Celebrating the Summer of Love - Suggestions?

[Melanie Wong]

With my telly tuned at the moment to KQED's Monterey Pop: The Summer of Love,
http://www.kqed.org/programs/tv/program-landing.jsp?progID=16776 , I'm wondering how those of you who were here in San Francisco in 1967 would plan to celebrate the 40th anniversary, foodwise?

http://sfgate.com/summeroflove/
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2007/07/25/cstillwell.DTL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Summer_of_Love

http://www.2b1records.com/summeroflov...

[Moka]

This isn't about SF, but since you mentioned it, my husband was at the Monterey "Summer of Love" Pop Festival in '67 and still remembers it as one of the highlights of the times -- Hendrix, Janis, The Who, Otis, Eric, Byrds, and on and on... the first of its kind ever. Hope you enjoyed the show.

After the festival, the group stayed a few days at Deetjen's Big Sur Inn. Deetjen's restaurant had a Cordon Bleu-trained chef at the time, who was famous for their leg of lamb dinners served with lots of Gallo wine. I'm sure there were also plenty of specially-baked brownies!

Frugal Grandpa Deetjen built a retaining wall behind the Chateau Fiasco room that appropriately enough was built entirely of empty Gallo jugs (Spanada, anyone?), which I believe can still be seen on the hillside there today. We'll be celebrating our version of the 40th anniversary of the Monterey Summer of Love next month on the Monterey Peninsula and with at least one dinner at Deetjen's Big Sur Inn restaurant.

[curiousgeo]

I've been meaning to reply to this thread, glad to see so many replies so far. Sure brings back memories of that time as a teenager visiting San Francisco. I recall going to Spenger's and Lupo's (now Tommaso's). Before heading over to the Fillmore Auditorium, the Spaghetti Factory was a favorite for carbo loading after inhaling some herb. Hey, I was young, it was cheap and within my price range with free second servings. A few years later in college I was able to upgrade to the Green Valley Restaurant in North Beach, a great family style Italian place now long gone. I loved the free house wine that came with every dinner.

[Melanie Wong]

Ah, Tommaso's, now that's a good idea!

Is Sodini's Green Valley the same as the one you remember?

[wally]

The Tommaso's in North Beach has been called that for a very long time. Is there another one?

[Melanie Wong]

Sorry, poor parsing on my part. I meant, is Sodini's Green Valley the same as the Green Valley that cg said is gone.

[Robert Lauriston]

Same place. It was Lupo's from 1935 to 1971, when the Cantolupos retired and the place was bought by their longtime waiter Tommy Chin, who renamed it Tommaso's.

http://tommasosnorthbeach.com/ourrest...

[wally]

I ate in a Tommaso's as Tommaso's in July or August of 1964. North Beach. My first anchovy.

[Robert Lauriston]

I think you must be misremembering. The 1969 edition of Doris Muscatine's "A Cook's Tour of San Francisco" still has it as Lupo's.

[rworange]

Anyone going to Golden Gate Park might consider Gaspare's on Geary for an old-fashioned Italian dinner.

[Robert Lauriston]

Green Valley's not gone. It's now called Sodini's Green Valley after the new (since 1992) owners.

http://www.sodinisbertoluccis.com/his...

[curiousgeo]

No kidding? I recall walking by maybe 10 years ago and not seeing it, maybe I just saw the Sodini sign. How's the food these days? I remember a chalkboard listing the main courses served that day, with tureens of minestrone soup, plates of salad, plates of spaghetti, then the main course, washed down with jugs of house red. A blessing for starving college students hitting the town on a Friday or Saturday night.

[Robert Lauriston]

I think Sodini's dropped the family-style dinners due to lack of demand. Capp's Corner still offers them.

[curiousgeo]

Ok thanks. It was fun remembering those times. I don't think I would be able to eat as much today as I did 30 - 40 years ago anyway.

[ML8000]

How was the tomato-beef chow mein served at Silver Dragon?

By chance was it with tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers and black beans, i.e., without ketchup and/or bright red sauce and not sweet? If anyone knows a place that cooks it this way...I'll buy you a plate.

[susancinsf]

hmm...well perhaps in the middle of your two descriptions? I remember tomatoes, onions, green bell peppers for sure, and am not sure about the black beans, though I think it might have had them (?)...the sauce was well incorporated into the noodles (ie not what I would call a 'wet style' with sauce on top) and was red, but not bright red. But yes, on the sweet side.

Sorry I can't be more help. Perhaps you should try it at Silver Dragon now and report back (though don't say I didn't warn you that most of the menu is now pretty unexciting or worse...).

[Gary Soup]

Jokes about Macrobiotics and bean sprouts aside, most of us ate at restaurants when we could afford it. Chances are it would have been at a restaurant mentioned in this book:

http://www.clothmonkey.com/secret.htm

[MorganSF]

Ha! I thought of that book too when I read Melanie's query. There is also the San Francisco Underground Gourmet guide, but I think that's a bit later--more 1970s. I actually own both books but couldn't lay my hands on them when I read this on Sunday.

[The Librarian]

For dessert - Chocolate Decadence, a flourless chocolate cake that you served with raspberry sauce. Naturally washed down by various cheap red wines - Growers, Gallo, etc. and lots of dope!

[ML8000]

Cheese sandwiches with sprouts on Uprisings wholegrain bread and kool-aid, sitting on a blanket in GG Park. Granola (w/ carob) for dessert.

[susancinsf]

seems to me that the only way to avoid the types of food mentioned in previous posts, that I also associate with that time, is to celebrate with a picnic in the park! (more than anything else, I associate the summer of Love with GG Park...)

of course, back in 1967 I was barely a teenager, thankfully a bit young for that type of diet to appeal, and the places we went regularly (Sunday night dinners with the family) included Silver Dragon in Oakland's Chinatown...so either my taste has changed dramatically, or it has (still around, but not good enough that I would consider going for nostalgia's sake). Dinner was usually followed by ice cream at the original Dreyers or Fenton's on special occaisons....Spenger's was also sometimes on the rotation (sigh, another current miss), and on rare occaisons when we did venture into the City I remember a Japanese place that my father loved but its name is long gone from my memory...)

Actually, Fenton's might work. A few years later it was definitely the type of place we would go when the brownies took hold......

[Melanie Wong]

Had actually been thinking about tomato-beef chow mein (the Soupster's fave) ala Silver Dragon.

-----
Spenger's Fresh Fish Grotto
1919 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710

Silver Dragon
835 Webster St, Oakland, CA 94607

Fenton's Creamery
4226 Piedmont Avenue, Oakland, CA 94611

[susancinsf]

yes, it sure was good 40 years ago, anyway! Though my father preferred the stir fried tomato beef... and we always had to have the won ton soup...seems hard to believe now, but the roots of my interest in chowhounding were probably formed at those Sunday night dinners at Silver Dragon.....

[janetofreno]

I don't remember ever going to a Japanese restaurant in San Francisco.....must have had too many of those brownies :-)

But I still crave that tomato beef chowmein a la Silver Dragon sometimes.....and of course the won ton soup...followed by a Rocky Road ice cream cone from Dreyer's....

But to answer Melanie's original question, I agree that a picnic in the park would be the perfect celebration!

[The Librarian]

Was the Japanese restaurant Mingei-Ya (not positive on spelling) on Union? We went there a lot in the 60's and 70's. I remember really liking it, but who knows if it was actually good and/or authentic!

[Melanie Wong]

I never had the pleasure of eating at Mingei-ya. However, a long time ago someone gave me the recipe for its salad dressing, a creamy o mizutaki sauce, which I posted here,
http://www.chowhound.com/topics/16702...

[Gary Soup]

I was thinking the same thing. It seemed to be the Gaijin's favorite in the 60's. It looked like we thought a Japanese restaurant should look. It featured "Country Style" cooking and was very rustic in appearance. In fact, it was owned by a Gaijin named Russ Rudzinski. He actually published a popular cookbook on Japanese Country cooking.

[Sarah]

who/what's a gaijin? jewish person?

[Gary Soup]

A non-Japanese, generally. Literally, a "foreigner" but even in the US we Caucasians are still "Gaijins" to Japanese, who themselves are the foreigners.

[rworange]

You should mention that term can be derogatory so people don't run around proudly calling themselves that ... though if anyone did it might apply.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=gaijin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaijin

Anyway, anyone should know that on Sept 2nd there will be a Summer of Love festival at Speedway Meadow, Golden Gate Park. More about that and other SOL events at the Bay Guardian.
http://www.sfbg.com/entry.php?entry_i...

Though I was on the coast hosting Woodstock, if you do picnic in the park don't forget the wine ... Boone's Farm Apple, Blue Nun and Lancer's Rose ... or was it Matteus?

And don't forget to be sure to wear some flowers in your hair ... which you can pick out of your mixed organic greens with edible flowers from Happy Boy Farm.

[meatn3]

Don't forget Cold Duck to drink!

[susancinsf]

You know, I think that indeed was it. In fact, I am almost sure, even though Janet doesn't remember...It was indeed rustic in appearance, but by my Father's standards of the time was fairly pricey (not that it was expensive, it just wasn't cheap), so while he loved it and always raved about it, I actually wasn't taken there very often.

[Amata]

Hello Bay Area hounds,

I've enjoyed reading through this thread. My family spent the summer of 68 (Summer of Protest?) in Berkeley as part of a sabbatical year for my dad. The two restaurants I remember vividly from that time are Spengers and Mingei-ya, the latter especially for the nice Japanese waitress who patiently taught us little kids how to use chopsticks.

I think the seeds of my current food obsession may have been planted during that summer in the Bay Area!

****
as for a place to eat now, to remember the 'summer of love', it seems to me that Chez Panisse would be as appropriate a spot as any, given Alice Waters' personal history and her inspiration for the restaurant.

[Kim Cooper]

I remember that one! I loved it, and it was different from all the other Japanese restaurants.

[Glencora]

Wow, that's exactly what we did in the early 70s.

Was the juice bar (is that the right name?) in Walnut Square there in '68? Going there is one of my earliest memories. Cream cheese on date bread, I think. It seems to be unchanged after all these years.

[Robert Lauriston]

Oh yeah, the Juice Bar Collective's definitely caught in a time warp.

[Robert Lauriston]

Are the Hare Krishnas still around and if so do they still serve a free lunch on the weekend?

[sgwood415]

They were in Palo Alto on University Ave about 3 weeks ago. Not sure if it's a regular hang out for them. But they were in the plaza next to Pizza My Heart in the afternoon.

[Paul H]

Acorn squash, tofu, brown rice, mushrooms, bean sprouts, raw nuts, all of it sprinkled with wheat germ. I'm glad it is 40 years ago.

Greens would probably be the most appropriate place, or Café Gratitude.

[wally]

As one who was here and lived in the Haight, you've got it. It really did take the blind munchies to eat a lot of that stuff.

[Robert Lauriston]

Feel Real Organic Cafe and Millennium make modern versions of that food.

[sgwood415]

And don't forget carob for dessert. Ugh.

[Melanie Wong]

A shy 'hound sent me this link to Max Ehrmann's "Desiderata" for this thread,
http://hobbes.ncsa.uiuc.edu/desiderat... . I imagine this stanza might be how you feel about giving up that diet.

"Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth."

[Robert Lauriston]

You could go to Supperclub, Cafe Graditude, or Ananda Fuara. Those are pretty hippieish operations.

Or to Magnoila Pub at Haight and Ashbury, former home of the Magnolia Thunderpussy dessert delivery service.

http://www.magnoliapub.com/pub/histor...

[Gary Soup]

I was here but nothing sticks out, food-wise, except perhaps Chico-san rice cakes, Tamari soy sauce, chicken with brown rice and whatever else was Macrobiotically correct. I think the view was that anything that tasted good was nutritionally suspect.

The Food Mill in Oakland (still around) was our Whole Foods. Monterey Market and Peets were already around, and the Cheese Board opened in the Fall of 1967, if you want to be creative, but none of those three were on the Flower Child radar.

And oh yes, don't forget the Alice B. Toklas Brownies!

[Melanie Wong]

Thanks, the ascetic food choices of the times seem strange compared to the sybaritic pursuit of so many other pleasures.

[Gary Soup]

The brownies made everything taste better.