San Francisco Treat: We Visit Cafe Tartine

There's a far more famous Tartine in San Francisco, in the Mission, but we love Cafe Tartine on Gough (rhymes with cough) Street. You go to Cafe Tartine for the feeling of a local French cafe and for the free refills on coffee and for no one ever bothering you for taking up a table for three hours. The baguette sandwiches are delicious, and they do some fun things with bagels, too. (Pseudo-foodies will complain that the "other" Tartine has better food, but we think it's weird to compare a sidewalk cafe to a full bakery.)

It's run by an actual French expatriate, Marc -- who recognized us when we stopped in last week despite our three-year absence, and came over to see how our life up north was going. Oddly, no matter how irregularly we stop in, it always seems like one of the baristas has just gotten back from Seattle. (This time one had just returned via Amtrak, a 28-hour trip thanks to one of Amtrak's we-don't-own-our-tracks "delays.")

The Hayes Valley has a French theme of sorts, there's the friendly neighborhood dive bar Place Pigalle (their Comet Tavern), the Arlequin cafe (not strictly French food but...the draw anyway is the hidden, leafy courtyard out back), the restaurant Jardiniere, and even (sorta French via Belgian frites and crepes) Frjtz's (which is moving, by the way). But Tartine is the Frenchest endroit dans le quartier.

There are a few tricks to navigating Cafe Tartine: it's kept in business by acting as an adjunct cafeteria for the nearby French-American International school, and it floods with students at class breaks. Don't stop in for the first time if you only have five minutes to spare and it's near the hour. Still, it's fun to hear the French teachers chatting away, and soon enough the everybody clears out. That's when you make that free refill on coffee pay off.