We arrived an hour late to Kate’s on sauntering Saturday, fortunately the short notice meant that no one was waiting. A rowdy bunch–probably from the Marina–dominated the bar when we arrived, but soon departed to continue their pub crawl. Once they’d left, Brandon nicked a discarded map that divulged their route, weaving up from Townsend up through Chinatown and ending on Columbus. Each of the six bars had six pint icons next its name, and the caption instructed you to check off one per drink. This level of alcoholic ambition, I thought, deserves some respect.
After downing our greasy grub (which hit the spot, but was slightly sub par), we hit the streets, ambling down to the end of Natoma. The first block skirts the transbay terminal, and all the rest is composed only of alleys. We finally heard from DQ near 6th, and agreed to meet him at the corner. He was only a few blocks behind us, so it wasn’t long to wait.
6th between Folsom and Market are among the most crowded with homeless folk in the city, and they proved to be particularly active at dusk. They laughed and joked, hemmed and hawed, and played games of chicken with passing cars. Upon DQ’s arrival, one of them came closer to compliment his pants, a black and red number, with a punk rock tone. The stranger handed me his jacket and playfully addressed DQ, “I’ll fight you for those pants!”
Quick to retort, DQ jumped into the exaggerated pose of an 1920s boxer and fired back, “then put up your dukes.” They shuffled their feet and spun fists for a bit, but eventually decided just to shake hands. As we walked off, the stranger made a faint attempt to be compensated for his character, but they group already had too much momentum.
Rather than reversing onto Minna once Natoma was done, we chose to beat a path to Toronado for drinks with Hobe. The only two things I remember learning later that night were thus: 1) Rosemunde is even more delicious with beef chili and 2) Ellie’s afraid of cemeteries.
Update: no sauntering Saturday this week. Ellie and I have other plans.