Destination Spotlight
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WINTER / SPRING 2016
195
DESTINATION SPOTLIGHT
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one of our choices is The Ritz-Carlton’s Parallel 37.
Cozy on a padded leather banquette, we savor Chef
Michael Rotondo’s tasting menu: sashimi of Hamachi,
octopus, and rib eye, all paired with wine including
one of the world’s top 100 wines, a Luca Malbec 2012
from Mendoza.
The next morning we join Avital Tours for a three-
hour Mission District Food Tour. The Mission, now
considered the heart of San Francisco’s culinary landscape,
was once a scary, grimy neighborhood, similar to the
old Bowery in NYC. In 1995, Vietnamese Chef Charles
Phan opened The Slanted Door, a hugely successful
restaurant, and dozens of eateries followed. Now, the
Mission has become San Francisco’s Gourmet Ghetto.
lobby is a giant glass jar of fortune cookies, ours for
the taking. The fortune cookie was invented in the
early 1900s by the owner of the Japanese Tea Garden
in San Francisco, but the head of a Los Angeles Chinese
noodle company insisted he created the fortune cookie
in 1918. The dispute was finally settled in 1983 when
San Francisco’s mock Court of Historical Review
heard the case. During the proceedings, a fortune
cookie was introduced as a key piece of evidence.
Inside, the fortune read, “S.F. Judge who rules for
L.A. Not Very Smart Cookie.” The court ruled in favor
of San Francisco. Gotta love it.
Food-centric San Francisco has nearly 3,000
restaurants packed into its hilly 49 square miles, and
ABOVE
(clockwise, from
top-left)
Coit
Tower from the
Embarcadero; a
street car in North
Beach; Columbus
Tower; Mission-
style architecture;
Chef Rotondo’s
Octopus, Smoked
Sunchoke and
Breakfast Radish;
The Ritz-Carlton
and its Parallel 37.
Photo Credits (clockwise from top-left):
©Jerry Moorman / istock.com; ©Jerry Moorman / istock.com; ©ivanastar / istock.com;
©halbergman / istock.com; photos courtesy of The Ritz-Carlton, San Francisco
