Things to do in San Francisco 9/5/15

[RedLantern]

So the wife and I are heading to SFC to see Billy Joel over Labor Day weekend (9/5-9/7) We will have approximately 10am-6pm Saturday and all day Sunday to tool around.

Places to go, things to see?

We're not really in shopping mode these days. Love food/beer/wine, but not really into haute cuisine or very far down the cocktail rabbit hole. Would be more interested in places with great or unique atmosphere, or where a local might go for, say, a non-landmark birthday in his 30's-50's, or where you might take out-of-towners that you are friends with, but not really looking to impress.

 

[Gus]

Sunday mornings are fun at the historic Buena Vista Cafe to sit at the bar, have breakfast and an Irish Coffee. (they make up to 2,000 of them a day) This is the place that invented the drink and is that world's largest single user of Irish whiskey. Get there on the early side because it gets pretty full by 10am. It is a fun crowd and a partial view overlooking the Bay and the Cable Car turnaround by Fisherman's Wharf.
http://www.thebuenavista.com/home/menu.html


For dinner or lunch if you like seafood how about the oldest restaurant in California, The Tadich Grill? This is a real old-school setting and a huge menu of options dominated by local seafood favorites. http://www.thebuenavista.com/home/menu.html

The view and the food at The Slanted Door at the Ferry Building is pretty hard to beat. We usually take out of town guests here to enjoy the waterfront and Ferry Building vendors. http://www.slanteddoor.com

If you like Oysters, head to the Ferry Building and go to Hog Island. Sit outside, enjoy the view, a nice glass of wine and some shellfish or other small plates. https://hogislandoysters.com/visit/san-francisco

 

[RedLantern]

Awesome recommendations! Exactly what I was looking for! Thanks!

 

[ahk1979]

Might not fit what you are looking for, but Sunday brunch at Outerlands Outer Sunset would be nice. You can follow this by a nice walk along the beach which a couple minutes walk away.

http://outerlandssf.com/menus/

If you like ceramics, the ferry to the Heath Ceramics factory in Sausalito is worth the trip.

http://www.heathceramics.com/home/pages/discover-heath/studio-stores/sausalito

 

[RedLantern]

Had a really fun trip!

Saturday- after checking in to our hotel around 11 we headed to the Buena Vista, for irish coffees and lunch. Irish coffee was fantastic and the food was really good and very reasonably priced. Was kind of cool to have to share tables with people.

After the Buena Vista we walked down by fisherman's warf, which wasn't really our speed so we caught a cab to the ferry building. Ferry building was cool and, of course, jam packed, so we didn't get a chance to go to Hog Island Oysters, but we did get some really interesting ice cream there and some coffee from blue bottle.

Went back to change for dinner and ended up going to the Tonga Room at the Fairmont. Got there too early and had a drink in the hotel lounge - was beautiful and good people watching. Stumbled upon a really awesome terrace garden that it appears allows smoking. Would love to smoke a cigar up there and take in the views. Tonga room was fun - food was uninspired, but was not the reason we went.

Concert was good. AT&T park is gorgeous. Billy seemed a little disinterested and didn't play some of my favorites, but still glad I went.


Sunday - Went to Dim Sum somewhere in china town. Best dim sum experience ever. Was a little bit "classed up" from what I'm used to, but the food was all tasy, fresh, and had a good mix of my old favorites and some things I'd never had before.

After brunch we wandered china town for a while then walked over to and hiked up telegraph hill and Coit (?) tower. That was really fun/rewarding. Had to stand in line a long time to go up to the top of the tower but the views were dynamite.

Walked down the stairs towards the water front (wasn't as great as the people in the tower said) but would have prefered to explore the neighborhood at the (west?) base of the hill that we walked through coming from china town - seemed like a cool area.

Explored pier 39, mainly to get a look at the sea lions which we fell in love with during our honeymoon in Monterey. They crack us up, we call them cats of the sea.

From pier 39 we back to the Buena Vista and got more irish coffee and then walked along the beach near there and along the public pier (big half circle thing). Cool to see people fishing and trying to catch crab. Also saw people swimming in the cove there and a few what looked like harbor seals watching the swimmers.

Went back to change for dinner and sadly Tadich and Sams were both closed for the holiday (we really wanted sand dabs, another thing we fell in love with in monterey) so we had to go south to The Old Clam House to get some. Food was mostly not very good at the old clam house, but the entrees were tasty and , surprisingly, the beet salad was great.