This was published 8 years ago
Haight Ashbury, San Francisco: Serving food far from its hippy past
Haight Ashbury, San Francisco - home of the counter-culture in the 1960s.Credit: iStock
In the 1960s, a burlesque performer, filmmaker and restaurateur began making waves on the San Francisco cultural scene. Her name was Magnolia Thunderpussy.
Loved as much for her rapier wit as her outlandish stage performances, she was known for creating eccentric food dishes such as the erotically themed Montana Banana and became a favourite with local bands due to her willingness to deliver to any location in the city regardless of the hour.
Shortly after her death in 1996, publican David McLean set up the Magnolia Pub and Brewery – named in her honour – in the heart of the Haight Ashbury district, even brewing an annual barley wine named Old Thunderpussy.
Down the street, in the back garden of his latest establishment, Alembic, I am about to learn more of this neighbourhood's burgeoning culinary scene, past and present, on a food tour led by Emily Drevets, a comedian, improviser and part-time tour guide.
Dressed in a black trench coat and skinny jeans, she has a bouncy, extroverted air, delivering rapid-fire spiels in a manner befitting of her love of theatre and performance.
It's a sunny, Sunday afternoon and our group of eight, an eclectic mix of international travellers and US visitors from interstate seem almost giddy with anticipation, though the free-flowing drinks in the front bar may be at least partly responsible.
We're asked to introduce ourselves not only by name, but also by what we had for breakfast. Answers range from "a quinoa bake" – from a vaguely uptight New-Age-type woman who seems a little too keen to announce her status as vegetarian – to "a couple of strong cocktails" from a jovial local guy who's brought his mates along from New York.
Haight Ashbury came to prominence in late 1965, with the opening of a couple of off-beat coffeehouses that eventually fostered the birth of the hippy movement.
Fuelled by seminal psychedelic rock bands Jefferson Airplane and the Grateful Dead, a new movement of youth disenfranchised from conservative mainstream America converged to experiment with LSD and rainbow flares, pushing for a more liberal political outlook during troubled times in America.
The faction reached its zenith during the "Summer of Love" in 1967 but soon after the area descended into violence and mayhem as opportunists and hard drug users moved in. It wasn't until the mid '70s that it began to bounce back.
In the back courtyard, Drevets winds up her opening address.
"Why are we standing in the garden?" someone asks.
"It's for the vegetarian. It's a buffet," says the cocktail guy to our considerable mirth.
As it transpires, the garden plays a pivotal role not only for Alembic's bar and kitchen but for several other neighbouring businesses as well. According to Drevets, the herb garden's territory was carved up over a high-stakes late-night poker game, played for vegie patch lots, rather than cash.
Inside, Alembic is a slick model of industrial chic, with solid wooden bar tops (made from the original seating of the old San Francisco 49ers stadium) and low bulbs hanging from wires overhead. We sample the rye bao, a confit of pork with pickled fennel, jalapeno and black garlic aoli in a crunchy bun paired with the Southern Exposure, a house speciality cocktail whipped up from St George Terroir Gin, celery juice, mint, lime and simple syrup. If food and drink pairings were humans, this would be Brangelina.
Right next-door, Second Act, once a popular movie theatre since converted into a marketplace, contains five retail food businesses under one roof. The culinary offerings are diverse.
Burma Bear fuses California style barbecue paired with traditional Burmese cuisine, RAW is about fresh juices (invented by a Texan rodeo rider who needed to heal her battered body), Eatwell Farm's Icebox produce soft serve ice creams while Crepe La Vie and Anda Piroshki are about showcasing food from longstanding family traditions.
At the latter I sample the cabbage ragout piroshki, a Russian speciality involving pastry stuffed with cabbage, carrots, tomatoes, parsley and garlic.
"We wanted to provide entrepreneurs with an opportunity to start a small business, an endeavour that can be prohibitively costly for someone just starting out," explains Betsy Rix, who has lived here for decades and co-owns the facility with her husband Jack.
"Each of our vendors can stand on their own, and each has developed a following, but the shared facilities allow some cost-sharing and mutual support."
En route to our next stop, we wander a few blocks along Haight Street.
Ducking down a side street, we venture up a steep hill lined with beautiful Victorian homes painted various shades of pastel blue, green and pink.
Half way up, Drevets points to a couple, one that was previously inhabited by Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, the other by members of the Hell's Angels. Supposedly, Garcia would regularly hold raucous gigs at the Angels' house.
The house has since been owned by the same family for three generations. It was snapped up for a bargain after members of a commune left it in a state of total disrepair, so much so the original owners one day found a man living under the stairs long after they'd moved in.
Nowadays both properties resemble the kind of nosebleed expensive dream homes only the elite few could ever dream of owning.
Our next stop, Bacon Bacon is a local favourite. Opened on the back of a successful food truck of the same name, it's now a flourishing enterprise but both the truck and cafe have endured their share of adversity.
In 2012, an engine fire obliterated the food truck, while the cafe was forced into temporary closure after a handful of disgruntled residents complained about the kind of smell only 140 kilos of grilled bacon a day can cause. Happily, both issues were resolved and these days, it's not just a place to sample porky goodness in San Francisco; it's the place.
Our final stop is The Ice Cream Bar, a lovingly restored 1930s style soda fountain run by Juliet Priers, a fan of all things vintage. Having set her mind to the idea, Priers had the property driven west from its original location in Michigan and has since created the kind of throwback environment that was once the social cornerstone of many an American neighbourhood.
Taking our seats at the bar, our host, dressed in a pristine white shirt, apron and hat offset by a steel grey bowtie, gives us the lowdown on how the house speciality, the Dublin Honey, is put together. With everything made in- house, from waffle cones and cookies to syrup and gourmet ice cream, there is once again, a rigorous attention to detail.
The results are sublime. Hunched over a thick milkshake glass, I slurp a heady concoction of Guinness, caramelised honey ice cream, Valrhona chocolate syrup and 10-year Tawny Port topped with dark chocolate through a multi-coloured straw. It's a hedonistic moment, but despite my enjoyment, I'm unable to finish for fear of hallucinating in ways our 1960s brethren might only have dreamt about.
Haight Ashbury has definitely changed a lot since those days. But there's still a certain magic to the place that remains even now, nearly 50 years on.
TRIP NOTES
MORE INFORMATION
GETTING THERE
Qantas will fly direct from Sydney to San Francisco, up to six times a week from December. See qantas.com.
TOURING THERE
Avital Food Tours runs two-hour tours of the Haight Ashbury district taking in four local establishments. Other Avital food tours include North Beach, The Mission and Union Square districts. The Haight Ashbury tour starts at $100 with an optional $25 alcohol upgrade. See avitaltours.com. *The writer was a guest of Avital Food tours and San Francisco Travel.
FIVE MORE HAIGHT ASHBURY HOTSPOTS
MAGNOLIA
Sample a wonderfully eclectic range of craft beers in a cosy setting while sampling house specials such as the cold smoked pork sausage, bacon, braised kale and kumquat aioli. See magnoliabrewing.com.
SPARROW
Seasonal beers and slick modern American cuisine done with real flare are the hallmark of this Haight Ashbury institution. See sparrowbarandkitchen.com.
CHA CHA CHA
Serving up anything from Cajun shrimp to seafood paella and jugs of Sangria, this places fuses a mishmash of cooking cultures to a pulsing Latin beat. See cha3.com.
THE PORK STORE CAFE
A wonderful, no frills, American diner serving some of the best comfort food in town since 1979. See porkstorecafe.com.
NOPA
Rustic wood-fired Californian cuisine in an urbane two-storey setting; Nopa is fast gaining an esteemed reputation. See nopasf.com.
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