Living and breathing in Vancouver’s Kitsilano, I completely ‘get’ San Francisco’s trippy and hippy Haight and Ashbury area. And, during my most recent trip down to San Francisco, a friend of mine introduced me to the one, the only Cha Cha Cha.
You want to know the best part? We ended there by accident. She’s going to kill me for saying this, and you’re not going to have any idea what it means, but that’s OK: ‘wasn’t going to Cha Cha Cha worth waiting to get your dry cleaning from that restaurant you forgot it at?!’ I think it was…and here’s where you come in:
We rolled into Cha Cha Cha on a Tuesday…a cold, but sunny Tuesday. So we thought, naturally, we shouldn’t have a problem being seated/served/satiated. Well, when we threw open those big old doors at 1801 Haight Street, it was JAMMED! And when I say jammed, I’m talking the kind of feeling you get after you purchase a ‘four person tent’ from Mountain Equipment Co-Op/Sport Check/Coast Mountain Sports/wherever and when you finally take it camping you realize that those four people must have been f’in small!
If you live in Vancouver, you’ll get what I’m about to say: Cha Cha Cha reminded me of what you’d get if you put La Bodega, the former Living Room Bistro and the former Truffles in a blender and hit puree. The only difference…the cool factor was dialed up and the crowd, well, was simply off-the-hook (for a Tuesday night). Fortunately, we were able to be sat at the bar.
As I’ve told you countless times before, despite a rather large food section at timinganddelivery.com, I am not (nor will I ever be) a food critic. What I do appreciate, though, is service…and lots of it. Well, on this night, my friends, service was here, there and everywhere when it came to Cha Cha Cha. And here’s why:
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the host was accommodating and despite a 30 minute wait for the restaurant section, he put us in the bar…even went so far as to clear space
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the waitress/bartender/incredibly friendly person serving drinks was awesome….aside from pouring killer sangria, she timed everything perfectly
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my friend asked for a sample of some sauce they had (I can’t remember the name, B, so if you can…comment!)…and, just when you thought she forgot…BANG…it showed up like I do at Safeway when the JUMBO box of Vector goes on sale for $5
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we laughed, enjoyed great food (try the potatoes and that freakin sauce!) and almost finished two pitchers of sangria before we decided that we needed some bloody mary’s at Club Deluxe (which is where they should have filmed most of the movie Swingers, if you ask me) - stay tuned for a review of Club Deluxe…thanks again Jay
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we left
Cha Cha Cha is a great place…service and experience wise. Come to think of it, San Francisco is a great place…tonnes of energy, history, and the people…well, it’s Vancouver South for all intents and purposes. And that, my friend, is a good thing!
darren
chipotle cream sauce - yum! it went with the special but they let us have it with the pots (haight-appropriate abbreviation, i think) — also, dry cleaning left for a week in a restaurant? come on, who would do that? nobody that i know. (btw, SPQR, great restaurant - maybe i’ll post a blog)