(415) 986-1886: Complimentary bottle of Fior d'Italia wine (Chardonnay or Cabernet) with meal for mentioning Herb Caen's name. : San Francisco rises as a great restaurant town, Explore the stories behind classic front pages, Bay Area gets a break from winter storm. Email: phartlaub@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @PeterHartlaub. Photos by Momo Chang. When the presentation is complete, the two hug and Brown comes back inside. POMPEI'S GROTTO -- 340 Jefferson Street, S.F., (415) 776-9265: Vitamin V martinis for $1, from 5 p.m. POSTRIO -- 545 Post Street, S.F., (415) 776- 8358: Herb Caen's name on the menu; $2 Herb Caen martinis. Some of the most popular restaurants in Caen that deliver are: Some of the most popular restaurants in Caen that provide takeout are: Some of the best restaurants in Caen for families with children include: Some of the most popular restaurants in Caen for cheap eats include: I thought I knew everything about steak, You cannot go wrong chez Monsieur Louis, Inventive, delicious, moderately priced. Is Californias drought finally over? Sometimes he just inwardly rebelled. TADICH GRILL -- 240 California Street, S.F., (415) 391-1849: Meatloaf a la Caen, served with mashed potatoes and a vegetable ($11.95). CHALKERS BILLIARD CLUB -- Spear and Mission, One Rincon Center, S.F., (415) 512- 0450: Meat loaf and mashed potatoes, $5.95; Gordon's vodka martini special, $2.50 all day. Sometimes suspected to be a Caen alter ego, de Jim (whose letters bore no return address, and who met Caen only onceby chance) was revealed after Caen's death to be a Castro District writer who, despite several coy interviews with the press, remains publicly anonymous. Caen, Centre Commercial les Rives de l'Orne - Quai Hamelin, Well, I did. That was the conclusion of several chefs and food magazine editors asked to describe Child's memorable contributions to American home cooking as a new movie about her life is about to open. I told Herb, 'If they swing, I will meet you at the corner.' And from that day on, having been made properly aware of the State's awful vengeance, no holdup man ever again killed a shopkeeper? Keys & Co 262 reviews Open Now Cafe, British $ Menu "Simply perfect" "After some waiting (+/-45" 2. he says. 14000, As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The Chronicle's Herb Caen once referred to Blum's, the much-loved California bakery, soda fountain and restaurant chain, which. For the professional ice hockey player, see, View a 1997 film about Herb Caen's life made by. The Caen column was real. ", In April 1996 Caen received a special Pulitzer Prize (which he called his Pullet Surprise) for "extraordinary and continuing contribution as a voice and conscience of his city. MOOSE'S -- 1652 Stockton Street, S.F., (415) 954-0744: Meat loaf and mashed potatoes, $1.50; Mini Mooseburgers, 95 cents; Skyy vodka martinis 75 cents. "If he had decided to run for mayor, I would have supported him and asked to be police chief. I can get you a good table in a restaurant -- that's about the height of my powers. "It was one of his greatest qualities. Best Restaurants in Tempe, AZ - The Porch, Ghost Ranch: Modern Southwest Cuisine, Social Hall, The Peppermill Steakhouse, Alter Ego, The Hudson Eatery & Bar, Word Of Mouth Grill, Society by Evo, Culinary Dropout, Zu Izakaya And even he misses the defunct nightclubs, where he used to collect his items in a little spiral notebook. CONTINENTAL HOTEL -- 999 California Street at top of Nob Hill, S.F., (415) 392- 3434: 25 cents for the first martini, the original price Herb Caen paid during World War II. Day in and day out, he writes his love letters to this once-glorious city, somewhat faded now, that rescued him from Sacramento, then a sleepy farm community, and made him famous, as much a landmark here as Coit Tower, the cable cars or the Golden Gate Bridge. Artichoke Basille's Pizza | 480-590-5830 | 1120 E Baseline Rd, Tempe, Arizona 85283. [17], Although Caen relied on "an army of reliable tipsters," all items were fact-checked. You bet. TARANTINO'S -- 206 Jefferson Street-Fisherman's Wharf, S.F., (415) 775-5600: Meatloaf and mashed potatoes, $7.95; half- price martinis; Big Band music. Herb Caen is considering his own obituary. Noting that several San Francisco mayors (sitting or retired) were at liberty to attend, Caen quipped, "Obviously, the Grand Jury hasn't been doing its job." (415) 931-7710: For lunch, meatloaf with apples served with Rosmarino's garlicky potatoes ($1.38); dinner appetizer: Caenfetti Herbitizer, mushroom caps stuffed with fresh herbs for 38 cents. She is an avid knitter, a terrible accordion player, a sporadic tweeter and a pretty good speller. Julia Child pulled up in a black limousine, picked up Wood, and drove a block and a half to the restaurant. He'd strike out at them. [20][21][22], Caen took special pleasure in "seeing what he could sneak by his editorshis 'naughties,'" such as this item about a shopper looking for a Barbie doll: One Mans San Francisco, Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976. Its a side you used to see at Christmas time when the local liquor store gave out sandwiches to all comers and the porn theaters put up holly and pine boughs (no mistletoe, they werent that crazy) and the cops, particularly an old timer named Ed Casazza, were there to help, not punish, unless a person was too out of line - that was the Sixth Street I thought Julia Child, the top cook in America, the successor to James Beard, would appreciate. The point is not to be maudlin or Pollyanna cheerful. Let him know that U-2 haven't forgotten. Yosemite breaks snow record; park closed indefinitely, The epic California snowpack is inching toward record levels. The legend has been repeated in the newsroom, and the rest of the city, for decades. VANESSI'S -- 1177 California at Jones, across from Grace Cathedral, S.F., (415) 771-2422: $1 vodka martinis. She said that the Tu Lan meal wasnt Woods only time spent with Child. "Herb Caen Way"[33]a reference to what Caen called his "three-dot journalism" for the ellipses separating his column's short items. The very idea seems to deflate him. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate. Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). CHEZ MICHEL -- 804 North Point Street, S.F., (415) 775-7036: Vitamin V martinis priced back to 1938, 25 cents. Caen, 17 Place de la Rpublique, "Remember the Samoans?" But now his readers are "more defensive than superior. ", There were lunches when Caen would bring up issues, and the Friday crew could see warning signs. Le Royal Brasserie 254 reviews Closed today French, Bar $$ - $$$ "Great food, fairly diverse menu." "A good choice of meals, casual and great." 3. Address: 1850 E Warner Rd, Tempe, AZ 85284-3486. Here are Woods first four paragraphs: One of the editors couldnt believe it. My Dad and I went there for dinner because we read about it in Caen's column and the place was great. Lunch begins, as it always began, with each of the gents throwing dice for his drink tab with Toni Staiano, the bartender at Le Central. Herb Caen, 1953. . "The city is 10 times bigger today that it used to be," says Bashford, not at all meaning that bigger is better, "because Herb isn't here to bring us together. BOULEVARD RESTAURANT -- One Mission Street, S.F., (415) 543-6084: Big Band music all day and a complimentary taster plate of meat loaf and mashed potatoes when ordering a Vitamin V martini. He looks around and says, "It ain't bad, but it ain't San Francisco. ALIOTO'S RESTAURANT -- 8 Fisherman's Wharf, S.F. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. My Dad asked me if I remembered our dinner (yes) and if the restaurant is still there (don't know because we can't remember the name). And the 77-year-old scribe, thought to be America's longest-running columnist, will write it himself, right down to the last three-dot item. PERRY'S DOWNTOWN & PERRY'S UNION STREET -- 185 Sutter Street/1944 Union Street, S.F., (415) 989-6895/(415) 922-9022: Herb Caen Caesar Salad, $2.50; Caen martini, $2; meatloaf and mashed potatoes, $10.50. "Every week, he'd say we're never coming back here again," says Brown. It was more important to have a favorable mention from Herb than an editorial endorsement." Did the worlds most famous chef really eat a meal on a block reputed for its open-air drug deals? YANK SING -- 427 Battery Street, S.F., (415) 781-1111: Complimentary siu mye, one of Mr. Caen's favorite dim sum items. He does not pause for a reply. "No other newspaper columnist ever has been so long synonymous with a specific place Part of his appeal seemed to lie in the endless bonhomie he projected," said his New York Times obituary, comparing him to Walter Winchell "but with the malice shorn off." PAT O'SHEA'S MAD HATTER -- 3848 Geary Blvd., S.F., (415) 752-3148: Meatloaf, mashed potatoes and first Vitamin V Stoli, $4.95; recorded Big Band music. 112. He crowns "Namephreaks" like Buzz Minnow, a local fisherman, or Shirley Nice, a kindly schoolteacher. 2. Despite more than 50 years of columnizing, when Caen vacationed abroad, says de Wildt, he'd tell friends he had to call home to "find out what's going on.". And after all those years, Child remembered Tu Lan. "He'd say, 'Because of HIM, we have to come here.' Outside the restaurant window, two kids proffer boxes of candy they're selling as a fund-raiser for some cause or other. doctors treating him for pneumonia discovered he had inoperable lung cancer. DOIDGE'S -- 2217 Union Street, S.F., (415) 921-2149: Herb Caen omelette, $1.50; two Three-Dot Caenfetti pancakes, $1.50; mimosas, $1.50. Those were the days, Mr. Caen says, when young men like himself lived in the heart of the city, rode the streetcar to work, ate in $2 Italian restaurants and went to nightclubs. Impresario Bill Graham hated Caen, recalls the foursome, and de Wildt and Kelly recall being at a Napa Valley lunch where someone unhappy about his mention in the column came up behind Caen, pummeled him and wound up rolling on the ground with him. home to Smith College. HARRY DENTON'S STARLIGHT ROOM -- 450 Powell Street, S.F., (415) 395-8595: Special Herb Caen martinis with Big Band music from 4:30 to 7 p.m. MARRIOTT HOTEL/FISHERMAN'S WHARF-LOBBY LOUNGE -- 1250 Columbus Street, S.F., (415) 775-7555: Half-price martinis from 4 p.m. PIER 39 -- Pier 39, S.F., (415) 705-5500: The Black Tie Jazz Orchestra plays Big Band tunes from 6.30 to 9.30 p.m. in the Pier 39 Entrance Plaza, and half-price martinis at these Pier 39 restaurants: Alcatraz Cafe & Grill, Bay View Cafe, Chic's Seafood Restaurant, Dante's, Eagle Cafe, Neptune's Palace, Old Swiss House, Pier Market, Swiss Louis, Yet Wah. Waiter (and one-time part owner) Edsel Ford Fung, who became famous for berating and insulting the customers, all with tongue in cheek, died Tuesday at age 55, and the skinny old eating place is in mourning. Heres when rain, snow will return. At the 6th Street restaurant, on a block dominated by SRO hotels, its still almost possible to stretch that into a sit-down lunch. This is a carousel. TOMMASO'S RESTAURANT -- 1042 Kearny Street, S.F., (415) 398-9696: Baked clams priced the same as when Herb Caen wrote about them in 1977 -- $4.50. Over the years, she has served as writer, reviewer, editor and columnist. He covers Bay Area culture, co-hosts the Total SF podcast and writes the archive-based Our SF local history column. "The 1996 Pulitzer Prize Winners: Special Awards and Citations. [18], Now and then an item (usually a joke or pun) was credited to a mysterious "Strange de Jim," whose first contribution ("Since I didn't believe in reincarnation in any of my other lives, why should I have to believe in it in this one?") But Sixth Street has another side, one I felt sure Julia Child and her former diplomat husband Paul Child would appreciate. Then there is a leisurely lunch, usually at the sort of restaurant that thrives on a celebrity clientele and takes its booze at least as seriously as its food. You had respect for certain things because he made them so real. A search in The Chronicles digital archive quickly revealed that: 1. To use our mobile site, please enable JavaScript. "So when you get it, don't be surprised," retorts Brown. Served all day. And yet beyond those details, theres almost no information readily available to the public. [4] Herbert Eugene Caen was born April 3, 1916, in Sacramento, California, although he liked to point out that his parentspool hall operator Lucien Caen and Augusta (Gross) Caen[5]had spent the summer nine months previous at the Panama Pacific International Exposition in San Francisco. Jim Wood had become as impressive a figure as Julia Child. HARRY DENTON'S -- 161 Steuart Street, S.F., (415) 882-1333: Herb's meat loaf with buttermilk mashed potatoes $5.38; three- dot mini-burger at the bar (three burgers wrapped in today's Chronicle), 50 cents or 4 bits each; Memorial Martini (to salute Herb in the Skyy). WASHINGTON SQUARE BAR & GRILL -- 1707 Powell Street, S.F., (415) 982-8123: Join us in a toast to Herb Caen . 5. SINBAD'S -- The Ferry Building, Pier 2, S.F., (415) 781-2555: Filet of salmon florentine ($14.50); Big Band music on the sound system. ( SF CHRONICLE PHOTO BY SCOTT SOMMERDORF ), One of the largest movie theaters in SF to close permanently, 'Zero visibility' conditions: All roads to Tahoe are closed, Report: Matthew McConaughey has a massive Salesforce paycheck, 'Really cool sight': Rare waterspout forms in Northern California, Avalanche slams into Tahoe apartment building amid blizzard, Plan to bring bullet train from LA to Vegas is underway, What it looks like inside Coit Towers former apartment, Grapevine closed indefinitely due to heavy snow and ice, A different horse': Bay Area will likely continue to see rain, Popular yet divisive fast food chain coming to this Bay Area town, Hundreds of thousands of workers have abandoned downtown SF, Tahoe's snowfall totals are on track to break records, Grapevine closed indefinitely due to snow and ice, authorities say, New report shows thousands of workers have left downtown San Francisco. Jim was a larger than life, brilliant, worldly and funny man, Pogash wrote. 'You call this food?' .css-dni6nt path:nth-child(1),.css-dni6nt path:nth-child(2){fill:hsl(104, 38%, 42%);}.css-dni6nt path:nth-child(3),.css-dni6nt path:nth-child(4){fill:hsl(0, 0%, 0%);}.css-l7ijkl{clip:rect(1px, 1px, 1px, 1px)!important;overflow:hidden!important;position:absolute!important;white-space:nowrap!important;height:1px!important;width:1px!important;padding:0!important;border:0!important;contain:paint!important;}TheFork, a Trip advisor company, .css-1ddcsh7{font-size:0.8125rem;font-weight:400;font-family:RalewayX,arial,sans-serif;font-style:normal;line-height:1.3846153846153846;text-transform:uppercase;text-transform:uppercase;}French, 14 Rue Porte au Berger, Ju'ste Chez Moi 451 reviews Open Now French $$ - $$$ "A superb experience" "Simply the best crepe ever !" 2022 4. The youngest gawkers, Mr. Caen said, have never seen carbon paper, a vestige of the pre-computer newsroom. . 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