…
9 Jack Kerouac Alley It’s poetic justice that this mural-covered byway is named for the On the Road author, since this is where he was tossed after a raucous night at Vesuvio. Kerouac’s words embedded in the alley seem to sum up North Beach nights: ‘The air was soft, the stars so fine, and the promise of every cobbled alley so great…’
10 Li Po Follow the literary lead of Kerouac and Ginsberg and end your night in a vinyl booth at Li Po, with another beer beneath the gold Buddha’s forgiving gaze.
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WALK FACTS
Start City Lights Bookstore
End Li Po
Distance 1.5 miles
Time Two hours
Exertion Easy
Fuel stops Caffe Trieste, Liguria Bakery, Specs’, Vesuvio, Li Po
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RUSSIAN & NOB HILLS
Drinking; Eating; Shopping; Sleeping
Many a San Francisco fortune has been made on two words: what if? This is the question 19th-century inventor Andrew Hallidie asked himself as he gazed upward at the windswept 338ft crag of Nob Hill, which no one in their right mind wanted to climb after a long day’s work Downtown. Much to the dismay of Nob Hill hermits inhabiting shotgun shacks, Hallidie found the ideal solution to the seemingly insurmountable problem. By the 1870s Hallidie’s cable car provided easy access to breathtaking views on the summit of Nob Hill, which soon after became prime real estate, with the hill’s crest covered in mansions.
But nature had other ‘what if’ scenarios in store: earthquake and fire. Without a windbreak between them, almost all the fine Nob Hill mansions were destroyed when the 1906 earthquake struck and the subsequent fire swept uphill. Today, elegant, tight-lipped Nob Hill is something of a non sequitur in nonconformist San Francisco – but you have to give it credit for reinvention and retaining a little mystery. Nob Hill is big on swanky old hotels, boys’ clubs and secret societies. The thrice-rebuilt Grace Cathedral has also retained an air of intrigue, with its indoor and outdoor labyrinths. But for truly arcane fascination, two Nob Hill institutions are tied for top place: mysterious Masonic Auditorium, with glowing esoteric symbols in its stained-glass windows, and the tiki-riffic Tonga Room.
Adjacent Russian Hill also became accessible with Hallidie’s cable car, but more greenery was kept intact between Russian Hill’s more modest homes and flats. Today, the garden stairway walks of Russian Hill are lined with minuscule playgrounds for tots who brave the climb, and hidden cottages with major literary merits. In