The Elegant Art of Dining: Bohemian San Francisco, Its ... - iMedia

opened a place in O’Farrell street, between Hyde and Larkin, calling it
Terrapin a La Maryland
“Blanco’s.” During the reconstruction period this was by far the best restaurant
in the city, and it is still one of the noted places. Later Blanco opened a fine
restaurant
Cut a
in
terrapin
Mason
in
street,
small
between
pieces, about
Turk and
one
Eddy,
inch long,
reviving
after
the
boiling
old name
it.
of
Put the the Poodle pieces Dog, in a and saute here pan all with the old two traditions ounces of have sweet been butter, revived. salt, pepper, Both of a these very
savor of the old type of little French celery restaurants, salt, a pinch catering of paprika. to a class of quiet spenders
who carefully guard their indiscretions.
Simmer for a few minutes and then add one glass of sherry wine, which reduce
In the early ‘50s and ‘60s the most to half noted by boiling. places were not considered respectable
enough for ladies, and at restaurants like the Three Trees, in Dupont just above
Bush
Then
street,
add one
ladies
cup
went
of cream,
into little
bring
private
to a boil
rooms
and thicken
through
with
an alley.
two
Peter
yolks
Job
of eggs
saw
his opportunity and opened
mixed
a
with
restaurant
a half cup
where
of cream.
special attention was paid to
lady patrons, Let it come and to shortly a near after boil the and New add York half a restaurant, glass of dry in sherry Kearny and street, serve. did the
same.
You may thicken the terrapin with the following mixture:
Merging the post-pioneer, era with the pre-fire era came the Maison Doree,
Two
which
raw yolks
became
of
famous
eggs, two
in
boiled
many ways.
yolks of
It was
eggs,
noted
one ounce
for oysters
of butter,
a la poulette.
one ounce
corn starch.
Captain Cropper, an old Marylander, had a restaurant that was much patronized
by good livers, and
Rub
in
together
addition
and
to
pass
the usual
through
Southern
a fine sieve.
dishes he specialized
on terrapin a la Maryland, sending back to his native State for the famous
diamond-back terrapin.
Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Tony Oakes, the Hermitage, and Cornelius Stagg’s were
noted road-houses where fine meals were served, but these are scarcely to be
considered as San Francisco Bohemian restaurants.
The Reception, on the corner of Sutter and Webb streets, which continued up
to the time of the fire, was noted for its terrapin specialties, but it was rather
malodorous and ladies who patronized it usually went in through the Webb
street entrance to keep from being seen. The old Baldwin Hotel, which stood
where the Flood building now stands, at the corner of Market and Powell and
which was destroyed by fire some fourteen years ago, was the favorite resort of
many of the noted men of the West, and the grill had the distinction of being
the best in San Francisco at that time. The grill of the Old Palace Hotel was also
of highest order, and this was especially true of the Ladies’ Grill which was then,
as now, noted for its artistic preparation of a wondrous variety of good things.
Probably the most unique place of the pioneer and post-pioneer eras was the
Cobweb Palace, at Meiggs’s Wharf, run by queer old Abe Warner. It was a little
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