Produced by David A. Schwan
Bohemian San Francisco
Its Restaurants and Their Most Famous Recipes—
The Elegant Art of Dining
By Clarence E. Edwords
1914
Dedication To Whom Shall I Dedicate This Book?
To Some Good Friend? To Some Pleasant Companion?
To None of These, For From Them Came Not The Inspiration.
To Whom, Then?
To The Best Of All Bohemian Comrades,
My Wife.
Foreword
No apologies are offered for this book. In fact, we rather like it. Manyyears have been spent in gathering this information, and naught iswritten in malice, nor through favoritism, our expressions of opinionbeing unbiased by favor or compensation. We have made our owninvestigation and given our own ideas.
That our opinion does not coincide with that of others does not concernus in the least, for we are pleased only with that which pleases us, andnot that with which others say we ought to be pleased.
If this sound egotistical we are sorry, for it is not meant in that way.We believe that each and every individual should judge for him orherself, considering ourselves fortunate that our ideas and tastes areheld in common.
San Franciscans, both residential and transient, are a pleasure-lovingpeople, and dining out is a distinctive feature of their pleasure. Withhundreds of restaurants to select from, each specializing on someparticular dish, or some peculiar mode of preparation, one often becomesbewildered and turns to familiar names on the menu card rather thanventure into fields that are new, of strange and rare dishes whoseunpronounceable names of themselves frequently are sufficient todiscourage those unaccustomed to the art and science of cookingpracticed by those whose lives have been spent devising means oftickling fastidious palates of a city of gourmets.
In order that those who come within our gates, and many others who haveresided here in blindness for years, may know where to go and what toeat, and that they may carry away with them a knowledge of how toprepare some of the dishes pleasing to the taste and nourishing to thebody, that have spread San Francisco's fame over the world, we havedecided to set down the result of our experience and study of ourBohemian population and their ways, and also tell where to find and howto order the best special dishes.
Over North Beach way we asked the chef of a little restaurant how hecooked crab. He replied:
"The right way."
One often wonders how certain dishes are cooked and we shall tell you"the right way."
It is hoped that when you read what is herein written some of ourpleasure may be imparted to you, and with this hope the story of SanFrancisco's Bohemianism is presented.
Clarence E. Edwords.
San Francisco, California,
September 22, 1914.
Our Toast
Not to the Future, nor to the Past;
No drink of Joy or Sorrow;
We drink alone to what will last;
Memories on the Morrow.
Let us live as Old Time passes;
To the Present let Bohemia bow.
Let us raise on high our glasses
To Eternity—the ever-living Now.
Contents
Foreword
The Good Gray City
The Land of Bohemia
As it was in the Beginnin