S.F.'s window onto the world has three must-visit eateries

San Francisco Chronicle​

05-07-2025

Perhaps we've been taking food too seriously. It's become a form of art, an obsession: California cuisine, celebrity chefs, rising stars, Michelin stars, the good life in Wine Country.
Maybe we forget sometimes about ordinary American food, like what they serve at Frankie's Java House eatery and bar on the waterfront next to the ballpark. The featured dish is a smashburger, and you can get a hot dog and beer for $10 and a shot for $5. California cuisine? How about a fish taco?
Unlike the French Laundry, reservations are not required, especially on slow days when the Giants are not playing down the block. On game days, customers are three deep at the bar. No Michelin stars, but 3.7 on Yelp.
'It's really a little oasis,' said Pat Belding, the manager and sometime bartender. 'And it's been here forever.'
Frankie's is one of a string of three small eateries on the waterside of the Embarcadero between the Ferry Building and Oracle Park. One is the Hi Dive at Pier 28, where Bryant Street runs into the bay, the second is Red's Java House, not far away at Pier 30-32. Frankie's, a few blocks south, is the third.
There are other, better, classier places in the neighborhood, but these three stand out, mostly because they have a San Francisco style to them, hard to define, part salt water and fog and inexpensive food and a sense of the city 'reminding people of what San Francisco was and is,' Belding said.
Of all the places in San Francisco that have changed, the waterfront has changed the most. In its prime, the Embarcadero was the city's window onto the world, the piers lined with ships. The customers in the little waterfront joints were longshoremen and sailors interested in beer and cheap eats.
The oldest of the waterfront places was the Java House at Pier 40, opened in 1912. Tom McGarvey and his brother Mike owned it for a while. They also owned the better known Red's Java House, not far away.
Eventually, Philip Papadopolous bought the Pier 40 Java House. That was in 1984 and the waterfront was in decline; the ships had all moved to Oakland, the warehouses that filled the neighborhood had shut down and the Embarcadero was lined with rusty railroad tracks. The Java House was just a waterfront shack in the middle of nowhere. When Sotiria, Papadopolous' wife, saw the place, she burst into tears.
But the family, including Philip's wife and daughters, made it work, especially after the baseball park opened in 2000 and changed everything. A new day.
But things change. After a run of 33 years, the Papadopolous family sold the business to Michael Heffernan, an insurance executive who is a member of an old San Francisco family. The place was a bit rundown, colorful but grungy.
Heffernan put in a new bar, beefed up the menu and opened up more outdoor seating. It was newer and better — and it was renamed for Mike's father, Francis Michael Heffernan. Everybody called him 'Frankie,' a lifelong San Francisco Giants fan and an admirer of martinis.
I dropped by the other afternoon to have a look around. A quiet summer day, a touch of fog but warm by the bay. The Giants were on the road, and the grounds crew at Oracle Park were cleaning up after a big concert a couple of days earlier.
The concert, featuring the Colombian pop superstar Shakira, is a reminder that history is still being made on the old waterfront. The Chronicle said she was the first Hispanic artist to draw a sellout crowd of over 35,000 to Oracle Park. 'A cultural milestone,' the paper called it. Good for business, too. Frankie's was packed.
Frankie's is in the food and drink business, and Belding describes the menu as 'Simple bar food.' Every restaurant has a signature dish. Frankie's is the smashburger, which is different from the conventional hamburger, which is usually larger. A smashburger is thinner; the meat has been pressed down, or 'smashed,'' with a spatula or press which gives it a unique flavor.
Smashburger historians say the dish was invented in Colorado in 1975, and caught on slowly. Now, they are all the rage. 'Smashburgers are having a moment,' Martha Stewart wrote the other day.
Frankie's uses a taco press to do the smashing but Belding says the secret is grilled onions, good quality meat 'and our own special sauce.' He also admires the clam chowder. 'My wife's from Boston and she likes it,' he said. The bar offers 15 or so beers on tap. The biggest seller: 805 brewed in Paso Robles. Also, Barebottle: a craft beer brewed in San Francisco.
Baseball and concerts last only in spring and summer; the rest of the time waterfront places have to depend on the South Beach neighborhood of about 5,000 people who live nearby, people out for runs on the Embarcadero and weekend sailors with boats in the South Beach Harbor — regulars who keep these places alive. One of them is Jason Lalley, who lives not far away. 'I like it here,' he said. 'I like the food and the company,'' he said. A simple answer.