By Stephanie McKinnon McDade
Bee Staff Writer
(Published Nov. 19, 2000)

SAN FRANCISCO - Great food is as strong a draw in San Francisco as culture and scenery. In every neighborhood, on practically every street, are four-star morsels and meals to satisfy any craving.

But navigating through the choices is sometimes difficult. When the guy slinging espresso asks "short or long pull?" you have no answer. The hunks of Parmesan at the deli look the same, but are priced $3 to $15 a pound. And why does the prickly fruit in Chinatown smell like gym socks?

A food tour can demystify the culinary curiosities of the city by the bay. Several tours visit Chinatown, another the coffeehouses and coffee roasters. But only one starts and ends with "Buon Appetito!" Travel wise: San Francisco food tours Here's how to eat your way through San Francisco on a walking food tour:

Mangia! North Beach is for those who like to stroll and sample the mozzarella, break the bread and sip the beer.

Sure, any tourist can stumble around this Italian neighborhood and find great eats, but tour guide GraceAnn Walden knows the best. A North Beach resident and food columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle, Walden has the "Inside Scoop" - as her column is called - on the up-and-coming chefs, openings and closings and the gossip from behind the grill.

She drops names and news along the walk, introduces "neighborhood landmarks" passing by then hurries her group along again on a tour of history, culture and all things yummy.

"I've evolved the tour from strictly Italian places to add a couple places that are just interesting and delicious," she says.

Meeting at the corner of Stockton and Columbus, Walden starts her walk at 10 a.m. most Saturdays. "Come in closer," she instructs a gathering of 17, talking and soaking in a warm November sun. "Let's keep the sidewalk clear."

Walden introduces herself, her dog, and boyfriend, Ray, "My Italian connection to the neighborhood. I'd like to say I met him at a church social, but alas, I met him at the bar down the street." We laugh, as we will much of the day with Walden serving up animated stories and dollops of good humor.

But enough about her. She asks us to introduce ourselves, name our hometowns and most importantly, our favorite restaurants there.

Several people on the tour hail from San Francisco and many more from the Bay Area and northern California. And most reveal themselves as foodies as they scribble the culinary hot spots being shared for Berkeley, San Ramon, Oakland, Belmont and Redding.

Well, not really Redding.

"There are no good restaurants in Redding," says Kelly Salter, who lives there. She is visiting her cousin in San Francisco for the weekend. "But Trinity Cafe in Shasta City is good," offers another.

This exchange will continue throughout the day with Walden and her followers talking recipes, restaurants and foodstuffs.

She leads us up Stockton Street and stops at A. Cavalli & Co., Italian Bookstore & Imports. "Ladies, don't stand in the doorway. The neighborhood men will be coming in for their soccer scores," Walden says. Turning to point to a large map of Italy in the window, she begins her story of North Beach.

Poor and living in a country divided between European powers, the peasants of Genoa, Liguria and Lucca fled to New York in the early 1800s, she says. They came to " 'make a pile' was the expression."

And by the mid-1800s, they headed west to San Francisco, settling in North Beach for its proximity to the water. With the 1906 earthquake and the resulting landfill, their area was pushed back from the bay. They called it Little City.

"So when you go to Lucca Delicatessen or Liguria Bakery, you know they're telling you where they're from," Walden says.

Around 1860, another wave of Italian immigrants, mostly Sicilians, settled in San Francisco. "And there was a lot of butting of heads because the northerners and southerners didn't get along," Walden says.

But the Sicilians established the fishing industry, and ultimately Fisherman's Wharf. With the neighborhood even more entrenched with Italians, the culture started to flourish. The community built theaters, such as the Garibaldi and the Fugazi, and brought opera singers and prize fighters over to entertain. The neighborhood became a bustling, thriving "Little City." In the midst of it all, a man named Cavalli opened a bookstore in 1880.

Walden leads the group inside to meet Cavalli's great-grandson, John Cavalli, who still sells Italian books, maps, and newspapers as well as Italian movies, opera and pop music, travel guides, Italian dictionaries and cookbooks - "Lidia's Italian Table" (William Morrow, $29) and anything by Marcella Hazan being Walden's favorites.

She leads the group further up Stockton. We pass Ristorante Firenze, which Walden praises for its "great rabbit bolognese and selection of grapas." Next it's the Panelli Bros. Italian Delicatessen. Inside the narrow store are shelves stocked with pasta, beans, polenta and all sorts of Italian specialties. Richard Panelli, the son of the first owner, waits on a flurry of customers gathered around the real attraction: the cheese and meat counter. Hunks and rounds of yellow, white and marbled cheese are displayed atop the counter like an offering to a king. Long rounds of deli meats sit behind glass or hang from the ceiling.

Panelli prepares a treat for the group - creamy, moist mozzarella wrapped in thin slices of prosciutto. While we eat, he explains his Parmesan. The older the Parmesan, the better, and the more expensive. As Parmesan ages, its moisture dissipates, and its flavor comes forward. His Rocca brand, a 3- 1/2-year-old Parmesan, sells for $14.95 per pound. And Panelli brings the crowd closer to see the speckles and veins of white: "Salt. This is what you look for in Parmesan."

But younger, more affordable Parmesans can be great, too. Look for a Parmigiano-Reggiano style, Panelli instructs. Italian makers craft it with the cows' rich, morning milk.

After a few more cheese samples, and a lesson on preparing polenta, Walden leads us back down Stockton enroute to an Irish pub. Along the way we pass an Asian funeral home.

People file in, passing by a convertible parked outside. Walden explains that in the funeral procession, someone will drive the convertible with a large framed photo of the deceased in back to let the neighborhood know who passed away. "People say the Chinese have taken over the neighborhood," Walden says. "But no one took it over. After World War II, when Italian-American GI's came back, they left the city for the suburbs and the housing tracts. But they're returning. In the last 10 years, five restaurants have been opened here by Italians."

Inside O'Reilly's, outfitted with a gorgeous wooden bar and stained glass from Ireland, pints of Murphy's Irish Stout are poured and baskets of warm Irish soda bread served. Walden lists the best dishes on their well-rated brunch menu. We sip the brown, thick beer and try to identify the Irish literary heroes painted on the back wall.

GraceAnn Walden's tour stops at the tiny XOX Truffles Cafe on Columbus
Avenue to see - and sample- some of Chef Jean-Marc Gorce's little bundles.

Next up, a little flavor of France. Back outside, in the bright light, Walden leads us down Columbus Avenue to a cubbyhole cafe where many will leave their hearts. This is XOX Truffles, Inc., where one bite of chef Jean-Marc Gorce's confections makes knees go weak.

Gorce demonstrates the process, a mixture of melted chocolate, cream and flavoring (liquers, nuts, coffee), which is then cooled and rolled in cocoa powder, forming irregular balls that look like the fungus after which they are named. Gorce makes 27 truffle varieties from hazelnut to rum coconut, including six vegan (made with soy milk) varieties. Prices are reasonable - a bag of 20 costs $5.

While many may feel they've found heaven on earth at XOX, Walden reminds the devout that prayer is still necessary. Her next stop is Sts. Peter & Paul Catholic Church on Filbert Street. Italian craftsmen, brought over after the 1906 earthquake, constructed the romanesque church with its lacy spires and statues of Peter and Paul. A wedding prevents us from stepping inside, so it's up the hill for more neighborhood specialties.

The bare little Liguria Bakery, at the corner of Filbert and Stockton, has made focaccia since 1911, and that's it. The bakery is so small and crowded that Walden leaves the group outside and emerges five minutes later with brown paper bags already spotted with the oil of hot, garlic focaccia. We pass the pillowy bread around; the reviews are instantaneous. "It's fabulous," says Annette Lomont, licking her lips. "Mmmm," the others purr.

Further up Stockton we get a peek inside Jianna, a new three-star restaurant, and Tony Nik's, originally a seedy little bar cleaned up and reopened by the original owner's grandson, Mark Niko. "Finally, an adult bar, hello!" Walden says of the sophisticated, stylish establishment.

Before lunch there's a quick shopping stop at Biordi's, which carries brightly-painted ceramic tableware, and a tour of St. Francis of Assisi, the first Catholic Church in California after the Spanish missions; now it's a national shrine. Inside are beautiful murals and relics of St. Francis, St. Anthony and St. Clare.

Weary, and somehow, hungry, our group travels back down Columbus and over to Powell Street for a family style lunch at Cobalt Blue. We talk over a meal of fresh greens, grilled vegetables and eggplant pasta.

Kathryn Hohenrieder, who lives on Russian Hill, says she'll be visiting Panelli's again for party platters of mozzarella and prosciutto.

Steve and Sue Smart from San Ramon are on the tour to learn more about their own back yard. "I really enjoyed GraceAnn's sense of humor and history," says Steve Smart. "Her tour is really well done, and priced right for the lunch and all the nibbles you get."

And they all agree that while the food is great, it tastes better with Walden. "The highlight of the tour is GraceAnn," says Barbara Broach of Lafayette. "She knows so much. Not only do we get the primary attractions, but all these great, little side notes, recipes, and restaurant recommendations."

And before you know it, Walden's sharing secrets from her latest assignment: corkage fees at area restaurants …and the rude reception she received from certain executive chefs when she inquired. It's good gossip, and the group is all ears, making sinful desserts all the more sublime.