Since it was around 8 o'clock when we arrived and we were starving, we tumbled down the hill a couple of blocks to Columbus to check out the restaurants. It was Saturday night and North Beach was hopping with a lot of baby boomers like us. Most restaurants were full with waiting lines so we were checking them all out for later. Capp's Corner, closest to us, has a prix fixe dinner with a soup and salad served family-style. That looked quaint but it is closed on Monday and Tuesday in the winter. On the corner is Molinari's delicatessen and Fernando keeps wanting to stop in for a sandwich but so far we have restrained him. Maybe we can pack up sandwiches for our walk across the Golden Gate Bridge one of these days.
We decided on Tony's Pizza Napoletana but the line was out the door. Fortunately he has a "slice house" next door that is a quicker take-out so we got in line there. Not quite the same as your own pizza hot out of the oven but we were hungry. Then we picked up a bottle of Chimay for Fernando at a nearby grocery, went home, fixed a salad, ate dinner and thought it was the best pizza we'd ever had... We helped Fernando with the Chimay.
Sunday Streets took place last Sunday on the Embarcadero so half of the street was closed to vehicular traffic, which meant that it was full of bicycles -- the pedestrians stayed on the sidewalk. It was here that my knee began acting up and I went limping along to the Ferry Building where we had Vietnamese sandwiches and fresh spring rolls for lunch at Out the Door. The Ferry Building was hopping -- I don't know if it is like this every Sunday or if Sunday Streets drew so many people out -- and is lined with small shops with very interesting items that we couldn't afford -- lots of eye candy.
Then Penny and Erika walked, and I hobbled, down Market to catch a bus to take us to Gough Street (Gough as in "go", not "cough" says Erika). Then up to Octavia Street to another area hopping with 20-30 somethings instead of baby boomers. They had a biergarten within a chain link fence with train/ship container box cars for the buildings. Erika took us to Smitten, an ice cream shack with four made-to-order ice creams: classic vanilla, Tchoc chocolate, blood orange and mint chocolate chop. We waited in another line and finally got smooth rich almost pudding-like ice cream, frozen with liquid nitrogen. Erika's mint chocolate chip was the best because it tasted like fresh mint.
Fernando hit the hay around 8:30 but Penny and I had to stay up and watch a Pink Panther movie with Roberto Benigno. We had to get our laughs in before retiring. Next day: The Japanese Tea Garden.
