TRYING SEVENS HEAVEN
Ahead of the Rugby World Cup, Alan Mckinlay hits San Francisco for the sport and fantastic food
THEY know a thing or two in San Francisco about an eggshaped ball flying around among some of the world’s best players. This is, after all, the city of Joe Montana and the 49ers.
There are also baseball’s Giants (three World Series wins in the last eight years) and the current NBA champions the Golden State Warriors just across the bridge in Oakland.
But next month, the city by the bay adds another feather to its sporting cap when it stages the Rugby World Cup Sevens over a weekend.
You need a month in San Francisco to scratch the surface of the dining, entertainment and sporting goodies on offer. We had a weekend, albeit of the four-night variety.
As a sports nut, I can honestly say that the best part was going to AT&T Park, where the Sevens will be played, to watch the hometown Giants taking on the hated Los Angeles Dodgers.
The park is in a picturesque setting on the waterfront and the sell-out attendance was loud, although beer was priced at a painful $15. The food is more reasonably priced with a mind-boggling choice.
Dining at the park is simply not comparable to what is on offer at British sporting venues. A bag of Maltesers and a Bovril just doesn’t cut Stateside.
There is everything from sushi to sausages, cheese steaks to chowder, and salads to seafood.
A bit like the dining choices at AT&T Park, the activity options for a longweekender are many.
After the game we made the 10-minute walk to the 4th Street Coin-op in the Soma district. There are 16 California micro-brewery beers on tap and bar food is available – but we were there to play pinball. As well as a collection of old-time video arcade games, there are row upon row of classic pinball machines.
This is definitely not the place to go for a quiet night, however. It is so loud and full of flashing lights even pinball wizard Tommy, the deaf, dumb and blind kid, would be asking for a break, so we sloped off after an hour to a nearby restaurant.
Marlowe is listed in the Bay Area top 100 restaurants, but still manages to be laid-back and inexpensive. You can even order a burger there. Even more importantly, after the frenetically loud Coin-op, it had a relaxed, peaceful atmosphere.
If it is your first time in SF then a visit to the famous prison island Alcatraz is a must. Get on the early tour if you can (the first boat leaves shore at 8.45am) and allow two to three hours. Make sure you go for the audio tour – being guided
There’s sushi, cheese steaks, chowder and so much more
around this spooky island by the voices of former wardens and prisoners brings a gritty reality to the experience.
Having had a day – and a Giants game – washed out due to torrential rain, we were up early again on our last day for a guided walking tour with Urban Jungle (urbanhikersf. com, from $49).
Starting at the Castro Theatre, centre of the city’s large LGBT community, we walked along the area’s equivalent of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the Rainbow Honour Walk.
There are bronze-star plaques honouring 20 individuals whose legacy includes contributions to the gay rights movement, including Oscar Wilde and British scientist Alan Turing. After a bracing 25-minute walk we found ourselves at Twin Peaks, a fantastic spot from which to view the entire city from on high.
After walking back down we meandered around the Haightashbury district, where it was not hard to imagine the hippy kingdom of peace and love in its 60s heyday. There are still the bohemian cafes and beatnik clothes shops, although they now compete for the tourist dollar with retail giants like Gap.
Walking from hippyville to the neighbouring Mission district, the centre for the city’s Hispanic culture, I came upon my single favourite item in any of the Bay Area’s shops – a Donald Trump piñata. San Francisco is a liberal city and most residents are generally not fans of the 45th President, so what could be more fun than smashing a Trump effigy to bits?
We were lucky enough to stay at The Clift, a well-established but still quirky San Francisco hotel just a five-minute walk from downtown Market Street, the start of one of the three routes of the famous cable cars.
Even if you stay elsewhere you should visit the Clift’s Redwood Room, which is a bar lined with the wood of a Redwood tree.
What first seem like painted portraits on the walls are actually digital art and take some getting used to. It feels like a scene from a Harry Potter movie, with the portraits on the walls almost imperceptibly moving in their frames.
On our last day it was back to the ballpark. The sun was shining, the beer was cold, and the food... have I mentioned the food?
At the end of our weekend, lack of time meant we hadn’t done everything we wanted to, but at least in the city staging the Rugby World Cup Sevens we gave it a damn good try.