Hayes Street Grill
The history
Opened in 1979 by Patricia Unterman and three partners, a year before Davies Symphony Hall even existed across the street — Unterman's own reasoning was that 'there simply wasn't a good choice for dinner before the opera, ballet, or symphony,' so she built one herself, modeled on old-guard San Francisco grills like Tadich and Sam's. Stopped in after the opera, the same errand the place was built for 45+ years ago, for a mixed shellfish pan of mussels, clams and prawns over saffron rice. Fresh, never-frozen fish and a menu that changes daily — printed fresh each night on the same cream stock, headed 'A San Francisco Legacy Restaurant' — have kept it a fixture of the Performing Arts District: a block from the Opera House, across from Davies Symphony Hall and Nourse Auditorium, two from City Hall. Unterman went on to found the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market and spent fifteen years as the San Francisco Chronicle's restaurant critic; the dining room walls are covered floor to ceiling with autographed black-and-white photos of the performing artists who treat the place as their own.