There was something about the trams on dizzying, almost vertical hills, M&Ms on pizza and the lure of the Golden Gate Bridge.
Growing up, San Francisco always fascinated me. But even as an adult, I struggled to understand this city of many contrasts.
This is the place where hippie love blossomed and queer culture found its voice. It’s also where Big Tech first boomed, paving the way for tech bros to finesse the TikTok algorithms we are gripped by today.
Some 23 million people flock to California’s ‘Sunset City’ each year, drawn by world famous landmarks, eclectic architecture and award-winning food scene.
But what I really wanted to know is how iconic ‘SF’ makes you feel.
Community spirit
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San Francisco is home to just 21 chain restaurants, Mark Paladini, a former executive chef turned food tour guide, took pride in telling me.
And on a Secret Food Tour of the Mission District (which is made up of 94% small businesses), it was easy to see why Paladini describes it as ‘the locals’ hangout where you go to escape’. There wasn’t a single other tourist in sight.
The Mission District is vibrant and beautiful, 30 blocks long and 10 blocks wide. The streets are covered in murals that are less art, more communication. A quick stroll takes you through the stories of local heroes, gentrification and gun crime, and how all of it has impacted the community. The Mission, at its heart, is the real San Francisco.
I had the best taco of my life at La Vaca Birria, which found its home inside an old music shop called Discolandia. It was such an iconic part of the Mission that when the shop shut, the community rallied for the signage to remain.
It’s there that I experienced the quesabirria, dripping with succulent beef and tangy oaxaca cheese. This alone was worth the 11-hour flight from London.
The Mission screams community. I’m told that acclaimed Michelin chef Dominique Crenn took her kitchen staff to observe a busy Saturday shift at La Corneta Taqueria, a local hotspot famed for its 1kg burritos with just four fillings: rice, beans, meat and salsa.
According to Paladini, Crenn couldn’t get her kitchen to gel. But at La Corneta Taqueria they were able to witness how staff would take care to move around each other with a tap on the shoulder or the lower back. The experience reportedly transformed her kitchen for the better.
It’s stories like this that made me realise the magic of SF is in the community and the food; a lot of different people live here, but they all need to eat.
Karl, the Fog
Any trip to SF worth its salt includes a bike ride across the city and the Golden Gate Bridge. And though the famous Bay Area fog was nowhere to be seen, I came away with context.
San Francisco’s perennial mist has a name: Karl. The fog even has its own Instagram account (@KarlTheFog, with 285,000 followers). But it was on the late, great Twitter that it all began.
An account of the same name first popped up in August 2010. The brains behind it remains anonymous, but they have given interviews over email to the SF Chronicle and other local outlets, saying they were inspired by other parody accounts. The name stuck.
Few places on Earth have felt the boom and bust cycle as intensely as California’s ‘Sunset City’. The 1848 Gold Rush brought fortune, the 1906 earthquake caused devastation and the Summer of Love brought a wave of hippie liberalism, before the 1989 earthquake shook the streets once more — then Big Tech moved in.
From this chequered history has emerged a site of great cultural significance, with a thriving arts scene, diverse neighbourhoods and the hub of modern innovation that is Silicon Valley.
Salesforce Tower looms over the Financial District like a metaphor: Big Tech, the ever watchful guardian. The 200 strong fleet of driverless Waymo cars (think Uber without the driver) are a reminder of tech domination, too.
Michelin magic
San Francisco is a relatively small city at just seven-by-seven miles with less than one million residents. Yet it boasts the second-highest number of Michelin star restaurants in the Americas (only behind New York).
If a full tasting menu is too much on the stomach or the wallet, a new trend is emerging, which sees Michelin restaurants opening accompanying cocktail bars.
I hopped around Saison Wine Bar, Bar Crenn and Bar Iris all in one night. I was blown away, not just by the exquisite cocktails and dishes, but by how affordable it was to experience such fine dining.
A dish at Bar Crenn, for example, will set you back an average of $16. Yes, the plates are small, but the flavours pack a punch and are surprisingly filling.
It’s fancy in comparison to the Mission burrito, but the care and passion for food is evident in both. The city of the Golden Gate feels like it’s in its golden foodie era.
A complex city
San Francisco is a complex city of booms and busts, and everybody knows it. Independent theatre, Club Fugazi, puts on an acrobatic interpretation of the story of SF called ‘Dear San Francisco’.
While watching the performance, I couldn’t help but think of something Mark Palidini said on the food tour: ‘San Francisco always survives’.
It’s never lost the ability to reinvent itself, while holding onto echoes of its past: Alcatraz Prison in the distance, hippie Haight-Ashbury, now home to incredible vintage shopping, and the Castro with its LGBTQ+ community and businesses.
Everyone I met, from waiters to guides to doormen, all talked of San Francisco rebuilding itself after the economic decimation of Covid.
This is a brave city that always says yes; I can guarantee we won’t be seeing a whole fleet of driverless cars in London anytime soon.
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Alex Goldsmith was a guest of the San Francisco Tourism Board.
United Airlines runs daily nonstop flights to San Francisco from London Heathrow. Return economy fares start from £572.29 per person including taxes.
A deluxe room at the Ritz-Carlton, Nob Hill starts at $654 USD per night. Club rooms with complimentary food and beverages start from $804 USD per night
Rooms at The Beacon Grand, Union Square, start at $259 per night.
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