Customer Reviews

Eat This, San Francisco: Dives, Joints, All-Night Cafes, and Other Cheap Eats in the Bay Area

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I work with a chap who keeps a box of gourmet jelly beans by his desk.

Each day he calls me into his office and opens the box.

"What shall we have today?" he says.

We each pluck one -- just one -- of the mocha or popcorn or blueberry flavored jelly beans. We let it rest on our tongue. We savor it.

Then he places the cover back on the jellybean box and we go back to work.

Dan Leone's book serves the same purpose to me. In my lavatory, where I keep "Eat This" and where the author suggests it be kept, I am ensured a daily literary richness as I read one Leone review per day.

Am I tempted to read more? You betcher boots. But I won't, because I will savor each lovely tasty and funny review without it clashing another.

Not only that, I just want to stretch it out. It is not a book I want to end.

In short: I've read lots of food books and restaurant guides. I don't live in SF, but I was intrigued by this book, a referral, and read it for its literary value.

It's a gas.

I was so glad to finally be able to buy this book by writer, musician and all around nice guy Dan Leone. This book was originally slated to appear in '98 when his then-publisher folded. While that must have been frustrating to Leone at the time, it has worked out well for his readers because we now get the entire arc of how he met, wooed and finally married his wife, the beloved "Crawdad De La Cooter" in early `99.

So yes, here are reviews of all the delicious, greasy mom-and-pop diners, soup counters, taquerias and Thai food eateries that make San Francisco the best five-dollar lunch city anywhere. But we also get Dan's mayoral predictions, car troubles, sports injuries and tributes to his many-monikered pals.

There's real emotion in the review of Ana's Restaurant (p325), written during his last night as a bachelor. Leone creates a sense of romantic happiness as he wanders through the Mission District, quietly contemplating his love but not forgetting to fill his stomach with a big bowl of seafood soup, every ingredient of which reminds him in some way of his bride-to-be.

"So you see? You see why I'm getting married tomorrow?" he ends the review. And we do and we're very happy for him.

My only sore point was that this book was so long in the making that some of my favorite old reviews were cut because the restaurants they concerned had closed years ago. I hope that "Eat More Of This" appears before another six years go by.

I cook. In fact, I not-so-humbly think my fare is better than most restaurants, yea, even in storied San Francisco. So, I'm complacent. What? But, to paraphrase Groucho, I do like to take my cigar out of my mouth once in a while. And when I need a break, I want something to eat that isn't foggy with expensive atmosphere. This book satisfies, with twisty humor, trusty appraisals, wide variety and hither-to secret local haunts. You gotta!

Leone's book offers a practically inexhaustable list of cheap places to eat in the SF Bay Area. In addition, his writing style is good enough that I enjoy reading the reviews for their humor alone. Anyone who enjoys great satire and/or cheap food will want to own this book, regardless of where they live.

As a long time fan of Dan Leone's articles and reviews, I am delighted to once again be able to enjoy the sense of humor that only can belong to Dan Leone. It is a treat to glimspe, if only for a moment, the S.F. dining scene through the eyes of Dan Leone! Thank You Dan! - traci o.

because then it would have been only half as annoying.

As a long-time resident of San Francisco, I read Dan Leone's "Cheap Eats" column regularly, so it was natural for me to want the compilation book. Sadly, I discovered that what works well in a weekly column kind of fills you up quickly in larger doses.

When you can compare columns and watch Dan progess over a period of time, it becomes obvious what a one-trick pony he is. He's like a six year old child who's just learned a new bad word and delights in repeating it over and over to shock dinner guests. So many of his columns are a study in scatology, that it makes one wonder how he eats at all with visions of body wastes dancing in his head.

Dan Leone can be funny, in Ferrelly Brothers kind of way, and many of his columns make for amusing reading. But a little of him goes a long, long way.

This book is for the literate diner who choses to eat well on a budget. The comments are objective. The humor is often so pointed that the reader would have to enjoy reading during the meal

As soon as he said he was headed to Chevy's, but stumbled on the reviewed restaurant instead, I tossed the book away and haven't picked it up since. Anyone who would seek out Chevy's over one of the many other SF establishments is not to be trusted as a food authority.

No food critic.

Just a potty mouth who finds cheap places that most folks won't like.

Leone's in-your-face-proud of-my ingornance-stance may amuse some readers.