Local Expert
Amelia Lang
Amelia has traveled around the world backpacking, photographing, drawing, and attempting to learn various languages. After a long hiatus in Portland, Oregon, New Zealand, Spain, and Africa, she…
Amelia has traveled around the world backpacking, photographing, drawing, and attempting to learn various languages. After a long hiatus in Portland, Oregon, New Zealand, Spain, and Africa, she recently returned to her roots in San Francisco. She couldn’t find a city she liked more. Barcelona came close, Berlin and Tokyo were up there too, but as corny as it may sound, she left her heart in San Francisco. Amelia balances her love for both the rural coastline just north of the Golden Gate Bridge and the stimulation of city life. She graduated from University where she studied history and fine art. She comes from a family of artists and can’t help but indulge her own creative impulses. She looks forward to graduate school in design and art history, hopefully somewhere abroad. Although she knows she will always succumb to her gypsy spirit, for now she is happy nesting in San Francisco.
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Sometimes it is easy to forget that food always tastes best when it comes from close by. In San Francisco, it is easy to get caught up in the amazing food options that include flank steak, pasta, and Mexican food. But, when looking for a great place to dine, don't forget that we are right on the water, and seafood is always a good bet. Here is a list of the best places to get some fresh, fresh fish:
Weird Fish is one of my favorite restaurants in San Francisco. It is a small and intimate place, with a casual ambiance, and truly great food. Not everything is fish, although they have a surprise fish of the day, everyday. And it is affordable! Do not pass up the fried pickles.
Fish in Sausalito is located right on the water. You can walk out to the pier and see where your fish came from. It is fresh good food and great fun to sit out on the community tables and listen to the water crashing on the shore. They truly have the freshest and most sustainable choices of food you'll find anywhere.
If you are interested in something a little bit more elegant, try Pesce, a seafood bar located on Polk Street. A Venetian influenced restaurant, the idea at Pesce is to order many hot and cold small plates and share them amongst the family, also called Venetian cicchetti style.
If Oysters are your passion, look no further than Hog Island Oyster Company located in the San Francisco Ferry Building. Sit at the bar and enjoy raw and baked oysters while, once again looking out at the Bay. The Hog Island Oyster Company Farm is located in Tomales Bay, just north of San Francisco in Marin County. If you want to get even closer to the source, pack a picnic and some wine and head up to the oyster company. You can sit out on the water and watch the friendly folks at Hog Island harvest oysters right in front of your eyes.
The time has come once again to listen and look up! Every fall since 1981, the Blue Angles has swooped down over San Francisco and provided thrilling amusement and fun. On both Saturday and Sunday from 12:30-3:00 the Air Show will take place over the Bay. From 3-4 the Blue Angles with circle, dip and dive through the sky.
There will also be a parade of white ships in the Bay but from Fisherman's Wharf to North Beach, the sky will be dramatically taken over. This year is the 28th annual Fleet Week and the crowds are expected to be in the millions. It has been said that the show this year will be even grander (!) with Canadian Snowbirds joining the U.S. Blue Angels. Together, they are planning on thrilling viewers with over 50 combinations and patterns throughout the sky.
Join the millions of viewers from Fisherman’s Wharf to North Beach as we all crane our necks to be astonished by the parade in the sky! If you can't make the event, it is always good to know why the sky is filled with fighter jets.
Bar Tartine is a great neighborhood restaurant. It is a tiny place, sandwiched between shops on Valencia street. Most people know the name Tartine from the nearby bakery, owned by the same couple, just up the street on Guerrero and 18th street. But Bar Tartine is more of a secret gem, a place where you can sit at the bar and order lovely San Francisco fare.
But, the food is somewhat pricey, or standard for San Francisco (by no means cheap). The line cook, however, is offering the neighborhood a special treat. On Thursday nights Anthony Myint rents a taco truck on the corner of 21st street and Mission and sells delightful gourmet sandwiches for $3-$5! All sandwiched are served on flatbread with delicious ingredients. There are only three options, but they are all good ones. Pork Belly and jicama (The PB and J), trumpet mushrooms with scallion sour cream (The Trumpet), or avocado, cheese and peppers (The Mission Melt). Add bacon to any sandwich for $1. For dessert, you can also get home baked (fresh from the oven) chocolate chip cookies. Check it out on Thursdays from 8-2 a.m. and eat gourmet food in the street!
The annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival is just around the corner. But don't stress out about buying tickets in advance. This three-day music festival is absolutely free. Warren Hellman is the man to thank for this event. The former investment banker spends millions of dollars each year funding the festival, because well, he loves the music. It is not a small festival either. Hardly Strictly is a three day event that attracts hundreds of thousands of folks.
All are welcome to bring blankets, coolers, and picnics to Golden Gate Park while amazing musicians from around the world play a wide variety of roots music. This is the festival's eighth year and the line up is impressive with performers with like Odetta, Alison Krauss and Iron and Wine. There are also genres that range to include Gogol Bordell, Jerry Jeff Walker, and Greg Brown. This festival has drawn such a following, that young songwriter Kathy Goll-Derstine wrote, "Joy for Free" all about the generous festival.
Head on down to Golden Gate Park this weekend for the biggest free festival of its kind. Not sponsored by the city, or a corporation, this is one man’s dream! Biking parking is provided by the San Francisco Bike Coalition and check out Muni for transit options.
It is here. At last. What we all have been waiting for. Hip Hip Horaay!
The California Academy of Sciences has been in the process of building a new home base for the past ten years. On September 27th, the hard working teams at the Academy are unveiling the awesome biospheres, aquariums, and penguin pools, and also the building itself. The building is almost worth going to alone, even if it was empty. But, it is far from empty, however. With albino crocodiles, multi-colored nudibranks and jellyfish galore, this is definitely an all-afternoon kind of a place. Located in Golden Gate Park, just across from the DeYoung Museum of fine arts, the structure with the green roof and glass walls is hard to miss.
The building was designed by Renzo Piano, an Italian based building workshop that worked with San Francisco based green designers, Chong Partners. It is a spectacular accomplishment and they have created elevators to allow visitors to view the green roof up-close. Visitors also have the opportunity to view the African Hall, four-story rainforest and planetarium up-close. The opening of the Academy of Sciences is a celebration of all things modern and a grand gesture to the green building movement, and definitely a place to visit while in San Francisco.
LitQuake is coming! And, thankfully you have plenty of time before the event to prepare.
In 2002, a group of San Francisco writers got together with the idea that their medium needed a festival as well. As film festivals, music festivals and art openings were always in the news and highlighting all things local, the writers and poets were being skipped over. So, they decided to create a literature-based festival. LitQuake serves as a celebration of writers, an opportunity to be read to and to be turned on to new authors.
From October 3-11th events will be scattered throughout the city. On the last day, the LitQuake crawl takes over the Mission District. Bars are turned over to the poets and writers and filled with eager attendants. Subjects range to include a panel of travel writers at the Gestalt Haus, an Open Mic is placed in the mural filled Clarion Alley, and the Black and White and Read All Over: The Best of the San Francisco Chronicle event is to be held at Bruno's. Come see the writers take over the bars, restaurants and shops of San Francisco and crawl from one coffee house to the next with the rest of the town at this fun-filled and not to be missed evening.