North Beach: San Francisco’s Best Neighborhood

by Neil Woodburn on

Outside of my hometown of Los Angeles, my favorite American city is San Francisco. And within San Francisco, my favorite neighborhood is North Beach.

North Beach is an eclectic blend of everything that is San Francisco. It’s loaded up with great restaurants, fantastic bars, turn-of-the-century architecture, and the very best bookstore on the planet: City Lights. Sure, there are also lots of homeless people and a few strip joints, but the resounding character of this neighborhood is so overwhelmingly fantastic that it is easy to overlook the few downers one comes across.

At the very minimum, an entire day should be reserved for North Beach when visiting San Francisco. Less than a mile wide, it is easily walkable and thoroughly enjoyed on foot.

But, what to see?

You can’t go wrong just wandering, but if you want some more direction in your meanderings, pop on over to the San Francisco Chronicle website where they have an extremely detailed write-up on this fine neighborhood that covers sights and culture, events and festivals, shopping, restaurants, nightlife, and even includes a slide show.

And while we’re on the subject of San Francisco, the Chronicle has an equally extensive coverage of all San Francisco neighborhoods worth visiting. This, folks, is a great resource that is far more accurate, detailed, and up-to-date than any guidebook you might happen to have.

Tracing the Steps of On the Road

by Neil Woodburn on

Literary pilgrimages, in which one shadows the adventures of a fictional character, is some of the most rewarding travel around if you are a bibliophile.

Certainly the most famous example of such travel is Bloomsday, a national holiday where intoxicated fans of James Joyce’s Ulysses reenact a 24-hour jaunt through Dublin.

While there are many other literary journeys across the globe, the American version of disturbed, lost souls wandering about can be found within the classic, On the Road.

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of Jack Kerouac’s seminal work, journalist Christopher Reynolds thoughtfully updated and modernized the journey of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty as they gallivanted from coast to coast.

Revisiting sites from ‘On the Road’ is the perfect guide for such a journey. Reynolds breaks down the article into sections titled “In the book” in which he describes the places Sal and Dean visited. He then follows up with a “Now” section in which he directs the reader to these same places today. Naturally, a few have disappeared. There are, however, a surprising number of restaurants and hotels which are still standing and awaiting the Kerouac faithful.

Restaurant Menus Available Online for Major American Cities

by Neil Woodburn on

You know the drill. You’re in a strange city, someone gives you a restaurant recommendation, but when you get there, there is nothing on the menu that looks interesting to you.

Well, a new website plans to alleviate that culinary nightmare. MenuPages.com is a database of thousands of menus covering restaurants in New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston, Chicago, Washington DC, and South Florida.

The site is organized by regions and cuisines. Simply find the restaurant that’s been recommended and click on the online menu or download the printable PDF file.

The listings are long and impressive–pretty much every restaurant I searched for in Los Angeles popped up. The one disappointment is the rather lackluster review section. Few of the restaurants feature reader reviews. Hopefully this will change in the future as the site catches on.

Watch Bill Drive from San Francisco to LA

by Justin Glow on

This might not be up for long, but it’s worth a mention. Bill Snitzer, a tech guy over at BitGravity has a webcam hooked up to some sort of mobile Internet device and is live broadcasting his drive from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Below the video feed is a embedded Google Map that shows his exact location.

It might not be the most entertaining thing in the world to watch, but it’s an impressive display of what technology can do these days. “But how is this different than ‘Internet lifecaster’ Justin.tv?” you might be asking. Well, it’s not, I guess… but the Google Maps integration is what sets this apart from the rest. Very cool. [via]

Find free booze on your travels

by Martha Edwards on

When travelling, I’ve been known to enjoy a drink or two (or ten) — I find the pub is usually the best place to meet locals and fellow travellers, to swap stories and tips and Email addresses. I’m typically a backpacker when it comes to exploring the world. Translation: I’m on a budget, and the cheaper the better, if you ask me.

Which is why I wish I’d come across this website sooner. It’s called My Open Bar and it gives you insider info as to where you can find free beer while travelling. And you don’t even have to crash any parties or weddings (though you can if you want to, I suppose) — the listings are for actual restaurants and bars offering drink specials.

Right now, they only have listings for NYC, San Francisco, LA and Chicago, but Boston and Washington DC are slated to go live soon. I hope they do ones for cities in Europe too — London particularly, where finding a cheap (or free) drink can be a bit difficult.

(via Fly Away Cafe)