I have my go-to spots in San Francsico. Caffe Trieste, Rainbow Market, Liguria Bakery, Top of the Mark, Ferry Building Farmer's Market. Rainbow Market is from my post-accident, long hair days. An original pre-commodification co-op, crazy with character and intent with burlap bags of grains and beans on cool cement floors, aisles of produce and goods delightfully and unpretentiously presented. Now it is orderly, measured and efficient. Lacks the spirit of the original though I am always delighted to be there.
Caffe Trieste is the iconic beatnik, boho cafe in North Beach. Italian to its core, it is filled with character and characters. Great place for a cafe au lait, hear conversations about Quantum Physics, (one of its denizens, physicist Jack Sarfatti, had one of the characters from the film 'Ghostbusters" based on him), and reading the the San Francsico's Chronicle's sports page, the "Sporting Green" Any American city I travel to I look for a good coffee house with a good bookstore nearby as a place to ground, use as a base and feel like I am at home. Caffe Trieste and City Lights Bookstore are my San Francisco spots Liguria Bakery is where you by the best Foccacia bread in the city. It's located 3 blocks away from Trieste and is a family-owned operation with a single product - an Italian flat bread called focaccia. The dough is mixed in an antique machine, the bread is baked in a brick oven, the product is sold in 8-by-10-inch sheets and wrapped in plain white paper and tied up with string. They use no preservatives, take no credit cards, don't believe in websites or advertising, and when they run out of stuff to sell, they close down for the day. Usually around 1:00PM. My trips to San Francisco are usually on the weekends. So I time it out to where I can visit the Ferry Building Farmer's Market on Saturday morning. It is one of the best and oldest markets in the state. I have friend who sell their product there and the cheese, meat and fish you can buy there is incredible. The quality and vibrance of the produce is amazing. And the Bay Bridge is a perfect backdrop. The Top of the Mark is a restaurant bar located at the top of the Mark Hopkins Intercontinental. Another iconic spot considered by a close friend to be the spot where the Pacific War in WWII was one. Seems as if there's a bit of truth to this. It was a ritual for officer's to go to the Mark the evening before shipping out to toast the sunset and the direction in which they were travelling. Delightfully old-school, cosmopolitan and romantic with beautiful evening views and a choice of 100 different types of martini's