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More Eating and Drinking Memories

Posted on March 25, 2016January 17, 2019 By Ann Thompson
Trader Vic's
Trader Vic’s 
The Cooperage
The Cooperage 
The Blue Fox
The Blue Fox 
Senior Pico
Senior Pico 
Jacks
Jacks 
India House
India House 
Ernies
Ernies 
Davids
Davids 
Buena Vista
Buena Vista 

Enricos — Watched one waiter fondle another waiter over by the cash register. Quite the show.
Julius Castle — Cele­brated winning the HP account here while at Dancer.
Bottom of the Mark — (later called Mildred Pierce, site of current Fog City Diner) I watched the owner/chef carve into his hand as well as the roast beef without noticing. Yes, blood in your sandwich.
Swiss Louis — where my sometimes-partner AD Jack Jannes held court from noon to 5pm almost daily. Seldom saw him in the after­noon at the Dancer office.
Mission Rock Resort — I went there with AD Mick Kita­gawa, saw a big biker guy clad in old school biker leathers enjoying lunch outside with his friend, a little person dressed in exactly the same style. Wish I had taken a photo.
Molinari’s — I used to get a sand­wich there, then hike uphill on Tele­graph hill, sit down some­where and look for headlines.
Graf Zeppelin — (later Goodby turned it into their offices) After work at DFS I would go there, get half drunk, then go to karate practice.
Grumpy’s — (I think it was called some­thing else back in the day) Went there at night with Kita­gawa, the bartender had to leave so of course Mick got behind the bar and worked the rest of the night, never putting a dime in the cash register, it all went into the tip jar.
Grumpy’s or what­ever it was called — I would go there with Kita­gawa at noon, we’d have a drink, then Mick’s friend huge Chuck the Truck Driver would start buying us drinks. I looked at 3 drinks backed up in front of me and Mick said very seri­ously, ​”Chuck doesn’t like it when you don’t drink his drinks.” I drank.
Kitagawa’s old Mercedes sedan parked near the Dancer office was occa­sion­ally used by local dock workers for a place to sit at lunch and listen to his radio.
Crystal Palace — an early ​“natural food” place on Broadway. ECD at Dancer Don Carleson would drink some kind of fancy drink with Fram­boise and vermouth and eat fruit salads or some­thing. Great place.
Redwood Room — I went there with the Fore­most client, Fred Fornia, and a Dancer Fitzgerald AE named Dick Somers. Redwood refused to seat us because my hair ​“touched” the edge of my collar. Long haired hippy freak.
Wash Bag — ACD at FCB David Hunter took me to lunch there to offer me a job at FCB to work on the Levi’s account. The salary offered was $36,000!! I took the job.
Pier 23 — AD Arthur Vibert (of Max Head­room fame) and I went here to think up a replace­ment for Mike Koelker’s very successful Levi’s 501 Blues. We came up with ​“Wear them as long as you can”, David Fincher shot maybe six or eight spots with us, but they never ran. Testing killed them, although everyone saw them on Fincher’s Propa­ganda reel. Someone called them the most famous spots that never ran.
Tim Price

…uhhh…uhhh…Price???…uhhh Tim…oh yeah..Tim Price. Now I remember some young kid who was just hired as a Copy­writer.. We called him ​“RUBE” cause he looked like he just rolled in from some Farm! We took him out to lunch (ha-ha) — Remember that, Tim!
Mik

My God Ann, you remember all the restau­rants I choose to forget.
Jack Allen

Little Joe’s- was on Broadway across the street from Enrico’s a few doors up towards Columbus. I think 523 Broadway. Jerry Leon­hart and I used to go there for the cala­mari sauté with penne pasta – always cooked to perfec­tion. It was served on an oval plate piled high. If you were smart and a cala­mari lover, you’d order the dish with the penne on the side; that way you’d get the same sized plate piled just as high with cala­mari and an extra plate of penne also piled as high.
Joel Fugaz­zotto

Sorento’s- pizza Columbus and Broadway. The topless bars opened up in their loca­tion. I have a story to tell you about one of these places, just not in writing.
Piet Halber­stadt

Enrico’s- great place to meet friends and watch the world go by. And did you know, Enrico, for all his Bohemian persona, came from Button­willow, a Central Valley wide spot in the road.
Samm Coombs

Bardelli’s- All of us at Joseph Magnin would go To Bardel­li’s on O’Far­rell St. on Friday. I did not see Bardel­li’s on your list. We then had to get back to JM to get the ads out for the following week. It was crazy some­times, but fun!
Diana Robinson Creber

The Wash­ington Square Bar & Grill- My go to favorite was the WashBag Good food, great bar. Art direc­tors always had their pref­er­ences, Johns Grill, Dago Mary’s, The Clam House.
Kurt Andersen

Café Trieste- After I sold my house in Mill­brae and moved in to the city I spent more times going out to eat, as I lived in North Beach, freelancing.?There were a lot of good places like, Vanessi’s, Enrico’s, The Wash­ington Bar & Grill, Spaghetti Factory and specially Café Trieste where I and David Grove used to have a coffee and talk. Nice memories!
Lars Melander

Scoma’s ‑Loca­tion previ­ously (1962) was a coffee shop where the founder of the Academy of Art, ​“Pappy” Stevens, would hold court with his ​“on-location” drawing class.
Gold Street- (1960s-) New Years Party every night.
Schroeder’s- In the 1960s, it was a ​“men only” restau­rant. I was allowed as a lunch guest of Butte, Herrero & Hyde.
La Pantera Café- In 1959 w/Beatniks on upper Grant Ave., owner Rena Nicoli didn’t allow women in if wearing Capri pants. She finally let me slip quickly to a table.
Charles’ Bistrot-(1964) Drink: La Guil­lo­tine, Menu: Mtn. Oysters. Charles le Bugle ran for mayor of San Fran­cisco, protesting the Vietnam War.
Hoffman’s Grill- In the ​‘60s, women were not allowed to stand with the men at the bar along the west wall. Women were told to order a beverage only while sitting at a table in the dining area.
The Hippo and Dante Bennedetti’s New Pisa  (1960s-) were deco­rated by Wolo, (Baron Wolff Erhardt Anton George Trutzschler von Falkenstein).
The North Star Café- (1960s) Also, men only, but I got in! At the bar, they served drinks from a small white enamel bedpan — diners were to wear toilet seat protector when ordering ciop­pino! One more thing, when a man entered the men’s room (oppo­site the bar) the bartender would quickly follow him in and imme­di­ately emerge wearing a gas mask!
The Sails- had a very large aquarium with a variety of large fish. Often there were only a few — we were told they would eat each other.
Orig­inal Joe’s Two with the same name, explained? 144 Taylor Street — carries the history of Louis Rocca and Tony Rodin who opened the ​“orig­inal” in 1937 — closed as a result of a fire in 2007. And the other, also called ​“Orig­inal Joe’s” on Chestnut Street was also from the 1930s. It also closed. Now the only ​“orig­inal” is at 601 Union Street (replacing Fior D’Italia 1886 — the oldest Italian restau­rant in the USA. It had a fire in 2005. Joe DiMaggio’s Italian Chop­house moved in that loca­tion but closed in 2010. Fior D’Italia is now in the San Remo Hotel.
There are photos of many of these loca­tions on the web, now there are these, below, from McGovern’s (which was never listed in a direc­tory nor did the owner want it to be). The clien­tele was long­shoremen and all others. The bar and tables were in one open room. Once when the trap door to the storage in the base­ment was left open with no chairs blocking the hole — someone fell in — and felt no pain! After some years, Grumpy’s (know as a ​“fern-bar”) opened at this same loca­tion. No more longshoremen.
Before smart phones, who had a camera to record a favorite hangout? I did. By 1980, I was located at 901 Battery Street and McGovern’s was just a half block away — on Vallejo Street). These photos are blurry (hand-held, no flash).
Ann Thompson

McGoverns
McGoverns 
McGoverns
McGoverns 
McGoverns
McGoverns 
McGoverns
McGoverns 
McGoverns
McGoverns 
Geezerpedia, Of That Time, Recollections

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