Video Transcript
Some people consider North Beach to be the epicurian epicenter of San Francisco, maybe even of the whole Bay Area. One way to explore this culinary mecca is by taking a delightful tour given by San Francisco Chronicle restaurant columnist GraceAnn Walden. She calls it "Mangia North Beach."
Some of the places on GraceAnn's tour date back to the days when Italian immigrants settled this area and created a little city within San Francisco. "Little City Meats," points out GraceAnn. "Named for the original name of the neighborhood, and a real meat market."
Little City Market is famous for its sausage... about 30 different kinds, made fresh every day. "They're sausage crazy here," GraceAnn exclaims. "I mean, they even make corned beef sausage and polenta sausage." Little City was founded in the early 1940's by George Spinali. His son Ron has worked here since 1952. And now Ron's son Michael runs the place, surrounded by photos of the market's history.
Michael says, "Every day I get to see my grandfather right across there, cooking sausage for the North Beach Festival, and giving out samples, and it's almost like what we're doing now."
Traditions run deep in North Beach. Right across the street from Little City Market, Victoria Pastry has been making classic Italian delicacies for nearly a century. GraceAnn points out her favorite cookies, "These are called 'Brutti Ma Bono,' which is 'ugly but good.' That's a 'Cucci Datti,' and that is kind of like the best fig newton you've ever had in your life."
And GraceAnn promises me the best foccacia I've ever had a few blocks away, at Liguria Bakery. "This is a store and a bakery that dates from 1911. Owned by the same family. Now we have the third generation, of course," she says. The third generation is Michael Soracco, his brother Danny and sister Mary. And the second generation is still very active as well: parents George and Josephine.
Normally, the baking is done by the time the tour arrives, but GraceAnn explains the process. She says, "You know, it's hard to make great foccacia, and yet, like great things to eat, it's very simple. And it's basically like a pizza dough, but a little softer." Not all stops are food related. GraceAnn loves to turn her groups on to the North Beach Museum. "If you went down the street in North Beach, I don't care who you ask, even if you ask Italian people, 'Where is the North Beach Museum?' Nobody knows," she explains.
The museum is hidden upstairs above a bank on Stockton Street. And just a few doors away is the oldest store in North Beach... A. Cavalli, established in 1880. "You can buy everything here from bocce balls to Harry Potter in Italian," says GraceAnn. But GraceAnn's main focus is food... and it doesn't necessarily have to be Italian.
She points out a place called Jianna. "This restaurant has some Asian touches to its menu." Jianna is normally open only for dinner, but chef Mike Yakura prepares samples for GraceAnn's tours. For us he made braised veal and foie gras steamed buns.
And then there's an unlikely but very popular North Beach establishment: O'Reilly's Irish Pub and Restaurant, presided over by Myles O'Reilly and his 186 pound Irish Wolfhound. GraceAnn brings her tours here to sample some Irish stout. She adds, "And the interior is gorgeous, with the mural of all the famous Irish playwrights and writers." There's French influence in North Beach too, at XOX Truffles, a tiny shop where chocoholics can reach spiritual fulfillment. The guru is Jean-Marc Gorce. Jean-Marc demonstrates how he makes his truffles entirely by hand, even though he could do it much faster with a machine.
He explains, "But I don't wanna do it that way, because it's not the same thing. The flavor doesn't come out the same, and they're all perfectly round, and it really looks like a machine made."
There are 27 varieties of XOX Truffles. Jean-Marc is making regular dark chocolate ones for us. Essentially they're chocolate filling, dipped in chocolate and tossed in more chocolate. Jean-Marc says, "But basically this one is chocolate with cream and flavoring, this one is a pure chocolate, just a coating, and that one is 100% cocoa powder, so it's 100 percent bitter." And 100 percent delicious. GraceAnn sums it up, "He and his wife own this business. Family. Simple but good." After XOX, we swing by the Graffeo Coffee Roastery before our final stop... lunch at the Washington Square Bar and Grill, affectionately known as the Washbag. Here Guy Ferri prepares a marvelous three course lunch for GraceAnn's tour. Guy and his wife operated a different restaurant on this spot, then decided to revive the Washbag, which had originally opened here in 1973.
"People never stopped asking for the Washington Square Bar and Grill. I mean, they really missed it," says Guy. "Bringing it back has made us feel part of the community and we've made about a thousand new friends in the process, so it's been a lot of fun for us." If you take GraceAnn's tour, I guarantee you won't go hungry. And you'll want to come back on your own, not only for the fabulous food, but for the passionate people who are carrying on family traditions and keeping North Beach the vibrant place its always been. Ron Spinali from Little City Market says, "You treat the people right, they come back. Pretty soon you don't have just customers, you got friends.”
