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The conservative media's doom loop narrative is largely a bunch of manufactured propaganda. The truth is that San Francisco is largely doing well these days. Even if downtown is slow because more people are working from home, most neighborhoods are flourishing, including Chinatown and North Beach, as I witnessed this past weekend.
It costs a lot of money to go out these days. I'll be straight with you: a lot times, it just doesn't seem worth it. I can cook. My lady can cook. All of my friends can cook very well, thank you.
Then there are times when you're reminded when you might want to splurge, and step out to dinner.
What makes it worth the spend? For me, it's a combination of things.
I want good service. Pamper me. I expect good, attentive service. A lot of restaurants deliver on this front, some do not.I want good food. I want better food than I can cook at home. Maybe even better drinks than I can make at home. I'm not too shabby at that, either.
The last thing, and maybe the most important thing, is that maybe I want to feel like I'm going out, maybe getting dressed, being seen, and experiencing other people, being absorbed into the fuzzy, white noise buzz of a busy city. I think that might be the most essential part of dining out.You can get that in San Francisco.
I was offered a comped lunch at Original Joe's North Beach location recently and decided to take them up on the offer. It was fleet week, one of the few occasions when I often make it to North Beach, I love that neighborhood, but it's not easy to get there from Oakland.
I made a reservation for Saturday on a Fleet Week Saturday, hoping to catch the Blue Angels air show after lunch. I knew if was a longshot, but Alexis from Wagstaff made it happen. Took BART from West Oakland to Powell Street Station, met up with my friend Sean, and we hoofed it through Chinatown to North Beach.
Original Joe's has a few locations around the bay, and for whatever reason the Westlake version seems especially popular. I visited the North Beach location last year for an afternoon cocktail, and was struck with what a well-oiled machine this restaurant, and I guess just the overall professionalism of the whole enterprise. Nursing a second martini in the packed restaurant, I just kept marveling at how smooth everything was running.
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| Joe's Margarita with Grand Marnier Float |
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| House Tanqueray Gin Martini with Blue Cheese Olives. |
The place was PACKED. Occasionally you'd hear a glass break. Not one server was fazed for a moment.
My girlfriend and I talked about it afterwards (she worked in food and beverage for a long time). She said "You'll always get the best service in the restaurant that is busy all the time. It's the places that aren't busy where you get the worst service."
When you think about it, it makes a lot of sense. Places that do steady business attract the talent, and the talent wants to hustle and make some money. Slow restaurants have servers that are staring at their phones.
As expected, on my most recent visit to Original Joe's in the middle of a fleet week weekend a few days ago, the service was on point. Never overbearing, just ultra-professional. Never an empty glass, never an abandoned plate. We had a Dungeness Crab Louie salad, and a delicious Prime Rib Dip sandwich (with fries included, of course). We told the waiter we were splitting them, and our server directed the kitchen to split the order onto separate plates (extra points for that). These are half portions:
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| Prime Rib Dip Sandwich (1/2 Serving) |
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| Crab Louie Salad (1/2 serving) |
Everything was great. The sourdough table bread they get from Boudin Bakery was just right: chewy, crusty and a great example of how superb the baking culture is in the bay.
The service was above and beyond all of my expectations, but that's what you get when you have waiters wearing bow ties and vests, as well as a GM that is seriously checking in on every table.That's probably more than anyone should expect these days, but it is not a lost art. It's something you can still get at some of the old school places in San Francisco, like Original Joe's or House of Prime Rib.
For anyone visiting San Francisco and wanting the legit experience, or even if you're a native, Original Joe's delivers. You get booths, servers in vests and ties, and remarkably big servings. I'm talking superb Crab Louie salad, expertly picked with zero shells (which is kind of a big deal for me), killer martinis, the whole shebang, all served with a smile, making you feel like you're the most important person in the world. Maybe that's what makes it worth going out these days.
I should add that the portions were pretty huge. The fries that came with the prime rib dip were well-cooked and crispy. I detest under-cooked french fries, and these were not that. The fries were perfectly browned and crispy, and well-seasoned.
We left the restaurant, walked a couple of blocks toward the bay, bagged a couple of Stellas from a corner store, and pretty soon were told that the Blue Angels show had been cancelled due to clouds. Temporarily dejected, we walked back toward toward downtown, making a quick stop at Li Po in Chinatown, one of my favorite SF haunts (you can skip the Chinese Mai Tai, trust me).
I could have used a deafening, dramatic airshow, but all-in-all, it was a pretty damn good day in San Francisco.
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