This is one of the ultimate hole-in-the-wall Chinatown noodle shops. The food is only OK, but the atmosphere can't be beat.

It's off Washington street and has a little tiny door -- you walk in through the kitchen where you go upstairs to a dining room with a ceiling so low that you feel like you should duck.

If you can sit next to the window -- you can hear the neon buzzing just next to your head and look down on Chinatown. The waitress shouts at you to get your order. I like veggie friend rice.

But this place isn't about the food. It's about everything else. You expect to see characters from a Tom Waits song slipping in the backdoor.

A dinner at Sam Wo's is something to remember forever.

The poetry room at City Lights books is one of the great shrines of American letters. This is Lawrence Ferlinghetti's bookstore and it's the true keeper of the flame for beat writers.

But it also is one of the best general poetry sections in America. If you're not reading poetry, you're not fully alive.

City Lights is a kind of heaven. On special Sunday afternoons, my daughter and I go here to browse and buy, and then we head over to Cafe Trieste to drink coffee, talk about books and get hassled by drunk beggars. Good fun.

Also, if you're at City Lights at night, you're a few steps away from the magical Big Head store...

It's not really called the Big Head store. I don't know what it's called. But that doesn't matter, you have to go here, it's great.

Here's how you get there... Go to City Lights. Stand in the doorway of City Lights facing out.

Go to your right. (You're now walking south on Columbus -- the downhill direction from CityLights). Walk... hmmm... about 30 steps. Maybe 45.

Look at the shops to your right as you go. You'll find a window that has exotic looking things in it. Baubles from Tibet and stuff like that. It's not a reall full-on store front -- just a glass display case next to a glass door.

Go in the glass door. And prepare to be amazed. The big head strore collects exotic and magical things from around the world. Silver sheethed crocodille skulls and carved dragons and glass eye collections and daggers and jewelry like you've never seen before and... oh just go...

It's not like any import shop you've ever seen. I call it the big head store because is has giant buddha heads and giant masks from Africa and... well.. like I sad before, just go there.

Oh, by the way if you miss it and you pass by a more normal import shop (also good, but not unusual) you've gone too far. That import shop has something to do with the Big Head Store, I think. But maybe not.

All right. It's the best coffee in the Bay Area. The hipsters choice. You can find it if you stand in a long line in Cole Valley or on the south side of the Ferry Building on market days.

Tartine Bakery on Guerrero is one of the best bakeries in the world. Don't take my word for it -- it gets awards all the time.

Still, it's my home town bakery. Get the morning buns. You won't be sorry.

Sometimes it can be hard to get a table, but it's worth the wait. On the upside (if you're a straight man or lesbian) the women behind the counter are just pure Mission district honeys. And those those Mission girls are just the cutest things (see item below on bicycling in the mission below).

If you don't want to wait for a table, get your stuff to go and then walk over to Dolores park and feast in the sun. Or fog. It's San Francisco, after all...

OK, if you're meeting your gay friends and they live vaguely near the Castro or lower Haight or even Noe Valley, this is the place to do it.

Named for the famous Cafe Flore in Paris, our Cafe Flore is squarely at ground zero of gay America. I don't know how many hours I've spent there sitting at an outdoor table talking with my friends.

Until one of them sees his personal trainer or something and runs off to talk to him. See that's the scene at Cafe Flore. Outdoors, people watching in the Castro. If you're there with your gay friends -- or if you happen to be gay -- it's just so much fun. So go. Don't be stupid.

The food is perfectly OK, but it's just normal cafe stuff. No biggie. But it's not especially expensive.

This is flatl-out one of the best Indian restaurants in America. I have never had a meal there that was less than perfect.

Don't be confused, though, because there are several places named Indian Oven in the SF.

They're not related, as far as I know, and the one in the lower haight is the one you want.

Order anything you want here. Honestly, you can't go wrong. It's heaven. In my mind the only Indian Restaurant in America that comes close is the Bay Leaf in mid-town Manhattan.

The quintessential American cafe. Six or seven booths, pancakes to die for. Weird hours. It's run, I think, by a brother and sister pair.

I LOVE It's Tops. The pancakes are just great and they're made on a special griddle that's like 3 inches thick or something. Whatever. I makes a difference.

You just can't go wrong with It's Tops. It was started in the 1930s and still looks the part. Dashielle Hammett ate there and that's good enough for me.