Cafe Royale - San Francisco

I took a little walk tonight with a restful mind. I've been in San Francisco for 12 days now on a brutal work schedule. The weather has been awful, cold and wet but today it was 60 degrees and the sky was a brilliantly deep blue. Not a cloud in the sky. Being Sunday I still worked and now I kinda feel caught up.

I walked up Nob Hill looking for a neighborhood place and along Post and Sutter I found great neighborhood cafe/bars. The neighborhood reminded me of being in the heart of London or lower Manhattan with a comfortable architectural density. Corner cafe's and bars spill people out onto the sidewalk to enjoy el fresco dining, drinking, convivial conversation or a good book.

On the corner of Leavenworth and Post I found the serendipitous respite I was looking for. Warm light glowed out to the sidewalk through full first floor windows. Inside I saw a three piece combo in front of a royale red draped stage. Displayed on the window was a great wine list. I'm in!

What was the draw, the wine or the stand up bass? A stand up bass always stops me dead in my tracks, always lures me in. I remember my father always pointing out the bass parts in a song. I must have got that love of the bass from him.

The cool thing about San Francisco is you can just walk around and find music everywhere. There are sooo many three piece combos in SF. I've seem them in North Beach, Union Square, the Tenderloin, Nob Hill, ....everywhere.

Anyway, the guys in the window are 50 to 60 year old musicians, grey and bald. The bass notes come like soft rain on a tin roof while the electric rhythm guitar plays quarter note chords between turns of careening up and down the neck of his instrument, throwing notes like sparks off a welders torch. Behind it the drummer beats an old school drum kit to life. The bee bop syncopation fills the space between the raindrops and sparks of bass and guitar. My wine, Dona Paula Shiraz Malbec 2005 was everything I hoped for, full powerful, peppery. I'm jazzed like the music.

The small cafe'/bar is called Cafe Royale. A mosaic tile floor with two huge red circular couches form a comfortable sitting area in the center of the room. There is a zinc bar along the right wall as you enter and small candle lit cafe tables ring the opposite and outside walls. Straight ahead is the stage and above is a balcony that wraps around all four sides of the room.

After an hour, band spent, glass empty, Bob tired, I'm off to walk the two blocks back to my room. Eyes closed, brain off. Zzzzzzz

Cab Giant - San Francisco

I flagged down a cab and went to get in the back door on the driver's side but when I looked in I was surprised to see the driver himself in back seat. I kid you not. I went around the other side of the car and got in.

Looking over I see the driver seat is pushed back as far as it can go, crushing the back seat. It's leaned back so the driver's shoulders and head are even with mine. Darnedest thing I've ever seen. This guy must have modified the seat himself because seats don't normally push that far back. I imagine this guy pissed one day, squeezing himself in the car and by shear force pushing and bending the seat backward to fit himself in. Grrrr!

My cab giant guy is huge. He looks like the guy in the Bond movies named Jaws. Remember him? He was the giant with chrome teeth who could break you in half like a toothpick. I looked down the length of his prone body. Even "sitting" in the back seat his knees straddle either side of the steering wheel and are crushed against the dash. He's got to be 8' tall!

I wondered if this was a good move getting into a car with "Jaws" but it all turned out well. He didn't break me in half, he spoke like a gentle giant, we talked, I lived and he dropped me at the right address.