San Francisco. When you come to the Annual Meeting at the Moscone Convention Center in San Francisco this year, you’ll find yourself in the center of a very walkable, food-obsessed city and within two blocks of major transportation modes that will take you most anywhere you want in this city. You’ll be within a ten minute walk to Chinatown, a ten minute walk to the promenade along the Embarcadero, a twenty minute walk to North Beach, in the middle of the developing museum and gallery district of the City, and a short ride from the Mission and the Castro. We like to complain about MUNI, our public transportation system, but it is generally fast and comprehensive. More about that later. We are also served by BART, connecting various parts of the city and the surrounding areas. You can eat at places within 5 minutes of a Muni or Bart stop and never feel cheated of opportunities.

Varied, easily accessible food. We are blessed with fresh food, organic food, and additive-free food. Much of our restaurant food shows it. We are also blessed with many nationalities and cultures and our restaurant choices reflect that. With our history, our food scene is dominated by Italian, Latino-Hispanic and Pacific Rim influences. We don’t just have Italian restaurants, but representatives of different regional Italian cuisines; the same holds for Chinese restaurants. We also have a good selection of vegetarian restaurants, in addition to vegetarian offerings at other restaurants. And we like our coffee; some of us even like Seattle’s coffee.

Focus on local offerings. This guide is designed to give you a quick note of eating opportunities within two blocks of the convention center, and point you to other food centers in the city.

I’ll leave chain restaurants to you, and focus on accessible, tasty, and/or inexpensive alternatives to hotel restaurants, and even alternatives to restaurants at all, with a few splurges thrown in. With few exceptions, this guide is experience and evidence-based. If we include anything we’ve not tried, we’ll note it.

More and More to come. Those of you staying in hotels north of Market St. will walk by other eateries on your way to and from the conference. (In fact, you can’t avoid them – we claim everybody in San Francisco can eat out at the same time and there would still be unused restaurant capacity.) We’ll try to highlight some of the more interesting ones in the later guide. Check the listserv and the Web page later this year, or come to the Health Administration booth in the Exhibit Hall to pick up a more complete guide.

Other necessities. We’ll also locate some other necessities – banks, computer stores, business services, office supplies, and drug stores.

Meeting Location. The Moscone Convention Center is bordered On the east by 3rd St., on the West by 4th, on the north by Mission, on the south by Folsom, with Howard running right through it and paralleling Mission and Folsom (http://www.APHA.org/meetings/housing.htm).

Getting downtown from the airport. We’ve recently completed and opened our BART extension to the airport. So you can now get into town by courtesy bus, shuttle bus to train, shuttle vans, and BART. BART is very inexpensive and drops you off under Market Street. For the Convention Center and hotels around it, get off at Powell Station (around 5th) or Montgomery Station (around 2nd). Early reviews suggest that our turnstiles present some challenge to people with a lot of luggage and the BART cars themselves don’t easily accommodate passengers with many bags.

Food – and other necessities.

On Third Street. Going South.

Between Market and Mission. On the west side (left as you look towards Market), you’ll find a convenience store, Zain’s, with limited groceries, magazines, a deli section, and liquor, open 7AM to 12 midnight. On the east side, an Office Depot.

Between Mission and Howard. On the west side, you’ll find the Yerba Buena Gardens, on top of the convention center, a great place to take some food and eat out in the air. On the right side, in the Museum of Modern Art building, Caffe Museo, an upscale cafeteria style museum coffee shop, with indoor and outdoor tables, daily specials, beer and wine. It has very tasty food, allows eating light or hearty, with entrees including sandwiches from $6 – 10. It is closed Wednesdays, open 10 to 6 every other day except Thursday and Friday, when it stays open until 9.

Between Howard and Folsom. A Wells Fargo ATM, a (shudder) outpost of the evil Seattle coffee empire, Starbucks, complete with T Mobile Hot Spot, a small pedestrian alley, where you’ll find At Your Service, Inc., a business services store, (543-7444) and Shiki, a small Japanese restaurant with a few outdoor tables, not very good but light, inexpensive, and open air.

At the corner of 3rd and Folsom, Moscone, liquor and deli, another convenience store.

Between Folsom and Harrison. On the east side, Pazzia, (Madness) (512-1693) a small Italian restaurant with a wood burning oven, good reviews, charm, and indoor and outdoor seating.

On Fourth Street. Going South.

Between Market and Mission. On the west side, a Container Store, Annabelle’s Bar and Bistro (777-1200), a pleasant light meal or drink, and a full service hardware store, Cole Fox Hardware.

Between Mission and Howard. Another Starbucks and hot spot.

On Mission Street (the north border of Yerba Buena Gardens).

Between 4th and 3rd, CompassPoint on the fifth floor of 706 Mission (541-9000). This is an organization specializing in management support to not-for-profit organizations. It sells books focused on management issues of all shapes on non profits, publishes an electronic newsletter, offers workshops, etc. (www.compasspoint.org.)

Between 3rd St. and New Montgomery, AG Ferrari, an upscale Italian foodstuffs and wine store, with ready made sandwiches, custom made sandwiches, salads of all types, wonderful desserts, a deli counter. You can eat slices of Italian spinach pie for under $3.00 and sandwiches for $6-7. Eat inside, outside, take a picnic across the street to Yerba Buena (Good Grass) Gardens or down to the Embarcadero. Open Monday through Saturday, 10 AM to 7:30 PM; Sunday 10 to 6. Just next-door is the California Historical Society, with interesting exhibits illuminating how we got to be the way we are.

On Howard Street. (the street that runs between the northern and southern Convention Center buildings).

Between 5th and 4th Street. Several eateries, the Grounded Internet Café (896-9616), offering access plus some business services, a discount computer store, a rental car company Avis, and SF Exposure, a gallery currently showing The Crisis of America’s Uninsured, unfortunately scheduled to close before you arrive.

On Folsom Street, the southern border of the convention center.

Between 5th and 4th, Lulu (495-5775), a great room with a wood fired hearth, great reviews, more space and less attitude, now that the dot.com boom has gone bust.

Between 4th and 3rd. Enterprise Rent-a-Car, and Cha Am (546-9711), a pleasant Thai Restaurant/Bar and Grill,

Between 3rd and Hawthorne. The previously mentioned Moscone Liquor and Deli convenience store.

A little farther afield.

Yank Sing, at 49 Stevenson St., between 1st and 2nd (541-4949) or 101 Spear St., between Howard and Mission (957-9300), an upscale dim sum (little plates) restaurant, serves it every day. You point at items that circulate through the room and when you are finished, they count the plates you’ve had to generate the bill.

In the Sheraton Palace, the Sheraton Palace Court (covered) is worth a look even if you don’t eat there. Notable among its offerings are a pricey, but delicious, Japanese breakfast served everyday and a sumptuous Sunday brunch, served, of all things, on Sundays. There’s also a very nice bar, Maxfield’s, with happy hour and nibbles everyday.

Café Madeleine, in the Phelan building, at 43 O’Farrell Street, (415 362-3332) serves very nice sandwiches, grilled, gourmet and/or express, soup, salads, and tasty affordable pastry. It has a few counter seats, and a couple of outdoor tables, or take it out and eat in one of the many plazas along Market Street.

Or find Belden Place, just a few doors away from the intersection of Bush and Kearney. There you’ll find Italian, Catalan, and French restaurants with alley seating and flavorful food. At the mouth of the Alley, you’ll find Sam’s Grill (421-0594). Sam’s and Tadich’s Grill, at 240 California, (391-2373) serve old time San Francisco seafood and atmosphere. Fresh grilled fish, sourdough bread, a glass of wine, and…

Walk 15 minutes along Kearney, turn left on Columbus and you’ll find yourself in North Beach, the shrinking Italian neighborhood. Walk a couple of blocks and you’ll come to Molinari, an Italian deli. Go in, grab a piece of bread, give it to the counterman and have him make you the sandwich you want then walk down a couple of more blocks and eat it on a bench or on the grass at Washington Square Park.

On the way to the park, you’ll pass a small restaurant with maybe ten tables in it, owned by two women who use only an oven to cook, L’Osteria del Forno, 519 Columbus Av. (982-1124). If you didn’t get a sandwich at Molinari, eat here. They have small dishes, as well as a spectacular roast pork, roasted in milk and surrounded with roast potatoes, sweet potatoes, and carrots. Small and modest but good wine list by the glass. Inexpensive. No credit cards.

And three favorites.

Zuni Café, at 1658 Market St., between Franklin and Gough (552-2522), hop a streetcar, or take the Muni Metro (underground) to Van Ness station and walk two more blocks. They reserve 30% of the house for walk-ins, have a great bar, great shellfish, and signature dishes like a wood fired, brined roast chicken, an unusual hamburger, and an espresso granita. You can graze or eat main courses.

Incanto, at Church and Duncan (hop the J-Church line underground), get off above ground at 27th or 28th. Italian, light, they reserve the bar, some bar tables and several outdoor tables for walk-ins, have a wine list that is at least 95% Italian, serve wine by the half glass and in flights of three or four as well as in bottles and full pours. Come in between 5:30 and 6:30, sit at the bar, order a flight and they’ll provide you with nibbles.

Clementine, 126 Clement St. (between 2nd and 3rd Aves, NOT Streets). French, full, charming, wonderful food. Reservations a must, but weekdays, until 6:30 or 7, they serve a three-course prix fixe meal at more than reasonable process.

Listserv and URL. Check the listserv, or the Health Admin Web page (http://www.public-health.uiowa.edu/apha/) for more later this fall.

North Beach (Italian plus), the Mission (Latino as well as a diverse and growing reasonably priced eating corridor easily accessed by Muni and Muni Metro) , the Tenderloin, a developing area of tasty, inexpensive food plus vegetarian, Chinese, other Asian, other Italian restaurants, coffee bars and wine tasting rooms.

Do your own research. In the meantime, here are some resources for your own research:

San Francisco has two alternative weekly newspapers, each with its restaurant reviews, summaries, Best of San Francisco features, The Bay Guardian and S.F. Weekly. The bay Guardian has just put its last ten years of the Best of on the web:

http://www.sfbg.com/SFLife/chowtown.html

http://www.bestofthebay.com/2003/index.html

http://bestofthebay.com/2002/index.html

http://www.sfweekly.com/issues/current/dining_toc.html

San Francisco Magazine also runs restaurant reviews, and recently ran an issue on the 125 best things to eat in the Bay Area:

http://www.ctguide.com/pages/dining/SFdining.html

http://www.sanfran.com/

In addition, there is the daily paper, such as it is, whose best features include sports and the food and wine sections on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. It recently ran a list of the 1oo best Restaurants of the Bay Area:

http://www.sfgate.com/eguide/food/restaurants/top100/

Check the Health Administration website for additions to this list and links to Bay Area attractions.

But, most of all, come to San Francisco, and check us out.

SF & Bay Area Links

Compiled by Monica Chan, Past Chair, CHPPD,
in collaboration with Giorgio Piccagli, Past Chair, HAS

Transportation

Museums, San Francisco

Museums, Surrounding Communities

Bay Area Discovery Museum: www.baykidsmuseum.org/
Chabot Space and Science Center: www.chabotspace.org/
Monterey Bay Aquarium: www.montereybayaquarium.org/
Oakland Museum of California: www.museumca.org/
Berkeley Museum of Art & Pacific Film Archive: www.bampfa.berkeley.edu/

Kid Friendly Museums, San Francisco

California Academy of Sciences: www.calacademy.org/
Cartoon Art Museum (some exhibits may not be suitable for young children, visit on-line or call for current exhibits): www.cartoonart.org/
The Exploratorium: www.exploratorium.edu/

Kid Friendly Museums, Surrounding Communities

Bay Area Discovery Museum: www.baykidsmuseum.org/
Chabot Space and Science Center: www.chabotspace.org/
Monterey Bay Aquarium: www.montereybayaquarium.org/
Oakland Museum of California: www.museumca.org/
Lawrence Hall of Science, University of California, Berkeley: www.lhs.berkeley.edu/

Music, San Francisco

San Francisco Opera: www.sfopera.org/
San Francisco Symphony: www.sfsymphony.org

Music, Surrounding Communities

Watch this space.

Theater/Stage, San Francisco

American Conservatory Theater: www.act-sfbay.org/
Curran, Golden Gate, and Orpheum Theaters: www.bestofbroadway-sf.com/

Theater/Stage, Surrounding Communities

Berkeley Repertory Theater: www.berkeleyrep.org/

Other Entertainment / Multiple Venues, San Francisco

San Francisco Ballet: www.sfballet.org/
Steve Silver’s Beach Blanket Babylon: www.beachblanketbabylon.com/
San Francisco Performances: www.performances.org/
TeatroZinZanni: <love.zinzanni.org/> (If this address doesn’t work directly, try: www.teatrozinzanni.org)

Other Entertainment / Multiple Venues, Surrounding Communities

Cal Performances, University of California, Berkeley: www.calperfs.berkeley.edu/