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The San Francisco table: ten dishes, wines and spirits
The back story
About The San Francisco table: ten dishes, wines and spirits
San Francisco eats the world. Italian fishermen, Chinese and Mexican cooks and Gold Rush bakers each gave it a classic, and the farms, orchards and vineyards of Northern California supply it with some of the best produce in America. Here are the ten dishes to try, the wines and drinks, and the produce of the region.
Ten dishes to try
Sourdough bread: San Francisco’s bakers have made tangy, crusty sourdough since the Gold Rush. Try a country loaf from Tartine Bakery in the Mission.
Dungeness crab: the sweet local crab of the Pacific, served cracked and cold with butter or roasted with garlic. The commercial season usually opens in November or December, depending on the year.
Italian fishermen, Chinese cooks and Gold Rush bakers each gave San Francisco a classic.
Cioppino: the fishermen’s stew of North Beach, created by the Italian fishermen of the late nineteenth century: crab, clams, mussels, prawns and fish in a tomato and wine broth, with sourdough to dip. Sotto Mare on Green Street is known for it.
Oysters: briny oysters from Tomales Bay, an hour north, shucked to order at Hog Island Oyster Co. in the Ferry Building.
Dim sum: steamed dumplings, buns and small plates, best eaten at a busy lunchtime in or around Chinatown, the oldest in North America. For modern Chinese cooking in Chinatown, book Mister Jiu’s.
The Mission burrito: a huge foil-wrapped burrito of rice, beans, meat, salsa and more, born in the taquerías of the Mission District.
Green Goddess salad: the creamy herb dressing was created at the Palace Hotel in 1923, the hotel says, in honour of an actor starring in a play called The Green Goddess.
Petrale sole and sand dabs: delicate local flatfish, pan-fried and served with lemon at the city’s old seafood grills, such as the Tadich Grill on California Street.
Joe’s Special: a hearty scramble of ground beef, spinach, onions and eggs, the signature of San Francisco’s Joe’s restaurants; Original Joe’s on Washington Square serves it.
It’s-It: an ice-cream sandwich of two oatmeal cookies dipped in chocolate, created in 1928 at Playland at the Beach and still sold across the city.
Wine country
Napa Valley and Sonoma County, an hour or so north, are among the world’s great wine regions: Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay in Napa, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel in Sonoma’s cooler valleys and hills. On 24 May 1976, at a blind tasting in Paris now remembered as the Judgment of Paris, French judges placed a 1973 Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet and a 1973 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay, both from Napa, ahead of famous French wines. Our Napa Valley and Sonoma County pages tell you how to visit.
Cocktails and spirits
The Buena Vista, at the end of the Powell–Hyde cable car line, says it served America’s first Irish coffee in 1952, and still makes them by the dozen. In the Gold Rush years the Bank Exchange saloon made the pisco punch famous; the Transamerica Pyramid now stands on its site. Across the Bay in Alameda, St. George Spirits, founded in 1982, was one of America’s first craft distilleries.
From the farms
Northern California grows almost everything. Look for Meyer lemons, artichokes from Castroville, garlic from Gilroy, stone fruit in summer, citrus in winter and cheeses from the dairies of Point Reyes and Marin. The Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, outside the Ferry Building on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays, is the place to see them all.
Where to taste
For the classics, book the Tadich Grill, Sotto Mare and Original Joe’s; for oysters, Hog Island Oyster Co.; for bread and pastries, Tartine Bakery; and for an Irish coffee with a view of the Bay, The Buena Vista. All are in this guide, with the city’s MICHELIN-starred tables.
Our advice: spend a Saturday morning at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market, take oysters for lunch inside the Ferry Building and finish the day with an Irish coffee at the Buena Vista.
Why it's on our list
- Ten dishes to try
- Wine country
- Cocktails and spirits
- From the farms
- Where to taste
Opening hours, prices and seasonal openings change, so please check with The San Francisco table: ten dishes, wines and spirits before you go.