I think I hate San Francisco. - Page 79

I like this place, despite (or maybe because of) the horrible decorations outside. The place nearby with the Chicken Pot Pie was nice too.

Liberty Cafe. The original owner died, and it's since been taken over by the owners of the Italian restaurant across the street. Of course, San Francisco being San Francisco (and, perhaps more to the point, Bernal being Bernal), there's been lots of kvetching about how it's been ruined. Seems about the same to me, except maybe breakfast is better now.

At WSW, around one or the other of the last two elections, my friends and I had the misfortune to be sitting near a young couple on the cozy deck out back. They overheard our political conversation and joined in. It was then I was reminded that the only thing worse than stupid people whose views you abhor is stupid people who agree with you. Which can happen pretty frequently here on our fine little hill.

I waited in line at Ici's the other day in Berkeley, but the cinnamon graham cracker gelato was pretty fantastic. Further down the street, Tara's usually has no line and more interesting flavors. The lemongrass is pretty good as was the Earl Grey, and there are things like white pepper/chocolate chip, pandan, and allspice. I think we saw a line half a block long at Ici's on Sunday night at 10.

The other night we waited in line at Hopscotch in Oakland. The food and service were nice.

I'm pretty sure Lefty knows that he hates Berkeley and Oakland. It's San Francisco that leaves him ambivalent.

Maybe you should change the name of the thread to "I thought I hated San Francisco, and now I know"

Have you moved back to NYC?

I like Berkeley. Oakland is pretty awful. I don't get the appeal.

In Oakland people at least get the hell out of my way. In Berkeley they walk, drive, bike all over the place oblivious to anything. Or, perhaps just to annoy me. Probably the latter.

any hotel recs for SF? heading down from pdx to check the barry mcgee retrospective @ berkley. Usually stay at kabuki, but want to mix it up.

But what are you looking for? Tragically hip? View of the bay? Cheap? Tech bigtimer?

I heard more car honking in Berkeley than anywhere else in California. My friend who lives there says that's because they're indignant about almost everything: whale killing, nukes, and cars getting in their way. Strangely, they are very solicitous towards peds and bikes: if you even look like you might want to cross a street, cars will stop.

Civilized parts of San Francisco > Berkeley > The rest of San Francisco > Oakland

Piedmont is nice. Although it is not technically Oakland, it is completely surrounded by Oakland. Then there are the Piedmonty-parts of Oakland, the Oakland Hills, and Rockridge. Those are all very nice. Then you have the geographically nice parts of Oakland that suck for other reasons, such as Lake Merritt, which should be nice but isn't. The rest of Oakland is best forgotten, which is a shame because it is a great location.