Three days in San Francisco (Napa, Nice: home, live, restaurant)

[Maineah]

My wife, Daughter, her fiance', and I returned home today from San Francisco to Maine. We spent a week in Napa before spending three days in the city. San Francisco is an interesting city. People were VERY friendly and helpful to us! We took in a Giants game (they won). We sampled the local food, (liked the Dungeness crab!) and did the touristy things, Pier 39, Coit tower, China town, the bridge, Lombard Street, minus the Alcatraz trip as it was sold out for the holiday weekend.
We stayed on Nob Hill and found it fairly easy to get around town. We have friends there and had a lovely dinner at their place on Thursday evening.
Two recommendations to San Francisco.... Get rid of the panhandlers and homeless all around the city. They detract greatly from your city. Especially the hoards of them sleeping all over Union square and on the piers. We had grown accustomed to NOT being solicited when walking city streets. It is a real black eye on an otherwise very nice city.
Second point.... stop trying to make New England style clam chowder!!! You don't have a clue how to make it correctly.....NO spices, and NO celery in authentic New England chowders! Call your version San Francisco clam chowder and be proud of it! It's NOT like ours!
Nice time, nice town.

[norcallefty]

Originally Posted by Maineah

My wife, Daughter, her fiance', and I returned home today from San Francisco to Maine. We spent a week in Napa before spending three days in the city. San Francisco is an interesting city. People were VERY friendly and helpful to us! We took in a Giants game (they won). We sampled the local food, (liked the Dungeness crab!) and did the touristy things, Pier 39, Coit tower, China town, the bridge, Lombard Street, minus the Alcatraz trip as it was sold out for the holiday weekend.
We stayed on Nob Hill and found it fairly easy to get around town. We have friends there and had a lovely dinner at their place on Thursday evening.
Two recommendations to San Francisco.... Get rid of the panhandlers and homeless all around the city. They detract greatly from your city. Especially the hoards of them sleeping all over Union square and on the piers. We had grown accustomed to NOT being solicited when walking city streets. It is a real black eye on an otherwise very nice city.
Second point.... stop trying to make New England style clam chowder!!! You don't have a clue how to make it correctly.....NO spices, and NO celery in authentic New England chowders! Call your version San Francisco clam chowder and be proud of it! It's NOT like ours!
Nice time, nice town.

Get rid of the panhandlers and the homeless? S.F. has been very friendly to them and that keeps attracting more of them to S.F. I doubt they will ever leave.

SF Gate: Chronicle Homeless Special

[ambient]

As for the homeless...this is, alas, one of the things this city is known for. I guess most people think that this city is just a rich person's mecca - which it is for many - but it also has one of the most acute homeless problems of any city in the entire nation. You haven't even seen but a tiny fraction of what it's like here - if you down along parts of Market and Mission corridors or down around the Tenderloin (which, for your safety, I would not recommend), you will see commonplace examples of human misery the likes of which you might not even have thought possible in this country.

On a lighter note, regarding the food... this city is not known for clam chowder or really even seafood, so don't waste your time next time you're here. I hope you weren't trying to get good local food down in Fisherman's Wharf, because honestly most locals avoid that grotesque tourist trap and eat at much better places around town. We have an awesome restaurant scene here (although foodies generally claim that NYC beats us...).

[calisnuffy]

Originally Posted by Maineah

My wife, Daughter, her fiance', and I returned home today from San Francisco to Maine. We spent a week in Napa before spending three days in the city. San Francisco is an interesting city. People were VERY friendly and helpful to us! We took in a Giants game (they won). We sampled the local food, (liked the Dungeness crab!) and did the touristy things, Pier 39, Coit tower, China town, the bridge, Lombard Street, minus the Alcatraz trip as it was sold out for the holiday weekend.
We stayed on Nob Hill and found it fairly easy to get around town. We have friends there and had a lovely dinner at their place on Thursday evening.
Two recommendations to San Francisco.... Get rid of the panhandlers and homeless all around the city. They detract greatly from your city. Especially the hoards of them sleeping all over Union square and on the piers. We had grown accustomed to NOT being solicited when walking city streets. It is a real black eye on an otherwise very nice city.
Second point.... stop trying to make New England style clam chowder!!! You don't have a clue how to make it correctly.....NO spices, and NO celery in authentic New England chowders! Call your version San Francisco clam chowder and be proud of it! It's NOT like ours!
Nice time, nice town.

Great review, I agree keep celery out of chow-dah

[jman650]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Two recommendations to San Francisco.... Get rid of the panhandlers and homeless all around the city. They detract greatly from your city. Especially the hoards of them sleeping all over Union square and on the piers. We had grown accustomed to NOT being solicited when walking city streets. It is a real black eye on an otherwise very nice city.

Good call. We'll get right on that. City Data is the best possible place to make such a recommendation, seeing as we are the real decision makers that dictate what goes down in SF. Thanks for letting us know our homeless were too abundant. We had no idea.

Originally Posted by Maineah

Second point.... stop trying to make New England style clam chowder!!! You don't have a clue how to make it correctly.....NO spices, and NO celery in authentic New England chowders! Call your version San Francisco clam chowder and be proud of it! It's NOT like ours!
Nice time, nice town.

So you traveled 3000 miles for a 3-day vacation in SF, and out of the limited amount of meals you could have possibly had (only 9 total if you had 3 per day) you actually opted for one of the two things your region is actually known for? Really?? Way to think outside the box. Sounds to me like you were planning on finding something to mock us for since you had to go in knowing that you'd already had better, so what was the point? Why on Earth would you not have tried something new that you can't get back home?

And if you JUST HAD to get chowder out here, why wouldn't you seek out the quality versions that we offer? If you're gonna talk down about chowder in SF, you'd better at least try Swan Oyster Depot on Polk before you speak. That is the one spot that actually DOES get praise from tourists from New England.

[DeusEx]

The Guide

OP missed this. NYC/SF/LA/LV are only Michelin-rated cities in the country. Besides NYC (and SF has better natural material to work with), don't see any other cities that have a better quality food scene (Chicago might be only one on par).

[zitsky]

I lived in the Bay Area for more than 10 years. I have eaten chowder in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. I can tell you with 100% certainty that you will not find good chowder anywhere on the west coast.

OP, could you please tell us where you are located? I want to make sure we send all of the SF homeless to the right place.

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by Maineah

Two recommendations to San Francisco.... Get rid of the panhandlers and homeless all around the city. They detract greatly from your city. Especially the hoards of them sleeping all over Union square and on the piers. We had grown accustomed to NOT being solicited when walking city streets. It is a real black eye on an otherwise very nice city.

You came to SF and did not know that there will be third world style poverty and misery around you??? I thought all tourists know this! Next time, just consider it as part of the charm...

[andyadhi01]

Originally Posted by jman650

hanks for letting us know our homeless were too abundant. We had no idea.

I guess the OP did not mean to point out the abundance of homeless folks but rather the incompetence of a city incapable of dealing with it. FYI, denial is not a solution!

[Maineah]

Originally Posted by jman650

Good call. We'll get right on that. City Data is the best possible place to make such a recommendation, seeing as we are the real decision makers that dictate what goes down in SF. Thanks for letting us know our homeless were too abundant. We had no idea.



So you traveled 3000 miles for a 3-day vacation in SF, and out of the limited amount of meals you could have possibly had (only 9 total if you had 3 per day) you actually opted for one of the two things your region is actually known for? Really?? Way to think outside the box. Sounds to me like you were planning on finding something to mock us for since you had to go in knowing that you'd already had better, so what was the point? Why on Earth would you not have tried something new that you can't get back home?

And if you JUST HAD to get chowder out here, why wouldn't you seek out the quality versions that we offer? If you're gonna talk down about chowder in SF, you'd better at least try Swan Oyster Depot on Polk before you speak. That is the one spot that actually DOES get praise from tourists from New England.

Read the op. Three days in San Francisco AFTER a week in Napa! It was not on the pier where we got the chowder it was at a restaurant in the financial district and was a recommendation by a friend who lives in the city. He evidently forgot what good New England chowder is like. We'll refresh his memory when he comes for a visit in July.
No, City Data is not the only place I vented my disgust for the hoards of homeless in San Francisco. I wrote to the Mayor of the city as well. If he answers me I'll post it.
Like I said nice town, nice time. Two suggestions is not much of a complaint is it?