"San Francisco has only one drawback. ''Tis hard to leave" - Rudyard Kipling

B and I just got back from a week long vacation to the west coast.  First stop - San Francisco.

After a horrible 12 hours traveling we got a good night's sleep and woke up Wednesday morning refreshed and ready to get re-acquainted with the city (we visited San Fran a few years back and loved it).  Our first stop, breakfast at Mama's on the Square.

Mama's, located on Washington Square Park in North Beach, specializes in eggs benedict and fresh-baked pastries.  You can count on a line around the corner no matter what day of the week, but I guarantee you won't regret the wait.  We started with a piece of the blueberry sour cream cake (to die for) and followed with the prosciutto and roasted tomato benedict and the Santa Fe omelet.

While the omelet was good, the benedict was probably the best breakfast either of us have ever had.

The eggs were perfectly cooked, the hollandaise fluffy with just a hint of lemon, and the saltiness of the prosciutto paired perfectly with the acidity of the roasted tomato.  If you are in the area, Mamas is a must.

Unfortunately it was pouring after breakfast so we headed to City Lights bookstore to look around and wait out the weather.  Fortunately B picked up a few good finds and by the time we were finished the clouds parted and it was a beautiful day outside.

[a shot of B before it cleared up - cable car and all]

After a little shopping in Union Square we headed up to the Mission area to pay a visit to Aquarius Records and grab some coffee at Philz.  Philz prides itself in being the "anecdote" to the Starbucks-inspired fleet of latte toting coffee houses, offering only made to order filter dripped coffees.  Although I'm typically a latte-loving girl, this coffee was seriously good. 

After coffee we headed to the Haight-Ashbury area for some thrift shopping, people watching, and drinks with B's high school friend BC at one of our favorite bars, Alembic.  Above all else, Alembic is a whiskey bar.  B especially loves their Old Fashioned, sans muddled fruit the "old fashioned" way.  I'm not a whisky drinker but I do love that they serve Kolsch on draft in 9 ounce pilsner glasses.  We coupled our drinks with some homemade sumac potato chips with garlic lemon yogurt and zaatar and had a great afternoon.

For dinner we headed to Mamacita in the marina area.  With a organic, trendy vibe and upscale twists on traditional dishes, Mamacita was a great cap to our first night in San Fran.  We started with the "crudo de atun."

The tuna was fresh and deliciously accented by the spicy/sweet combination of the mango and the chipotle-agava nectar emulsion.

Next we had the gorditas.

These crispy blue corn pockets were perfectly stuffed with beef, chipotle slaw and chile-arbol salsa.  B could not get enough.

For our final course we shared the the "enchiladas suizas" (cheese enchiladas) and the "pollo tacqueria" (chicken tacos).

Although they don't look it from the photo, the enchiladas were heavy, bland, and a definite flop.  The chicken tacos on the other hand were incredible - tender and dressed with a zippy "cascabel" mole sauce.

[a pic of us leaving Mamacita]

Thursday we headed down to the marina for a quick bite before renting bikes and biking over the Golden Gate into the Marin County Headlands. 

[me before the ride began]
Although I ended up having to walk, rather than ride, my bike most of the way to the top, it was well worth the trip as the views were breathtaking. 

 [yes that's me walking my bike up the hill]

 [the top!]

After reaching the top of the headlands, we rode back down and over to Sausalito where we had lunch and took the ferry back to the marina to get freshened up for our night out.  Before dinner, we went for a drink at Top of the Mark Lounge at the Intercontinental.  Top of the Mark has great views of the city, and we were lucky enough to catch a 40's style swingers band that apparently draws a pretty large following.

[a couple of the band's loyal followers in action - they were dressed to the nines!]

 [us at Top of the Mark before sunset]

After a few cocktails we headed to dinner at Restaurant Gary Danko.  Gary Danko previously received a James Beard award in 1995 for Best Chef - California and in 2000 for Best New Restaurant for Restaurant Gary Danko, and is a 2011 James Beard nominee for Outstanding Chef.  We weren't thrilled with the atmosphere (they've blacked out the windows of the extremely small dining rooms and lined the back walls with mirrors, giving it an almost 80's vibe), and there were some missteps in service (including providing us two mis-matched wine glasses), but the made to order feel of the menu is extremely user-friendly.

[a shot of the blacked out windows by the hostess stand at the front door]

They offer a 3, 4, or 5 course "tasting" menu which essentially allows you to choose any 3, 4, or 5 courses from the menu at a set price - whether it be 3 appetizers, 3 fish dishes, 3 meat dishes, or some combination thereof.  We each chose a 3 course tasting and while we perused the menu to select our 3, the servers brought out a yummy amuse bouche of herb encrusted beef over hummus and a red pepper stew.

 

[the place settings do look great]

We also had a visit from the sommelier and she helped us pick a great medium-bodied red-berry forward pinot noir.

I decided to start with the fried farm egg with white polenta, royal trumpet mushrooms, frisee, and panchetta, and B chose the horseradish crusted salmon medallion.

Both were delicious, but, I had hoped the egg would have had a runny yolk.  For the second course, I had the softshell crab with bacon, grits, fava beans, and roasted chili, and B had the quail stuffed with fois gras, mushroom and quinoa,

Both topped our first courses, especially the bacon grits and the softshell crab, but both were also extremely rich.  If we had it to do over again I think we would have paired these selections with lighter fare on the first course such as the beet salad.  Neither of us were able to finish our plates but we somehow found room for the dessert course :)  B ordered the cheese plate, and I had the warm Louisiana butter cake with apples, huckleberry compote and vanilla bean ice cream.

While the cheeses were nice - not too creamy, not to pungent - and simply accompanied by grapes and raisin bread, the warm butter cake was the show stopper.  It was moist and just sweet enough without going overboard.  Then, as if the warm butter cake hadn't already put us over the edge, Gary Danko provided a breakfast banana bread "muffin cake" to-go.  It was a great little treat when we woke up on Friday before heading out down the pacific coast highway to our next destination.

Stay tuned for our second stop....