As my wife and I were driving back from an appointment today she was hungry and suggested we get a slice of pizza. So of course we had to choose one of the best pizza places around, “Escape from New York Pizza” on Haight. As we were driving down Haight street we started to notice something. The Haight is becoming gentrified and lost it’s charm.
There are still a few places left like Murio’s, Zona Rosa and the Zam Zam Room, but most of the old head shops have now turned into Tibetan shops, actually it seemed like every other shop was hawking Tibetan knick-knacks. You don’t see any psychedelic painted shops anymore or smell the wafting of incense everywhere [which if every other shop is selling Tibetan stuff, where’s the incense?]
To get a feeling for what the Haight used to be like you have to stop in at Escape from New York. Ironic, eh? First, their pizza is great and it’s cheap. Second the walls are lined with some of the old psychedelic posters for shows at clubs that no longer exist as well as autographed pictures of bands and celebrities who love the pizza there. The saddest part of looking at the old posters was that it reminded me of the clubs that used to be there like the I-Beam, Nightbreak and the few others I can’t remember anymore. These were the clubs that became popular when the metal scene was pushed under by grunge and we lost some of the great clubs like the Stone and Wolfgangs now having some of the most kick ass bands being forced to play in beat up bars that were trying to bring themselves up to support the large denim and leather crew that would not go away. Morty’s [R.I.P.] in North Beach was a bit step up in comparison.
[mappress mapid=”20″]Call me a snob, but I don’t like seeing Footlocker or the Gap on Haight Street. That just ain’t right. I kind of liked it when the Haight was trying to preserve the late 60’s culture minus the smelly homeless people trying to look like hippies and peeing in the doorways of shops before they opened. I’d love to put this on my places to see list, but if it didn’t have Escape from NY and Murio’s still it wouldn’t be there.
Eric, youre too sentimental. Youre longing for the days of your youth (really young days) when the familiar scent of that hippy incense left no doubt of where you were. It was like that in the Haight when we were growing up as kids and in that area near St Thomas church where the original Old Spaghetti Factory used to be. Yeah there was something about those places that cant be duplicated. Its funny how that whole scene would converge onto Golden Gate Park once in a while when there was a free concert at one of the meadows.
Steve,
We never had the hint of incense in my house and if I tried to burn some that meant to my mother that I must be smoking pot because that’s the only reason why people burn incense. I had to ask my mom if the Priest was a pot smoker at a church as he was waving around the incense.