Beware Sake

Spent Sunday out at Coit Tower, the highest publicly accessible point in the city centre. I was showing a couple of my friends around and decided to do it literally.

Coit Tower is on the peak of Telegraph Hill and looms over Fisherman’s Wharf. It has survived pretty much everything the geographically unstable city can throw at it and was built by the delightfully eccentric* Lillie Hitchcock Coit.

Coit was a card; wearing trousers when such behaviour was thought shocking, gambling and smoking cigars and generally scandalizing society one hundred years ago. She was also an honorary fire-fighter, and commissioned a very butch statue to them in Washington Square Park.

It’s a lovely building, made even better by a huge display of murals featuring life in California, done in a very nice 1930’s style.

Then we wandered around North Beach, then down to China town and across to the foodie heaven that is the Ferry Building. Then back to the hotel to meet the others for dinner.

We were taken to a very upscale Japanese restaurant - definitely an OPM (other people’s money) place. I later found out it cost our host $400 a head - and the waiter agreed to add a few covers to the receipt so the host wouldn't get fired.

There the night was filled with sake, sushi, sake, Kobe beef and a few more sakes. I didn’t realise quite how drunk I was until I got outside and the air hit me.

This morning was very grim. All in all not the state to meet my new boss in.

*ie a bit mad but with plenty of money