San Francisco Traditional Tourist Attractions

San Fran Businesses Since 1800s – Sourdough, Chocolate, and Jeans

Sep 20, 2009

San Francisco traditions reflecting successful food and clothing entrepreneurs may also teach business techniques on affordable self guided city tours.

A sightseeing tourist seen on the streets of San Francisco wearing layers of clothing with blue jeans, shirt, and jacket may find that a casual self guided tour with stops for street food of clam chowder in Boudin sourdough bread bowls, a cold brew of Anchor Steam beer, sample tastes of Ghiradelli chocolate, and an Irish Coffee provides more than a fun tour.

This sightseeing tour additionally shows these successful businesses were started by entrepreneurs during the gold rush days of the 1800s and have continued with thriving businesses. People in San Francisco, California seem to be resilient entrepreneurs overcoming many difficulties through the years.

One may learn the lessons of how these businesses changed to survive over one hundred years while enjoying the smell of fresh baked sourdough bread, seeing the fisherman cleaning their boats as they eat a cup of clam chowder soup, and taste of a chocolate square in their mouths while listening to the cable car bells in the distance. Earthquakes, fires, and trends for changes effected each of these businesses to create solutions for survival.

Boudin Bakery, is still a thriving business today with their new state of the art bakery located at 160 Jefferson Street, San Francisco, CA 94133. (415) 928-1849 There are self guided tours available to explore this amazing business in motion or simply watch the bakers through their display windows.

Sourdough is significant to San Francisco. Isadore Boudin arrived in San Francisco from France in 1849 where he opened a bakery to make sourdough bread four years later. Sourdough was an essential food of the gold rush which miners took sour starters with them as they traveled to the mines.

With an ancient baking secret dating back to the Egyptians 4000 years ago, the “mother dough” mixes a wild yeast and lactobacillus, developed with a mixture of water and flour, divided and restocked every day since Gold Rush beginnings.

Domingo Ghirardelli, an Italian immigrant, was unsuccessful working the Gold Rush mines and became a merchant selling to the miners. After many hardships, Ghirardelli opened this chocolate factory in the abandoned building of the Pioneer Columbia Woolen Mill.

Ghirardelli Chocolate is one of the only manufacturers that starts from the cocoa bean and ends with the finished product. With different owners and many changes to adapt, Ghirardelli Chocolate is currently a thriving and successful business.

The manufacturer headquarters is located in San Leandro, CA. There are tourist shops and ice cream stores located at the historical Ghirardelli Square in San Francisco, 900 North Point St. (415) 474-3938 Other retail shops are located throughout USA. Their website has valuable information which may be used on self guided walking tours of how this business has flourished through the years.

People sometimes take for granted of this popular clothing worn. Tourists may visit the Levi’s Plaza in San Francisco on Filbert between Sansome and Battery.

As a working business, unfortunately there are not any guided tours, information may be downloaded from the Students and Teachers section of their website for self guided walking tours while visiting San Francisco.

Levi Strauss came from Germany in 1853 as a merchant to prospectors with a load of canvas to make into tents. When he heard the prospectors stories that their pants did not hold up, Strauss created pants from the stronger material of canvas. Strauss switched from canvas to a blue cotton fabric from Nimes, France called “serge de Nimes”.

The name of jeans came from the french word Genes meaning Genoa as it is remembered of the Genoan sailors that wore them. Strauss acquired a patent for the copper rivets which “reinforced” the pants and had the initials of "SF".

Opportunities for lessons are included on simple and affordable self guided tours through the streets of San Francisco to learn about several of these prominent, yet traditional businesses of sourdough, chocolate, steamed beer, jeans, and even Irish coffee and about the many challenges these successful entrepreneurs endured over the years; yet each of these businesses continues.

The copyright of the article San Francisco Traditional Tourist Attractions in NW U.S./Alaska Travel is owned by Donna West. Permission to republish San Francisco Traditional Tourist Attractions in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.