ams and other varieties of shell fish, including the abalone
with its rainbow-tinted shell, together with sanddabs, pompano and rex
sole, serve to remind one that San Francisco is washed on three sides by
tides of the Pacific.
Perhaps when Bret Harte referred to San Francisco as "serene,
indifferent of Fate," he was thinking of Sidney Smith's declaration:
"Fate cannot harm me--I have dined today!"
When you think of eating in San Francisco you think of bright lights and
dancing. In addition to the hotels, you may dance at innumerable cafes.
Influences of Old Spain dowered San Francisco with an infatuation for
the fiesta. The city has always been dance-minded. Art Hickman, virtuoso
of jazz orchestration, was called to New York to have the Follies on The
Roof dance to the exuberant strains he had evolved in San Francisco.
Patterns of new dance forms were derived by Pavlowa from the wild
rhythms she found on the old Barbary Coast.
The Palais Royal, Marquard's, Tait's-at-the-Beach, the Cliff House--but
where is one to stop when he starts to name the San Francisco cafes that
attract dance crowds? Let's leave it to the classified lists in the
telephone directories.
Hotels
Wives and daughters of the men who awoke to find themselves millionaires
in the days of the Argonauts came to San Francisco to explore the social
thrills of the newly rich. It is easy to understand why the hotels
became the scenes of elaborate gaiety unmatched even in New York, Boston
or the older communities. Haunts of the battling giants of the Comstock
mines and the railroad magnates, the old Palace, Occidental, Lick and
Baldwin hotels reflected their effulgent period.
The Palace, built by William C. Ralston, has survived as a landmark of
San Francisco. Like Shepheard's in Cairo, the Palace is one of the
gathering places of the traveling world. The present hotel, at Market
and New Montgomery streets, occupies the site of the old Palace, whose
outer walls remained standing after the fire of 1906 and had to be
blasted with dynamite to make room for the new structure--a tribute to
the original builders. The Palace retains the outstanding aspects of the
old hotel, with added modern appointments. The Palm Court, which has
decorative columns and a glass-domed roof, is the social center of the
hotel. It is also the rendezvous of the political and business stalwarts
of the city, the Palace being a clearing-house for diversified
activities. The R
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