EATING & NOSTALGIA, SF-STYLE (Cheri)

San Francisco is packed with great food, often wrapped in fascinating environments.

Tonight we ate at the Grubstake Diner on Pine Street.  Here is a view from across the street, for context:

I really wanted to come later night, to experience the essence of the diner; it stays open until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., depending upon the night of the week!  

Maybe that's what brought Guy Fieri, of Diners & Dives, to visit.

This area was originally a dining car from a train, with marbled glass above the windows:

Next year the restaurant will be 100 years old.

In 1976 this area was added to the side of the dining car:

At 7:00 p.m., I had a french-dip sandwich, and Mark had his second breakfast of the day, followed by the apple pie special.

The restaurant is run by Greeks, but we enjoyed the 1970's funk played throughout our meal.

I liked the art deco-inspired salt shaker.

This morning we ate at Sears Fine Food, near Union Square.  (No idea if these Sears were related to the department store Sears, but the web site claims that one of the founders was a retired circus clown.)

Sears also has a counter area, but coming mid-morning in the middle of the week, they were accommodating everyone in the dining room today.

We'd been to Sears many years ago, but I wanted to return for the lingonberry pancakes.  It turns out the corned-beef hash was the star of my breakfast.

This framed photograph takes up an area about eight feet square at the front of the dining room:

I always like to match historic photographs to current architecture, so I asked our waitress about it.  It turns out that this one was taken in New York, so I'm glad I didn't work too hard at the challenge.