What
makes a city great? Is it the food, the attractions on offer, the weather, or
the agglomeration of different cultures or is it something more abstract? As
may have been clear by now, I enjoy moving around, going to small and big
cities in my quest to see more and more of the world. I have lived in Atlanta
for about 5 years now but have always found something missing. The city has
great food, attractions, many different cultures, but somehow fails to ‘Wow’
me! On a trip this past weekend, I might have finally cracked what it is that’s
amiss.
One of the first American Shows I watched outside of
cartoons was Full House. For those who aren’t aware, the Olsen twins played the
role of Michelle as an adorable 4 year old child in a loving family. The family
lived in San Francisco. After about 10-15 years since I last watched that show,
I had my first opportunity to visit the hilly city!
When you think of California, you think great weather,
great food, and beautiful people among other things. Like NYC is its own entity
so is California; Having not been to many cities besides LA which I thought was
okay, I wondered if Californians were pretentious and had an air about
themselves, well just because they were from California. San Francisco proved
to me why the Bay area is such a desired area to be in.
A lot of my friends from college moved to San Francisco after
graduation to pursue careers in the gigantic tech industry there. I was staying
with a friend from Bombay, Tarush, who did his Bachelors from Carnegie Mellon.
A shared interest for electronic music was bringing us together for this
weekend as a new and upcoming sensation in the house scene, Alesso, was playing
at one of the top venues in San Francisco, Ruby Skye. Ruby Skye is known to
host some of the biggest names in EDM throughout the year. But just like my
trip to Lebanon for TATW 400 (Above and Beyond’s Radio Show, you know by now),
I experienced so much more during the course of my trip there; the music was
just the cherry on top.
I got to SF around midnight on Thursday and proceeded to
my friend’s apartment on Van Ness Street. He lived in a very spacious modern
apartment geared to be a bachelor pad: Minimal furniture, comfy sofa and bed
and a great sound system. We just spent the night catching up, planning for the
day ahead. Planning for 4.20
Friday afternoon around noon we left the apartment to be
welcomed by an unusually sunny and warm day by San Francisco standards. I think
I brought the sunshine with me. First stop was Market Street and the most
iconic building of SF, The Ferry Building. The wide complex houses many gourmet
restaurants and stores selling food likes cured pork and organic honeys to
chowder and oysters. To add to the goodness on offer, was a deck overlooking
the SF bay flocked by seagulls. This was the perfect place to grab the first
bite: An assortment of cured pork meats drizzled with a light vinaigrette dressing
between a hearty bread. What a start.
After walking around a bit, I met up with another friend
and I got to experience the hilly nature of SF. As we drove up Market Street,
the roads went up and down in a very distinct way I haven’t come across
anywhere before. We went to Hayes valley; a quiet neighborhood lined with boutique
stores and artisanal cafes. My friend lived right above one in an old quaint
building, in a small studio apartment with bay windows opening up to the
trees beyond. It was quite the setting.
We proceeded to a beer garden around the corner which was
packed 10 minutes after it opened at 3. We chatted about life, soaked in the
beautiful weather and people watched. Tarush joined us soon after and we headed
to another bigger beer garden called Zeitgeist. This place was even more
bustling and we took up residence on an already crowded outdoor table with
seemingly unassuming folks. What I hadn’t realized yet was what a close knit
tech community SF is. More often than not you can ask someone what they
do, and the response would be as an engineer in a tech company. (Apple, Google,
Facebook, Twitter, and many many not as well-known but equally important
companies). The guy at our table worked for Google.
After another drink at a nearby Vietnamese restaurant we
headed back to be joined by Evan in a few hours. He was flying standby and
somehow made it out of Atlanta. The fearsome threesome was united, things were
about to get real. We had already missed any real opportunities to eat dinner
having meandered all day long, so we just proceeded to the clubs. First we went
to a club called Temple, had a great setting but the music wasn’t great so we
left soon thereafter. Vessel, the club we went to next, was a great time. The
DJ knew how to get the crowd bouncing and 2 hours later, we walked out, shirts
wet, hearts content. Some funny incidents on the way home included me embracing
a Bank of America ATM because, “I love my bank” and us catching a live
performance of a man drumming on empty cans, a light pole and buckets. It was
time to call it a night..
Think of a time when you went outdoors, and the sun shone
brightly and the gentlest of breezes tickled your skin; Day 2 was just that,
idyllic. Believe it or not, one of the more defining things about SF is its
brunch culture. Yes Brunch. One wouldn’t
think much of it besides that comfort Sunday afternoon meal which isn’t really
breakfast but isn’t really lunch, not because of the hour its eaten at but
because of the food in play. SF is where brunch was redefined. Irrespective of
how much people drank the night before, on the weekend at 11 am, they all queue up at
one of many brunch places, particularly, Lime. Located in Castro place, SF’s
very obviously gay and vibrant area, Lime was like a day club. Hip tunes, a
hipper crowd, brunch essentials like eggs Benedict and unlimited mimosas. I
must say it was quite the experience. ‘It’s brunch’ was soon to become the
tagline of the trip.
Once we got our pretentious fill for the day, we
proceeded to do something more impromptu and one of my favorite things when
discovering a city; walk about with no real agenda. Tarush pointed to the Twin
Peaks (SF’s highest point) far in the distance and sometime between finishing
brunch and seeing some stark naked men roaming in this district, we were on our
way up the mountain. It was quite a trek, but what a great decision it was. I had
already been noticing the different housing options around town from the modern
apartment to the old studio, but this hike up the mountain provided a glimpse
into what were to become my favorite living haunts in the city; Houses, big and
small dotted the hill, all unique in their style, but similar in their use of
windows that gave unparalleled views of the city below and the ocean in the far
background. This was the kind of house Michelle lived in. This was
the SF I had seen on TV.
The hike all the way to the top kept getting better and we
were more and more convinced of how we needed to have a place here. After
spending about 30 minutes at the top looking far down at where we started from,
Evan and I (residents of Atlanta for 5 years, and visitors to many many cities
in the world) realized why Atlanta didn’t attract us as much even after 5
years. To quote him he said, “It’s all about the experience here.” A seemingly
simple statement clicked right away and it was true, Atlanta was missing the
community vibe, collective activities that people did together. Tarush had
already told me about many interesting festivals like the Love Parade wherein
music trucks start in different parts of the city, with people dancing around
them, finally meeting at the center. There was so much that worked for SF;
whether being a port city, epicenter of tech firms, the resident’s love for
music or just the simple fact that it was a walking city! In my experience any
great city must be a walking city, and unfortunately Atlanta is too spread out
to be one.
After contemplating life’s bigger questions, we headed
home to get changed to answer a simpler much more pertinent question; what’s
for dinner? In a place that was bustling with so many cultures, food had to be
great and we needed to eat something special. Located in the Marina bay area,
Fisherman’s wharf is SF’s answer to Seattle’s pike place market minus the local
produce plus hundreds of restaurants serving up the catch of the day. It was
hard enough picking one, but the anticipation for the food was even more
tantalizing. I ordered the seafood chowder (Had that in Seattle too, direct comparison)
and the bruschetta with Dungeness crab. Others had the mussels, a trio of fish
fillets in a light sauce, and a seafood platter that included jumbo shrimps and
scallops. The sauces and preparations were Italian…
There was to be yet another awe invoking moment before
Alesso’s set itself. We headed to the Mariott Marquis’ bar called, The View.
Located on the top floor, as I exited the elevator and looked around, I
genuinely didn’t know what to say. Aptly called the view, there was a 360 view
of the city from this vantage point in the sky. Dim lighting and low lying
furniture added to the pure stark beauty that was, this view!
Unfortunately it was too crowded and we didn’t get to
have a drink there but we proceeded to an Irish bar before heading to the headline
event of the night – Alesso. I will not talk about that in this post since I
could go on writing pages describing what that set delivered. One thing that is
becoming clearer to me is that Electronic music is the truth and there is no
escaping it. I don’t know of many other events where masses of humanity sway
with joy the way they do at such gigs. If I were to pick a song to go with this
post, to describe the feeling within, I would choose this.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNYL7-Tu6fQ
..
2
days was definitely not enough here. What a complete weekend it was. I got to
catch up with some close friends, got a taste of local flavors, saw first hand
things SF prides itself on, was taken on a musical journey and most importantly,
I got to experience brunch! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2uE4P3P5sI
