Laura Smith Borrman - Iconic San Francisco Dishes, Drinks & Desserts

Published by American Palate

A Division of The History Press

Charleston, SC

www.historypress.com

Copyright 2018 by Laura Smith Borrman

All rights reserved

Front cover, top: Palace Hotel crab salad with green goddess dressing. Palace Hotel; middle: classic San Francisco cocktails; bottom, left to right: the Its It ice cream sandwich, Mission burrito and sourdough bread. Brandon Borrman.

First published 2018

e-book edition 2018

ISBN 978.1.43966.496.4

Library of Congress Control Number: 2018940078

print edition ISBN 978.1.62585.958.7

Notice: The information in this book is true and complete to the best of our knowledge. It is offered without guarantee on the part of the author or The History Press. The author and The History Press disclaim all liability in connection with the use of this book.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form whatsoever without prior written permission from the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

To Sadie, Dashiell and Brandonmy everythingand to all those people who love food and drink and put their creativity to work in the city from long before my time to now and, hopefully, beyond.

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Exploring food and drink history brings a lot of passionate people out of the woodworkor, rather, gorgeous antique backbars, electric dining rooms, revered libraries and historical societies, for this book, throughout Northern California. Bar historians, culinary academics, industry professionals, collectors, lovers of San Francisco and folks who just like to eat and have a good timethey all made this book possible. Thank you to Martin Cate, Erica Peters, Brandon Jew, Peter Quartaroli, Eric Passetti, Gio Costabile, Nico Vera, Jonathan Kauffman, Gary Ono, the folks at Anchor Brewing, Jennifer Puccio, Emily Luchetti, Thomas Rimpel, Gena Egelston, Iaki Arrieta Baro, the Shamieh family (especially Charlie, Paul and Lana), Jenny Hodge, Emma Rowland, Carol Jensen, John Burton, Carter Wilson, Tamir Ben-Shalom, Marie Duggan, Brian Means, Cori Tahara and Michael Schaier, Jamie Law, Monica Carbone, Kathleen Correia, Jeff Thomas, Christina Moretta, Taryn Edwards, Laurie Krill, Hilary Parrish, Mike Buhler, Renee Roberts, the San Francisco Westerners Corral, the California State Library, the San Francisco Public Library, Lauren Thor, Josey Baker, Cathy Goldsmith, Andrew Meltzer, Valter Fabiano, Ian Adams, Michael Mina, Chris Cosentino, Julie Ho and Marcia Gagliardi. Thanks to my family: Roberta and Calvin Smith, Emily Smith, Jerry Chang and the Borrmans, Shiboskis and Kotzens. To my kids, Sadie and Dashiell, thank you for balancing my thrilling research with the important, exhilarating mundane and giving awesome snuggles. Thank you most of all to my husband, Brandon, whose talent with a camera and mutual love of food and drink continues to lead us into exciting projects together. Like life.

Introduction

A NOTE ON ORIGIN STORIES AND ERAS

Thats a sweet story they have in Martinez, but I think its a bunch of hooey, a bar historian told me of the origins of the martini. New York has a much stronger claim. I hope you include that.

Assuring him I would reference it, it was a moment that encapsulated much of the research for this book.

When you are writing a history book, even loosely, there is immense pressure to be sure youre capturing history. That may sound ridiculous, because of course, its history, no duh, but what that means is there is pressure to ensure absolute accuracy, undoubtable, undeniable, factual retelling of what happened before youlikely long before you. It means citations and permissions, it means copyright clearances and historical collections, it means a black-and-white accounting of reality. It also means many, many opinions about what the truth really is.

Take the martini, for example. At a minimum, there are three competing and equitably valid origin stories for this famous drink. Three. I thought doing the research on the book would reveal a clear winner among all the myths. But no; what the research has revealed is multiple passionate, well-informed and differing accounts of how the king of cocktails came to be. (Though I do have a favorite. And its a sweet one.)

I learned that writing a book about history is also about acceptance that the real story may not be ultimately discerned definitively but might rather be an amalgam of them all. And its understandable that many people want to claim the rights to the history of famous foods and drinks because, why not, THEY ARE AWESOME. The slate of cocktails and dishes and treats that compose this book are one-of-a-kind, legendary and truly (even if arguably) of a San Francisco spirit.

In the following pages, I will do my best to portray the myriad legends and accounts of what came before, to pay reverence to the historical truth as we honor the modern realizations of these wonderful foods and drinks of the City by the Bay. They are each legendary in their own right and, for the most part, have flourished in the modern cultural landscape of San Francisco. A few are difficult to find on modern menus but are, in fact, discoverableand once discovered, they delight the palate in the way Id like to think their creators intended.

Peruse the pages with a healthy appreciation for tall tales and enthusiastic storytellers and desirous claims to fame over the centuries. These are the facts, maam, as best as I was able to collect them.

SOWHAT IS THIS BOOK?

San Francisco has long been an iconic cityfor its centrality in great moments of American history, its resilience in the face of disaster, its position on the cutting edge of technology and its status as a focal point for major sociopolitical movements. And the citys food is no exception to its list of distinguishing features. Today, modern restaurants and bars in the city dominate the national and international culinary scene, often the feature of food magazine spreads and honorees in global competitions. But the citys food and drink has long been something specialwith a handful of classic dishes still influencing the dining landscape today, each with a remarkable history of its own.

Iconic San Francisco Dishes, Drinks & Desserts captures the unique foods and drinks whose origins are inextricably linked to elements of the citys history, whether those be periods such as the gold rush or famous long-lost restaurants. These dishes, snacks and drinks have shaped the culinary consciousness of the magical city of many hills, and most of them remain prominent elements of the dining scene today, though many restaurants that once served them or fairs that made them most famous are long gone. This book will profile the foods, restaurants, people and historical moments to which they are tied and share recipessome historical, some modernfor their creation at home.

THARS GOLD IN THEM THAR HILLS!

San Francisco has been shaped by and persisted through adventure and adversity, starting with a golden moment just a couple hundred miles to the east. The town where it all began, Coloma, just east of Sacramento in the foothills, documents how a fleck of gold in the water changed the course of Californias historyand populationforever: