Tag: San Francisco (Page 2 of 3)

Foodie Lovers Paradise

January 23, 2015 / Claire / 0 Comments

San Francisco is purported to have over 7,000 restaurants, making it the highest number per capita. This means you’re either in foodie heaven or foodie hell. There’s a sublime macaron, artisanal ice creamery or roasted, cheesy, buttery something or other lurking around every corner to tempt, taunt and turn your resolve to eat healthfully into mush.

For Love Match’s Jessica Durrell, restaurants are an essential part of her matchmaking business. Putting her clients in the proper environment is most conducive to romantic success. A restaurant’s lighting, décor and especially the food all help to heighten the palate and the senses—thus setting the mood for love.

Here are a few foodie destinations that inspired Love Match’s romantic hot spots and references.

new & improved Tosca on Columbus

“Mars … was just the sort of person to book restaurants, limo pick-ups, and stylist appointments, so clients could focus on the task at hand—falling effortlessly in love.”

Financial District eatery

The Original Cold Day Restaurant, est. 1849

“… Penny grabbed her arm and tugged her inside the Mariposa Grill—a classic San Francisco restaurant of snotty career-waiters and artery-clogging steaks and chops.”

A destination for all foodies

“No, she gets this.” Hayden tossed Jessica a bag of kettle corn. “I know how you like your salty snacks.”

She plunged her hand into the bag. “It’s still warm!”

Pepper bounty

“Just got it from the Farmers Market at the Ferry Building.”

Cowgirl Creamery, where Penny’s dream job awaits

“Maybe we should take this as a sign to rethink our lives and try doing something else,” Penny offered.

“Like what?”

“Run a goat farm and make cheese.”

“The Bridge was an upscale restaurant on the Embarcadero. It boasted a Michelin-starred chef and a striking view of the bay.”

Pacific Heights: “Love Match” Photo Tour

January 15, 2015 / Claire

Remember the thriller Pacific Heights? About a yuppie couple (Melanie Griffith and Matthew Modine) who renovate their Pacific Heights house only to have their psycho tenant (Michael Keaton, possibly trying to stretch his acting chops after two rounds of Batman movies) terrorize them and ruin their home improvement bliss? It was a bit of fun schlock. More unintentional giggles than thrills. The biggest laugh was that the couple’s dream house wasn’t located in the Pacific Heights at all, but Potrero Hill. Only San Franciscans would know the difference and appreciate the irony. Pacific Heights was (and still is) a very upscale area whereas Potrero Hill in the early 90s was a working class district. Gentrification has since kicked it up a rung; it’s now an upper-middle class neighborhood.

I thought about the movie last October when I was driving around the area looking for examples of Edwardian houses that were the inspiration for Love Match character Joe Trigoboff’s place. The view is still spectacular when it’s not obscured by all the construction. There’s tons of renovation going on. Rumor has it the budget for one home remodel is around $10M. It’s completely sheathed in white plastic to keep the flying debris and dust at bay. All those dotcom millionaires have to spend their money somehow.

There were plenty of Victorian, Mission revival and Chateau styles but fewer of the less ornate Edwardians. Did I imagine they were plenty in this neighborhood? Would I have to be like the movie’s location manager and go to another area for good examples? After much searching I found a few, but the intricate green terrazzo steps with red jewel-like granite … I found those in the Mission.

Jessica leapt up the terrazzo steps of a stately Edwardian house in Pacific Heights and rang the doorbell. Even though a few lights glowed from inside, nobody answered. “Mr. Trigoboff!” She banged on the door. “Joe! It’s Jessica Durrell!” Still no one came. She turned to go, her hopes fading, when she heard the deadbolt snap.

Edwardian styling, no intricate woodwork, no turrets

View from on high

Mission District terrazzo

Terrazzo up close

Haight District terrazzo

An Edwardian bordering on Italianate style

Rumored super pricey renovation.

All Hallow’s eve in Pacific Heights.

Fisherman’s Wharf: “Love Match” Photo Tour

December 28, 2014 / Claire

“Tourist trap” is defined as a restaurant, shop, or hotel, that exploits tourists by overcharging. That definition isn’t exclusive to Fisherman’s Wharf, San Francisco’s renown waterfront tourist destination. One could argue the whole city has become a trap of sorts; it’s become so expensive to live there and visit there. But this hasn’t stopped tourists from flocking to the wharf to munch on crab rolls, sourdough bread bowls filled with chowder, take boat tours of Alcatraz Island, and stock up on made-in-China plastic tchotchkes. Who cares if it’s cheesy. Fisherman’s Wharf is a vital part of San Francisco’s history.

According to FishermansWharf.org the waterfront has been active for over 125 years. Generations upon generations of families have been hauling in their catch from the waters around the Bay Area. The prized and plentiful Dungeness crab came from the “… Straits of Carquinez on the inland reaches of San Francisco Bay to the sandy shorelines off Berkeley, Oakland and Alameda. Over the years, clams, the natural food of the crab, disappeared from the Bay. The best crab catches were then made just outside the Golden Gate. Today, the crabbers must drop their crab pots far out near the Farallon Islands in 18 to 35 fathoms of ocean water.”

Like most things in this world, too much of a good thing, overfishing, has caused a shortage. You’d never know that visiting the wharf. Crab and other seafood is still in abundance. But the lobster is flown in from Maine. Shhh, don’t tell anyone.

At Fisherman’s Wharf, it was business as usual. Tourists in their uniforms of bright polo shirts, baggy shorts, and webbed sandals grumbled in long lines as they waited for the ferry to take them on the Alcatraz Island tour. Many gathered around steaming seafood stands, which sold clam chowder in crusty sourdough bread bowls. Moving through the crush, Hayden pushed past a German tourist whose face was pressed into a guidebook, then sidestepped a vendor hawking a cable-car bank in one hand and Coit Tower pepper mill in the other. Crowds annoyed him—except, of course, when they were packing a nightclub to see him play.