Headed to San Francisco for the first time this weekend, any recommendations??? Coffee, food and sights

Tartine Bakery

I've never been, but I've made recipes from some of their books.. they are consistently rated among the best, from what I've made.. really great sourdough. They serve Counter Culture Coffee too (previously Blue Bottle).

I've also heard good things about Jane, whom serve stumptown.

And of course, the infamous Four Barrel Coffee - Their coffee is delicious.

leozava wrote:Headed to San Francisco for the first time this weekend, any recommendations??? Coffee, food and sights

Funny I'm sitting in the airport leaving sfo right now. There's a couple older threads w some recommendations. I went to Stanza in mission as it has a slayer and was buzzing with excitement but was disappointed in the end. Barista has a 3 group slayer and yet uses preground coffee to make shots. I was mortified. Grind also needed to be dialed in better.

Wrecking ball was decent and I would go back. Sadly I was there with people more interested in the Super Bowl than in coffee (where are their priorities?!) and thus those were the only shops I made it to.
Other recommendations per prior threads; ma-velous, ritual, blue bottle, four barrel, Jane. I believe there is an intelligentsia there as well.

I have always like Boccalone in the ferry building, tasty salted pig parts . And I think there is a bluebottle there as well.

LukeFlynn wrote:Tartine Bakery

I have gone to Tartine Bakery on 18th and Guerrero (in case there is more than one location). I found it on google search for best sourdough when there 12/2014 (Tartine appeared to be consensus among four websites). I and my family loved it so much we went there total three times on a five day SF vacation!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/23/dinin ... .html?_r=0

http://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016 ... ntry-bread

Bar none the best bread my wife and I have ever tasted. But I have not been to Paris nor NY,NY (later hopefully within next 2 years). Certainly nothing in Chicagoland even approximates Tartine (and yes I have been looking). Tartine's Country Bread is their famous one. My family cannot replicate it at home due to in part lack of Chad Robertson's starter and lack of commercial oven (or one that easily get to 500F) and well we are not professional bakers. Also Tartine's croissants were the best I ever tasted. I am not dessert person, but the Mrs. and kids tell me the lemon tart and other patries/sweets were the best ever (my wife is Eastern European and knows her sweets/pastries). Lunch there once too and decent panini/sandwich and certainly size was Chicago-like (i.e. huge portion). Expect to stand in line for at least 30 minutes. I read that Blue Bottle bought Tartine Bakery within past year or so and I really hope their quality did not drop.

http://www.eater.com/2015/4/20/8456861/ ... eles-japan

ESPRESSO:
Which bring me back to coffee/espresso. Walking due east on 18th Street <0.5 miles, you will find Linea Caffe (south side of 18th Street). I found it by accident as killing time waiting to get into Tartine (Mrs. and dtr were line holders). Great espresso (was not 3rd wave on tap that day) from LaMarzocco pump machine if I recall correctly (12/2014). H-B moderator Tom Chips also mentioned this as great SF cafe too.

San Francisco visit, events and cafe recommendations?

SIGHTS:
I've been to SF at least five times and last time 12/2014 first with my kids. If you want to avoid the usual touristy stuff, I'd recommended Exploratorium (bests my beloved Chicago landmark Museum of Science and Industry) and rent a lighter bike (ideally road race bike ) and bike from SF to Marin City (north of Golden Gate bridge). There are steeper hills though.

FOOD:
Don't forget that SF and Chicago and NY,NY are only three USA cities with Michelin rated restaurants. So pick your favorite cuisine and go for it.


Please update us after your visit.

Two words...

FERRY BUILDING

The Ferry Building has a Blue Bottle coffee shop in it as well as a bunch of other FABULOUS food stores. Also, Saturday morning they host an outdoors Farmer's Market that is as wonderful as any I have been to in this country!

Enjoy!!!

I can give tons of food rec's based on cuisine or locale.

Coffee Wise:

Andytown Coffee Roasters is my favorite because of friendly staff, good coffee, and great muffins/scones.

Stanza was mentioned. Great multi roaster predominately featuring Turning Point Coffee Roasters.

St. Frank is consistent, friendly staff, tasty coffee.

PinHole Coffee in Bernal Heights is also a good multi roaster with a great relaxed environment and cute shops on the Bernal strip.

Ma*Velous on Market is a good multi roaster as well. Heart, 49th, and Stumptown.

Chapel Hill in FiDi and Grand Coffee in the Mission are both pretty consistent Four Barrel wholesale accounts.


Those are personal favorites. I work in coffee, so I tend to only visit shops on my days off.

mdmvrockford wrote:...Walking due east on 18th Street <0.5 miles, you will find Linea Caffe (south side of 18th Street). I found it by accident as killing time waiting to get into Tartine (Mrs. and dtr were line holders). Great espresso (was not 3rd wave on tap that day) from LaMarzocco pump machine if I recall correctly (12/2014). H-B moderator Tom Chips also mentioned this as great SF cafe too.

Linea Caffe has been my favorite SF cafe for quite some time. For my tastes, it has been the most consistent, delivering a sweet espresso.

I love Andytown. Nice people, great coffee, and stupendous baked goods. If it's a nice day, sitting out side is the best. Also, parking at Andytown is a breeze. Pinhole on Cortland is another really good place. owned by a graduate of the University of Blue Bottle. San Francisco is a food town with so many places and types of food that is really difficult to discuss here. You're probably better off checking one of the food sites on the Internet. (Just don't pay any attention to their coffee recommendations).

LukeFlynn wrote:Tartine Bakery

I've never been, but I've made recipes from some of their books.. they are consistently rated among the best, from what I've made.. really great sourdough. They serve Counter Culture Coffee too (previously Blue Bottle).

I've also heard good things about Jane, whom serve stumptown.

And of course, the infamous Four Barrel Coffee - Their coffee is delicious.

You hit 3 of my SF favorites, Luke. Not only is Tartine a wonderful bakery, but their coffee is excellent. Blue Bottle did not merge with Tartine after all, so they're now serving CC - and we haven't been back since the fall, so the last coffee I had there was BB. But the food is stellar and I can't imagine that the coffee's not also wonderful. The BB touch was evident when we were last there, though. The barista dumped 3 shots in the sink before he was satisfied with the extraction - my wife and our friends even came back to the coffee bar to find out what was taking me so long. I was learning from a perfectionist.

We also hit Jane during our last crawl and were very pleased with the coffee, the service, the baristas, and the food. I was curious to see how their HairBender shots compared to my own, as HB was my default espresso at the time - and they did it very well (almost as good as mine.......just kidding!) But one of the best shots I ever had (if not the best) was the first one I got at 4 Barrel in the Mission. They have one of the original "Shot Pullers" from LM, modded by their techs but no one at the counter could tell me how. We were all very pleased with 4B's coffees, staff and service.