Pat Gallagher, President of San Francisco Giants

Pat Gallagher

What’s San Francisco’s best-kept secret?

Here are a few of the thousands:   The Buena Vista is famous for their Irish Coffee, but they make a great breakfast and you can watch the waterfront wake up…..Victor’s on Townsend near 3rd St makes great burritos at lunch Monday thru Friday and lady of the house calls everyone “guapo”….at Jones and O’Farrell there is a bonafide speakeasy, undetectable from the street called Bourbon & Branch that you need to know a password to get in…..the shoeshine guy at the Westin St Francis Hotel not only gives the best shine but always makes you feel good….best old time City bar Washington Square Bar and Grill refuses to stay dead and has just reopened with Michael McCourt behind the bar…you can actually rent a kayak at City kayak and paddle into McCovey Cove during Giants games to wait for a home run ball to splash into the bay.

What’s something that every visitor should do?

Have coffee early in the morning on Columbus Avenue in North Beach

What’s your favorite “Only in San Francisco” experience?

Walking across the Golden Gate Bridge

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

North Beach

What’s your favorite spot in San Francisco to:

• Eat: Perry’s on Union Street
• Shop: Amoeba Records on Haight
• Celebrate: Boulevard (corner of Mission and Steuart)
• Take in the view: Coit Tower
• People-watch: Grant Avenue in Chinatown
• Lose yourself: Crissy Field
• Rejuvenate: Sailing on the Bay
• Sleep: Argonaut Hotel at the Wharf

Donna Sachet, American drag actor, singer, community activist, spokemodel, and writer.

Donna Sachet

What’s San Francisco’s best-kept secret?

The Barbary Coast Historic Walking Trail downtown, which is marked by bronze medallions in the sidewalk and which will guide you through the fascinating heritage of this relatively young, but richly varied city.

What’s something that every visitor should do?

Explore our world class museums, e. g. the DeYoung in Golden Gate Park, Legion of Honor in Lincoln Park, SF MOMA Downtown.  Not only are the collections substantial and extraordinary, but the buildings are distinct, the surroundings breath-taking, and your fellow visitors intriguing.

What’s your favorite “Only in San Francisco” experience?

Sunday’s A Drag at Harry Denton’s Starlight Room atop the Sir Francis Drake Hotel in Union Square.  Imagine an expansive Sunday brunch buffet with hot and cold dishes, a luxuriously decorated penthouse club with 360 degree views, and then an over-the-top professional, glamorous Drag show with rich costumes, lively music, and hilarious humor.  Noon and 2:30 P.M. every Sunday.  395-8595, www.harrydenton.com

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

The Castro, the Gay hub of the City with shops, restaurants, bars, and more catering to the LGBT Community and a palpable vibe filled with historic beginnings, widespread activism, and broad diversity.  Look for images from the recent MILK movie everywhere!

What’s your favorite spot in San Francisco to:

• Eat:  Catch on Market at Castro, Medjool in the Mission, Zuni near Civic Center, Orson South of Market
• Shop:  Union Square for designer duds, Castro Street for neighborhood charm, Haight Street for cheap and unusual items.
• Celebrate:  FRESH at Ruby Skye, the monthly Gay dance club located in a gutted theatre which maintained gorgeous architectural details.  Over 700 happy dancers gather under fabulous lights with internationally known DJs and partial proceeds benefit LGBT organizations.
• Take in the view:  Dolores Park on a sunny day where sunbathers, strollers, and dogs all coexist.
• People-watch:  The Edge Bar on the corner of 18th and Collingwood with wide windows to the street on 2 sides.  But honestly, it seems that I am watched more than I watch others…
• Lose yourself:  Top of Twin Peaks.  Get out of the car and feel the fog as the City spreads out before you.
• Rejuvenate:  City Hall Rotunda where so much history has been made and the power of the LGBT Community is unmistakably present, as is the echo of Harvey Milk’s voice.
• Sleep:  The West Wing of the Imperial Palace (my bedroom in my house in the Castro).

Harry Denton, Harry Denton’s Starlight Room

Harry Denton's Starlight Room

What’s San Francisco’s best-kept secret?

Café Jacqueline in North Beach. It’s perfect for a celebration or a romantic dinner and they have amazing soufflés.

What’s something that every visitor should do?

Every visitor needs to go out and eat at as many San Francisco restaurants as they can. They are the best in the world!

What’s your favorite “Only in San Francisco” experience?

Beach Blanket Babylon is a San Francisco tradition, and also a must for visitors as well.

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

Downtown – it has such wonderful shopping!

What’s your favorite spot in San Francisco to:

• Eat: Dottie’s Blue Dot Café. It is the best breakfast hands down; try the chocolate chip pancakes if you go.
• Shop:  Wilkes Bashford on Sutter Street. They carry the finest merchandise in the city.
• Celebrate: My bedroom!
• Take in the view: The Starlight Room – come in as the sun is setting—phenomenal views!
• People-watch: Jasmine’s Café – always a good crowd of people.
• Lose yourself: In my bed.
• Rejuvenate: I love visiting the Conservatory of Flowers in Golden Gate Park. I just love flowers!
• Sleep: At any Kimpton Hotel; the linens are great!

Leah Garchik, San Francisco Chronicle Columnist

Leah Garchik

What’s San Francisco’s best-kept secret?

Diego Rivera mural at City College

What’s something that every visitor should do?

Buy a Chronicle. Read local news, find out what’s going on in town.

What’s your favorite “Only in San Francisco” experience?

Getting a snack on a Saturday night at Pancho Villa, with strolling mariachis, street teeming with hipsters

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

My own shabby seedy and lovable Haight

What’s your favorite spot in San Francisco to:

• Eat: Miss Saigon
• Shop: Goodwill
• Celebrate: Kokkari
• Take in the view: Top of parking garage on Vallejo Street in North Beach
• People-watch:  Cafe at SFMOMA
• Lose yourself: Ocean Beach
• Rejuvenate:  Crissy Field

Joan Simon – Owner Reservations Tonight, SF’s Premier Conference Concierge Service

Joan Simon

What’s San Francisco’s best-kept secret?

It has absolutely delicious tap water – piped straight from Yosemite National Park.

What’s something that every visitor should do?

Ride a cable car! On the outside- preferably standing.

What’s your favorite “Only in San Francisco” experience?

The Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival held the first weekend of October in Golden Gate Park. Three days of the best of American roots music – totally free on 5 different stages thanks to the generosity of San Francisco native Warren Hellman. No seats and no fighting, pushing, or complaining. Just 150,000 people having a great time.

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

Hayes Valley – full of eclectic, cutting edge shops, galleries  and eateries.

What’s your favorite spot in San Francisco to:

• Eat: Anywhere with creative Fusion fare from Namu out in the Richmond to Butterfly on the Embarcadero. It’s always a surprise how great chefs can take traditional Asian ingredients and meld them with local products in ways I just would never think to do at home.
• Shop: Fillmore Street  and Union Street are where I can find everything I want  from MAC  makeup and great wine to unusual housewares and gifts-  plus the City’s best second hand clothing stores.
• Celebrate: La Folie, a neighborhood restaurant with world class French cuisine and prices to match-  and a chef owner  and staff so nice that you don’t mind paying the bill.
• Take in the view: You wouldn’t know about it unless you went to see a doctor there,  but the views from the waiting rooms at 350 Parnassus are spectacular, sweeping from the Ocean to Marin and beyond
• People-watch: Macy’s Passport Fashion Show, held in September at Fort Mason. The audience is as much the show as the models.
• Lose yourself: Walk the labyrinth at Grace Cathedral
• Rejuvenate: Shiatsu massage and Japanese bath at Kabuki Hot Springs in Japantown
• Sleep: The Presidential Suite at the Fairmont ( I wish)

Jo Schuman Silver | Producer Of Beach Blanket Babylon

Jo Schuman Silver

What’s San Francisco’s best-kept secret?

Shakespeare garden in golden gate park

What’s something that every visitor should do?

Beach Blanket Babylon, of course!

What’s your favorite “Only in San Francisco” experience?

Besides Beach Blanket Babylon, i think the Academy of Sciences is something every visitor should check out.  It’s amazing!

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

North Beach

What’s your favorite spot in San Francisco to:

• Eat: North Beach restaurant, Rose Pistola, and Bix
• Shop: Wilkes Bashford
• Celebrate: Tosca and The Starlight Room
• Take in the view: Twin Peaks
• People-watch: The Ferry Building
• Lose yourself: Reading a good book in Golden Gate park
• Rejuvenate: Spa Radiance in Pacific Heights
• Sleep: Ritz Carlton San Francisco

Jan Wahl | KRON TV

Jan Wahl

Best kept secret

Palace of the Legion of Honor.  Every visitor should see that and the Ferry Building.

What are your favorite spot in San Francisco?

On market day, the Castro neighborhood is my favorite only in San Francisco, I love to eat at the Garden Court at The Palace Hotel and the Big 4 Restaurant at The Huntington Hotel..also for celebrations..only in San Francisco experiences!!  I love to shop in Chinatown and Clement street.  Great views at The Cliff House, Marina Green, Twin Peaks and Palace of Legion of Honor.  I lose myself at the de Young museum and the new Academy of Science museum, Golden Gate Park in general, swing dancing at the Top of the Mark!   I love to rejuvinate at the spa at the Huntington hotel and The Ritz Carlton San Francisco – two great pools and environments.  Anytime I sleep at my favorite hotels: The Ritz Carlton, Huntington, the Palace..i’m a happy girl!  Hats off to my wonderful, magical city of San Francisco!

Guillermo Toro- Lira, part owner of Pisco Latin Lounge

Guillermo Toro-Lira

What’s San Francisco’s best-kept secret?

Being Peruvian-born and a great fan of history, I’ll say the six gorgeous bronze cannon that are located in the Presidio.  They were built in Lima as early as 1623, several years before the founding of Boston.  They are in pristine condition and one of the oldest historical art objects found in San Francisco today.

What’s something that every visitor should do?

Visit the Presidio’s Officer’s Club built around 1790.  It is  one of the oldest adobe structures in San Francisco, the site of  the most northern Spanish settlement in America.

What’s your favorite “Only in San Francisco” experience?

The ride all the way through the Golden Gate Recreation Area  and across the Golden Gate -  the most beautiful view of any city in the world.

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

The Latin Quarter,  now known as Little Italy and Jackson Square .

What’s your favorite spot in San Francisco to:

• Eat:  My list is very  long and depends on my mood.   Difficult to pick just one.
• Shop:  I leave that to my girlfriend
• Celebrate:  Pisco Latin Lounge, of course. The best Latin inspired drinks in town.
• Take in the view:  Lounge at the Carnelian Room in the Bank of America building
• People-watch: Any coffee place in the Haight-Ashbury
• Lose yourself: A bike ride across the Golden Gate Bridge
• Rejuvenate: Walk in the sand off the Marina during a sunset
• Sleep:   A short nap below any tree in Golden Gate Park

Dave Matthews, Park Superintendant for Angel Island

Dave Matthews

What’s San Francisco’s best-kept secret?

Angel Island, 9 acres of the bays second largest island is in San Francisco, and is the only place that you can walk from Marin County to SF without crossing a bridge

What’s something that every visitor should do?

Visit the 4 parks of Angel Island, Civil War Camp Reynolds, US Quarantine Station and Ayala Cove, WWI and II Ft. McDowell’s East Garrison and the United State Immigration Station, plus hiking biking, bird watching and a ferry ride to boot

What’s your favorite “Only in San Francisco” experience?

The Cable Cars and Ferry service

What’s your favorite neighborhood?

Angel Island

What’s your favorite spot in San Francisco to:

• Eat: Fisherman’s Wharf
• Shop: note sure
• Celebrate: Starlight Room
• Take in the view: Jackson Street Stairs
• People-watch: Marina
• Lose yourself: Exploratorium
• Sleep: Westin