People come to San Francisco humming one tune or another, and stay because it's one of the world's great romantic destinations, writes Peter Cunningham
AT 8.30 ONE evening recently, the patrons of Enrico's, a jazz and dining venue on San Francisco's Broadway, were informed by chef and part-owner Seamus Cronin that an earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale had struck the city. Aftershocks had been felt up to nine miles away, Cronin said. Enrico's patrons continued to sip their mojitos; a few made jokes of the "did the earth move for you?" variety.
San Francisco has long come to terms with living on top of the world's most unstable geophysical fault. It is just one feature that defines this city, like its Golden Gate Bridge, its cable cars and its rich lore of being the place where the hippie movement and flower power began.
San Francisco was born out of the 1848 California Gold Rush and when gold ran out, made its living from fishing. Today, the city lives on tourism. Surrounded on three sides by water, with two famous valleys at either end - Napa to the north, Silicon to the south - San Francisco, like Boston and New York, has Irish blood.
In nearby Redwood City, Daly City and Sacramento live hundreds of thousands who call Ireland home and for whom the recent provision of a new daily air service to Dublin is a source of great pride.
San Francisco is one of the world's great romantic destinations. Its reputation precedes it, for it is impossible to consider this city without also imagining kids with flowers in their hair, youthful exuberance on an epic scale, the introduction into mainstream culture of mind-altering drugs and the emergence of the gay movement.
People come to San Francisco humming one tune or another. (Maybe because of its onomatopoeic name, the list of popular songs about San Francisco numbers well over 30.) Visitors find those little cable cars and a laid-back local gentry trading on their ever-cool reputation. Few places are more pleasant in which to spend a few dawdling, nostalgic days. When the fog lifts - and it usually does around noon - the former island prison of Alcatraz ("the Rock") shines bone white out in the bay like a monastery in the Adriatic. Ferry trips to see the fortress from which Burt Lancaster escaped begin on Fisherman's Wharf, take about two hours and cost from $34.50 (€21.80) for adults.
The Gray Line bus tour - on bright red, London-type double-deckers - collects sightseers from many hotels and takes care of the basics. San Francisco's evolution from a little ocean-side shantytown where Italian fishermen sang Verdi arias into a bustling iconic 21st-century mass tourist destination becomes clearer as South Beach and Mission give way to Castro and Haight Ashbury.
From the Castro's gay bath houses, the Aids epidemic was enlarged in the late 1970s and 1980s. (The definitive book on the subject, And the Band Played On is by Randy Shilts, once a reporter on the San Francisco Chronicle). Haight Ashbury, formerly the epicentre of the hippie movement, is a faintly shabby, gently crumbling neighbourhood of health food stores and bookshops where now elderly flower children still hang out on street corners. Billboards inform the passer-by that "1 in 5 San Franciscans is Hungry". The hangover from the Gold Rush lingers on.
Stalls selling clams and soups along San Francisco's wharves abound. More formal dining may be found in the breathtaking neo-classical Cliff House at Point Lobos overlooking the Pacific Ocean. For camp and kitsch, few revues can match Beach Bar Babylon, a crazy theatrical jamboree with iconic status, located on North Beach. Moulting Celtic Tigers who still possess enough euros to cash in on the exchange rate can graze with profit in such downtown shopping emporia as the Nordstrom Shopping Centre at Fifth and Market Streets.
The Gray Line bus does scoot to the other side of Golden Gate Bridge, probably the most stared at piece of bridge engineering in the world. Yet there is no reason to halt at this outpost: car hire is inexpensive - $39 (€24.60) a day - and the winelands of Sonoma and Napa lie 40 minutes beyond the Golden Gate.
The terroir of Napa Valley, setting of the movie Sideways, is laid down on a volcanic valley. The vineyards sit in colourful regiments between the road and the angular hills. Most grape varietals can be found in this area, interspersed with the architectural styles of Chianti and Rioja. Some Napa wineries such as Bouchaine, Cartlidge & Browne and Jessup offer free tastings. (In nearby Sonoma, there are free tastings at Arrowood, Kunde and Rodney Strong).
So much to see, so little time. Artesa is carved into the Napa hillside. V. Sattui offers over 200 cheeses, along with free tasting, and a two-acre picnic grove. Lunch starts early (noon) at Rutherford, two-thirds of the way up the valley. The lunch is first class and so is a glass of the 2005 Pinot Noir, Fog Dog.
Fine dining, wine tasting and cable cars
3 places to stay
Mandarin Oriental, 222 Sansome St. Upmarket pampering near Union Square from $475 (€300) per night. Tel: 001-415-2769888.
Orchard Hotel, 5 Bush St. Rooms from $140 (€88.60) a night just off Powell Street, with breakfast included. Tel: 001-415-3628878.
Dolores Place B&B. 3842 25th Street. Victorian row house on a tree-lined street. $149 (€94.30) per night. Tel: 001-415-8248728.
3 places to eat
Cliff House, Point Lobos. Seafood in a spectacular setting. Tel: 001-415-3863330
Enrico's Sidewalk Cafe, Broadway. Dine in the city's coolest jazz hang-out. Tel: 001-415- 982-6223
Tommy Toy's Haute Cuisine, Montgomery Street. Oodles of noodles. Tel: 001-415-3974888.
3 things to do
Take a cable car from the intersection of Powell and Hyde Streets to Pier 39. Hang out with the sealions who have made this pier their home since an earthquake in 1989. Eat some clams.
Take a Bay Cruise - from Pier 39 - which takes you under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz, the famous prison island. The cruise takes an hour. Wrap up well.
Rent a car or hire a driver for a day and drive out across the Golden Gate Bridge into Sonoma or Napa Valley. Relish the scenery and taste wines you'll never come across again.
Go there
Peter Cunningham flew to San Francisco as a guest of Aer Lingus