- 2 days ago
Tony finds you can get a meal of raw meat for under $20 in San Francisco.
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00:00What essentially is the style, cooking-wise?
00:09The stereotype leads you to believe that it's really crunchy out here.
00:13You're going to see a lot of vegetables, hippy cheeses, artisanal saloon.
00:18And that's true.
00:20But there is a strong, powerful, deep, traditional undercurrent of liquor and meat
00:27and just dirty, nasty behavior.
00:30To San Francisco.
00:34I can't believe I went for something so touristy and cheesy, and I really went for it.
00:50You don't need to have the clam chowder bowl down at Fisherman's Wharf.
00:53There's a lot more to see and do in San Francisco.
00:56And you can really get a feel for the neighborhoods pretty easily.
01:00And I think one of the best things you can do in San Francisco is eat and drink.
01:03So welcome tourists, but try something else besides the guidebook recommendations.
01:09If Los Angeles is the king of low-end eateries and New York dominates with its sheer number of high-end,
01:22then San Francisco is undisputed champion of the middle.
01:26It seems like anywhere you walk in off the street in San Francisco, they're doing proud, creditable, careful work at reasonable prices.
01:39There are two major airports, San Francisco International and Oakland International.
01:45They're both around 30 minutes out from the center of the city.
01:48I took a cab, but you can take the BART, Bay Area Rapid Transit, if you want.
01:54Fast, easy, and inexpensive.
02:04Hello. Checking in for Bourdain.
02:07Well, I've made it to San Francisco.
02:09And there seems to be some confusion about my reservation.
02:16Checking in for Bourdain, please.
02:18Welcome, Mr. Bourdain.
02:19B-O-U-R-D-A-I-N.
02:20Looks like your room is ready.
02:21Great.
02:22Well done. Thank you.
02:23Enjoy your stay.
02:24A momentary lapse by my producers, no doubt.
02:29In the end, I find myself comfortably installed with great digs to sleep in.
02:36Hotel whore that I am, I'm fond of the Fairmont on Knob Hill.
02:41Big, old, built in 1907 with loads of history, lots of character, and most importantly, a tiki bar in the cellar.
02:50Cheaper by far is the Hotel des Altes in San Francisco's mini French Quarter.
02:57Individually painted and decorated rooms from up-and-coming local artists.
03:01Stay the night in the Unabomber suite.
03:03The small, windowless, works-of-art rooms are curated by a nearby gallery.
03:09Bathrooms are shared, which might explain the low, low prices, beginning at 59 bucks.
03:20Day one, and I do what I always do, day one, in San Francisco.
03:24Straight off, I'm thinking shellfish at one of my favorite places anywhere.
03:29Also, I'm catching up with an old friend.
03:31Chef, restaurateur, legend, Roland Passot.
03:35Owner-chef of La Folie and the more casual group of brasseries, The Left Bank.
03:41Can I slice a little bit?
03:42A master of all things French, he's been living and working here for 24 years.
03:51Chef.
03:52Hey.
03:53Hey, how are you?
03:54Good to see you.
03:55Good to see you.
03:56Ready for breakfast?
03:57Ready for breakfast.
03:58I like good breakfast like this.
03:59Are we grabbing a taxi?
04:00I think we'll walk.
04:01It's a beautiful day in San Francisco.
04:03San Francisco at its best in the summer.
04:05Hey man, how are you?
04:07Morning.
04:08I watch the show all the time.
04:10What's up?
04:11You should run for president.
04:12That's the worst job in the world right now.
04:14No kidding, huh?
04:15Plus, I wouldn't stand up to the investigation.
04:20Look at this.
04:21Here we are.
04:22It's all about fresh.
04:23Sweet.
04:25Just a few blocks to my hotel, Swan Oyster Depot is both local landmark and a personal one.
04:31Serving up raw and cooked awesomeness for almost a hundred years.
04:35It's casual with only about 20 stools at the counter and a first-come, first-served seating policy.
04:42Meaning, get there early, because there's like always a line.
04:46Good morning, gentlemen.
04:47Good to see you.
04:48Good to see you again.
04:49Good to see you.
04:50How are you doing?
04:51How are you doing, neighbor?
04:52Well, I'm really so happy to be here.
04:54This is really like a station of lacrosse for me every time I come to San Francisco.
04:58Even if I'm eating on camera, like every 10 minutes, I try to find a moment to sneak in here and shove food in my face.
05:05It's all about fresh here.
05:06Everything is so fresh.
05:07It's in a lot of ways for me, it's the perfect restaurant.
05:09You eat at a counter, it's totally devoid of .
05:12This is one of my favorite places to eat in America.
05:14We do not have the percentage of good mid-range restaurants that you guys do.
05:19You're much more likely, I think, to, if you just stagger in blindly in a place in San Francisco to get a really good meal.
05:24Oh, that is just, that's perfection.
05:28This is one of the world's great things.
05:31First up, this stuff.
05:33Crab fat.
05:34The rich, delicious mix of crab fat and crab roe that collects in the carapace.
05:40Mop that up with fresh sourdough bread, and let me tell you, God made anything better, he kept it for himself.
05:47It's just the nectar of the gods.
05:49It is the nectar of the gods.
05:52When you think most restaurants get rid of that.
05:58Madness.
05:59Best breakfast in town.
06:01No doubt about it.
06:02But let's say you're a coffee nerd, an aficionado.
06:05The best is not good enough for you.
06:07Well, Java junkie, blue bottle coffee at Mint Plaza is for you.
06:12Handcrafted, artisanally produced, a $20,000 machine that makes the siphon-style coffee you can mostly find only in Tokyo.
06:21Oh, and there's food too, like morel poached eggs and Euro-style sandwiches.
06:27Me, I'm hitting the oysters hard.
06:30They have a selection.
06:32New point from Massachusetts.
06:34Kumamoto from Humboldt Bay, California.
06:36Fanny Bay Miyagi, British Columbia.
06:38And a local from Drake's.
06:41Look at those sea urchins.
06:43And finally, another passion of mine, sea urchin.
06:47Oh, wow.
06:48Yeah, there is.
06:49Look at that.
06:50Help, please.
06:51Have some.
06:52I don't know why so many people are so afraid of sea urchin.
06:55Wow.
06:56This is really one of the, just the, the great ingredients.
07:01The freshest.
07:02I mean, this is so clean, so fresh.
07:05Look how big they are.
07:07You don't want to work on that sucker.
07:10Man.
07:11So, what are the everyday things in San Francisco that make you happy?
07:14You know, that make you say, you know what, I'm glad I live in this city.
07:17Many people take it for granted, but crossing every day the Golden Gate Bridge.
07:21You know, and sometimes it's foggy.
07:23Sometimes it's beautiful.
07:24Sometimes there's just the fog rolling over the bridge.
07:27It's just like, wow, I live here in San Francisco.
07:31I live in a place where it's full of magic.
07:34Or I go to the farmer's market on Thursdays and I get my strawberry from a beautiful girl called Adriana.
07:41Gorgeous, gorgeous strawberries.
07:43I mean, some of the best strawberries I've tasted.
07:45Or, or, uh, Eddie, the big Mexican farmer will give me hugs when I come to the market.
07:50And, uh, okay, what do you want today?
07:51You know, I have that type of peaches or that type of nectar, you know.
07:55You know, that is part of the happiness of living here.
07:58Because, you know, there's a connection, there's a contact.
08:01To San Francisco.
08:02To San Francisco.
08:03Great and noble city.
08:04And to, uh, Swanee Street Depot.
08:06To Swanee Street Depot.
08:07Bye-bye to Roland and into a cab and off to Twin Peaks.
08:12This lookout at the geographical center of town is where the best view is.
08:16As if I really give a about views, right?
08:19Because I don't.
08:21B-movie revivals would be more of my thing.
08:24If I wasn't standing around up on a freaking hilltop looking at the view.
08:28The Castro Theater hosts revivals, foreign and indie films.
08:33And, I'm told, the occasional sing-along.
08:36I won't be going to that one.
08:37I'm headed down to the Lower Haight.
08:39The Haight district is made up of two parts.
08:42Upper Haight starts at Golden Gate Park and includes the infamous crossroads of Haight-Ashbury.
08:47As you make your way eastbound on Haight Street, you eventually start heading downhill and end up at, you guessed it, the Lower Haight.
08:55Daytime drinking is a tradition here as it is in any great city.
08:59My biggest advice to you when you come to drink in San Francisco is when you order a drink at the bar, have your money ready.
09:06Know what you're drinking.
09:08Whatever you do, don't turn around or wave money.
09:10We don't like that.
09:12The Toron Auto Bar is a good place for me to start my day.
09:17Known mostly for beer, of which they stock 50-plus microbrews and about 100 bottle beers.
09:23And most importantly, they boast a No Grateful Dead policy on the jukebox, which ensures me the peace of mind and spirit I need to get a late morning buzz.
09:33This place is busy for this time of day.
09:36What do these people do for a living that you can drink beer here?
09:39What day of the week is it?
09:40Tuesday.
09:41It's Tuesday.
09:42It's Tuesday.
09:43Coming up on one.
09:44A lot of people here right now are industry people, so they work later on.
09:48Oh, so it's a restaurant?
09:50Well, yeah.
09:51Tuesday and Wednesday is my weekend.
09:53Well, that says a lot about you when it's industry people who make up a significant part of your crowd.
09:58There are two other places you could check out.
10:01Zeitgeist Bar and Pier 23 Cafe.
10:04The Zeitgeist is a beer garden with a juke loaded with work from local bands, huge back patio filled with picnic tables.
10:11The regulars are often bike messengers and locals only.
10:15If the weather's nice, Pier 23 might be what you need.
10:19Avoid the touristas and slow movers at Fisherman's Wharf and get your view here.
10:28When you travel around, you don't like to do what seems like the touristy thing.
10:32So like San Francisco is a touristy city.
10:34When you come here, what else would interest you if you were traveling here as a tourist?
10:39I would go to the Zam Zam Room.
10:41I would go to House of Prime Rib.
10:42I would go to Swan Oyster Depot.
10:44Swan.
10:45Oh, those dudes.
10:46Oh.
10:47You got a post up there earlier.
10:48You're waiting in line, though.
10:50Where would you go see?
10:51Yeah, when my friends come out here, if they want to go to the Fisherman's Wharf or whatever,
10:56they can do that on their own, but I try to take them to the offbeat places.
11:00You know, even just taking a drive out of the city a half hour up north into Marin or Sonoma,
11:05you get a whole other world of Northern California.
11:09After a few beverages, it's off to meet Chris Cosentino, chef, owner of Encanto, the pioneering,
11:19offal-centric restaurant in the Noe Valley neighborhood.
11:22Chris and I meet at Tojang in the inner Richmond.
11:26This is the super fun spot.
11:28I mean, we come here 2 in the morning.
11:30It stays open late.
11:31How do you hear about it?
11:32I used to live in this neighborhood.
11:34I used to live two blocks down, so.
11:37Hwasoon Im is a Korean woman from Seoul who gathers her own herbs, makes her own base sauces,
11:43and puts up her own kimchi and pickles in a fermentation shed out back of her restaurant.
11:48And we thought we were doing cool stuff.
11:50This woman's got us hands down done.
11:53She's, like, she's taking it to the next level.
11:56What is, what are these, chewy and delicious?
11:58Oh, it's clams.
12:00Wow.
12:02And you should see she ferments her own fish in the back, too.
12:05That's crazy.
12:06It's not, you don't see this anywhere.
12:08Is that legal?
12:09I don't know.
12:10It's something that, whoa.
12:12Whoa.
12:13It's a lot bigger today than usual.
12:15Oh, my God.
12:16Your mom went for the gusto.
12:18Holy cow.
12:20First up, fish head curry.
12:23Okay.
12:24Oh, my God.
12:25Look at this thing.
12:26It's just completely amazing.
12:28She does not hold that.
12:30I could, of course, have gone to, say, the king of noodles or the off-the-grid food trucks.
12:36At King of Noodles, the thing to eat is the wontons and, of course, noodles, made fresh in-house.
12:43Off-the-grid trucks are a roaming tribe of delicious food options.
12:48Unlike many unenlightened cities who crack down brutally on their mobile entrepreneurs and food trucks, San Francisco has created an environment where small, individually-owned and operated businesses serving healthy, delicious, fast and affordable food can thrive, thereby providing an affordable alternative.
13:06To the scourge of traditional fast-food chains.
13:09But I'm hitting the homemade ginseng soju hard at Toh Yang and the fish head.
13:15When she brought this out to me the first time, I mean, it's like super rocket fuel.
13:31That'll do you.
13:33Well, what is San Francisco's style, cooking-wise?
13:36What does it mean?
13:37What does it imply when you come out here?
13:40Because, I mean, there's the cliché and then there's the reality.
13:43I mean, because, as, you know, San Francisco may be Chef Anise, but it's also House of Prime Rib.
13:48That's true.
13:49People are all about letting you be what you are, who you are, not really, not judging you for it.
13:54Right.
13:55And I think, food-wise, it gave you the opportunity to really, I treated that mentality when I came here in that same way.
14:04Come on.
14:05It's a 35-minute ride to brilliant wine.
14:08Listen.
14:09You have oysters at 20 minutes away.
14:11That's magic.
14:12You know, if you had 11 million more people here, every chef in New York would be out here.
14:15That's it.
14:16They'd all be banging on the door begging to live here.
14:18Yep.
14:19Oh, my God, look at that.
14:20This is the pork belly.
14:21And it's pretty, too, isn't it?
14:24Oh, look at that.
14:27Oh, wow.
14:30Unbelievable.
14:32Mmm.
14:34Wow.
14:35Yeah, just when you thought pork belly was over.
14:38Oh, no.
14:39It's never over.
14:41Oh, my goodness.
14:43What are you doing to us now?
14:45Whoo!
14:46Whoo!
14:47What is this?
14:48This one is baked.
14:49Mmm.
14:50This one is a little sweeter.
14:51Yeah.
14:52Mmm.
14:54It's gonna be a rough night.
15:03If I had one other tip for tourists here, other than never to say Frisco or San Fran,
15:08I would suggest that people definitely dress in layers when they come here.
15:11The weather can change from one minute to the next.
15:13And wear good walking shoes, because you're gonna be doing a whole lot of walking in the city.
15:17Which is the best!
15:18Yeah.
15:19Alright.
15:20All right.
15:22Chris and I continue our journey into a taxi back to the hotel.
15:26Ah!
15:27To the tonga room, my good man.
15:29How come you didn't make an episode of food for the gay people?
15:35Food for gay people? Just for gay people?
15:37Like we have a Castro district, you know?
15:40Yeah, but I mean, do gay people eat differently than straight people?
15:43Well, they have some popularity, you know, like some restaurants, some bars, like...
15:49Just gays, you know? So I think that's a good idea.
15:52Ah, do the gay show.
15:53Yeah, that'd be nice.
15:54Man, I like it, it's creative, it could be crazy, it could be fun, and it would really freak out the network.
16:00Oh, it's huge.
16:01And they wouldn't be able to say anything about it.
16:03No, because then they would be considered an NPC.
16:05Right.
16:06I've got some of this eagle.
16:07Right. I'd have to get wardrobe for this show, though.
16:10I would definitely have to dress for this show.
16:12Do you want a ball gag?
16:13I definitely want a good jacket, at least.
16:17There's a bikini for you.
16:19I might have one of those, actually, in my closet somewhere.
16:23Seventies.
16:25The line was a little fuzzier.
16:28Chris and I are headed to a special place, a magical place.
16:33The Tonga Room, the genuinely fabulous tiki bar-cum-Polynesian restaurant in the cellar of the Fairmont Hotel, conveniently close to my room.
16:43So what do you think?
16:43Do you want to sit up?
16:44Holy crap.
16:45I told you.
16:47It's...
16:48I wasn't kidding.
16:50Like, this is it.
16:52I mean, this was the original pool for the hotel.
16:55And they turned it into this bar.
16:57They're hitting the buffet.
17:00They're not around.
17:00The ship's mast and sail.
17:03Mm-hmm.
17:03This is...
17:05This is completely, completely awesome.
17:08We need...
17:09Here we go.
17:11It's raining.
17:11What's going on?
17:19Oh, yeah.
17:21You know, and that's strangely soothing.
17:23You know, I hear the rain.
17:27I hear the thunder.
17:28I...
17:28I kind of need a hug, Chris.
17:32The indoor rain showers and thunder.
17:35Awesome, right?
17:36The stage that floats over the pool, just waiting for, like, Don Ho to sing Tiny Bubbles.
17:41This is, like, the greatest place in the history of the world.
17:47And they pour a stiff drink.
17:49You don't drink like scotch on the rocks here, man.
17:52It's girl drinks with umbrellas and and you drink them proud.
17:57I need the skull.
17:58It's a Bora Bora horror.
17:59I need...
18:00I absolutely got to drink out of a skull.
18:01Yeah, I don't want to drink out of a Coke.
18:03It's really all about what glass you're drinking it out of, for me.
18:06Yeah.
18:06Good evening, guys.
18:07We've got a bit of a surprise for you first.
18:08We have a lava bowl for four.
18:11Even though there's only two of you.
18:13Do it.
18:14Oh, yeah.
18:16Okay, Tony.
18:17Enjoy.
18:18Thank you, sir.
18:19Is this so we don't, like, connect physically?
18:21You don't want to...
18:22What's it?
18:22Cross swords, I believe they call it.
18:30Oh, yeah.
18:31I think I'm going blind as we speak.
18:32I have really...
18:34Only one word could sum up this experience.
18:37Cowabunga.
18:39Would you like to order another drink?
18:41Or how are we doing on the lava bowl?
18:43In spite of all established notions of good sense, I would like a Bora Bora horror and a zombie, if you please.
18:53Oh, my God.
18:53I think I'm going to do a Singapore sling.
18:57Perfect.
19:00Immune to the charms of a non-existent South Pacific, you could go to Alembic Bar instead, where off-duty or pre-shift bartenders and servers, chefs, beer lovers of all stripes head for a high-quality drunk.
19:14There's a tiny menu with esoteric but delicious choices, like pickled quail eggs and jerk-spiced duck hearts.
19:22I mean, to me, this is the original.
19:25It's the quintessential.
19:26It's the perfect.
19:27I tell everybody that comes to San Francisco, they have to go here.
19:30Right.
19:30You don't experience a uniqueness of San Francisco because all the GIs that came back came through here.
19:37I mean, I grew up wanting to see the South Pacific.
19:40I bought this big time.
19:42Every Chinese restaurant, every Chinese Polynesian.
19:45To me, it made me want to go to those places.
19:49So in a lot of ways, places that looked like this back in the 60s when I grew up led directly to whatever the hell I am doing for a living now.
19:57It made me want to travel.
20:00Oh, yeah.
20:01In Singapore sweet.
20:03They don't drink them in Singapore, by the way.
20:05I know, I know.
20:08To Don Ho.
20:09To Don Ho.
20:10May he rest in peace.
20:11Cheers.
20:12You will be missed.
20:14Gentle warrior Hawaiian Elvis.
20:22Oh, that's lethal.
20:27Every American needs this.
20:30I send everybody here.
20:32Because if you've got no love in your heart for this place, you are a sick, twisted, lonely with too many cats.
20:42By the time I left the Tonga Room, it was dark.
20:46I'm drunk and sticky, reeking of coconut and maraschino cherry juice.
20:50Those sizzled on Mai Tais and God knows what other kind of tropical skull drinks, I had plans to meet my old friend Oscar at a pop-up called Rice Paper Scissors.
21:05Ah, good to see you, man.
21:08Pop-up means just what it sounds like.
21:11So right here.
21:12A joint that pops up anywhere it can for a few hours or days, then moves on.
21:19We're talking about pop-ups.
21:20They're not kidding.
21:21No, they're not.
21:22Katie Kwan and Valerie Liu are the duo known as Rice Paper Scissors.
21:28And they're doing a good and heartfelt job trying to recreate the street food of Vietnam in San Francisco.
21:33Wow.
21:34Is this an approved food preparation facility?
21:37It's our food.
21:38It's a metal workshop.
21:40This is not easy.
21:41I know from my catering days.
21:43What drove you to do this?
21:44I don't know.
21:44I feel like I find it really gratifying.
21:46I find that bringing Vietnam to San Francisco is something I haven't been done before.
21:50I'm a first-generation Vietnamese American, so I was born here, but my whole family, my grandma, mom, dad, everyone, is from Vietnam.
21:57And this is my way to connect to my pictures.
21:59This would never, New York, they'd shut you down so fast.
22:04Because the lady across the street would complain.
22:07But the thing about San Francisco is that it is completely about optimism and opportunity.
22:14It kind of asks, why not?
22:17You want a table to sit down at and stuff?
22:19Maybe a more conventional option for your dinner?
22:21You should certainly go to Roland's place, La Folie.
22:25Or the somewhat less traditional Mission Chinese food.
22:28Mission Chinese food is a brainchild of Danny Bowen and Anthony Mint.
22:32It is another play on the pop-up.
22:34But this one is situated in an actual existing restaurant.
22:39Leng Shuan is an unremarkable Chinese joint in the Mission, but it becomes Mission Chinese food for much of the week.
22:46This is Danny's home restaurant, where he serves up his take on classic Chinese recipes, as well as some of his own.
22:54Higher-end, some might say luxurious, La Folie.
22:58Some call it the house of foie gras, since nearly every dish seems to contain some of this lushly, fatty, delicious organ of the gods.
23:08Decidedly unstuffy, but still fine dining, serving the good French stuff you want and need.
23:15Tonight, though, I'm doing shrimp chips and banh mi sandwiches.
23:20Look at that.
23:22Because the bread for banh mi's, you know, it's a major thing.
23:26And just about everybody gets that wrong.
23:28This is just right.
23:29This is like in Vietnam.
23:31You seem to have dragooned other people into doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
23:35And we also have volunteers help us prep, too.
23:37Wait a minute, they volunteer?
23:38Yeah, they volunteer.
23:39You don't pay them?
23:40We don't pay them.
23:40Is this a business or a performance art?
23:44Both.
23:44I volunteer with a lot of my work.
23:46Are you serving your community, or are you in business?
23:51I feel like we're creating a community.
23:53Yeah.
23:53I would be looking at this from the get-go as I'm busting my ass, humping shit around in milk crates and cars, driving out to buy this stuff.
24:00Do you think you all bailed?
24:01Working all month.
24:01I am gouging these hipsters for every dollar I can squeeze out of the pay-up sock head.
24:08Do you think you were going to have your book published when you were writing it?
24:11No.
24:12Did you?
24:13I wrote a short article.
24:14No, basically.
24:15No.
24:15No.
24:16So what were you doing?
24:17Performance art, or what were you doing?
24:19I was looking to make money.
24:20So were you looking to make money?
24:22What were you doing it for?
24:26You got a point?
24:27Uh-oh.
24:28Yeah, you got a point?
24:28I didn't think anyone would read it.
24:30I read it.
24:30I didn't think anyone would read it.
24:31I read it.
24:31I wrote it, and I was able to write it because I didn't think anyone was going to read the damn thing.
24:36See, you've managed to put this in a perspective that even I can understand.
24:39San Francisco, California is the greatest city in the world.
24:51We are treated so great here.
24:53We have the highest minimum wage in the country.
24:57It's a gay-friendly town, so if you're into that, that's fine, but you know, no one bothers you one way or the other.
25:04I, um, was not born here, but I will certainly die here because I ain't going anywhere else.
25:11It gets ugly from here, in a good way, because San Francisco is truly one of the country's best drinking towns.
25:22Maybe the best.
25:23Why?
25:24Because of places like this.
25:26Li Po in Chinatown.
25:27And named after Li Po, the famous Chinese poet who drowned while attempting to embrace the rays of the moon as reflected in the water.
25:37Is that correct?
25:38Yes.
25:39You did the research before you come here?
25:41Uh, I'm well acquainted with the works of Li Po.
25:44San Francisco's Chinatown is the largest in North America, which is a good thing.
25:49But places like Li Po just wouldn't exist without a large buffer zone on all sides.
25:54The special Mai Tais are notoriously lethal here.
25:58Well, that's good.
25:59I could have gone to Bender's for late drinks, but they have live rock and roll there, and this show is so cheap-ass that we couldn't afford to pay the music rights.
26:07So, I meet up with author chef Danny Bowen.
26:10Hey.
26:11What's up, man?
26:12How are you?
26:13Good, how are you?
26:14I'm Danny.
26:15Good, Danny.
26:16Have a seat, man.
26:17Cool.
26:18Question?
26:19No, this is my first.
26:20Okay, is that a Mai Tai?
26:21Or no?
26:22Yeah, it's the...
26:23The infamous?
26:24Is it?
26:25Is it?
26:26So, tell me about what you're doing.
26:28What are you making Chinese?
26:30It was the first pop-up ever.
26:31It was the first pop-up in the history of the world.
26:33I will go on record.
26:34I think actually it was.
26:35And the plan was, we're going to take over your...
26:38We're going to take over your restaurant for one night, and we're going to do really f***ing
26:42food.
26:43Exactly.
26:44When you went in for two nights, who was doing the food for the rest?
26:47No, their chef was still here.
26:49This guy made 140 items off this menu.
26:51Let's cook.
26:52But wait a minute.
26:53While you're doing the pop-up, the old Chinese dude...
26:57Still makes dishes for delivery.
26:59That is completely f***ing awesome.
27:02See, that is revolutionary, because I worked in a Chinese kitchen for about a year and a
27:07half.
27:08It is humbling.
27:09It's very humbling.
27:10Holy f***.
27:11These things are f***ing lethal.
27:12I told you.
27:13Well, I'm so...
27:14You're warming.
27:15I'm moving a beer.
27:17How has Chinese food changed?
27:19I mean, this was the home of sort of gluey compromise.
27:23I love...
27:24I absolutely love Chinese food.
27:26Be it good or bad.
27:28I mean, on my day off, I eat it like Panda Express.
27:30I mean, a soggy egg roll.
27:31I know.
27:32I don't care.
27:33I'll eat it cold.
27:34We both know that cold Chinese food is sometimes better than, I think, hot Chinese.
27:38Oh, no, no, no.
27:39In your refrigerator.
27:40In your refrigerator.
27:41Not even getting a bowl.
27:42Yeah, of course.
27:43When you're hungover?
27:44Please.
27:45You're not even getting a plate.
27:46You're opening the thing and you're eating it out of that General Tso's chicken.
27:48General Tso's chicken.
27:49It's better cold.
27:50Because something happens.
27:51It gets crunchy again.
27:52Yeah.
27:53What's your favorite crappy Chinese dish?
27:54I really, really...
27:55The best...
27:56No, the best...
27:57Your go-to if you're going to...
27:58What's your go-to?
27:59The one that you...
28:00Oh, I really love this one.
28:01There's a ton.
28:02There's a ton.
28:03There's a lot though, right?
28:04Yeah.
28:05Um...
28:06It's cold pork fried rice.
28:08Yeah.
28:09No, but when you order...
28:10Of the mains.
28:11General Tso's.
28:12General Tso's.
28:13I don't care if it's bad, General Tso.
28:14It doesn't matter.
28:15No, of course.
28:16I suppose I should have expected at a place like this, the proprietor tempts us with a
28:21bargain.
28:22Told you, you see?
28:23What is that?
28:24I don't know.
28:25You're in trouble.
28:26I saw this in many films and the hero always loses when he plays it.
28:30The name of this game is Liar's Dice.
28:32Now, if you've ever played Liar's Poker, you can pretty much guess how this goes.
28:37First, each person shuffles their dice and looks at their roll.
28:40Then you pick a hand, say six sixes or eight twos.
28:43Six sixes.
28:44Six sixes.
28:45Six sixes.
28:46No, seven twos.
28:47Seven deuces.
28:48The action goes around, each person either calling or raising the hand.
28:53I'll go seven sixes.
28:54It doesn't actually matter what you have on your roll.
28:57You're basically betting that your opponent is a lying sack of so you need to act accordingly.
29:02I'll call.
29:03Once everyone is called, the dice are revealed.
29:06Whoever guessed the hand correctly wins.
29:08Oh, I'm in trouble.
29:09The loser, well, they're ground into dust.
29:13I'm really glad I don't live in San Francisco because I would be here every night.
29:18Really?
29:19Wow.
29:20Yeah.
29:21I would be here drinking and doing this.
29:24Yes.
29:29Newly schooled on Games of Chance, we head to the next bar a few blocks over.
29:33Danny suggests the Comstock Saloon.
29:36Comstock Saloon, eh?
29:37Why are we here?
29:38Well, that's, I mean, it's a really awesome place.
29:41Yeah.
29:42Named after silver mining magnate Henry Comstock of the famous Comstock Load.
29:47I saw that film, I think.
29:49Thank you, sir.
29:50Thank you, sir.
29:51Owners Jeff Hollinger and Johnny Raglin carefully craft their cocktails.
29:55But Comstock is at root a no-nonsense old school bar.
29:59Let me ask you something.
30:00Yes, sir.
30:01It's kind of awesome.
30:03You are wearing a tie, sir.
30:05Absolutely.
30:06Right.
30:07You're wearing a space that's 100 years old that that was a tradition is the barman dressed up.
30:12So, Comstock, but there's Mr. B's across the web.
30:15Mr. Bing's is crazy.
30:16That's, I don't know.
30:17What do you guys think?
30:18Danny, you know.
30:19It's the second best bar in Chinatown.
30:20Yeah.
30:21It's the best.
30:22It's the best.
30:23To San Francisco.
30:28From my first glance at its sign beckoning me from across the street, I knew that between
30:32me and Mr. Bing's, it would be love.
30:35Oh, yeah.
30:37All right, so, uh, uh, beers for my friends.
30:41Here's my problem with San Francisco.
30:43Oh, what's that?
30:44When we, when this show airs, you're gonna, you're gonna get a lot of annoying foodie bloggers.
30:51Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah.
30:52Why did you go to Mr. Bing?
30:54You could've gone to a much, you know, what kind of psychotic freak would not love this place?
31:02That's what I'm saying.
31:03And if you cannot, if you're gonna find it in your heart to, to, to immediately recognize
31:08that this is a fine drinking establishment.
31:11Yeah, of course.
31:12As yours is, as Lee Poe is, then you know what?
31:15There is no hope for you.
31:16You're doing it right.
31:17You know, I come to your bar, I order an old fashioned, you're making it old school.
31:21But it's also respecting this as well, because this is a part of the same tradition.
31:24It really is.
31:25It's a part of that drinking tradition, that bar tradition.
31:30It's not just I'm serving you alcohol.
31:33That's already a very intimate relationship.
31:35Yeah.
31:36Already.
31:37Deeply intimate.
31:38The barkeep-drinker relationship is a sacred one, like with a doctor or a priest.
31:44So, is a barman like a priest or a psychiatrist?
31:48If I behave badly at your bar, are my secrets safe with you?
31:53Absolutely.
31:54Absolutely.
31:55Really?
31:56Yeah.
31:57Really?
31:58Can I check my Twitter feed?
32:09God, what to do in San Francisco for 24 hours.
32:12MoMA, like the art museum is a great place to start.
32:15Golden Gate Bridge, baseball game, if the Giants are in town, go and get some garlic fries.
32:21You can actually rent a kayak and paddle out behind the baseball field.
32:27That's something that is a one-time experience that you'll remember forever if you're in San Francisco.
32:42Later, how much later I don't know, me and Danny stumble out of Mr. Bing's in search of something to soak up the churning cauldrons of alcohol in our guts.
32:52Burger.
32:53I need a big, greasy slab of ground meat.
32:58Oh, oh, this is a great bookstore.
33:01City Lights Bookstore.
33:03This is one of the great independent bookstores in America.
33:07Right there.
33:08Yeah.
33:09But we're going for a burger.
33:10Open.
33:14I need these.
33:16Sam's Burgers is there for us.
33:19Just three blocks away, one of the few places open late and serving food around here.
33:25You can count on one hand the place is still serving food after bars close.
33:28Pizza, beer, hamburgers.
33:30I never thought a hamburger could be good in a place that also serves pizza.
33:34Are you serious right now, though?
33:38Oh, no.
33:39Sometimes it's not all about, like, you know, this and that.
33:42It's about, like, an awesome burger.
33:44Look at that.
33:45Oh, God, look at that.
33:48The double cheeseburger is the thing to get.
33:51It always is, isn't it?
33:53Oh, this place is awesome already.
33:55It's awesome, dude.
33:56Is anyone eating pizza here, by the way?
33:58I've never had pizza.
33:59I've never had pizza.
34:00So why the even has a pizza sign?
34:02What, what, what?
34:03How long has that thing sat there?
34:05Yeah.
34:06The burgers are the sickest, though, right?
34:08Like, the burgers...
34:09Oh, and there's beer with it.
34:12It's so awesome.
34:13How do you guys say open here?
34:15Four.
34:16Four, that's the thing.
34:17Because you at Lee, you'll come...
34:18Four o'clock in the morning.
34:20You are a good man.
34:22You are a patron saint of San Francisco.
34:25What, the bar is closed at what, 1.30?
34:28And you're still open to four.
34:30So if I come here at 3.59...
34:33No!
34:34No!
34:35That's it.
34:36All in, all in, all in.
34:38All in.
34:39All in.
34:40All in.
34:41You could seek late-night help
34:43at You at Lee Chinese Food
34:45or the bacon-wrapped dogs over at Lucero Munoz's,
34:48set up on the corner.
34:50Delicious and sinister and worth traveling for.
34:54You at Lee, on the other hand, in North Beach,
34:56has remained one of San Francisco's most popular after-hours options
35:00for 30 years.
35:01Open till 3 a.m.
35:03Cash only and gloriously unremodeled.
35:06Salt and pepper prawns are to be recommended.
35:09The owner fishes them out of the tank
35:11with a retrofitted tennis racket.
35:13Tonight, however, I'm going with the double cheeseburger.
35:16It's what I need right now.
35:19What do you like how your burger sounds?
35:21You know, maybe some ketchup, maybe some mayonnaise,
35:23never mustard.
35:24You want no mustard?
35:25No, no, I'm good.
35:27This is good.
35:30Oh, .
35:31Sorry.
35:33Oh, man.
35:34This brings me back.
35:36Listen, we made Peter North film some food.
35:39Oh, God.
35:41Cheers on the double cheeseburger.
35:43Done.
35:48Holy crap.
35:49Look at this.
35:50Mountain of meat.
35:51Look at this thing.
35:52I think you were my walking Buddha, sir.
36:01The night passes in a bleary, grease and mustard-soaked haze.
36:08I made it back to my hotel, only to live on to fight another day.
36:12When tourists come to San Francisco, I think one of the biggest mistakes right off the bat
36:23is just going to the tourist locations, going right where everybody, all the tourist books
36:27say to go, you know, maybe go to the war for Pier 39.
36:30But, you know, the great thing about it is, is there's so many little neighborhoods
36:34and different ethnicities and you can find all these little culinary treasures,
36:37really, at any budget.
36:39Morning in San Francisco.
36:44Full of life.
36:45Fresh air.
36:46Possibilities.
36:47For most people.
36:50Me, I had a rough night.
36:55Over in Mission Dolores Park, I meet Caleb Zegas, director of La Cocina.
37:00I mean, I've been hearing about La Cocina for a long time.
37:02If you could tell me, what the hell is it?
37:04What is it you're doing?
37:05Sure.
37:06We're a non-profit incubator kitchen.
37:07So we work with low-income and immigrant entrepreneurs, women entrepreneurs who are launching,
37:10growing and formalizing food businesses.
37:12So what is this place we're going?
37:13So Chocmul, Maria de la Luz Vazquez and Luis Vazquez, they began cooking Yucatecan food
37:18out of their homes.
37:19They were doing cochinita pibil, which is a slow-roasted pork.
37:22Oh, yeah?
37:23That sounds good.
37:24Yeah, it's pretty good.
37:25The fair is regional, indigenous, pre-Hispanic Mexican.
37:30Oh, that's great.
37:31They're just not, they're not, they're not kidding around, are they?
37:33No, it's real.
37:34It's, you know, it's a truck and you get a homemade tortilla.
37:37It's crazy.
37:38What happened with Mexican food, like, on its journey here?
37:41Like, where did fake-ass Mexican food come from?
37:44When it's easier to make, like, the real thing, cheaper to make the real thing.
37:49Right.
37:50We're not sure what are Mexicans.
37:51What happened?
37:53I think one of the things that happens to Mexican food is that a lot of our clients don't have
37:56confidence in the American consumer to eat the food they would eat at home.
37:59Ah, interesting point.
38:00So we'll do, like, an awful tour of San Francisco in a couple weeks with our clients
38:03to prove that people will eat chicharrones.
38:06They'll eat tripe if you make it right.
38:08The tortilla is awesome.
38:10Mm-hmm.
38:11You could, of course, go to Bocalon Salumeria or Rosamonde Sausage Grill.
38:18Bocalon is in the Ferry Building and the only place to experience the full line of Chris
38:23Costantino and Marc Pastor's incredible handmade artisanal cured meats.
38:29Rosamonde Sausage Grill is a small restaurant with a cult following.
38:34Grilled meat in tube form on French rolls.
38:37Up to two free accompaniments like kraut, onions, peppers, or spicy beef chili.
38:43Hell yes.
38:44For me, San Francisco is the best city to eat in the country.
38:47And that's hard for me to say because I'm, like, an East Coast biased kind of person.
38:50But I think you get low, middle, and high here like you don't get in other places.
38:55And I think you get that real, sincere middle where creativity, like, has a space.
38:59Cable car.
39:03Kind of have to do it, right?
39:05And yes, it looks, at first, kind of bogus and touristy.
39:09But then you get on and realize right away that, no, it's kind of cool.
39:14You just look at the faces, how much people are digging it.
39:17This insane, absurd, yet wonderful institution preserved still in all its dysfunctional glory.
39:25You buy in.
39:26I did.
39:27That was, like, the most magnificently up, dysfunctionally wonderful means of transport ever.
39:34It makes no sense at all in the best possible way.
39:39I can't believe I went for something so touristy and cheesy and I really went for it.
39:42Like, I've got to root my daughter on this.
39:45I'm such a sap.
39:47Now that I'm back at the Fairmont and Knob Hill.
39:50Knob Hill.
39:51It almost begs for a joke, doesn't it?
39:54It's time to pack up and get ready to head home.
40:05Fisherman's Wharf is a definite tourist area.
40:08But it's such a fabulous place.
40:10It's where I live.
40:11And I go along, check out the Fisherman's Wharf.
40:14And I get a big kick out of all the entertainment that's along the street.
40:18And then I end up at Aquatic Park.
40:20And we locals swim and row in the bay and have a wonderful time.
40:25The bay is freezing cold and we all love it.
40:31And so, my San Francisco sojourn draws to a close.
40:39Tough call where I want to stop on the way to the airport.
40:42Wee!
40:43There's haraches at El Amani Farmer's Market.
40:45El Harache Loco is run by Veronica Salazar, who makes her food to the taste of her hometown, Mexico City.
40:52The haraches and cactus salad she serves up every Saturday are superb.
40:57And right on the way to the airport.
40:59Oh, Molinari.
41:00There we go.
41:01But I go with a fierce need for a greasy, meaty Italian sub.
41:07Molinari and Sons is the right place to find one.
41:12What's up?
41:13Hi.
41:14Wow.
41:16What's in the Italian combo, the Molinari special?
41:19Basically, a little bit of everything that we have.
41:21Mortarellas, some head cheese, some pinot, a regular dry salami.
41:25Yeah.
41:26Okay.
41:27Let me do a Molinari special with what?
41:29I'm nós.
41:30We'll get to the�!
41:31We'll get to the moment.
41:32Step 2, get to the
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