January 2015 – five-one-oh

The Vibe is Still Groovy at the Trident, Sausalito

January 27, 2015February 25, 2015 five-one-ohLeave a comment

During the 1960s and 70s, you could have bumped into Janis Joplin, enjoyed an impromptu concert by Bob Dylan, or had Robin Williams bus your table at a natural foods restaurant in Sausalito: the Trident. The Kingston Trio [1] bought a bar on the waterfront and opened the Trident Restaurant and music venue in 1960. The owners hired local artisans to create the curvy wooden booths and paint the psychedelic ceiling.

The hippie subculture had found a home.

Some of the stories about the Trident include lovely, scantily dressed, and creative waitresses serving ramos gin fizzes to the likes of Joan Baez, Stephen Stills, Jerry Garcia, Phil Lesh, Groucho Marx, Clint Eastwood, and the Smothers Brothers. A scene from Woody Allen’s, Play it Again Sam was filmed at the restaurant. Janis Joplin had her own table. Vince Guaraldi recorded his live album, In Person, at the Trident. Robin Williams was a busboy. David Crosby dubbed the Trident, “Ground zero for sex, drugs, and Rock and Roll!”

We read Michael Bauer’s review of the recently reopened Trident in Sausalito and knew we wanted to go and get our 60s/70s vibe on. If you’re going, read Michael Bauer’s review to find out what’s worth eating. The woodwork has been restored as well as the ceiling and wall artwork. It’s cool. We appreciated the fact that the reopened Trident features local, organic and sustainably-produced ingredients but most of all, we wanted to commune with Trident’s ghosts and gaze across the San Francisco Bay. We weren’t disappointed.

Do you have any memories of the Trident? Studio 54? No? Then just tell me about the time you tie-dyed a t-shirt at summer camp or drank the kool-aid. I want to know.

1. The Kingston Trio were a hugely popular folk music group in the late 50s and early 60s. My parents listened to their albums.

Sources:

Home

http://www.thetridentrestaurant.com/

http://www.concordmusicgroup.com/artists/vince-guaraldi/

Hidden Walk in Sausalito

January 13, 2015February 25, 2015 five-one-ohLeave a comment

Jan and I love to hike in beautiful open space areas like the East Bay Regional Parks, Joaquin Miller Park, or Mount Tamalpais, but sometimes we also enjoy exploring urban areas. The residential areas of the East Bay and Marin are loaded with pedestrian paths and stairways laid out in the early 20th century. We’ve learned about most of these walks by following directions in books like, Hidden Walks in the East Bay and Marin by Stephen Altschuler. We probably wouldn’t give the book more than about three stars, but Stephen’s introduced us to a lot of cool places.

Base Map from Hidden Walks in the East Bay & Marin by Stephen Altschuler

We enjoyed this 3.3 mile walk, described as Hi/Lo Sausalito. We started our day with lunch at Swede’s Beach, a tiny public beach dedicated to the memory of Fire Captain Ralph K. “Swede” Pedersen. The red path on the map shows our journey to the top of the hillside and yellow shows the return trip. The views of San Francisco, Alcatraz, and the Bay Bridge are spectacular.

We walked up a rustic set of stone steps called Cable Roadway, a steep and scenic path under a canopy of trees. After getting tangled up in the book’s directions a couple of times, we found our way to a beautiful wooden sculpture of Saint Francis nestled in the oak woodland. Nearby, is a charming public playground with an old community building and open public restroms, an amenity we often wish for on urban walks.

Several more paths, stairs, and roadways led us back down to a little park by the Bay. After the walk we had time to wander around the village for a while before dinner at Trident. Trident is the subject for next week’s blog. Until then, are you planning any walks?

Plank

January 6, 2015January 23, 2016 five-one-oh2 Comments

Jack London Square once had a Barnes & Noble bookstore for an anchor. As of October, the new tenant is Plank. Plank features fun. A cacophony of noisy, frolicking, frivolous fun.

Jan and I were walking along the Bay Trail* at Jack London Square when we saw the new venue and decided to have a look and a beer, perhaps even a snack. We were excited when we first heard about Plank: a bar and restaurant with bowling, bocce, billiards, and an arcade.

On the inside, pins were crashing and lights were flashing. It was roaring; it was raucous; it was 3 in the afternoon. Plank is the place to go if you want your kids to have a good time while you have a cocktail…at 3 in the afternoon.

We decided to go outdoors to the beer garden. It really is a great place for bocce: it’s well designed and the menu has a bunch of local beers on tap. We sat down at the bar. The outdoor heaters were keeping the place cozy and we were pretty excited about our beer selections.

That’s when we noticed we were having some trouble getting the bartenders to make eye contact with us. We sat and waited, and watched a group of twenty-somethings saunter up next to us and immediately receive one of the bartenders’ attention. They asked for shots of rye and there was rye. Another bartender became involved in a very friendly, lengthy, conversation. Not with us, but still. Eventually, we gave up and left.

Plank will probably be an outstanding anchor for Jack London Square. It’s lively and attractive. It’s a place to enjoy with your kids or your friends. It’s not competing with Amazon. Maybe the staff was changing shifts or many had called in sick on Sunday and the service will be better at a different time or on a different day. We’ve heard the food is excellent for a bowling alley. We’ll give it another chance. Maybe we’ll bring the kids along and their twenty-something good looks might earn us a beer.

On Sunday, we were glad we still had the Bay Trail to look forward to. It was lovely.

Have you tried Plank? Do you think women of a certain age are invisible? What about that Bay Trail?

* The Bay Trail is a path conceived to eventually circle San Francisco Bay. It is also one of my favorite ideas (it wasn’t MY idea – the idea is just a favorite of mine).