Guide to Pizza by the Slice in North Beach San Francisco

As you walk around the North Beach area - from the heights of Coit Tower to the beat hangouts of City of Lights - you may start feeling a little peckish. If you don't have a lot of time, and want an affordable meal you can enjoy in the park, or wherever - get some pizza to go! Here's a quick guide to help you pick the place to grab a slice.

Best Value: North Beach Pizza - Grant and Union

Big slices of greasy pizza with a thick crust. Tastes fairly decent, but not amazing. Reminds me a little bit of the pizza I used to get in Middle School - which I always liked.

A slice of Golden Boy Pizza - To go.

Best Taste: Tony's Pizza - Stockton and Union

It's right on the corner of the park too, which makes for a great place to get it  to go. The crust is thin, but still somehow crisp and the cheese and sauce blend together perfectly without one overpowering the other. The one downside is it's a little pricey - over $4.00 for a basic slice. Ouch.

Most Convenient: Golden Boys - 542 Green Street

Just up the street from the main thoroughfare of Columbus Street, their square slices are definitely grab-n-go material and the taste isn't half bad either. But for $3.50 it's a little small and a little unworthy. 

If you discover any other places worth mentioning, let me know! I'm open to suggestions.

~CJ

Pros and Cons of Living in North Beach - San Francisco

North beach, the neighborhood known as Little Italy, with it's delicious smells, hills, expensive rents, tourist traps, hidden gems and historically beat haunts, that is where I'm living right now and I consider myself lucky. If you're thinking of moving to the area, too, or even traveling through, here's a few things to keep in mind:

Pros:

Walking Distance Of:

Downtown financial district, Union Square shopping area, Galeria Mall etc - all 25-30 minutes

Pier 39 - 20-25 minutes

Bay Street Shopping Center with Safeway, Trader Joe's, Cost Plus, Ross and more - 10-15 minutes

Coit Tower/Pioneer Park - 5-15 minutes
China Town: 5-10 minutes

Views like this:

You might also have a view of:

TransAmerica Building

Coit tower

Bay towards Oakland

Downtown/Financial District

Amount of Cafes
There are plenty of local places to discover your favorite blend of espresso. The Cafes can also include great gelato, sandwiches, breakfast and sometimes wine and beer.

Beauty:
There are a lot of great views, trees, and Washington Square Park to enjoy. Buildings can be colorful and often in Italinate style, which is lovely.

Amount of restaurants 
There are a lot, some of which cater to the tourist, sure, but many that are authentic. And though it's Little Italy there is at least a moderate amount of variety. You can also find Thai food, Sushi and the Taqueria.

Cons

Rent Availability
Renting a room is likely to cost $1000 per month. There don't seem to be a lot of studio options and a one bedroom flat will run at least $2000 per month. Most offerings are subleases with rooms available that get snatched up very quickly.

Prices

Medium to high. Some of it is worthwhile, and other stuff is more of a tourist trap.

Tourists:
There are places that are too riddled with tourists like Mama's Cafe and Tony's Pizza. I don't know that I would wait 2 hours for those places, and I haven't yet. But I would love to try it if they weren't so busy!

Parking

Yeah, good luck. There is not much in the way of street parking. There is a garage on Union, and if you're willing to walk a bit you can park in several garages near Embarcadero or in the Bay St. Center and come on up within 15 minutes.

Difficult to get some places

Golden Gate Park - 45 minutes by public transportation though it's only five miles, which is far too far to walk, especially with the hills in between.

Difficult to get to or from these places late

Mission district.
Sunset District

Anyone else living in North Beach, let me know your pros and cons!

~C.J.

Getting the First Writing Assignment

The latest update on my journey to write for a living, including my first article assignment, and a plan for getting more writing assignments.

The original plan was to find local businesses I could contact about being a content writer and website-spiffer-upper, but I am still not sure how to go about that. Nevertheless, I have found a couple of opportunities that I am very hopeful about and are better than either CrowdSource/Mechanical Turk or Content Divas, because well, they actually pay more than a pittance (see previous article). 

Both of my new options were posted on that old standby Craigslist. The first job is writing articles for a website that is about to launch. I will share the website when it's up and I have some content on there, but for now I'll just tell you what I know. This website will be focused on featuring people and organizations what are making progress and solving world issues. There are a lot of options and angles to be taken. I actually have an assignment, which is strange to think about. And it will be paid a reasonable amount. So now I've done a bit of research and made first contact via email with a person I would like to interview. My only fear is that my old shyness will get in the way. Journalistic pursuits have always scared me a bit because so much rides on talking to strangers in the middle of a situation, and for whatever reason that was not easy for me to do in High School. I have to realize for myself that I am a very different and much more confident person now. And that is why I am actually making plans to write a couple travel articles in the next month as well. More on that later.

The second opportunity is to write content for real estate websites. It's a decent hourly wage for this job, and is something that would start slow before becoming a part-time or full-time position. Now this is more like a normal J.O.B. than a freelance job, but it is beginning as a remote position and has the ability to stay that way, which has obvious appeals because I could use this for some stable income as I do other, less stable writing.

So my plans for this week are:

1.Find someone to interview and put together my first assigned article.

2. Complete a few small assignments via Mechanical Turk and/or Content Divas

3. Research publications that may be interested in the travel articles I have come up with.

4. Draft a Query letter or two about these articles.

5. Talk to someone on the phone about the real estate content job - basically an interview for a position and my opportunity to learn about it some more.

6. I am also going to work on following the advice in "How to Build a Web Copywriting Portfolio Fast" which will help when it comes to contacting those businesses in the future.

I will also be writing about my experience with the Mechanical Turk platform as well as Content Divas and maybe some tips on where to buy used books in San Francisco. Links for those to come.

~CJ