SF: Dining Highlights
Essential coffee, cocktails and restaurants to try in San Francisco
Essential coffee, cocktails and restaurants to try in San Francisco
On a string of stunning 65ºF July days, we found ourselves wandering from oyster bar to wine bar, passing tiny coffee shops and ivy-covered bodegas tucked away in quiet neighborhoods. The charming walkups and fire-escapes always feel like a perfect mix between New York and London (with the people decked out in puffer jackets at every turn in the middle of the summer really driving home the British essence). Anyway, I really love it there, and I always feel sappy writing odes to cities that most people enjoy for similar reasons, but still. I had family who lived in the Bay area for several years and I would take every chance I could to come visit, but haven’t been back since 2019: so glad we were able to revisit some classic spots and try some new places that friends and family recommended. As always, I’m happy to share them with you here!
Coffee
Our favorite coffee of the week was had at The Coffee Movement in Chinatown. Pictured above is their Coffee Cream Soda featuring espresso, tonic, orange zest, vanilla bean, and coconut whipped cream. So good!
Breakfast
Even though we have several Tartine locations in LA, the menu in SF is fairly different and it’s nice to visit their original locations - so we went for breakfast on our first morning. We both had coddled eggs with za’atar toast and smoked trout roe, chives, horseradish and olive oil. (!) This was one of the best breakfast dishes I’ve had in any recent timeframe.
Breakfast
If you’ve ever been to SF, someone has probably told you to go to The Mill, and for good reason. Their toast really is unbeatable - I got the “egg-in-a-hole” with garlic and sage compound butter and Nick got smoked trout with creme fraiche, cucumber, pickled onion and fresh herbs and then we shared an obligatory cinnamon toast.
Coffee + Matcha
Andytown is a favorite for coffee and matcha, specifically the snowy plover and the matcha plover (organic matcha, brown sugar syrup, sparkling water over ice, topped with their housemade whipped cream)
Coffee + pastries
Craftsman and Wolves’ pastries are truly stunning - they’re also widely available at tons of coffee shops around the city if you don’t make it directly into the shop.
Dinner
Flour + Water is an iconic SF establishment and ended up being our favorite meal of the trip. We had cacio e pepe arancini, albacore tuna crudo, prosciutto pizza, taleggio scarpinocc, and strawberries with mascarpone mousse. It was unbelievably delicious and even better than I remembered.
Flour + Water
Flour + Water
Natural Wine
We went to Bar Part Time for natural wine - no corkage fee on Tuesdays btw! Excellent vibe all around, knowledgable staff, and we had a really interesting orange wine.
Natural Wine
We went to Buddy for natural wine another night, and ended up getting a few appetizers like this peach, heirloom tomato and labneh dish, which was very good. They also had a large outdoor area in the front where you could stand around with a glass if you weren’t trying to eat anything.
Dinner + Drinks
ABV was so good that we went two nights in a row - easily the best bar food I’ve ever had in my life, though it feels wrong to classify it as bar food because it’s just flat-out incredible food on its own. Not pictured from the previous night were the zestiest, crunchiest garlic fries topped with grilled octopus. Cannot wait to go back :’)
Check out more of my favorite places in San Francisco, here. Thanks for reading and I hope you get a chance to enjoy some of these incredible spots!