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As a resident of San Francisco Bay Area for many years, I’ve tried a decent amount of restaurants. Over time, to facilitate sharing with friends and remembering my favorites, I compiled the list into a Google Doc spreadsheet. Below is the consolidation of my favorite restaurants / bars / etc. with cuisine, price, neighborhood, and some notes. I tried to order it loosely by most recommended at the top, but I would love to go back to any of these. I unfortunately did not include my least favorites list. FYI most of these places are very vegetarian friendly, unless otherwise noted. Yelp is a critical resource as well. Looking forward to doing the same thing in Boston. Enjoy!

Restaurants

Sandwiches

Desserts

Coffee

Breakfast / Brunch

Bars

Pizza

After more than 6 years in San Francisco, I have decided to move to Boston to pursue a startup. This wasn’t an easy decision, but it was one I had to make. I’ve made many friends here, worked at some awesome places, and had an amazing amount of fun. SF will always hold a special place in my heart (though hopefully not a place in my stomach), and I will return often.

The startup is a calling I can no longer avoid. We are looking in the energy space, and have an ambitious if not crazy idea. Who knows where it will take us, but I’m extremely excited about it. Boston is also close to where I grew up (NH), so it will be nice to be able to visit my immediate family more often. And it will give me the opportunity to work closer to my entrepreneurial role models, my parents.

I would like to thank the folks I’ve met out here in the Bay Area for being amazing friends and mentors to me. I came out here knowing just a few, and I feel lucky that the decision was so hard to make based on the relationships I’ve developed in my years out here.

PS – in case you didn’t realize, the blog title is reference to a popular Dropkick Murphys song.

PPS – This great Steve Jobs quote has been an inspiration: ”You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”

Going to restart the blog, mixing it in with some personal stories, as well as the same random tech posts like before. As always, feedback is welcome.

Last night, I had a remarkably Seinfeld-like moment that reminded me of something very important. I was driving to North Beach in SF for dinner and drove around a couple blocks looking for parking. I found a spot on a major road (Columbus Ave) and proceeded to parallel park. On my reverse in, I noticed a man standing there, who I originally thought was just looking for a cab. He wasn’t moving, so I rolled down my windows, and asked if he could move. He told me he was saving the spot, I responded that it’s kind of unfair to save a spot if the car isn’t there, especially on a major road. He looked at his phone, and we waited another 30 seconds or so, then said ok and moved. The entire conversation was completely cordial.

After parking, I needed to get something from the trunk. I told the guy thanks for moving. A full couple minutes after, the guy’s friend driver, an older woman (seemed like his mom), shows up, and immediately starts cussing me out. Now, I’m not one to seek out conflict, but if someone starts yelling, I’m not going to ignore it. So I ask, why are you swearing? She said that it was her spot. I told her that her friend had given it up, and regardless it had been minutes on a major road, which means many other cars would have tried to take the same spot, and that you can’t just save spots. I stayed calm in my response; she got angrier.

Regardless, the moment she started swearing, there was no way I was moving. I had become entrenched in my position. Had she approached it with a level-head, I actually do believe I might have moved. Oftentimes in tough situations, people tend to react strongly. It takes patience and discipline to stay calm – but many times people act in anger- and that almost always makes things worse. Anyways, it’s a reminder of something I know I need to work on.