Page 198 - People & Places In Time

San Francisco
As I’ve said, things change, and we move on yet contrary to the oft quoted “change is good” it’s not always for the better. For instance, the mez- zanine in the St. Francis Hotel lobby has been modernized, such that anymore, I don’t recognize the place where I danced, intimately, slowly, to a piano trio until well after midnight. I’m not sure the San Francisco that exists today can ever recapture the charm, beauty and sophistication I remember; it was a different time. . . it’s lost to those visiting and even for many who remain, having been part of the City for a long time.
What do I wish to have back?
I would like to sit quietly at the end of the mahogany bar atop the
Sir Francis Drake hotel (the way it was; say in the 1970’s or earlier) it’s a small
bar of perhaps six or seven stools located just across from the elevator door.
A Manhattan is set before me; the old bar tender here made the best Manhat- tans. I once commented to a bartender at Harrys on 59th Street in New York City that his Manhattan reminded me of a bartender at the Starlite room in San Francisco. Sometimes, I say the darndest things, and yet, as bartenders always are, he was gracious and said he had been there. As we sit at the bar on this late afternoon, I gaze out the corner window, watching, as the fog creeps over and around the Twin Peaks towers, wrapping the city in its soothing, comforting embrace. Following a drink or two we take a taxi to dinner at an old favorite, the Rue LaPic. I often fall into routines and the Bœuf Bourguignon remains my favorite here. As the evening pleasantly passes, and when the chef has finished cooking on this night, he joins us for a glass of wine and conversation. Following our dinner, a quiet stroll along fog shrouded streets, window shopping. We finish in Union Square, beneath the Suntory Scotch billboard that seems to me, to have stood above this spot forever, though no longer high atop a building on Stockton Street. Of course, this is during a time prior to all the stuff having been added to the square; too much clutter, too many people now. A quieter, gentler time in the City is what I wish for . . . and for the record the experiences I’ve
just recounted did happen and have indeed been a part of my time spent in this town; in San Francisco.
Perhaps a cliché today, and yet I do feel as though I can honestly say. . . I’ve “left my heart in San Francisco”
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Ru LaPic restaurant at Mason Street & Pine Street, just down from the top of Nob Hill, the Mark Hopkins and Fairmont hotels.