Bohemian San Francisco: Its restaurants and their most famous recipes—The elegant art of dining.Edwords, Clarence E. (Clarence Edgar)
History
Bohemian San Francisco: Its restaurants and their most famous recipes—The elegant art of dining.
Edwords, Clarence E. (Clarence Edgar)
Cooking; Hotels -- California -- San Francisco
At the corner of Market and Eddy streets is the Odeon, down in a
basement, with decorations of most garish order. There is a good chef
and the place has quite a vogue among lovers of good things to eat.
Probably at no place in San Francisco can one find game cooked better
than at Jack's, 615 Sacramento street. His ducks are always cooked so as
to elicit high praise. He has an old-style French table d'hote dinner
which he serves for $1.25, including wine. Or you may order anything in
the market and you will find it cooked "the best way." One of the
specialties of Jack's is fish, for which the restaurant is noted. It is
always strictly fresh and booked to suit the most fastidious taste.
As it is in Germany
When you see August (do not fail to pronounce it Owgoost) in repose you
involuntarily say, that is if you understand German, "Mir ist alles an,"
which is the German equivalent of "I should worry." When August is in
action you immediately get a thirst that nothing but a stein of cold
beer will quench. August is the pride of the Heidelberg Inn at 35 Ellis
street. All you can see from the street as you pass around the corner
from Market, is a sign and some stairs leading down into a basement, but
do not draw back just because it is a basement restaurant, for if you do
you will miss one of the very few real Bohemian restaurants of San
Francisco. Possibly our point of view will not coincide with that of
others, but while there are dozens of other Bohemian restaurants there
is but one Heidelberg Inn. Here is absolute freedom from irksome
conventionality of other people, and none of the near Bohemianism of so
many places claiming the title.
At the Heidelberg Inn one need never fear obtrusiveness on the part of
other visitors, for here everybody attends strictly to his or her own
party, enjoying a camaraderie that has all the genuine, whole-souled
companionship found only where German families are accustomed to
congregate to seek relaxation from the toil and worry of the day.
An evening spent in Heidelberg Inn is one replete with character study
that cannot be excelled anywhere in San Francisco--and this means that
everybody there is worth while as a study, from the little, bald-headed
waiter, Heme, and the big, imposing waiter, August, to the "Herr Doctor"
who comes to forget the serious surgical case that has been worrying him
at the hospital. Here you do not find obtrusive waiters brushing
imaginary crumbs from your chair with obsequious hand, nor over zealous
stewards solicitous of your food's quality. It is all perfect because it
is made perfect by good management. Here are German families, from
Grossfader and Grossmutter, down to the newest grandchild, sitting and
enjoying their beer and listening to such music as can be heard nowhere
else in San Francisco, as they eat their sandwiches of limburger, or
more dainty dishes according to their tastes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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