Eating Out in San Francisco

I mentioned that my friend Jim Cosgrave worked for McGraw-Hill in their San Francisco office. He it was that started the Friday evening habit if three young Shell engineers having dinner together with him at some notable San Francisco restaurant, after which the four of us would take in a move if there was one to our liking. The Shell engineers besides me were Steve Figg and Bob Overcashier. They had been transferred to San Francisco from Wilmington at the same time as I.

Steve is long deceased — he came from a family troubled with congenital heart malfunction. But he had left Shell by the time of his death and was I believe working at Richland, Washington in atomic energy. Bob continued at Shell and has been a life-long friend.

This Friday evening out continued as long as we were still working on San Francisco, but of course stopped when I started to spend most of my time either at Emeryville of the Berkeley lab. And I suppose it was not every Friday evening, though I have no recollection of ho often the evenings out occurred. I suppose we visited most San Francisco restaurants of note but I can’t recall most of them now. The Shadows on Nob Hill, the Blue Fox, Cairo’s, the Cliff House,  the Palace Hotel, Lupo’s Pizzeria (the first place I ever had pizza, long before it became common in the fast food area). And I remember the ornate splendor of the Fox Theater on Market Street now unhappily torn down.

Other work days I would often have my supper at Foster’s, just across the street from the Key terminal. This was sort of an “order at the counter” place which was at the time a chain of shops throughout the Bay Area. Or I might have a hamburger and hot apple pie at the Ground Cow in Berkeley. I don’t know how many hamburger suppers I had there but it was many. The Ground Cow later moved to a different location on Shattuck Square but it never prospered there and sometime after Jean and I were married it went out of business (though I still recall being there with Jean and some of our daughters before its demise).