San Francisco
I was upgraded to First Class on this trip to SF which helped me survive the weather delay conundrums at the airport. With the recent merger of United Airlines and Continental Airlines, SFO has a dedicated terminal and the next to the International terminal. I checked into the Doubletree San Francisco Airport since I was arriving so late into the area, there was no point in traveling in the middle of the night into the city. This particular Doubletree was my first hotel and started me on as a HHonors member. The cookie was the hook. :) Seriously, I think Doubletree could make money as a bakery with this cookie. Spacious accommodations, the room was perfect for what I needed.
Checked into the Grand Hyatt San Francisco the next morning. So here was the cause of the trip, I received a free night coupon from Hyatt to stay in their San Francisco locations but I had only until the end of June. So I squeezed in a trip in my busy June schedule to capitalize on this deal. The hotel is undergoing renovations and the top third of the hotel is closed until the end of summer. So no high floor view but the front desk was very pleasant and my room had a very definite new smell to it. I also dig the key card as a touch responder, no sliding into a door lock to open. High tech! ;) The room definitely had a modern European feel and I liked the over sized bathroom basin.
Wandered into the Haight area and had lunch at Memphis Minnie's. Came in on their first hour of opening and was able to beat the lunch crush, shared a taster sampler which consisted of three meat options and two sides. Opted for the andouille sausage, St. Louis ribs, and beef brisket. All tasty but not the best BBQ by far but definitely for this city. (I still think the South beats anyplace hands down.) A word to the wise, the sides are tiny and in containers the size of typical condiments bowls. The slaw and mac n cheese was good enough but the cornbread muffin could have been better. I wanted to try the fried pies in the menu but it seems that the restaurant was running short on food and didn't have any desserts available from their menu. I was also initially told that the chicken wasn't available but changed at the last minute. I'm not sure if I had arrived later in the day if they would have had their inventory in better shape.
Being denied of some sweets, I headed over to Bi-Rite Creamery. The last time, the lines were too long for me to deal with the ice cream line. I figured I would have a better chance now because the weather was gloomier and brisk enough that people may not want ice cream. When I came up to the creamery, the line was half what I saw last and I ordered the salted caramel and roasted banana ice cream in a cone. In comparison to the soft serve, I think I liked the soft serve version of the salted caramel and the banana was spot on. Not too bananaey.
After doing some work, I ended up hitting the hotel gym late. It was a nice facility as it took up one floor of the hotel (that sounds bigger than it really is) and worked out fine for what I needed. Hyatt has a stay fit program where they'll provide you gym clothes (shoes as well) if you wanted to workout and had nothing on you. I should have looked into that earlier since I had forgotten some shorts and picked one up at Old Navy on Market. No fear, I had a Groupon deal for Old Navy so it still works out in the end. :)
Didn't feel like heading out for dinner and ordered room service. Luckily, the kitchen hours are open late and I was the last order for the night. Ate the chicken al pastor quesadilla and grand marnier creme brulee. Quick service and good for room service although the food didn't seem to agree with me the next day.
Headed out the next morning to Dynamo Donuts in the Mission since I had no free brehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifakfast options at the hotel. Ordered the strawberry earl grey, bread pudding, and maple bacon dougnut. I was thinking of hanging out in the shop to eat my doughnut but the area was a little dark and opted to order a mocha at Bello Coffee & Tea hunkering down for the free wi-fi. Ok, for bacon lovers, the maple bacon doughnut was actually pretty good. I don't normally eat bacon doughnuts often but I would say that they do offer the best version I've tasted at this point. The Food Network has given alot of love to the Doughnut Plant in NYC, I think they would be better off touching base with the the owner of Dynamo Donuts.
Before heading out to lunch, went through the Macy's store for some shopping. I've always liked the store, I'm not sure why but I do feel like it is more of a destination department store. With all the eateries inside and the seven floors of merchandise, one can easily spend the day there. On top of that, I feel that the customer service is the absolute best here. The people definitely hustle to make sure you get what you want.
Afterwards rambled back to the Mission and grabbed a sandwich from Ike's Place. I saw an episode on Man vs. Food and used the Blackboard Eats coupon to try the eatery. It is a tiny takeaway place and the place was bustling even though it was late in the afternoon. I ordered the Hollywood SF Cheesesteak and only realized afterwards that they didn't get my order correctly. So I don't know what kind of sandwich I ate but there was a fried chicken steak inside and it was still very good. I especially liked the Dutch bread, I'm not sure what makes it Dutch but it was a good chewy bun.
For dinner, went to Japantown and ate at 1300 on Fillmore. Another Blackboard Eats deal plus Visa promo. It seems that Visa has been using promotions lately and I wonder if they are seeing less transactions. The dinner was good but not enough for me to come back. It ain't no Georgia Brown's. I will say that the drinks and desserts made the meal worthwhile. The service in the dining room was very good despite the poor showing on the main courses.
Since I am leaving the next morning uber early, checked into the Hilton Garden Inn in Burlingame. Both the Doubletree and this HGI share a shuttle bus with a number of other hotels. I can appreciate the efficiency operationally but I would recommend building the time it will take to get to your hotel or airport when hotels operate this way. I think it took 25 minutes rather than 7 minutes because of the combination shuttle. If you don't want to deal, the Hilton Garden Inn North would be a better option. Ironically, I was dropped off at this one by friends but the shuttle driver was nice enough to drive me to the other. Luckily, he wasn't busy and did me the favor.
SFO used to be a very easy airport if you are a frequent flier. With the merger, they don't have the capacity to handle the crush. Usually a 90 minute buffer to boarding time would easily get you to your gate especially since I was next to the airport and carry-on luggage only. It ended up being a close call during the 'rush hours' of the airport. Very rarely do I see this kind of madness at an airport and hope that this will be managed better in the future. I'm not a fan of United using the international terminal for domestic flights. Inevitably, people are constantly blocking your path to board because they aren't paying attention or confused and they just mill around the attendant.
Of course, ended the trip using my Living Social deal for airport parking at Wally Park. :)
On a side note, women should never wear long skirts to the airport. Apparently, TSA views that as the equivalent of a baggy sweatshirt and will frisk you.
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