DJ Trava

Today, In San Francisco, we’re hanging around the North Beach area and having breakfast: Fruit, and a bagel with smoked salmon sans cream cheese. We skipped the hot chocolate and sausages, our waist-lines are feeling all the good eating we’ve been doing. After breakfast, we catch the cross-town bus and ride it along Stockton on to Columbus. This is where Columbus and Stockton tri-sects with Green and where the Italian community is located ever since the late 1800’s.

We could see the Trans-America building when we looked south on Columbus, the pyramidal outline of the structure defines the cityscape as it dutifully upholds its role as the tallest in SF. We’re here on Columbus in anticipation of lunch. A San Francisco restaurant has set-up tables on the sidewalk for those who like to eat their meals al fresco. For us, it’s too cool outside, but the restaurant has over-head heaters. This was all we needed for an invite. The hostess, who was dressed in sharp attire, provided us with an enticing description of the specials, but our stomachs were still full from the small breakfast we had, believe it or not! So, we actually declined the tempting outdoor fare invite and went forth. But, we noticed that most of the restaurants placed tables out along the sidewalks, and each table had our name on it!

After surviving the gauntlet of al fresco temptations, we investigated Columbus Avenue, this is where the Beat Generation was born and then the Hippie Generation followed. Many of the joints frequented by the Beat Generation have fallen in disarray and some have a different use, but we did see enough of what is still standing, which gave us a wistful ache for the past. We poked our heads into ‘The Hungry I’ where Lenny Bruce, Woody Allen, Richard Pryor, Billy Holiday and Barbara Streisand got their early starts. Then we took a peek into the ‘Purple Onion’ where a young Phyllis Diller performed her comedy routines. We stood at the intersection of Fillmore and Union, where Dylan Thomas, Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg performed.

It was silly, but we made our way back to Columbus Avenue just in time for lunch al fresco style!

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