(Cafe with Fire Hydrant) There's something existential about cafes. They're social gathering holes that remain as ambiguous as possible. They're places where people can go without making any committments to go anywhere else afterwards. They're places to go for a quickie or to break promises over a bottle of wine and roses, maybe violins at the table if it's a real sob story. Cafe's are places businessmen can go for lunch and back out of contracts. Husbands and wifes, or casual sex partners of either sex can eat and drink at a cafe and lie to each other, cheat on each other in the middle of the day between meetings and make promises they never intend to keep it. Cafes also have several names in case you're interested: like bistro, coffee house, restaurant. The French spell it like café. Italians spell it caffè. There's also the cafeteria, the romantic sidewalk cafe, a tea shop, an informal bar that only serves beer and wine, and of course the internet cafe. Sometimes a cafe is referred to as a greasy spoon. Whatever, these are photos of cafes in San Francisco. I never ate in any of them. I never had a drink in any of them, which is not to say they water them down; I'm sure they serve nice full bodied liquor. (Cafe and Me)
(Cafe Atmosphere) The last time i was in San Francisco I didnt drink a drop. Nothing except carbonated water and lemons. And coffee. My favorite "cafe" (Vesuvio's Cafe) isnt really a cafe. It's a full-fledged alcoholic hangout beatnik bar. It serves no food whatsoever, but you can buy food somewhere else and bring it in and eat it at your table, which is pretty cool. It stays open 365 days a year from 6am to 2am everyday without fail, holidays and everything, they're always open. It's the only bar in the city that does that. They've done it that way for years. (Cafe and Wooden Chairs)
(Cafe Mainlining) The last time I was in San Francisco for medical treatment a couple months ago ($10,000 a day, for four days. No lie! luckily I had high-end insurance) I stayed at a cheap North Beach hotel just a block away from Vesuvio's. I drank my first morning cup of espresso coffee in one of the booths upstairs overlooking Columbus Ave. It reminds me of a European cafe, but it's more of a dingy beat up old jazz bar that sponsors art exhibits inside the club on the walls. I mention all this only because that's where I feel the most connection to the dead, the presence of the dead walk around that place like misty vapor coming up from the tables, or downstaitrs in the men's room, in the basement. The ghosts. The great writers all passed thru there drinking and talking. How many of them took a piss in that same location? Maybe I stood in the same spot where Kerouac shook it off and zipped up afterwards. How cool is that? Or maybe Chet Baker went down there to shoot up in the toilet stall when he was on a break from playing Enrico's or the Keystone Korner, where I saw Elvin Jones and Art Blakey play there to an SRO crowd. (Cafe and the Three of Cups)
(Cafe and Condiments) I used to cop some coke and go down there and open up my little paper and stick a straw in it and snort it up and flush the toilet to hide the sound of my inhaling it. It wasnt very good coke mostly, not from those street sources, but I'd get it from a guy named "Copperfield" and we usually had a good old time drinking and talking afterwards; it was cut with speed which was OK with me. I'd drink JD straight up doubles. The cafe is a good place for that kind of social interaction. But that was then, and this is now and fortunatelty I can still remember it without any liver damage. (Cafe and Feet)
(Cafe, Flowers and Empty Glasses) Anyway, I hung out there upstairs at a table by the windows or at a private booth and took tons of photos out thru the windows. I took photos of tables and chairs; they've got some beautiful tables. Finally, I got bored and thought I couldnt find anything else to photograph. I started changing the angle of the picture. I'd put the camera on the floor, above my head, behind my back, upside down, inside out....all photos of cafes. Cafes are places where people go, that's for sure. Some cafes stay open later than others. In Chinatown, late at night, they're almost empty. Very lonely looking places. Very sad looking people with chopsticks and tea. But anyway, these photos are pics of cafes in the city. Maybe one day some of you will visit San Francisco and recognize one of these places. Go ahead and put the bill on my tab. (Cafe with a strange man in ther window)
(Cafe Atmosphere) The last time i was in San Francisco I didnt drink a drop. Nothing except carbonated water and lemons. And coffee. My favorite "cafe" (Vesuvio's Cafe) isnt really a cafe. It's a full-fledged alcoholic hangout beatnik bar. It serves no food whatsoever, but you can buy food somewhere else and bring it in and eat it at your table, which is pretty cool. It stays open 365 days a year from 6am to 2am everyday without fail, holidays and everything, they're always open. It's the only bar in the city that does that. They've done it that way for years. (Cafe and Wooden Chairs)
(Cafe Mainlining) The last time I was in San Francisco for medical treatment a couple months ago ($10,000 a day, for four days. No lie! luckily I had high-end insurance) I stayed at a cheap North Beach hotel just a block away from Vesuvio's. I drank my first morning cup of espresso coffee in one of the booths upstairs overlooking Columbus Ave. It reminds me of a European cafe, but it's more of a dingy beat up old jazz bar that sponsors art exhibits inside the club on the walls. I mention all this only because that's where I feel the most connection to the dead, the presence of the dead walk around that place like misty vapor coming up from the tables, or downstaitrs in the men's room, in the basement. The ghosts. The great writers all passed thru there drinking and talking. How many of them took a piss in that same location? Maybe I stood in the same spot where Kerouac shook it off and zipped up afterwards. How cool is that? Or maybe Chet Baker went down there to shoot up in the toilet stall when he was on a break from playing Enrico's or the Keystone Korner, where I saw Elvin Jones and Art Blakey play there to an SRO crowd. (Cafe and the Three of Cups)
(Cafe and Condiments) I used to cop some coke and go down there and open up my little paper and stick a straw in it and snort it up and flush the toilet to hide the sound of my inhaling it. It wasnt very good coke mostly, not from those street sources, but I'd get it from a guy named "Copperfield" and we usually had a good old time drinking and talking afterwards; it was cut with speed which was OK with me. I'd drink JD straight up doubles. The cafe is a good place for that kind of social interaction. But that was then, and this is now and fortunatelty I can still remember it without any liver damage. (Cafe and Feet)
(Cafe, Flowers and Empty Glasses) Anyway, I hung out there upstairs at a table by the windows or at a private booth and took tons of photos out thru the windows. I took photos of tables and chairs; they've got some beautiful tables. Finally, I got bored and thought I couldnt find anything else to photograph. I started changing the angle of the picture. I'd put the camera on the floor, above my head, behind my back, upside down, inside out....all photos of cafes. Cafes are places where people go, that's for sure. Some cafes stay open later than others. In Chinatown, late at night, they're almost empty. Very lonely looking places. Very sad looking people with chopsticks and tea. But anyway, these photos are pics of cafes in the city. Maybe one day some of you will visit San Francisco and recognize one of these places. Go ahead and put the bill on my tab. (Cafe with a strange man in ther window)
