A reasonable amount of trouble

An odd confluence of events happened to me in SF this week - coincidence? I think not.

First, I am walking up the hill to my apartment in SF, and in the block between Stockton and Powell - the steep block that causes me to pause from time to time to catch a breath - I see a sign in an apartment window that says "Spade and Archer". Hmmmm. In the next block there is a street - Monroe, actually, but its been re-named Dashiell Hammett Place, and evidently is the street on which Hammett lived in a little studio apartment in 1926. Interesting.

I get back to my place, and there's a stack of newspapers at the front entry - and the words "Maltese Falcon" catch my eye. It appears that someone has broken into John's Grill, a local restaurant that was a haunt of Hammett's back in the 20's. And what was stolen? - vintage copies of some Sam Spade books and a statue of the Falcon that was on display. (Link) The plot thickens - the game is afoot (no, wait, that's somebody else!)

So then I felt like I just had to go to John's for dinner - and did a little boning up on my history in preparation. During the time he wrote the Maltese Falcon and most of his other well-known works, Hammett lived not on the street now named after him, but at 891 Post Street which is at the corner of Post and Hyde. It is this apartment that is also the model for Sam Spade's apartment.

John's Grill is at 63 Ellis Street, between Stockton and Powell. Its one of those traditional restaurants with wood panelling, leaded windows, a great old-fashioned bar. Their menu is a step back into the past - not a single concession to the modern California food that pervades the rest of the city. Here you find steaks, grilled seafood, salads with bay shrimp, avocado and blue cheese, crusty sourdough bread. No tall food, no flavored foams, they don't tell you how the beef was fed or what method was used to catch the salmon. The 'Sam Spade' special is one that Spade actually orders in the Maltese Falcon: ""Sam Spade went to John's Grill, asked the waiter to hurry his order of chops, baked potato, sliced tomatoes and was smoking a cigarette with his coffee when... ". I had a steak and a baked potato, with a salad - and a martini, homage to tough guys. Though it was crowded and busy, the service was friendly and efficient, food was good and about as over-priced as you expect in a restaurant like this. I've been to Tadich Grill as well, which is comparable - I like John's better.

Other locations that are in the book which can be visited are the top of the Stockton tunnel (where Bush crosses over Stockton Street), which is where the beginning scenes of the book and movie take place. And around the corner is Burritt Street - a short little alley which is where Miles Archer gets his.

Anyway, schweetheart - gotta get back to work. Maybe next time I'm in SF I'll hook up with Don Herron, who leads a city tour based on Hammett's life here and writing. Meanwhile, I'm bidding on a copy of a Hammet anthology on eBay, and plan to re-read all those great novels. And I hope they get the guy who stole the black bird, 'the stuff that dreams are made of'.