Ever since I moved to the Pacific Northwest, I’ve heard about seasonal affective disorder (SAD) , which the National Institute of Mental Health defines as “a type of depression that comes and goes with the seasons,” usually during the winter. People up here in this seasonally dark, misty, and dreary corner of the US often invest in sunlight lamps, load up on vitamin D, or—if they’re extremely lucky—spend the winter months in places where the sun actually shines more than a day or two in a row.
But I never experienced true winter doldrums until this year, when Seattle hit a record 30-day stretch of rainy days, and had one of the rainiest days on record. Besides the rain, this winter has brought a mist that never seems to lift—the kind of foggy shroud that makes you open your blinds, close them again, and leave them that way all day. Why bother? You know what’s out there.
I’m not of an income class that uses “winter” as a verb, but I have found a substitute for the second home I’ll buy just as soon as I’ve bought and paid off the first one: California! The light is perfect, the fares (from most of the Western US, anyway) are reasonable, and there’s a good bet you’ll get sun at a time of year when you may be starting to give up hope that winter will ever end.
The city has changed dramatically since I first visited as a teenager and headed straight for North Beach and the City Lights bookstore—as clichés go, still better than eating chowder from a bread bowl at Fisherman’s Wharf. I’ve had family in the city since the early ’90s, so I’ve visited many times, watching neighborhoods evolve, gentrify, and change complexion in stop-motion time: 1990, 1995, the 2000s, now. My own experience of the city changed, too, as I grew up, started drinking, became a problem drinker, and quit.
These days, I love San Francisco for its bright sunshine, explorable neighborhoods, and endless variety of places to eat (tired of tacos? Try Sri Lankan food, or gluten-free baked goods, or reimagined banh mi, or vegan tortas…) than its bars or 3am dining options, though I was thrilled during this recent trip to discover that both bars and restaurants are starting to catch up with the “sober curious” trend by featuring grown-up nonalcoholic cocktails and even credible 0.0 beers.
Here are some of my favorite recent zero-proof experiences in the San Francisco-Oakland area:
• Visit the bakeries on—and I can’t emphasize this enough—a weekday.
It’s been almost four years since Bon Appetit named Arcisault the best new bakery in the country, but god damn if the lines aren’t still around the block on weekends. I’m not a person to wait in line, so we came back on Monday, grabbing a chocolate almond croissant and a kouign amann, a pastry whose spelling I had to cut and paste because I, the opposite of a Francophile, had never heard of it. Both were divine, especially the koign amann, which was like a cross between a palmier and a croissant topped with a crackling, mildly orange-flavored glaze.
We struck out at Tartine Manufactory because the guy in front of us bought almost every single pastry in the case—bye-bye, flaky tahini babka, it’s off to the startup retreat for you—but hopefully you’ll have better luck. If not, console yourself with a soft-serve swirl (blood orange and vanilla, on our February visit) and a crispy rye-flour chocolate cookie while you wander around the adjoining Heath Ceramics factory, trying not to drip on any of the richly glazed dishware or leave crumbs on the cozy lambswool throws. (On second thought, finish your ice cream and then go price out a five-piece set of the same dishes they use at Chez Panisse.)
Also recommended: b. patisserie, Acme Bakery (in Oakland).
• Hit the farmer’s markets—yes, even in the winter.
February in San Francisco can be hit or miss, but when it’s nice, there are few better places to be than one of the off-season farmers’ markets. The stalls are less crowded, the sellers have more time to answer questions, and you can actually get a taco or two (I loved the fish and carne asada tacos from Cholita Linda, which has a brick-and-mortar spot in Oakland) without waiting in line for hours. The Ferry Building, though touristy, is a great place to wander and snack; in 15 minutes, we wolfed down pizza slices from the Slanted Door, pork buns with pleasantly springy buns and generous chunks of barbecued pork; and nitro coffee from Blue Bottle, which (for my fellow northwesterners) is like the Stumptown of San Francisco. I also noticed that the shrub craze seems to have hit the Bay Area; multiple stalls and shops offered drinking vinegars for sample and sale,
Temescal Farmer’s Market, in Oakland on Sundays, is a good excuse to get across the Bay if you’re staying in San Francisco; while you’re there, visit the shops in Alley 49, drop in at Pegasus Books, and brave the crush at Rockridge Market Hall before heading to the most unusual place on this list…
• Get lost in the Chapel of the Chimes
A mausoleum (technically a columbarium) may not be on everyone’s top-ten list for places to spend a sunny afternoon in California, but if you’re the kind of person who makes a beeline for unique or historical cemeteries when you visit a new city, the Chapel of the Chimes will be up your alley. A maze of chambers connected by intimate courtyards and terraced gardens houses the ashes of thousands of former Oakland residents, many of them interred in book-shaped urns displayed in glass-fronted niches that go up to tall ceilings. Skylights, softly dripping fountains, and mosaics and sculptures clad in shades of turquoise contribute to the parklike setting inside a semi-enclosed, quasi-Moorish
• Duck into Heinold’s First and Last Chance Saloon
This one isn’t exactly a recommendation, but I found it fascinating, and a little chilling, to drop by this spot on Jack London Square and read the inscription on the door of the bar where London spent many of his evenings, and which he memorialized in John Barleycorn, an extended justification and romanticization of his own alcohol dependence. London, who believed that Prohibition would rid him of the ability (and thus the urge) to drink, died an alcoholic death at the age of 40. Heinold’s memorializes London with a plaque, which reads in part: “Jack London met many seafaring and waterfront characters which he later immortalized in his adventure novels. Heinold’s is referred to several times in his book John Barleycorn.”
• Eat all the foods!
I’m not gonna lie: San Francisco can be an expensive place to eat out. The good news, though, is that it’s hard to get a lousy meal here, and there are plenty of fairly affordable options if you can stand to skip the spots that show up on annual best-of lists, like (looks at Google map of all the places in the Bay Area I want to try one day) Mister Jiu’s, AL’s Place, Liholiho Yacht Club, State Provisions Foreign Cinema, Chez Panisse…
We did splurge a bit on one meal, at Zuni Café, about which I will say two things. 1) It was totally worth it (get the chicken, skip the shoestring potatoes) and 2) I was thrilled when I saw nonalcoholic drinks listed RIGHT THERE ON THE COCKTAIL MENU, almost as if they belonged there instead of on a kiddie list, next to “apple juice” and “Coke.” I had a Clausthaler NA beer (thank Maude for an option besides the insipid, ubiquitous Bitburger Drive) and a “Chinotto cooler,” made with the bitter Italian soda that seemed to be on every bar and restaurant menu in San Francisco, charred grapefruit tonic, and grapefruit bitters. It takes so little to add a few sophisticated nonalcoholic options to a long cocktail menu, but so few places bother; I hope bar menus in San Francisco are a sign that this is about to be a nationwide trend.
Another worth-it splurge that I have experienced, although not on this trip: The a la carte menu at Chez Panisse Cafe in Berkeley, the slightly more affordable upstairs counterpart to Alice Waters’ temple of California cuisine.
Other great options, with much lower price points:
Mamahuhu, a hipster-casual interpretation of “Chinese takeout” from Mister Jiu’s chef Brendan Jew (on the menu: “elevated” versions of sweet-and-sour chicken and fried rice, plus a memorable jasmine tea soda)
Tortas or tacos in the Mission District. Want tacos? Hit up La Taqueria or La Torta Gorda. In the mood for a sandwich? Try the Cubano or the carnitas torta at Tortas Los Picudos. Want a burrito? Sorry, we can’t be friends.
Cafe Bunn Mi: Silly name, amazing (if a bit pricey) banh mi. Get the five spice chicken or the crispy duck.
Burma Superstar: The one place where I broke my “no standing in line rule,” to stand in line for … a stupid amount of time, ignoring the pleas of a dining companion who kept pointing out that B Star, another popular Burmese spot just a few doors down, was practically empty. After spending an hour glaring through the window at a group that had finished their dinner but needed the table for just 100 more Instagram shots of themselves, we made it inside, forgetting our frozen extremities as soon as the plates of fermented tea leaf salad, curried chicken with dal, okra with chiles, and coconut rice arrived at our table.
Pro tip: Burma Superstar uses Yelp for its waiting list, so you can follow your position on the list from anywhere. If you’re at the one in San Francisco (as opposed to the outpost in Oakland) I recommend settling in at High Treason, a bar down the street with a comprehensive wine and beer list for drinkers and a creditable list of grownup options for nondrinkers, including that ubiquitous Chinotto. (No shoutout at all to another bar down the street, where the nonalcoholic options were not only limited to what comes out of the soda gun (not my favorite, but I can deal) but where, when I asked the bartender if he could make something nonalcoholic, he looked at me like I was a lunatic, shrugged his shoulders, and said, “No?”)
• Visit—and spend money—at independent bookstores
I can’t visit a city without stopping into at least a few bookstores, and buying at least one book or tchotchke to schlep home in my suitcase. This trip, it was Wilding: Returning Nature to Our Farm by Isabella Tree, which I picked up at Pegasus Books on Oakland’s College Avenue, paying cash because the power was out from a windstorm. Other notable book shops in San Francisco include Green Apple, The Booksmith, and Omnivore, which features a breathtaking range of books about food and cooking in a price range that goes from “maybe I can afford that” to “mortgage payment.”
And, if you’re around North Beach or Chinatown, why not duck into City Lights? Bring your Portable Beat Reader and dig a little deeper into the catalog.
Note to readers: San Francisco, Oakland, and many other cities up and down the West Coast are facing tremendous challenges with increased housing prices, homelessness, and displacement. Visitors to either city should be aware that the Bay Area is an area struggling with rampant inequality, and that the historical residents of gentrifying neighborhoods like the Mission are fighting to hold on as their neighborhoods change around them. Another point to keep in mind: Homeless people are residents of the city, too, and they have as much right to be there as any tech worker standing in a Sunday brunch lineup for $18 eggs. Homelessness is direct the result of inequitable allocation of resources, so please be respectful, not afraid, of the people America’s wealthiest cities have left behind. If you don’t think you can do that, stick to the tourist areas; you’ll find maps of those areas in any hotel in the city.