The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 9hMary Ellen Pleasant was born in Georgia in 1814, most likely into slavery, and worked the underground railroad before she ever reached San Francisco. The city's smallest park carries her name.thebolditalic.comThis Is San Francisco’s Smallest Official ParkBut next time you do: stop and explore it — which won’t take too long. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 03/10/2026A man read an actual physical book at a crowded bar for two hours, alone, unbothered, and I have thought about his confidence every day since. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 03/10/2026The Farnsworth Lane Steps in Parnassus Heights are a passageway most people walk past for years without once looking up them.thebolditalic.comThe secret lives of San Francisco’s miniature parksSan Francisco is a treasure chest of undiscovered gems. These mini parks are the city’s quiet rebellion against the chaos of urban life. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Lombard is not the crookedest street in the city. Vermont Street on Potrero Hill is tighter, and nobody lines up to photograph it unless it's Bring Your Own Big Wheel day. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 02/10/2026Filbert, Jones, 22nd Street. There is a definitive ranking of which blocks are actively trying to end you, and now it exists in one place.thebolditalic.comThe Essential Guide to San Francisco’s Steepest StreetsA data-backed list of the city’s most treacherous slopes. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 01/10/2026Everyone in the sauna is discussing a Series A. There is no escape. The heat is not the problem. 100
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 01/10/2026No special gear. No hydration tube. Gym sneakers are entirely acceptable. Six trails within reach of a car and a free morning.thebolditalic.comSix Hidden Bay Area Hikes You Might Not Know“New to you” still counts as new. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Ina Coolbrith was the first poet laureate of California, ran the Oakland library, mentored Jack London, and has a park on Russian Hill barely anyone visits. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 30/09/2026Hills are what this city is known for. Underneath them there is still a waterworld of ponds, creeks and streams that got built over and kept running.thebolditalic.comThe Best Hidden Waterways in San FranciscoWhere creeks used to thrive, and what still remains. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The trolley problem comes from the philosopher Philippa Foot. We gave it a cable car and a set of San Francisco things you would rather not lose.thebolditalic.comThe San Francisco Trolley Problem: A GameThe trolley problem is a famous ethical thought experiment. This game is a version that's more uniquely San Francisco. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026A woman jogged past me on the Embarcadero going uphill, on the phone, having a totally coherent work conversation. 100
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026The Cleveland Cascade was a cascading fountain in 1923, styled after old Italian architecture. The water was shut off in the 1950s and it sat dry until neighbors came back for it in 2004.thebolditalic.comThe Best Hidden Staircases in the East BayThese secret climbs are worth the hike. 011
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 29/09/2026A neighbor rang the doorbell with a bouquet a few days after she let slip that her mom had died. There is a guy named Earl on the block who bakes bread and gives it away.thebolditalic.comWhen Does a Neighborhood Become Your Home?At what point do you become an insider, and not an outsider, on your street? 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026The cross on Mount Davidson is 103 feet of concrete because arsonists kept burning down the wooden ones. Since 1997 it has been a memorial to the Armenian Genocide.thebolditalic.comHidden San Francisco Gems Best Experienced by BikeGet on a bike and off the beaten path. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026A whole train car once dropped their phones at the same moment to help a woman who had passed out.thebolditalic.comWe Asked Bay Area Commuters to Give Us Their Best BART StoriesTales from the train. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026We are the Winchester Mystery House of cities. Bricked-up passageways, sunken ships, railcar tracks that end in a parking lot, and a park paved with graves.thebolditalic.comThe Gutters in Buena Vista Park are Made Out of Old HeadstonesSan Francisco is a city of secrets. Hidden tunnels and bricked-up passageways, sunken ships and rebuilt palaces. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 28/09/2026You have probably eaten this family's food without knowing it. Sweet Maple, Kitchen Story, the boba shops, the Millionaire's Bacon. Now there is a cafe in the Central Sunset.thebolditalic.comThe Sunset's hottest new cafe is called JandiiThe business model focuses on three things: coffee, matcha, and scones. The scones arrive warm and split, spread with housemade jam and cream. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Six eucalyptus trees and a plaque on Octavia Street, just over an acre, sitting behind a cast-iron fence you have walked past a hundred times.thebolditalic.comThis Is San Francisco’s Smallest Official ParkBut next time you do: stop and explore it — which won’t take too long. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026A separation, a crashed startup, and a garage full of old computers he could not persuade himself to dump. The fire settled the question.thebolditalic.comThe Fire at My North Beach Apartment Freed Me From an Awful YearIt felt like a new beginning. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026They were part of a migration most San Franciscans have never heard of: Russians who fled the 1917 revolution east into Manchuria, then had to leave a second time.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Cinderella Bakery in San Francisco's Richmond DistrictThe location is busy and small, but quite honestly, it’s not that hard to get a table outside. The weather is a surprisingly pleasant microclimate. And the bread that comes with most meals is fucking phenomenal. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 27/09/2026Coppola bought the tower in 1973 with Godfather money and put a cafe on the ground floor in 1999. There is a machine by the door that prints you a story.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Café Zoetrope in San Francisco's North BeachPeople love the room and argue about the food, the spaghetti and meatballs gets named more than anything else, and the prices draw the most complaints. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Jack Early Park is a flight of stairs between two apartment buildings leading to a plant-lined platform with room for three people. Four if you are good at Tetris with human bodies.thebolditalic.comThe secret lives of San Francisco’s miniature parksSan Francisco is a treasure chest of undiscovered gems. These mini parks are the city’s quiet rebellion against the chaos of urban life. 131
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026A dog who can weave through legs and catch a frisbee farther than a baseball field will eventually draw a crowd. Then the crowd needs somewhere to sit.thebolditalic.comHow I Created a Fake Dog Park in SFThe untold story behind Patrick’s Park. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026He bought Andy's Donuts at 22, a 24-hour Castro spot that Harvey Milk used to haunt. When he opened his own place the name was taken, so he added the other half of his story.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Orphan Andy's in CastroThe neon, the red vinyl booths, the counter stools and the jukebox are all still there, and so are the chicken fried steak and the Monte Cristo. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 26/09/2026Tartine took over a corner on Guerrero that had already been a neighborhood bakery twice before. Two people from culinary school, one on pastry and one on bread.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like in Tartine, San FranciscoToday the country loaf runs $14.95, probably the single most argued-about number in San Francisco baking. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Public Works has grade calculations for nearly every street in the city and has never once put them in order. Somebody else did the collating.thebolditalic.comThe Essential Guide to San Francisco’s Steepest StreetsA data-backed list of the city’s most treacherous slopes. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026A two-month-old kitten in a harness, with the energy of a freshly awoken three-year-old on espresso. The Richmond District never stood a chance.thebolditalic.comWhat Happened When I Tried to Walk My Cat in San FranciscoA few months ago, in the midst of a difficult breakup, I did what any emotionally stable, newly single girl in my situation normally does: I marched over to the animal shelter and adopted a cat. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Every gay bar in America had blacked-out windows, because being seen leaving one could cost you your job, your apartment or your family. Two women changed that on the corner of Castro and 17th.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Twin Peaks Tavern in CastroTwin Peaks is generally credited as the first known gay bar in America with full-length open plate glass. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 25/09/2026Order the Bloody Mary. It arrives with a Guinness float and bacon from the shop across the street, and you drink it ten feet from an actual fire.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at The Riptide in the Outer SunsetHigh ceilings, brick floor, knotty pine, taxidermy, and a fire going. The Riptide is the townie bar you want to visit. 130
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026San Bruno Mountain State Park sits a five-minute drive past the city limits, and the parking lot is somehow never full.thebolditalic.comSix Hidden Bay Area Hikes You Might Not Know“New to you” still counts as new. 001
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026Sit near the front. The driver has some sense of what is going on around them, which is more than you will have in about ninety seconds.thebolditalic.comAn Expert’s Guide to Napping on Public TransitWe’re all so busy all the time. You wake up, go to the gym, go to work, go out with friends, day in and day out in this city. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 24/09/2026The dramatic corner everyone pictures when they think of Zuni was a cactus shop called the Red Desert until about 1987. The restaurant started in one narrow storefront next door.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Zuni Café in Hayes ValleyThe chicken takes about 75 minutes and the menu says so. It's $75 and it feeds two. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 23/09/2026What is a San Francisco tourist thing that is genuinely worth it? 100
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 23/09/2026Islais Creek appears on some of the first maps ever drawn of this place, and by 1850 its water was irrigating crops. Then the Gold Rush put a railroad trestle over it.thebolditalic.comThe Best Hidden Waterways in San FranciscoWhere creeks used to thrive, and what still remains. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026A cute cable car is coming and it is going to end something you love. You have to pick. Play it in the header.thebolditalic.comThe San Francisco Trolley Problem: A GameThe trolley problem is a famous ethical thought experiment. This game is a version that's more uniquely San Francisco. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026Someone got on the J with a surfboard at Church Street. He just stood there holding it like a very large tray. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 22/09/2026After the 1906 quake, people left the city for the Oakland and Berkeley hills and built houses nowhere near a streetcar. The staircases they cut to reach transit are still there.thebolditalic.comThe Best Hidden Staircases in the East BayThese secret climbs are worth the hike. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026The gutters and retaining walls in Buena Vista Park are built out of headstones. Hundreds of them. You have probably walked over the names.thebolditalic.comThe Gutters in Buena Vista Park are Made Out of Old HeadstonesSan Francisco is a city of secrets. Hidden tunnels and bricked-up passageways, sunken ships and rebuilt palaces. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026A rider since 1978 watched a couple move car to car, calmly pouring gasoline on the floor of each one.thebolditalic.comWe Asked Bay Area Commuters to Give Us Their Best BART StoriesTales from the train. 110
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 21/09/2026Is it when you finally remember to swerve around the pothole on Third and Thornton, after months of forgetting?thebolditalic.comWhen Does a Neighborhood Become Your Home?At what point do you become an insider, and not an outsider, on your street? 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Two sisters opened Cinderella on Balboa Street in 1953 after arriving from Harbin, China. Seventy-three years later it is still there, making the same things.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Cinderella Bakery in San Francisco's Richmond DistrictThe location is busy and small, but quite honestly, it’s not that hard to get a table outside. The weather is a surprisingly pleasant microclimate. And the bread that comes with most meals is fucking phenomenal. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Seven years of files from a failed startup, kept in the garage because the IRS said so. Then the building burned and took the boxes with it.thebolditalic.comThe Fire at My North Beach Apartment Freed Me From an Awful YearIt felt like a new beginning. 000
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 20/09/2026Jandii is named for the Korean word for a lush patch of grass, which is a bold thing to call a cafe on Taraval in the fog.thebolditalic.comThe Sunset's hottest new cafe is called JandiiThe business model focuses on three things: coffee, matcha, and scones. The scones arrive warm and split, spread with housemade jam and cream. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026Orphan Andy's is named after a donut shop that no longer exists and a man who was orphaned at birth, and both of them are Dennis Ziebell.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Orphan Andy's in CastroThe neon, the red vinyl booths, the counter stools and the jukebox are all still there, and so are the chicken fried steak and the Monte Cristo. 011
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026There is a patch of grass at Bay and Franklin that is technically not Fort Mason and has no name on any map. So it went onto Google Maps as Patrick's Park.thebolditalic.comHow I Created a Fake Dog Park in SFThe untold story behind Patrick’s Park. 042
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 19/09/2026The Sentinel Building was still going up when the 1906 earthquake hit. The frame survived, and the copper-green flatiron tower was finished a year later.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Café Zoetrope in San Francisco's North BeachPeople love the room and argue about the food, the spaghetti and meatballs gets named more than anything else, and the prices draw the most complaints. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026When Twin Peaks reopened in 1972 for a gay clientele, the new owners put clear glass in the windows. It is generally credited as the first gay bar in America with full-length open plate glass.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like at Twin Peaks Tavern in CastroTwin Peaks is generally credited as the first known gay bar in America with full-length open plate glass. 010
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026The first attempt at a cat harness produced a kitten dragging herself across the floor like a broken slinky, then lying down in total defeat.thebolditalic.comWhat Happened When I Tried to Walk My Cat in San FranciscoA few months ago, in the midst of a difficult breakup, I did what any emotionally stable, newly single girl in my situation normally does: I marched over to the animal shelter and adopted a cat. 110
The Bold Italic @thebolditalic.bsky.social · 18/09/2026Chad Robertson pulled his bread out of the oven at five in the afternoon, so regulars learned to build their whole day around it.thebolditalic.comWhat It's Like in Tartine, San FranciscoToday the country loaf runs $14.95, probably the single most argued-about number in San Francisco baking. 000