The Elixer Saloon in San Francisco’s Mission District: not just the deadfall of the week but also one of the coolest places in the world. Why? Because they have a Bloody Mary bar on Sundays that features Bacon. That’s right: BACON. BACON, BACON, BACON for your ‘make it yourself’ Bloody Mary […]
You see and hear a lot around San Francisco about how progressive the city is, and events that support this narrative (like 1934 West Coast Longshoremen’s Strike) get played up, but the foundations of the city are greed, vice, and free wheeling capitalism. A song supposedly still being sung as late as the 1930s […]
Still, you have to respect the workers for seizing the means of production, though that sounds kind of dirty . . .
Buddha lounge is in the heart of Chinatown. It’s got good Chinatown decor, a nice Buddha tapestry, a bartender who’s poor English is more than made up for by her good service and agreement to turn up the juke box and leave the volume up (even after Amy played Dancing Queen four frickin’ times).
Li Po is actually the name of a famous Chinese Poet. I’m not sure if the bar is actually named after him, but it seems likely since Li Po was “. . . best known for the extravagant imagination and striking Taoist imagery in his poetry, as well as for his great love for liquor.”
San Francisco, which packages and sells its past with the best of them, conveniently omits the Barbary Coast from much of its history. An area world famous for drugs, prostitution, violence and liquor is commemorated with . . . a pastry shop that isn’t even in the Barbary Coast: instead it’s just off Union […]
The Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco is both an aesthetic and engineering marvel, and is justifiably famous for these qualities. These same qualities, however, make it a mecca for jumpers. Walking across the bridge, one sees these signs at frequent intervals:
I’m a little ambivalent about suicides: the right to kill yourself is […]
Murio’s is dark all day with no pesky sunlight allowed inside. To brighten up the interior, Christmas lights are up and on all year round. My bartender has a spiked mohawk and is handing me a 24 ounce can of Pabst Blue Ribbon. This is my favorite Haight-Ashbury dive.
Murio’s tends to be […]
Given that San Francisco’s Barbary Coast was rife with crime and criminals, you’d expect it to be a rather well armed place and you’d be right.
Cops on the Coast beat were selected for being big men and were armed with the nightstick and pistol, familiar today, and also with a foot long knife for close […]
Joseph: “Until about ‘89 I had a good life for about 8 years, then I got on the alcohol . . . now I’m homeless.”
