Popcorn, pasta, Poets Plaza, Puccini, Joe DiMaggio Playground … and a kick in the ‘calzoni’

A POET’S DREAM REALIZED? Recently, I received an invitation from Angela Alioto, international director of the Knights of St. Francis (an unofficial Catholic lay organization ... Read More

Back Story

The world’s best jazz festivals

By Ernest Beyl

In spite of pop, punk, rap, country, R&B, metal, new wave, new world, and other new sounds rattling around in our brains, jazz — still America’s unique gift to the worl... Read More

Back Story

Oscar-winning movie kid Claude Jarman Jr.

Nashville’s loss became San Francisco’s gain

By Ernest Beyl

Claude Jarman Jr. will be 80 on Sept. 27. He doesn’t look it. He doesn’t act it. He doesn’t live it. Many years ago I saw a movie with a youngster named Claude Ja... Read More

Appetites and Afterthoughts

Signature San Francisco dishes

By Ernest Beyl

I enjoy reading about food. I’m assuming you do, too. So here are a few stories about signature San Francisco dishes, a bit of history on your plate. CELERY VICTOR If there w... Read More

North Beach Journal

The Beats, Upper Grant, the martini, and Live Worms

By Ernest Beyl

Not long ago I heard from Ryan Russo, a young guy who operates Walk SF Tours. He liked something I wrote for my Sketches column and invited me to tag along on one of his tours, The... Read More

Back Story

The glory days of saloon piano players in North Beach

By Ernest Beyl

The other day I cleaned out a closet and found a March 1970 Holiday magazine, then a big glossy publication read by big, glossy, discerning travelers with lots of discretionary inc... Read More

North Beach Journal

Filthy McNasty, Freddie Freeloader, Magnolia Thunderpussy, Lavern Cummings … and a happy birthday to Tony Bennett

By Ernest Beyl

Tony Bennett’s birthday is Aug. 3. And where will he have his birthday party? Well, right where he left his heart last time he was in San Francisco — at Gigi’s Sotte ... Read More

Appetites and Afterthoughts

Consider Calzone’s

By Ernest Beyl

Sometimes I think Calzone’s — the North Beach, high-style restorante with a lot of sidewalk action — gets a bum rap. “Too touristy,” one is apt to hear. What&... Read More

Street Beat

Recalling Lorenzo Petroni

He went out with the ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’

By Ernest Beyl

Lorenzo Petroni, whose North Beach Restaurant is one of the finest in this city known for its excellent dining spots, died May 27 after a long and debilitating illness. It was just... Read More

North Beach Journal

The Gentleman Trencherman, the bartender, the barista, the philosopher, the photographer, the cop, and the mama

By Ernest Beyl

DAWDLING THROUGH NORTH BEACH My buddy James Melling, the Gentleman Trencherman of North Beach as I frequently call him, has a habit. Actually, it’s a good habit, and I wouldn... Read More

Appetites and Afterthoughts

The Sauerkraut Kid tries out the new Schroeder’s

By Ernest Beyl

Schroeder’s, one of the oldest San Francisco restaurants — it was established in 1893 — has reopened after undergoing some sensitive renovations. They were sensitive beca... Read More

Appetites and Afterthoughts

San Francisco museum cafes and restaurants

By Ernest Beyl

I’m a big fan of cafes and restaurants in museums. I have been known to go to a museum — ostensibly to stand in a long line to see a blockbuster show — only to become dis... Read More

North Beach Journal

Mama’s, Annie Hall, and the pornographic butterflies

By Ernest Beyl

The other day someone said she thought I was becoming the Herb Caen of North Beach. Good try on a compliment, but I could never match Herb’s wit and wisdom. Bruce Bellingham ... Read More

Back Story

Finnochio’s: What a drag

By Ernest Beyl

Recently I wrote a column called “Broadway Kaleidoscope,” the Back Story about what I called the Golden Years of Broadway in North Beach. I said that in the 1960s — m... Read More

Back Story

A resurgence of the arts and artists in North Beach

By Ernest Beyl

From reading my monthly column, Sketches from a North Beach Journal, one might get the impression that poet, painter, and free-range radical Lawrence Ferlinghetti so dominates the ... Read More

Ernest Beyl