Richard and Monica met outside of a bar and performance space called Piano Fight near Union Square. They hit it off while talking out on the sidewalk, then later Monica waved Richard over to sit with her group during the show, but he shook his head no and sat on the other side of the theater. Piano Fight is no longer open, so you can’t visit. Sorry. 

The second time we met was a month later at the Roxie Theater in the Mission. The Roxie is a cool, independent movie theater and event space. Go see a movie there sometime. 

Near the Roxie is a bar called Casanova Lounge. A few months into flirting off-and-on via Facebook Messenger (it was a different time), we ran into each other here while on dates with other people. Richard was with a “girl with amazing hair” (Monica quote) and Monica was with a “little rat comedian boy” (also a Monica quote).   

A few blocks away from the Casanova is the Make Out Room. Richard had asked Monica if she was going to be at a friend’s birthday party at this bar and she said no, she had a date. But the date got called off, and Monica did come; the two of us flirted even more in person, and it felt like we’d definitely be going on a date. At least Richard felt that way and he’s writing this, so we’ll just assume it was true for both of us. 

Before they went on a date, Richard asked Monica to be a sub for his rec league softball team and she did it! Before the softball game, they met up at Little Skillet & Victory Hall in SoMa, a soul food restaurant and bar, before heading to the game at Moscone Field in the Marina. You probably don’t need to visit a baseball field, but it is near beautiful Fort Mason park and the Marina Green, where we took many walks. 

Our first date was at Richard’s former company’s crazy holiday party (300 employees with an open bar for 2000 people). But after the holiday party, we went to get food at the late-night diner and Portuguese restaurant Grubstake. Grubstake is built around an old San Francisco streetcar and appeared in the noir film Dark Passage, starring Humphrey Bogart. 

After that first date, everything starts to blur together until we end up here, almost exactly ten years later. But some other key places worth a potential visit:  

707 Sutter | Korean bar food. The soy garlic fried chicken might be the best Korean fried chicken on earth, and it was the place we ate at most often in our first year together.

Tony’s Pizza Napoletana | Rated as the #2 best US pizza place by Food & Wine, it is a carnival of pizza. You should specifically get one of their coal fired pizzas, since they’re incredible and made in the only coal pizza oven on the entire west coast. We decided to move to North Beach together (14 months after we started dating and about two years since we’d first met) while eating here.

Tony Nic’s | The oldest bar in North Beach, it opened in 1922. It’s a cool, cozy space where we’d often get a drink before going out somewhere else. 

El Farolito | This is the place where we’ve had more burritos than anywhere else. Giant burritos are the official food of San Francisco, as SF’s Mission District is the first place (quite literally) where someone figured out you can make them really big. If you’ve never had a burrito in SF, it’s like never eating a slice of pizza in NYC. Go get one.

Coit Tower | The big tower on the big hill (Telegraph Hill) that looks like the end of a fire hose, which is how it was purposely designed. We used to walk up here and get absolutely exhausted about halfway up. There are some very cool stairway streets up here, lots of murals by artists hired by the Works Progress Administration during the Great Depression, and it’s also home to the Wild Parrots of Telegraph Hill. 

Vesuvio Cafe | Just a very cool bar in North Beach where we spent a lot of time. This is also one of the bars where the Beats hung out in the 50s, so if you hang out here you’re also a beat poet.

Original Joe’s | We’ve eaten together here more than any other restaurant on earth. They’re also catering the wedding. And they absolutely make the best French Dip sandwich we’ve ever had, which is not something we’ll be serving at the wedding, so maybe go here and eat that.

There are lots of other cool places. Maybe we’ll add them. Maybe we won’t!