North Beach / Little Italy food tours

North Beach awakens your senses...

...from the cafés and restaurants, to the smell of fresh-baked bread in the air. Just when you think you can't feel any more romantic, on these North Beach / Little Italy tours you discover quaint shops with incredible crafts and ceramics that fill you with a sense of awe. We explore the life of North Beach, as we join family bakers kneading love into every loaf of bread. And just when you think that you can't be in any more of food heaven, we visit real coffee shops fresh roasting coffee beans daily. And if that was not enough, we uncover authentic Italian cathedrals where hundreds of couples have felt their heartstrings tug.

And, as you taste everything from cappuccinos, chocolates, breads, pastries, olive oils, specialty meats, and more, your senses and your taste buds will come alive.

Every time we find another artisan crafting food handed down through generations or weaving life into handmade crafts, you'll know that you've experienced one of the places that makes the City a series of ever expanding adventures.

Whether you'll be joining us for our 10am or 2pm San Francisco tour, with all of the food you'll be eating along the way, we really suggest that you don't eat before the tour. And there's no way you'll be eating it all. So count on taking truffles, breads, pastries, and more with you. Don't worry about lunch that day, maybe dinner, perhaps breakfast the following day.

• After meeting in front of Mario’s Bohemian

Shop, at the corner of Union and Columbus

(on Washington Square), we'll start off at a coffee shop

where you'll have the best coffee drinks (or teas,

Italian sodas, etc, for non-coffee drinkers), such as

the best cappuccino you ever had. On these San Francisco tours you'll also see how this wonderful coffee is roasted, up close and personal.

• Next we'll enjoy chocolate from one of the top ten chocolatiers in the country. In addition to tasting incredible chocolate and seeing how it's made, you'll be taking some home with you.

• San Francisco is very similar to Europe in that we both have bread and pastry bakeries. We'll be going to both types of bakeries and trying numerous delights from each. We will even be going in back to view the inner workings. You'll certainly enjoy watching bread baked in 130-year-old brick ovens.

• We'll be tasting some local olive oil in addition to trying several different types of specialty meats.

• After we enjoy our pastries from one of the best bakeries in San Francisco we'll be exploring the beat generation areas of San Francisco. One stop is the very place where Francis Ford Copola wrote the Godfather screenplay and the place where Bill Cosby got his start.

• Chances are we’ll be listening to a lot of blues and jazz as we explore the beat generation hangouts of North Beach.

• And, we’ll finish up these San Francisco tours at the very place where the likes of Robin Williams, Maya Angelo, Woody Allen, Phyllis Diller and more got their start. We'll visit the very place where Barbara Streisand and the Grateful Dead played. These places still look and feel exactly the same as they did when they were here.

San Francisco is one of the culinary capitals of the world and every block has its own unique feeling and foods. On every one of our sojourns into San Francisco neighborhoods, we'll go into local bakeries, restaurants, and cafes, and taste the food. We know these places because these are the places we go to ourselves.

We don't go and look at "tourist" shops. Our San Friancisco tours takes you into, to spend time with, local artisans as they practice their crafts, whether it is calligraphers, bakers, or families who have been fishing for generations.

We have a passion for life, for trying new things, for living life to its fullest. Our goal is that after you join our San Francisco tours and explorations, you will take that same passion with you. After experiencing the real zeal of this place, we know you will. And not only will you leave your heart in San Francisco; you may find that you have left part of your soul here as well.

Local Tastes of the City San Francisco Tours is a group of passionate, professional, and certified guides with years of experience leading adventures in our San Francisco tours. We live here; we can't imagine living anywhere else. We love the City and want you to also experience its magic.

One of the founders, Tom Medin, has been guiding our San Francisco tours for close to a decade. In addition to extensive knowledge of San Francisco history, architecture and cuisine, he is a trained naturalist, specializing in marine mammals. Several of his cookbooks are in the process of publication.