IT'S ALL ABOUT RUM

Before we can talk about Tiki Bar history, let’s take a closer look at the essence of Tiki Bar cocktails, rum. Fog cutters, zombies, daiquiris and mojitos all start with this New World alcohol.

Sugarcane came to the New World with Columbus on his second voyage in 1493. By the mid-1600s, sugar production and sugarcane were the most profitable industry in the Caribbean (not counting piracy or the slave trade). Sugarcane was crushed and the juice boiled into a sweet liquid. Next it was placed in clay pots which allowed molasses to seep through and collect on the outside as the sugar crystallized on the inside. Sugar was the commodity that everyone wanted. No one seem to have much use for the molasses. It was fed to slaves and livestock and that was about it until some of those slaves realized they could ferment the sticky liquid. It was called “rumbullion” which is probably where we get its name today.

It didn’t take long before someone figured out that this fermented sugarcane juice could be distilled creating a high alcohol (75%-80%), easily transported and valuable commodity. Barbados became the center of this new industry. The first recorded description of rum came from an official report from Barbados dated 1651. It described the new beverage as, “a hot, hellish and terrible liquor”. Locals began to call it “kill-devil”. Historians are not sure if the name implied that the liquor was strong enough to kill the devil or it was the devil and it killed the drinker. There appears to be evidence to support both explanations.

The second half of the 17^th century saw an outbreak of rum consumption all across the New World. Dutch, Spanish, French and English colonies all began producing their own rum. In 1655, 900,000 gallons of rum was produced in Barbados alone.

By the early 1700s, American colonists seem to be losing their taste or homebrewed beer and hard cider and it was replaced by rum. One observer even referred to the colonies as the “Republic of Rum” because the liquor seemed to be everywhere. It was cheap and became part of everyday life. Rum was drunk at breakfast to “shake off morning chills and launch the day in proper form”. Lunch often featured rum, salt fish and crackers. From farmers to shipbuilders, rum was seen as a way to make a long day shorter. Doctors prescribed it to “restore life”. The average American was drinking five shots of rum a day. Whether you were in New England or the southern colonies rum was considered the ideal beverage. In the cold north, it was a way to warm one’s insides. In the hot and humid south, it was said that rum “aided in perspiration and cooling”. They drank rum after dinner to aid digestion and had another shot to finish off the day.

Perhaps the first rum cocktail was the Flip. Imagine walking in your favorite tavern and seeing a tankard filled three quarters of the way with beer, sweetened with a little molasses or dried pumpkin before a generous portion (5 ounces) of rum was added. Next a loggerhead, an iron rod slightly bulged at one end, was heated till red hot in a fire and plunged into your drink. It was held there until the foaming and sputtering ceased.

In 1725, the first campaign against drinking rum was lunched. The goal was to convince people to switch back to drinking beer and hard cider. Needless to say the effort failed.

Rum did play a role in one of the darkest chapters of American history. It was a key element in the Triangle Trade where molasses from the Caribbean was shipped to America, turned into rum and sent to Africa to purchase slaves who were brought in bondage to America.

In the early 1800s it was quite common for American politicians to bring a barrel of rum to campaign rallies. It was a way to show generosity and the ability to drink with the common man.

As the 1800s rolled on whiskey became more popular than rum in America. Rum did bounce back as soldiers fighting in Cuba during the Spanish-America War discovered the Cuba Libre (rum and coke). It was a favorite of Teddy Roosevelt and the Rough Riders.

While most rum is aged in charred oak barrels giving it a dark, amber or golden color, the Cubans began producing a silver or white rum. It was perfect for cocktails and before long bartenders in Havana were creating new rum drinks including the Mojito.

Today rum is the world’s second most popular distilled spirit after vodka and ahead of whiskey, gin and tequila. Around the globe we drank 388 million gallons of rum last year.

Remember to RSVP for next Saturday's (9/19) HEAD Trip. We need to make a reservation at the Tonga Room soon!

Tiki Bar HEAD Trip – Ops Plan

Your HEAD scouting party has returned from San Francisco. A couple of BART rides, three bars, a little cable car climbing half-way to the stars, a Scorpion Bowl, one taxi, and an Uber and we can declare, “Mission Accomplished” We’ve got a plan for September 19.

We’ll meet at the cable cars stop at the bottom of California Street (in-front of the Hayatt Regency) at 4:30pm. Bring your Clipper Card or $7.00 for the ride up to Nob Hill.

Historic Note: Nob Hill is one of San Francisco’s 44 hills. Now you know. And one of the original “Seven Hills”. Back in the (Gold Rush) day it was called California Hill but after the Central Pacific Railroad’s Big Four (Stanford, Huntington, Crocker and Hopkins) built their mansions there, the name was changed. The Big Four were called the “Nobs” – not sure why.

Through the Financial District and Chinatown, we’ll climb up to the Fairmont Hotel (between Powell & Mason). The Fairmont opened in 1907. It was completed in 1906 but that pesky fire caused extensive interior damage. The hotel was named for silver magnate, railroad baron and U.S. Senator James Fair by his daughters who built the place. It’s on the National Register of Historic Places and back in 1945 the United Nations Charter was drafted in the hotel’s Garden Room.

Also in 1945, the Fairmont closed its indoor swimming pool and turned it into the Tonga Room. The pool became an indoor lagoon complete with a floating stage and regularly scheduled rain storms. By virtue of loyal customers, good food and delicious drinks, the Tonga Room has lasted long enough to become the oldest Tiki Bar in America. It almost closed some years back but San Francisco declared the bar an historic resource.

Anyway, our plan is to eat some Polynesian-type bar food. They’ve got Won Tacos, Shrimp & Cilantro Rolls, Lomi Lomi, egg rolls and the like. One of the HEAD Society's recommendations is to eat before you drink too much.

A key for any successful HEAD Trip is the drink menu. This place has 57 different rums on hand. They’ve also got the usual Tiki Bar suspects – Piña Coladas, Hurricanes, Zombies and bowls. Bowls full of wonderful rum concoctions including the Lava Bowl and the Scorpion Bowl. As part of our scouting duties we had a Scorpion Bowl. Someone had to make the sacrifice.

After some eats, a few rum bowls and a rain shower or two, the HEAD Trip will leave the Tonga Room and head down near Civic Center to Gough Street. It’s more than a 30 minute walk through the Tenderloin and Mid-Market neighborhoods so our relocation calls for a taxi, Uber, Lyft or the like. On the recon mission, the cab downhill cost $9.00*.

Stop #2 will be Smuggler’s Cove. This is a pirate inspired Tiki Bar. The theme seems very appropriate since we’ll be visiting on Talk Like A Pirate Day. Arrr! The place opened in 2009 and in just a few short years has amassed a long list of awards including one of “13 Most Influential Craft Cocktail Bars” and “50 Greatest Cocktail Bars on Earth”. It’s been named the “Best Cocktail Bar in San Francisco” and this year was a finalist for the “Best Cocktail Bar in America”. They’ve got over 70 drinks on their menu and stock more than 500 premium rums. They even have unique rums distilled and blended exclusively for their drinks. Where the hell do they keep all that rum?

Smuggler’s Cove has a nautical-tiki theme, kind of a ship wreck motif. It’s a tiny place spread over three levels – main deck, hold and crow’s nest. The main deck has a bar and there’s another one down in the hold. The drinks range from historic Tiki to Caribbean favorites and cocktails from pre-Prohibition Havana. They say drinking there is like taking a tour of rum cocktails through the ages. The place is popular and according to the bouncer manning the velvet rope outside, that’s right, a velvet rope, the best time for a HEAD visit will be around 6:30pm. The place opens at 5pm and the early arrivals thin out around 6:30pm to find food. We also have a recommendation from our daughter-in-law, Carie. She’s a cocktail professional and knows her stuff.

From Smuggler’s Cove we’ll need another taxi, Uber or Lyft (and another $9*) to cross over to Broadway in North Beach. Just down the street from San Francisco’s famous or infamous, “gentleman’s clubs” we’ll find the Bamboo Hut. Imagine if a dive bar and a tiki bar had a lovechild and you’ve got our third and final Tiki Bar of this adventure. 

The Bamboo Hut opened in 1999. It was in the vanguard of the resurgence of Polynesian popular

culture. If the Tonga Room or Smuggler’s Cove are high side, the Hut is at the other end of the Tiki Bar spectrum.  In true dive bar style the place is open from 7am to 2am. On the wall inside the front door hangs a giant 1947-vintage Tiki God rescued from the former Coral Reef Restaurant in Sacramento. The drinks are reasonable and the place is fun. It’s been voted the “Best Tiki Bar in San Francisco” and “one of the “Top 25 places to have a party in San Francisco”. How can we go wrong?

From the Hut’s strategic location it just a short walk back to the Montgomery BART Station or if you’re needing a bite to eat, you’re in North Beach with wall-to-wall restaurants.

So to recap……..

4:30pm on Saturday, September 19 – meet at the end of the California Street cable car line (in front of the Hayatt Regency and near the Embarcadero BART Station).

Cable car to Nob Hill for food and rum bowls at the Tonga Room.

Taxi, Uber of Lyft to Smuggler’s Cove. Award winning rum cocktails. Arrr!

Taxi, Uber or Lyft to the Bamboo Hut. More rum and a giant Tiki head.

Walk to Montgomery BART for a ride home or wander North Beach looking for food.

Bring your Clipper Card for the cable car and RSVP!

We need to make a reservation at the Tonga Room or it’ll be standing room only at the bar.

* That’s $9 per cab or Uber, not per person.

Color Commentator here: Ira and I had a great scouting trip, and it was so cool… the cable car showed up just as we did and we got our customary (me in the seat, Ira dangling off the side) spots. We gave directions to some tourists from the Midwest and Norway and I came to believe that we should really get paid for our service to the City of San Francisco. They could at least cover our drink bill, I mean sheesh…

Anyway, we got to the Tonga Room, which serves a large tourist population in addition to its large gay population. In other words – excellent clientele! When we go on our HEAD Trip, we’re going to book a reservation because the bar is complicated to navigate…even for pros like us! The Hors doovers were really good and a lot less expensive than the dinners, so we figured we’d sprinkle them liberally down the table. On our Scouting Mission, we bellied up to the boogie board bar and shared a Scorpion Bowl (bowls are a more economical way to drink than individual cocktails, but the Piña Colada looked like slushie and I wanted one.)

After Ira disappointed all the young gay men with daddy issues by leaving, (Sorry, Blake…), we headed to Smuggler’s Cove, a very cool boit that looks like a sunken ship. We didn’t drink there (the Scorpion Bowl was still blooming in our bloodstreams), but we strolled around looking official (next time I’m taking a clipboard…) and nodding a lot. Considering the fact that we drank nothing, we got terrific service! I can’t wait to taste the cocktails there, they come highly recommended and they look wonderful…

Onward and, well, downward, to the Bamboo Hut, an almost total dive bar, with a real tiki dude by the door. By this point, the Tonga Room bowl had started to ease off a bit and I had a Piña Colada. Not a slushie, but yum! Then we went to Tomasso’s for pizza, naturally, and conducted a strategy session/ate really good pie.

The upshot of our Scouting Mission is YOU HAVE TO COME TO THE TIKI TODDLE!!! Let us know how many of you there’ll be, because Ira will have to make a reservation. (He’s the organization of the Grand Poobahs, I’m the charm…) BTW, it rains in the Tonga Room, there’s a velvet rope outside Smuggler’s Cove, and dirty dancers just down the street from the Bamboo Hut. This trip has everything! We will see you there!!!

San Jose’s Oldest After-Action Report

Our plan for the day was clear, oldest winery, oldest Italian restaurant and oldest bar. We packed a picnic basket and drove up into the oak-studded hills above Cupertino, past Stevens Creek County Park and onto the “Beautiful Mountain”.

Tucked into a clearing on the side of Monte Bello Ridge is the Pichetti Ranch and winery. Grapes have been grown here since 1877 and it’s been a winery since 1896. We set-up our base camp at a picnic table tucked under a spreading coast live oak tree. Jen (Member #11) brought over a chilled bottle of Pichetti’s 2011 Brut Rosé. This sparkling wine, a blend of Chardonnay and Pinot Noir grapes, starts on vines in the Los Altos Hills and right here on Monte Bello. It’s a refreshing explosion of floral and dried cherry flavors across your palate. Yummy, to say the least. According to the winemaker, each bottle contains 47 million bubbles (How in the hell do they count them?).

We welcomed the two newest Society members, Gail & Joe (#72 & #73) and waited for the rest of our group to gather. By the time Steve (#22) arrived we’d finished the “champagne”. It was a short walk up the hill and into the tasting room for our happy band of HEAD Trippers.

Our guide to the day’s tasting turned out to be one of the winemakers and owners, Mattie Rose. The delicious Mattie Rosé is named for her. We formed our tasting phalanx and began working our way down the list. Honestly, these women (yes, it’s a woman-owned winery) know their stuff. Starting with Brute Rosé (again), we sipped our way through Pinot Grigio, Viognier, White Pavone, Chardonnay, Mattie Rose, Supar Tuscan, Malbec, Merlot, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon, Vino di Vicino, Zinfandel (two vintages), Port and Reserve Angelica. We all found wines we loved and put together a take-out order of 15 bottles. Thank goodness for the 32% Wine Club discount!

Becky (#34), John (#13) and Alma (#15) packed up their wine and headed off to previous engagements. The rest of us headed down the hill, across the valley and into the heart of downtown SJ. Ready for a feast, we rolled into Original Joe’s, San Jose oldest Italian restaurant. This place is old school “I-talian”. My Sicilian relatives would feel perfectly at home in this place (for that matter, so would Tony Soprano).

Walking into Original Joe’s is entering a by-gone era. All the waiters wear tuxedos, know the menu by heart and provide amazing service. The place is a 1950s throw-back experience. I first went to Original Joe’s back in the 1960s. It looks exactly the same. As a student at San Jose State, my roommate and I would save up and head down San Carlos Street. Back then the Dining Commons was closed on weekends and dorm residents were left to fend for themselves on the seedy streets of downtown. Yes, back then the streets were seedy, so very seedy. But Original Joe’s was a beacon of class with big enough portions that starving students got two satisfying meals out of one order of spaghetti and meatballs (softball-sized meatballs).

Some years ago, back in the 90s I think, the owners (still the Rocca family) remodeled the place. With great care and an eye for detail, they made it look just the same as on opening night back in 1956. Tradition. Well, we slid into our oversized red leather booth and prepared for a feast worthy of Little Italy or my Sicilian Nana’s kitchen.

Many of us ordered the ¾ orders and still needed doggy bags. Every sauce is “homemade” and you can tell. The food is molto bene to say the least.

Filled to the brim, we started our four block stroll to San Fernando Street. Tucked neatly between a Chinese and a Mexican restaurant sits San Jose’s oldest bar. Born just after Prohibition’s repeal, Cinebar has been local watering hole for generations. This place is a textbook example of a dive bar. A prototype if you will. They even have PBR on tap. The bar’s inner darkness (a dive requirement) was broken by one television tuned to the A’s game and another showing the Giants. We saddled up to the bar and ordered. Some had cocktails, some had draft beer.

Towards the back of the bar, before the restroom is an old pool table. It looked like a fraternity house reject. Liz (#1) went over and made a happy discovery, no coin slots. Free pool in a dive bar, sweet! She racked ‘um up and our tournament began. I was reminded that you lose when you scratch on the 8 Ball. It turns out that new member Gail is the HEAD Society’s very own pool shark.

I read what Ira (#2) just wrote, and it is pretty complete, but he left out one VERY IMPORTANT part. After we finished our pre-wine tasting snack, we did indeed head up the hill toward the winery, but several of us detoured to the restroom, a small out building with two stalls. The good news is that there are flush toilets in them, the bad news is that they are a little dark inside when the door’s shut. As I was taking care of business, I noticed there was something on the floor. Was it a dirt clod? A dead mouse? A LIVE mouse? I squinted into the dimness and realized that whatever it was, it was looking at me. I was lucky I was sitting where I was…Anyway, I made it out of the bathroom intact and called for Ira. He ran to my rescue and identified "a cute little blue belly”. Lizard set free, we proceeded to the winery. The rest of the excursion went as Ira described with lots of wine, good food, beer and no other reptiles…

Silicon Valley Old Italian Trifecta!

This month’s HEAD Trip takes on three “oldests” in all of Santa Clara County; winery, restaurant and bar. Let’s start with wine.

Padres at Mission Santa Clara planted Santa Clara Valley’s first vineyard in 1798. Fifty-one years later, the California Gold Rush brought French and Italian immigrants to seek their fortune. Many found it, not in gold but in wine.

The state’s first commercial winery, the Almaden Winery was founded in 1852. This original winery has faded from the scene and what remains are now a community park and single family homes. Other wineries including Buena Vista (1857), Gundlach Bundschu (1858) and Inglenook (1879) still remain.

Across the region, immigrant winemakers discovered California’s rich soil and Mediterranean climate and vineyards were planted from coastal valleys to the Sierra Foothills.

Two such immigrants moved to Santa Clara County in 1877. Secondo and Vincenso Picchetti were some of the first settlers along Monte Bello Ridge (Beautiful Mountain) overlooking Cupertino. Not only did they settle in the hills above “The Valley of Hearts Delight”, they were some of the first to plant grapes. The area soon become one of Santa Clara County’s most important wine making areas.

The Picchetti brothers bought 160 acres for $1,500. They grew their ranch to 500 acres by 1904. Taking advantage of the climate and soil, the first grapes the brothers planted were  Zinfandel, Carignane and Petite Sirah. This region is now part of the Santa Cruz Mountains Appellation.

In the early days, they sold grapes to local wineries, but in 1896 they started making their own wine. Picchetti became the 148^th licensed winery in the U.S.

In 1904, the winery and ranch passed to Vencenzo's sons, Antone and John. The family continued commercial winemaking until 1963. After that the family continued on a small scale.

In 1976, the ranch and winery were sold to the Midpeninsula Regional Space District. In 1998, Leslie Pantling took over the winery. Today Picchetti produces around 9,000 cases of tasty wine each year. Grapes are still harvested from three acres of 110 year old Zinfandel vines that allow the dream of two Italian immigrants to continue.

The oldest restaurant in San Jose is Wing’s Chinese in Japantown. Now you may be asking, “Why are we not going to Wings?” Well, on our pre-HEAD Scouting, Liz and I, your Co-Grand Poo-Bahs, ate at Wings. Old yes, good? Not so much. Besides, Picchetti is Italian so why not eat Italian at San Jose’s oldest Italian restaurant?

The original Original Joe’s was opened in San Francisco back in 1937 by business partners, Lou Rocca and Tony "Ante" Rodin (It’s still owned and managed by Rodin's grandchildren). The restaurant initially consisted of 14 bar stools and a sawdust-covered floor. Business grew and soon a full dining room was added. But enough about San Francisco.

By 1956, Lou Rocca decided to open another Original Joe’s. His idea was to go into business with his son. San Jose was booming so it seemed like a good choice. Lou wanted to bring an authentic San Francisco-style Italian restaurant to the South Bay. A clothing store at the corner of First and San Carlos had just closed and it seemed like the perfect location. Lou and his son Lou soon opened their Original Joe’s. Their goal was to serve traditional home-style Italian-American cuisine. To add San Francisco touches, Lou and Lou even imported French bread from San Francisco by Greyhound bus everyday for the first two years of operation.

Now Original Joe’s may not have been the very first Italian restaurant in the county, but today it is the oldest!

Old wine, old restaurants, how about old bars? Let’s go back to 1933,Prohibition is over and a thirsty San Jose cries out for refreshment. Enter Cinebar. Just a block away from San Jose State University between Third and Fourth on San Fernando. True to its dive bar roots, it is open every possible legal hour - 6am to 2am. Dark, dank and equipped with a pool table, what better place to finish our adventure?

So it’s not Italian, Ira drank there and he’s Italian (2^nd generation on his mother’s side, plus he looks really Italian…) Join us! Drink with us! Eat with us! Be hungover with us the next day! It’ll be fun!!!

Join the HEAD Adventure. On Saturday, May 30, meet at the Picchetti Winery (13100 Montebello Rd., Cupertino) at 2pm. Please RSVP.

ON THE TRAIL OF THE MALTESE FALCON

San Francisco has always been a place of both economic and social innovation. Included on the long list of the city’s gifts to the world is the hardboiled, Noir detective story. This genre lives on today in books, movies and on television. Did you see “Bosch” on Amazon?

We can all thank one man, Dashiell Hammett for starting this style and sharing it with us. Samuel Dashiell Hammett was born in Maryland in 1894. He passed in 1961 in New York City. In between there’s San Francisco.

Following World War I, Hammett worked for the Pinkerton National Detective Agency. It was his job with Pinkerton that brought him to San Francisco in June of 1921. Within a year he decided it was time for a career change. He wanted to be a writer so he took a typing class and was off and running. His stories and novels, mostly written in San Francisco, made him the pioneer of a new American-style of crime and murder fiction.

Hammett’s stay in San Francisco was both short and productive. He moved to Los Angeles in October 1929 after just 8 years. During that time he lived in seven different apartments. His most famous novels The Red Harvest and The Maltese Falcon were born in the City by the Bay. After Hammett quit Pinkerton he supported himself by writing advertising copy for Samuels Jewelers and short stories for “The Black Mask” magazine. From these we were give such wonderful characters as The Continental Op, Nick and Nora Charles and, of course, Sam Spade.

Part of Hammett’s street cred is the fact that he was the first American mystery writer who had been a real detective. Many cases from his Pinkerton days acted as fuel for his imagination and the origin of his Falcon characters. Let’s start with Sam Spade.  The detective was a brand new character who first appeared in The Maltese Falcon.  

Some years after the book was published, Hammett said, “Spade has no original. He is a dream man in the sense that he is what most of the private detectives I worked with would like to have been and in their cockier moments thought they approached. For your private detective does not — or did not ten years ago when he was my colleague — want to be an erudite solver of riddles in the Sherlock Holmes manner; he wants to be a hard and shifty fellow, able to take care of himself in any situation, able to get the best of anybody he comes in contact with, whether criminal, innocent by-stander or client.”

And what about the name? Well, Hammett’s first name was Samuel, Sam to his wife and family. The last name comes from a fellow Pinkerton Detective, Spayde, that Hammett worked with during his gumshoe days.

Casper Gutman, the fat man, started as a real-life suspected German spy Hammett wasassigned to follow around Washington, D.C. In his report, Hammett said that he “was not a secret agent but the single most boring suspect he ever had to tail.”

Perfumed Joel Cairo comes out of a case Hammett worked in the southern Washington town of Pasco. He was said to be “an oily little guy” arrested for check forgery.

Sam Spade’s loyal secretary with keen women’s intuition, Effie Perrine, started as a woman Hammett met in San Diego. She tried to talk him into becoming her partner in a drug smuggling business.  

Dispatched by Pinkerton to Stockton to investigate a gas station robbery, Hammett took up the case of the “Midget Bandit”. After the robbery, the gas station owner described the criminal “a runt”. The local papers took this and ran with it and dubbed the robber with his tiny moniker. The thief had escaped safely to Los Angeles but became so obsessed with his description in numerous newspaper articles that he returned to Stockton to prove the gas station owner wrong. Hammett saw him on the street and grabbed him up. This criminal with a chip on his shoulder became Casper Gutman’s gunsel, Wilmer Cook.

To celebrate the first Noir detective, the next HEAD Trip is scheduled for Saturday, February 28. We’ll meet at the Starbucks at 52 California Street. It’s across from the Hyatt Regency Hotel. Gather there at 12:30pm. Yes, I know it’s not a bar but don’t worry. We’ll find one along the way.

Wear your walking shoes. The whole trek will be around five miles with a hill or two. It’s San Francisco after all. Our adventure will include a cable car ride so bring $6 cash or your Clipper Card.

We’ll stop for a late lunch at John’s Grill. This city eatery opened in 1908 and has fully embraced its Falcon heritage. In the book, Sam Spade “…went into John’s Grill, asked the waiter to hurry his order of chops, baked potato, and sliced tomatoes…” They even have one of the movie Falcons on display. Check out their menu at http://johnsgrill.com/ .

We’re going to make lunch reservations, so please RSVP to your HEAD Planning Team asap!

See you on Saturday!

SANTACON RECAP

Twenty years ago it all began and for the last four years SantaCon has been a H.E.A.D. tradition. With talk of a large demonstration focusing on Market Street and Union Square, the H.E.A.D. advance team (Liz and I) headed straight for North Beach. We parked across the street from a police station (seemed like a good idea) and moved off to grab some bar stools at San Francisco’s 2^nd oldest bar, the Saloon.

We arrived just after 11am and to our surprise, it was locked up tight. It seems the Saloon doesn’t open until noon – a respectable hour but a little late for a world-class dive bar. Didn’t we do the same thing last year?

Quick change of plans and a flurry of text messages found us ordering a round at Gino and Carlo. This place is a North Beach classic. It’s family-owned, opened in 1942 and, as they say, Italian and proud of it!

They’ve also been voted the best place to watch a Giants’ game when they’re on the road. We can

attest to this honor. Liz and I once donned all of our Giants’ game gear (you’ve seen pictures), took an early BART train and arrived at 9:30am just in time for the first pitch as the Giants took on the Marlins in Florida. Morning baseball and Bloody Marys in a dive bar do go well together (just sayin’).

Gino and Carlo opens at 6am so we had no problem ordering our first round and the H.E.A.D. trip was off to a good start.

Last summer, while attending the Giants’ WineFest at AT&T Park, we learned a very valuable lesson. Eat before you drink. Simple and straightforward it’s a rule to live by.

Having learned our lesson well, I went next store to Golden Boy Pizza. A true hole-in-the-wall that pumps out amazing Sicilian-style pizza. The squares, not slices, are huge. Soon I was back in Gino and Carlo with a feast of vegetarian pizza to go with my Spaten (on draft).

Over the next little while, other H.E.A.D. Trippers arrived; Jim, Denise, Tory, Cricket, Emily (of Bloody Mary fame), Bradley and Amy. Everyone took turns visiting Golden Boy for Sicilian sustenance. We ate and drank. Did I mention that Gino and Carlo has 12 tasty beers on tap?

Fortified and refreshed we moved out onto Green Street and right into a sea of red and white. Santas here. Santas there. Santas everywhere. It is one of the coolest features of SantaCon to see city streets choked with hundreds, no thousands of happy revelers dressed like old St. Nick. Granted there are a few reindeer, gingerbread cookies and Christmas trees thrown in for good measure. There’s even a dreidel to two. Mrs. Claus is always well represented.

Up Green Street, a quick left on Grant Avenue (not the Chinatown part) and there we were at the now open Saloon. There was a Harley parked outside. It was the bartender’s. This place is all class. Need proof? PBR on tap. Need I say more?

After our whistles were re-wetted it was time for some wandering. Back to Columbus Avenue. Columbus is one of only 4 major diagonal streets in San Francisco. The street was built between 1873 and 1874. It was designed to provide a less-hilly connection to North Beach for horse teams pulling heavy loads up from Market Street. It was originally called Montgomery Street but renamed in 1909.

Out on the street we joined the masses of Santas. At the corner of Vallejo we wandered into the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi. Who knew? We’d been past that corner many, many time and never noticed this little  oasis of peace, quiet, serenity, and refreshment to the thirsty spirit. It was amazing. A tiny recreation of St. Francis’ chapel in Italy.

The shrine is built within the walls of the original Saint Francis of Assisi Church. Saint Francis was canonized in 1228 and in June 1849, the Saint Francis Parish was established in San Francisco. The 1906 earthquake and fire destroyed the interior of the church but the outside brick walls together with its badly scorched towers, remained entirely intact.

Next time you’re passing by, stop in. You’ll be glad you did.

A little more strolling with our Santa brethren took us to Stella Pastry, home of Sacripantina.

Discovered on the H.E.A.D. Italian Cookie Walk, this “sacred little bread” has become a North Beach must taste. Stella has been making Sacripantina for more than 40 years. It’s won awards and been the centerpiece at numerous weddings, birthdays, anniversaries and bar mitzvahs.

For those who’ve never had the pleasure (and I do mean pleasure), Sacripantina is a multilayered vanilla sponge cake filled with zabaione (a delicate egg yolk and butter custard). Liberal amounts of marsala and sherry wine soak the sponge. Add some cream and rum and there you are, a culinary organism.

Sweet tooth satisfied, our group was craving coffee. A little backtracking brought us to Café Trieste, the first Espresso coffee house on the West Coast. Since 1956 they’ve been brewing coffee for poets, writers, composers, artists and now H.E.A.D. Trippers. A little coffee, a little opera and some wonderful memories (especially for Jim).

Enough coffee. It was time for another beer! Things were getting pretty crowded so we decided to head down to Mr. Bing’s. As we passed Vesuvio Café, Jack Kerouac Alley was filled with dancing Santas and a Santa marching brass band. We joined the fun.

Mr. Bing’s was wall-to-wall Santas. Really, no room at the inn (or the bar). After a brief discussion, we decided Kell’s Irish might be far enough off the SantaCon Trail to allow us access. Boy were we wrong! There was a half block line waiting to get in. Denied!

Chinatown. There must be bars in Chinatown. Across Columbus, up Jackson and there it was, Red’s Place just a half block short of Grant Avenue. Not really Chinese but a classic dive. It was here that a drunk Santa was convinced that I was Tony Bennett. He was so sure that he started introducing me to his friends as “Mr. Bennett, the guy who sings that cable car song.” There was also a reindeer who spent 30 minutes fixing her antlers in the bar’s mirror. Dasher? Dancer? Comet? No, I think she was Plastered.

As the sun set, our merry band scattered as members headed home. The last four of us ducked into the Comstock for a snack and a drink. The food was pretty good. Santa and Ms. Claus were doing the He-She Dance of Love at the bar and our waiter shared an odd story about free bread costing $18,000 a year. Needless to say, there wasn’t any free bread.

Another SantaCon is in the books. Mark your calendar for the second Saturday in December 2015. We’ll be back.

Want to see more SantaCon photos? Check out Tory’s album. She’s the official H.E.A.D. Photographer.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/toryjilbert/sets/72157649362425249/

It's beginning to look a lot like SantaCon!

Back in 2011, the H.E.A.D. Society stumbled upon SantaCon while exploring North Beach on the, now famous, Italian Cookie Walk. It started as serendipity but since then this mass gathering of people dressed like Santa Claus has become an annual H.E.A.D. holiday tradition.

Imagine an army of Santas, maybe 10,000 or more, unleashed on the streets of San Francisco. Now, as you know, the H.E.A.D. Society explores the food and drink history of Northern California and SantaCon is totally home-grown. Back in 1974, members of a SF social club turned a Danish political demonstration against the commercialization of Christmas into a flash mob event filled with holiday cheer.

SantaCon is a non-political, purely surreal event. It combines bawdy and harmless behavior (dressing like Santa and drinking) with the singing of carols, and the giving of small gifts to strangers. Put on your Santa suit and join our happy band of merry pranksters. It’s worldwide holiday sensation.

This year's SantaCon H.E.A.D. Trip is scheduled for Saturday, December 13th. The fun starts at Lefty O’Doul’s just off Union Square (333 Geary Street). We’ll gather there and enjoy some “holiday cheer”. Once "cheered up", we’ll cross Union Square and work our way through Chinatown, over the hill and into North Beach – ground zero for our SantaCon celebration. Along the way we’ll be stopping for lunch - last year it was Chinese and two years ago we ate pizza.

Remember to bring a new, unwrapped toy to donate to the SFFD toy drive. Don’t cheap out. You're Santa after all so bring something good. You’ll make a hunky firefighter smile! Also, bring candy to pass out along the way.