This year’s big Local Guides event, Connect Live, takes place in San Francisco, California. To help you learn more about the city, we’re highlighting food and drinks native to San Francisco and what Local Guides say about the best places to try them.
According to The San Francisco Travel Association, there are 4,415 restaurants in San Francisco. Restaurants consistently rank in the top-four reasons to visit the city, and dining in restaurants is the leading activity for tourists–ahead of shopping, visiting parks, and visiting with friends and family.
San Francisco is home to Ghirardelli Square and the Folger Coffee Company Building, both on the National Register of Historic Places, as well as Jelly Belly, which offers free daily factory tours. Peet’s Coffee and Clif Bars are also headquartered in the area.
But if you visit the city, you absolutely can’t miss these five San Francisco staples.
1. Fortune Cookies
You may associate them with featuring fortunes at their center, but it turns out, the origin of the modern fortune cookie has been the center of debate. With its 1983 decision, the Court of Historical Review made it official: The buttery vanilla-flavored confection was created in 1914 at the Japanese Tea Garden San Francisco, where a Japanese man, Makoto Hagiwara, served the treat with tea.
Another great spot to try this psychic sweet is the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory in Chinatown. There, a family-owned company has been cranking out handmade cookies in a cramped one-room shop for more than 55 years. Taking pictures of the employees as they manually fold and stuff cookies costs 50 cents, while samples of imperfect fortune cookies are free.
Local Guide Kristin Bass says they make great gifts: “Tucked away in a Chinatown alley, this factory makes some of the most delicious fortune cookies you’ll ever have. It’s fun to watch the cookies being made, but I keep coming back because the cookies are so good. I’ll buy a big bag, or a half a dozen chocolate-dipped ones to send to my sister in Virginia. They’re always a big hit.”
2. Mai Tais
Sipping these cocktails conjures an instantly sunny state of mind, but the mai tai was created in often overcast San Francisco at Trader Vic’s. The South Pacific-themed global chain, originally founded as Hinky Dink’s at the corner of 65th and San Pablo in Oakland, was concoted by restaurateur Victor J. Bergeron to provide “complete escape and relaxation.” The original mai tai is made with lime juice, orange Curaçao, orgeat syrup, simple syrup, Jamaican rum, and Martinique agricole rhum.
Give the mai tai a try at Tonga Room & Hurricane Bar inside Nob Hill’s iconic Fairmont San Francisco Hotel. The 73-year-old Polynesian-themed institution serves up fun, food, and entertainment in an elaborate setting–its “lagoon” was converted from what originally served as an indoor swimming pool, and the dance floor was constructed from the remains of a transpacific schooner built in 1900. In the words of Local Guide Colleen Milton, “Kitschy San Francisco fun. It’s been around forever and it’s a fun tiki bar-style place to grab a mai tai and enjoy the ‘storm’ over the indoor pool.”
3. San Francisco Sourdough
The City by the Bay knows how to do carbs. The Sourdough Bread Bowl has been a Boudin Bakery staple since 1849. The area’s cool climate, along with the local varieties of wild yeast and lactobacillus, have allowed Boudin’s mother dough to thrive for almost 200 years. A portion of the mother dough is saved each day and fed with flour and water, tripling in size overnight to continue the restaurant’s tradition. A long and slow fermentation then gives each piece of Boudin bread a distinctive, tangy flavor. From dough to oven to mouth, the entire process takes 72-hours and results in a golden crust, chewy texture, and dense crumb.
The Acme Bread Company is another spot to try famous San Francisco sourdough. Principally a wholesale company supplying bread to dozens of restaurants around the Bay Area, there’s also an Acme Bread Company retail shop in the Ferry Building Marketplace. Made with organic unbleached wheat flour, water and sea salt, and leavened with naturally-occurring wild yeast starters, Acme’s sourdough comes in the form of baguettes, batards, rounds, loaves, and twinkles. Local Guide Jill Navarro says, “This is bread HEAVEN!!! I’ve been going here for 25+years. Wonderful employees and THE best sourdough bread ever!!!”
4. Popsicles
Popsicles have become a summer weather staple, but they were invented by an 11-year-old boy on a cold night in San Francisco in 1905. Frank Epperson left a mixing stick in a glass filled with soda-water powder and water out overnight on his back porch. The young boy found it frozen the next morning. By 1924, Epperson had patented “a handled, frozen confection or ice lollipop.” He called it the “Epsicle,” a combination of his last name and the word “icicle.”
One popsicle you have to try while in San Francisco is a Gelato pop by Sixth Course, a dessert shop that’s been open since 2014 in the Mission District. These refreshing treats are small-batch-pasteurized using local organic dairy and then hand-dipped on-site. Dairy-free “sorbetto” options are also available. It’s all in the details at this small dessert shop, which features truffle-inspired lighting. Local Guide Scott Judkins gives Sixth Course five stars: “Gelato pops, truffle shuffles, small-batch chocolates, and caramels to die for! Support your local small-batch chocolatier store by stopping in and purchasing some deliciousness. I promise you won’t be disappointed. In fact, you will tell all your friends about this diamond in the rough.”
5. Martinis
You can now order varieties of them in bars around the world, but the martini gets its name from Martinez, Calif., 36 miles from San Francisco. As the story goes, a miner struck it rich during the Gold Rush in 1849, and while making his way back to SF, he stopped off in Martinez to celebrate his success. A bartender served up the “Martinez Special,” with one part very dry Sauterne wine and three parts gin, then chilled the concoction and topped it with an olive. When the miner arrived in SF, he ordered the drink, but the bartender had never heard of it. The “Martinez Special” was introduced to the city, and over time, “Martinez” was shortened to “martini.”
San Francisco’s Martuni’s serves up equal parts martinis and tunes. The Lower Haight nightlife spot is one of the city’s last piano bars. There, you can taste chocolate, mango melon, cosmopolitan, and lemon drop martinis, all while singing along to live piano show tunes and classics. Local Guide Josef Aukee sums up the scene with five stars: “Festive lounge with piano bar in rear room. Large, delicious martinis and manhattans dominate, but skilled staff can make anything happen. Easily one of upper Market area’s best stops for a real drink and sizzling crowd.”
A passion for food is something Local Guides around the world share. Tell us about the food in your city and share your favorite recipe in the comments below!
