Startle

The best time to come to San Francisco is either from April to May or August to October, because the true summer months are always a little foggier here. It’s warmer and the steam off of the ocean creeps in — that’s how we get all that fog. I mean I like the fog. It’ll be freezing when it’s blowing in, but then when it settles, which is usually about 8 p.m., it’s actually kind of warm, kind of a nice temperature. But if you want more sunshine, definitely September to October, even into November, it’s always pretty sunny.

We have a great wine shop here that’s in between my two restaurants that I stop at a lot to get wines— it’s called Terroir. The guys there are really cool, and it’s a funky little wine shop and everything is biodynamic and mostly from Italy, France, Slovenia and Austria. Food-wise I’d go to the markets to get the ultimate arugula or mache or watercress or whatever that I wouldn’t find at any supermarket. I live close to the Bay Bridge, so I actually go to Berkeley Bowl quite a bit because it’s a super nice market and they have a lot of local farm produce, and then they just have a huge amount of international stuff in bulk at really good prices.

One of my favorite restaurants that’s more current is SPQR. I love this place, Matt Accarrino is the chef and Shelley Lindgren is the wine director. I think Matt makes the best pasta in the city. And yeah, I’ve spent some time with their pasta maker too. I love that. It’s amazing what they do with that little teeny prep space.

I must be obsessed with pasta and pizza and Italian foods these days because my other favorite restaurant that I really like is Tony’s Pizza in North Beach. It sounds like some generic pizza place but Tony Gemignani, he is this world champion pizza thrower. He knows how to do all those acrobatics, but he also is the first American to win the Naples pizzaiolo contest. Actually, he’s from Castro Valley, out here in California. He takes it so seriously, the guy has like five different pizza ovens to make different styles of pizza. It’s unbelievable. They have a great bar and the pizzas are completely standout. He brings in different flours and olive oils, and they have different kinds of tomatoes from Italy.He’ll do a New York pie in a coal oven, then he does the Napolitano style with wood in a brick oven that came from Naples, and then he’s got all these different American regional pies and they’re all totally different. And I’m not just talking about the toppings, I’m talking the execution of everything.

I haven’t stayed in a hotel in I don’t know how long in San Francisco, but I know that the Hotel Vitale, it’s one of Chip Conley’s hotel, is really nice and it’s actually close to the ferry building so it’s looking right on the bay. That’s a cool one, and it’s totally affordable. My mom has stayed there. And then, our W Hotel is really nice. It’s a good location—it’s right near the Museum of Modern Art.

We have a lot of really cool bars in San Francisco. People are very serious about cocktails. People drink probably more gin here than any other spirit. This is not a vodka town at all.The Olympic in the Haight-Ashbury is really cool. My own mixologist, Ian Adams, has been doing really stuff at Orson. We have the Bourbon & Branch. And Grey Glyngrin’s cocktails are phenomenal at Rye. You just don’t screw around with cocktails here. The bar is so high.

Iin the East Bay we also have a place called Market Hall. It’s over in Rockridge, which is just sort of in the Park Bay area. Oliveto’s is there, the restaurant that Paul Bertolli made so famous. It’s a great pasta shop and cheese shop and wine shop and, the specialty stuff. They just have a lot of fun stuff, there’s a little bakery too.

I think that everybody who comes to San Francisco should definitely go to the Ferry Building, where the farmer’s market is. The big one is on Saturdays, Saturday morning. But just, the market alone, I mean, I know everybody likes to go to farmer’s markets these days, and they’re all over the place, which is awesome, but it’s kind of insane, our farmer’s market here because we have obviously so much produce in this part of the world and it’s just, it’s kind of mind-blowing how much stuff there is. And people all say that when they come here, that this is like the best one. It’s expensive, it’s like going to Neiman Marcus, for produce, but you just don’t see anything like it.

And then there’s just a bunch of really good shops in the Ferry Building, too. Scharffen Berger has chocolate, down there, Michael Recchiuti, who’s a chocolate maker here who has some great little bon bons and then there’s Mijita, which is Tracy Des Jardins’ taqueria, which is really good, everything’s organic. Boulette’s Larder is this really unique prepared foods kind of shop that Amaryll Schwertner and Lori Regis own and it’s just beautiful. You kind of just want to live there. You can sit down in the kitchen by the fireplace. It doesn’t get any better than that. Then, my favorite place to go with my dogs is Crissy Field, because it’s the park and beach that runs right up to the Golden Gate Bridge. It’s right on the water and you can see Alcatraz out on the bay, but it’s really about the huge green and beach. People jog and ride bikes and walk their dogs and barbecue and all kinds of stuff out there. It’s a good place to run.

And then, we also have a really cool museum here called the Exploratorium that’s great to take kids to. I’ve actually been to quite a few parties there. People rent out the space because it’s just like one of those museums that has a bunch of different science and art projects that you can learn from, but it’s very interesting and active and one of those cool museums that I always liked as a kid, and I still like now.