Food and Wine

Back story

It all began before Yelpers and bloggers were slurping, chomping and chewing across the City’s rolling hills. The seeds of San Francisco’s foodie scene were sown as its salt-of-the-earth citizens sought to fill their bellies with fuel to get them through the days at sea or in storied fiends of gold or to soothe their bones with the warmth of a stiff drink after a hard day. Add a dash of cosmopolitan savvy, a pinch of kitchen smarts, the fruits of the fertile Bay Area, and a number of decades, and some of the planet’s most famous dishes were born.

Brief Culinary History of San Francisco

• 1849:

  Domingo Ghirardelli arrives in U.S. and becomes purveyor of chocolate and other products to Gold Rush pioneers.

  Old Dry Diggins is renamed Hangtown.  A prospector at El Dorado Hotel asked for the most expensive ingredients available, eggs, oysters, and bacon. The Hangtown Fry was born.

• 1860 – The Martini is invented in either San Francisco or Martinez; the debate continues

• 1867 – Sam’s Grill, the fifth-oldest restaurant in the US opens in the old California Market, an open-air food emporium located where the Bank of America building stands now.

• 1880 — Duncan Nicol invents “Pisco Punch” at the Bank Exchange Saloon (also located in the California Market) utilizing Peruvian pisco brandy

• 1900 – Cioppino is invented at Alioto’s San Francisco

• 1905 – Oakland’s Frank Epperson invents the Popsicle

• 1910 — Crab Louis is invented by Victor Hirtzler at the Saint Francis hotel

• 1912 – Rice-A-Roni® was founded by San Francisco native Domenico DeDomenico

• 1915 — Green Goddess salad dressing is invented at The Palace Hotel

• 1920 — Hang Ah Tea Room begins broiling with mesquite charcoal

• 1928 — George Whitney invents It’s It Ice Cream Sandwich

• 1952 — Irish Coffee is developed at Buena Vista Café

San Francisco Classics at Sam’s Today

Baked French onion soup, Clam Chowder, Cracked Crab, Celery Victor, Clams Elizabeth, Wedge Salad with Green Goddess Dressing, Bay Shrimp Cocktail, Drakes Bay oysters on the half shell

Cioppino with crusty garlic bread, Hangtown Fry, Coquille St. Jacques, Crab Louie, Cobb Salad, Chicken Tetrazzini, Lobster Thermador, Local fresh fish on the Charcoal grill, Sand Dabs a la Sam’s

Ghirardelli Chocolate Sundae, Popsicles

Anchor Steam beer, the only steam beer you can buy dates to the 1800s, Perfect Martini, Pisco Punch, Irish coffee, Café Trieste espresso