As good as San Francisco's baking culture is, surely there's NY-style (real! :)) pizza to be had?
Is this where I'm supposed to jump in and name some place in a town you've never heard of in Italy as having the actual best pizza in the world? (Unfortunately it doesn't have a sign and it's down an alleyway, you'll never find it, and the owner won't serve you if you don't speak correctly-accented Italian and have a large enough moustache. And it's only open twice a year and they don't take reservations.)
edit: Seriously though, if you're in San Francisco and looking for a good thin-crust pizza, the first thing you need to do is get on the BART. Then go to Cheeseboard in Berkeley. Try to do it on a day when they have a particularly delicious pizza, eg one of the ones with potato or anything with pine nuts. It's not "authentically" anything, it's just tasty.
Oh and a shout out to Vito and Nick's on 86th and Pulaski. Best pizza I've ever had in the city.
The best pizza I've ever had was at pizzeria bianco in Phoenix. The dude went to Naples Italy for a few years to learn to make pizza. Homeboy doesn't even use a mixer for the dough, he does it with his hands.
Totally worth the 2-3 hour wait to get in.
There isn't. Also, you won't find a good bagel anywhere in the bay area. I spent most of last summer looking.
There's "The Bagel Bakery" up in SOMA that has almost decent bagels. But its way too out of the way to get a few bagels for the weekend.
1. For me, this was Nervous Dog Coffee down in Bernal Heights (30th-ish and Mission). Take a look on yelp for cafe's. Ignore the ratings, since they'll be based on the coffee they serve, not bagels.
"Why New York City's Iconic Pizza Is So Tough to Replicate" - http://www.wired.com/culture/lifestyle/magazine/16-05/ps_piz...
Tommaso's Restaurant - http://www.tommasos.com/
Yes, we know what snow is...it is that stuff you go visit up in Tahoe and ski or snowboard on, not that brown semi-frozen slush that slopped over the top of my boot as I stepped off the curb or kept me wondering which side of the street I had parked on when I saw it start to fall from the sky while living in Chicago :)
An easy solution would be to overnight all the pizza's in the freezer... but I assert that there will still be regional taste differences.
I've visited the bay area quite a bit, when my folks lived out there; lou malnati's deep dish is still the best by far.
I do notice that the food selection in the bay area is a lot leaner and healthier, hence that was my point in the bias. The midwestern diet is much heavier, with a bit due to seasonal patterns. Need some of that extra padding to stay warm.. the high for tomorrow is 31F in chicago, while the low right now in Mountain View is 51F....