Bohemian San Francisco

No apologies are offered for this book. In fact, we rather like it. Many years have been spent in gathering this information, and naught is written in malice, nor through favoritism, our expressions of opinion being unbiased by favor or compensation. We have made our own investigation and given our own ideas.

That our opinion does not coincide with that of others does not concern us in the least, for we are pleased only with that which pleases us, and not that with which others say we ought to be pleased.

If this sound egotistical we are sorry, for it is not meant in that way. We believe that each and every individual should judge for him or herself, considering ourselves fortunate that our ideas and tastes are held in common.

San Franciscans, both residential and transient, are a pleasure-loving people, and dining out is a distinctive feature of their pleasure. With hundreds of restaurants to select from, each specializing on some particular dish, or some peculiar mode of preparation, one often becomes bewildered and turns to familiar names on the menu card rather than venture into fields that are new, of strange and rare dishes whose unpronounceable names of themselves frequently are sufficient to discourage those unaccustomed to the art and science of cooking practiced by those whose lives have been spent devising means of tickling fastidious palates of a city of gourmets.

In order that those who come within our gates, and many others who have resided here in blindness for years, may know where to go and what to eat, and that they may carry away with them a knowledge of how to prepare some of the dishes pleasing to the taste and nourishing to the body, that have spread San Francisco's fame over the world, we have decided to set down the result of our experience and study of our Bohemian population and their ways, and also tell where to find and how to order the best special dishes.

Over North Beach way we asked the chef of a little restaurant how he cooked crab. He replied:

"The right way."

One often wonders how certain dishes are cooked and we shall tell you "the right way."

It is hoped that when you read what is herein written some of our pleasure may be imparted to you, and with this hope the story of San Francisco's Bohemianism is presented.

Clarence E. Edwords. San Francisco, California, September 22, 1914.

Our Toast

Not to the Future, nor to the Past; No drink of Joy or Sorrow; We drink alone to what will last; Memories on the Morrow. Let us live as Old Time passes; To the Present let Bohemia bow. Let us raise on high our glasses To Eternity--the ever-living Now.

Contents

Foreword The Good Gray City The Land of Bohemia As it was in the Beginning When the Gringo Came Early Italian Impression Birth of the French Restaurant At the Cliff House Some Italian Restaurants Impress of Mexico On the Barbary Coast The City That Was Passes Sang the Swan Song Bohemia of the Present As it is in Germany In the Heart of Italy A Breath of the Orient Artistic Japan Old and New Palace At the Hotel St. Francis Amid the Bright Lights Around Little Italy Where Fish Come In Fish in Their Variety Lobsters and Lobsters King of Shell Fish Lobster In Miniature Clams and Abalone's Where Fish Abound Some Food Variants About Dining Something About Cooking Told in A Whisper Out of Nothing Paste Makes Waist Tips and Tipping The Mythical Land Appendix (How to Serve Wines, Recipes) Index

Bohemian San Francisco

"The best of all ways To lengthen our days Is to steal a few hours From the night, my dear."

The Good Gray City San Francisco!

San Francisco! Is there a land where the magic of that name has not been felt? Bohemian San Francisco! Pleasure-loving San Francisco! Care-free San Francisco! Yet withal the city where liberty never means license and where Bohemianism is not synonymous with Boorishness.