Taking another quick break from the Holiday Look Books….join me on this San Francisco North Beach Food Tour with Avital Food Tour and explore the Little Italy, formerly known as The Barbary Coast – once the most notorious neighborhood in America! On this tour we’ll visit the Hidden Tunnels where booze was smuggled through the city during Prohibition, while tasting our way through the traditional Italian culture!
to start off our tour, we went to Sotto Mare to enjoy their famous tomato based seafood stew cioppino. We learned on our tour that this classic was invented in San Francisco by Italian Fisherman! By far this is the best cioppino I’ve ever had.
For our second course we made our way towards Park Tavern located in the historic Moose’s Restaurant and across the street from SF Favorite, Original Joes! Stop by this award winning tavern for some delicious deviled egg and brussel sprout chips (OMG, they are seriously to die for!)
….the best way to walk off all this deliciousness is to take a few stops at some memorable SF spots….
North Beach is unique in that it is the intersection of not just two but three neighborhoods, Chinatown, Financial District, and Little Italy…if you look up at the intersection of these three neighborhoods you’ll see books in the air that almost look like birds in flight. If you look directly down on the street you’ll see words scattered all throughout the ground in English, Chinese, and Italian, like the photo below….
for our main course, of course we had authentic Italian wood-fired pizza from one of the oldest pizza ovens located on the West Coast….the pizza was definitely delicious but the best part was the traditional Italian feel the restaurant had. There was a long family table in the middle that gave you the feeling of being at a traditional Sunday dinner in Italy.
…before we get to my personal favorite meal, dessert let’s do another fun historical stop along the way. If we stepped back into time and went back to the mid 1800’s around the time of the gold rush, this area was known as The Barbary Coast. It was like the true wild west back then, especially here. Next time you have time to take a stroll tour through SF look down at the floors and see if you can find the Barbary Coast Trail markers. These markers show you where the original waterline was in San Francisco during the time of the gold rush. The area is called North Beach because once upon a time it actually was the most northern beach in San Francisco….now nearly a mile inland due to the infill development
During our tour we took a stop at a local art store that still has the remnants of the prohibition tunnels and you can even go in and take a looksy. It literally is just wide enough for a carriage to pass through (photo above on right side).
Leaving the best for last…a Gelato treat with the tastes from local food purveyors! No meal is truly complete without dessert and what better way to close off the day then with gelato! We tried a strawberry shortcake version for our gelato and just like the other courses on our tour, it was delish!
Book your tour with Avital Tours – North Beach Food Tour or check out another one of their neighborhood tours in the Mission District or Tenderloin!
– Happy Traveling <3
