Would San Francisco be San Francisco without sourdough?
It’s hard to imagine a less crusty City by the Bay, or a region devoid of cioppino, Green Goddess dressing, martinis or an It’s It on a hot day — or any day, really. The Bay Area is the avowed originator of all these foods and spirits, give or take a good debate.
Sheila Himmel, a former Mercury News restaurant critic and James Beard award-winning food writer, who also curated an “SF Eats” exhibit for the San Francisco Public Library, says the Bay Area’s geography, the immigration spurred by the 1849 Gold Rush and the region’s overall embrace of alternative thinking led to the creation of foods and drinks that are as San Franciscan as the cable cars and Golden Gate Bridge.
Here are just a few of the foods that made the Bay Area famous.
Sourdough bread
Any list of iconic Bay Area foods has to start with sourdough, a bread born of necessity and nurtured in the heart of San Francisco. Its beginnings actually date back more than 6,000 years, but gold miners, faced with a scant supply of foodstuffs, took advantage of the ancient recipe which uses wild yeasts found in the air to leaven the dough.
A French baker, Isidore Boudin, is credited with turning sourdough into San Francisco’s favorite when he opened his bakery here in 1849. Boudin’s wife, Louise, rescued the mother dough in 1906, after the Great Earthquake and Fire, by tossing it into a bucket and carrying it to safety. That mother dough is still used in every Boudin loaf today.
Laura Smith Borrman, author of “Iconic San Francisco Dishes, Drinks and Desserts,” says historians have learned that the California gold miners weren’t quite as limited in their baking goods as was believed, so their sourdough might not have been as sour as that made by gold-seeking miners in Alaska’s Klondike.
That does nothing to detract from Boudin‘s origin story, however, and the stories being written right now throughout the Bay.
“There is a flood of bakeries that have the ‘It’ bakers,” Borrman says, “giving their take on sourdough bread. They are keeping a tradition alive, but making it new.”
The martini
Depending on what side of the Bay you live, the credit for this elegant libation goes to either a bartender in San Francisco or one in Martinez. Claims that it actually was created in New York just aren’t tolerated here.
The San Francisco martini differs from the East Bay one, originally called the Martinez, by the choice of vermouth, says Trevor Felch, author of “San Francisco Cocktails.” San Francisco’s uses dry, the Martinez incorporates sweet. There’s also some debate on the choice of garnish — olive vs. maraschino cherry. Otherwise, the legend story is much the same, involving a miner asking for a special drink.
Felch accepts the San Francisco story, while Borrman sides with Martinez, which doesn’t care what anyone thinks. You’ll find a plaque in that city declaring the martini the creation of Martinez bartender Julio Richelieu in response to a miner’s request for something special to keep him warm on a ferry ride to San Francisco.
The San Francisco origin story involves perhaps the first celebrity bartender, “Professor” Jerry Thomas of the Occidental Hotel in San Francisco, who is said to have made a special drink for a miner on his way to Martinez. Either way, a ferry was involved.
Cioppino
This amazing concoction of seafood in a spicy tomato broth is a loving salute to the ocean. Italian fishermen, fishing off the Pacific coast, made the hearty dish from fresh-caught seafood. The soup, plus a hunk of sourdough bread, made for a filling meal, and cioppino soon made its way from the galley to the restaurant, because we know a good thing when we taste it. There are hundreds of different recipes, all variations on the theme.
It’s It
The origin story of this dessert is Borrman’s favorite, and reflects a certain spirit of creativity and determination the Bay Area is known for. The It’s It is certifiably San Franciscan, created in 1928 by George Whitney, one of the original owners of Playland-at-the-Beach. He was looking for a dessert that could be easily enjoyed while strolling among the attractions of the beachside amusement park. He finally settled on a vanilla ice cream cookie sandwich, dipped it in chocolate and declared “That’s it!” (Or, depending on the source, “This is it!” Or simply “It!”) Playland is no more, but the ice cream treat lives on — in mint, cappuccino, strawberry and pumpkin versions, too.
Mai tai
Like the martini, the mai tai has a muddled and contested history, Felch says. Victor Bergeron, owner of the East Bay’s legendary Trader Vic’s restaurant and tiki bar, is said to have created the drink, which has its roots in the daiquiri family, for Carrie and Easton Guild in 1944.
When the couple asked for “something special,” Bergeron whipped up the rum-based drink and added a splash of fresh lime and orgeat, a sweet almond syrup. Carrie tasted it and exclaimed “Maita’i roa ae,” declaring in Tahitian that it was excellent. Bergeron’s mai tai eventually made its way to Hawaii, where it became wildly popular.
The only wrinkle: Eleven years earlier, Donn Beach, considered the king of tiki bar culture and owner of Hollywood’s Don the Beachcomber restaurant, claims to have created the drink, which he called the Q.B. Cooler.
We know our loyalties. The Bay Area lays claim to the drink, which is still served at the Trader Vic’s in Emeryville today.
Fortune cookie
The cookie that portends the future had to be made in China, right? So what’s it doing in a list of Bay Area classics? Turns out it’s mostly a Japanese invention, but it took a fortune cookie company in San Francisco to make it into a classic.
Suyeichi Okamura founded Benkyodo, a small Japanese confectionery and snack shop that became known for making small after-dinner treats. The company also supplied cookies — Japanese rice crackers folded around paper fortunes — to serve guests at Golden Gate Park’s Japanese Tea Garden beginning around 1911. By the 1940s, restaurants in Chinatown were offering the cookies, too, and enthusiastic tourists were returning home with tales of the whimsical San Francisco treats.
Green Goddess
This tangy, vividly colored salad dressing has had its origins challenged, but San Francisco has the bona fides. The executive chef at the Palace Hotel in the city, Philip Roemer, created the dressing to honor actor George Arliss and his 1920s hit play, “The Green Goddess.”
The salad typically topped by that dressing came later. The original was served over an artichoke.
Gilroy garlic fries
The history of garlic fries isn’t as well defined, but Lisa Rogovin, founder of Edible Excursions, one of a growing number of Bay Area food tours that celebrate restaurants and iconic foods, often includes them on her tours.
There might be other garlic fries in the world, but the ones served at Bay Area restaurants and San Francisco Giants games are a nod to how the region’s fresh ingredients have influenced food, Rogovin says.
Rogovin prefers the fries served up by Gott’s Roadside, which has locations in Palo Alto and Walnut Creek, as well as the original founded in 1999 by two brothers in St. Helena.
“You want them hot,” Rogovin says, “so you’re not eating soggy fries.”
Tosca’s House Cappuccino
Bars in the Bay Area have twice had dark days, Felch says. Bars couldn’t sell intoxicating beverages — at least not in the open — during Prohibition. And the pandemic closed bars that didn’t also have food service. In both instances, Felch says, bars recovered, but in different ways.
Tosca Cafe, which has operated in North Beach since 1919, found a creative way to skirt Prohibition by creating the House Cappuccino, which at best was a wink and nod to the classic Italian drink. Tosca’s version was basically a cup of hot chocolate, made with Ghirardelli chocolate, of course, and a shot of your preferred spirit.
The recipe later was embellished to include chocolate ganache. The drink became instantly popular and remained so long after Prohibition was lifted.
Bars are only now starting to recover from the 2020 pandemic shut-down, but in the true spirit of the Bay Area, bartenders are breathing new life into a growing cocktail scene, Felch says, experimenting with new and different alcohols from around the world. And Tosca, which reopened its restaurant, as well as its bar, in late 2020, still pours that signature toddy: bourbon, cognac, hot chocolate, steamed coffee and a side of history.
