Our Eating San Francisco class took a field trip to North Beach last Wednesday evening. I had visited the neighborhood several times before, usually during the day. What struck me as most interesting about our class field trip was how different North Beach was at night. It almost seemed like another world. I was interested in comparing and contrasting my daytime experiences in North Beach with our nighttime field trip. The sights, sounds, smells and tastes were all suddenly fresh and exciting again. Essentially, North Beach after dark became a new neighborhood to me.
As I mentioned in previous blog posts, I was on the North Beach Crüe, along with Kelli and Joel. We were in charge of finding a restaurant where the rest of our class could eat. In case you wanted to check it out, Eating North Beach is a previous post I put up with a video of our scouting trip and more info about our class.The following pictures are ones that I took on our North Beach Crüe scouting trip as well as on our whole class field trip.
Out-of-towners who packed into landmark restaurants on busy Saturday mornings gave way to dreamy-eyed couples who strolled hand-in-hand into back-alley bistros looking for an intimate late Wednesday supper.
Small cafes that opened early to supply morning commuters with their caffeine fix stayed open late to satisfy a boisterous group of college students who were out on a midnight gelato run.
Strip clubs that blended in unashamedly with murals and colorful store fronts during the day suddenly came alive at night. Flashing neon lights and sexually suggestive signs sought to attract wannabe players and curious on-lookers.
Washington Square, which was merely a park to fourth-grad field trippers and afternoon picnickers, became a nighttime dwelling place to many folks who have more knowledge of San Francisco than most tour books.
The Beats later came to represent a generation of young people who were disillusioned with what they saw as the hypocrisy of the American Dream. Influenced by famous writers such as Allen Ginsberg, William S. Burroughs and Jack Kerouac, they rejected conformism to conservative American values. Instead, they embraced creativity and artistic counterculture.
City Lights Publishing fought to publish the works of Beat writers, despite the resistance and disapproval of mainstream America. As a result, San Francisco became known as a city of progressive thought and sometimes non-traditional values. It was a fitting place for our class to meet as we took our first steps toward redefining San Francisco by creating media in a fresh and thought-provoking way.
Our first stop was an Italian restaurant called Bocce on Green St. The ESF North Beach Crüe chose Bocce because it had a warm and inviting atmosphere. From its Italian flag wooden doors at the front to the little garden path that led to the restaurant, it was a very welcoming environment. The restaurant itself was large and easily accommodated our class of 17 at one table. Besides a few other patrons, we were the only ones in the whole restaurant. The wait staff was attentive and polite. They checked in with us periodically to make sure we were all comfortable.
When the waiter came to take orders, Joel and I shared a plate of pasta tricolor. At less than $22 for the whole plate, it was a bargain. The pasta tricolor was a delicious combination of gnocchi in marinara, fettuccine alfredo and ravioli in pesto, all impressively arranged to look like the Italian flag.
After eating an appetizer basket of their warm bread rolls, my half of the pasta was the perfect amount for me to finish. This is what happiness looks like.
After dinner we headed over to my Uncle Bob Kiyota’s bakery, the Italian French Baking Company on Grant and Union. Uncle Bob is a close family friend who offered to show us around his bakery after I told him about our ESF class.
He escorted our class inside the bakery and gave us an all-access tour of their baking process. He showed us two of the three remaining un-reinforced brick ovens in the city.
As we left, he gave us each a loaf of their finest French bread.
All in all, I had a great time experiencing North Beach in a new and interesting way.
North Beach After-Hours
Its syncopated nighttime rhythm swept the neighborhood. Instead of honking cars and choking espresso machines, I heard faint strains from a master jazz saxophonist in a nearby night club and a sudden burst of laughter from the corner pub. Even the smell of nighttime North Beach was distinct. The odor of cheap ale and damp sidewalk overcame the morning aroma of pizza and cappuccinos that I was usually familiar with.
Columbia Avenue, normally cramped in the daytime by bold jaywalkers and tourist buses fighting for a parking meter, became the realm of zipping Vespas and homeward bound diners.
Our ESF Experience in North Beach
It was like experiencing North Beach for the first time. This exciting night scene set the stage for our class trip. We met up at the famous City Lights bookstore, which has become a San Francisco landmark. City Lights is famous worldwide for its association with the Beats, originally a group of writers who migrated to San Francisco from the East Coast in the 1950s.