The year that marked the middle of the 19th century was a turning point for much of the world – just two years earlier, Europe had been embroiled in a series of revolutions that announced that the age of absolute monarchs and the age of nation-states were over Come. In addition to political unrest, the economy was also in transition from the First to the Second Industrial Revolution.

The end of the 18th century saw a radical improvement in manufacturing in countries such as England and France. After this breakthrough, Germany, Italy and the United States quickly caught up in the mid-19th century and developed into independent economic powers.

Candle sellers in front of the cathedral, Chartres, France. Photo taken by Charles Nègre, 1851.

The organ grinder with two children listening. Photo taken by Charles Nègre in the backyard of his workshop at Quai de Bourbon 21 on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, around 1853.

G. Roman, self-portrait, 1851.

Three chimney sweeps on the Quai de Bourbon, Paris, around 1851.

The Chimney Sweeps by Charles Nègre, c.1851-2.

A Moorish woman with her maid

Captain Hawkes and his daughters, circa 1850. Salted paper print from a reinterpreted calotype negative. Attributed to the Scottish photographer Thomas Rodger (1832 – 1883).

Carriage and team of two horses in Beaulieu, country house of Jean-Gabriel Eynard. Daguerreotype, around 1850.

“The Vampire” – Painter/photographer Henri Le Secq poses behind a gargoyle at Notre-Dame de Paris. Photo taken by Charles Nègre, 1853.

The Chattar Manzil Palace and the Royal Boat of Oude on the Gomti River in Lucknow, India. Photo taken by Felice Beato, 1858. Albumen silver print.

The Geography Lesson, 1851. Image from the stereoscopic daguerreotype of Jean Francois Antoine Claudet.

Sculpture gallery in the “Crystal Palace”, London World's Fair, 1851.

Machines became ubiquitous in manufacturing processes and millions of people earned their living by working in factories. Steamships and telegraph companies connected the New World with the Old. There were migrations from Europe to America – many of them political refugees who had to flee after the wave of national European revolutions of 1848.

But as the world changed rapidly, an invention of no less revolutionary significance would finally allow this transgression to be documented in the most realistic way. Photography arrived just in time to provide a quick and efficient tool for capturing the zeitgeist in images that would resonate for eternity.

Soon after the introduction of the first cameras, professional photographers began traveling the world in search of interesting and relevant portraits, breathtaking landscapes and events of historical significance.

These photographers emphasized the importance of capturing everyday life and ordinary people, leaving an invaluable mark on the world's cultural heritage.

Thomas Martin Easterly's Daguerreotype Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, 1851.

Daguerreotype of four children from the 1850s.

Poodle of Empress Eugénie, 1850s. Salted paper print from collodion glass negative, from the studio of André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri.

Group portrait of Franz Antoine, dated 1850s-60s.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel and others observe the launch attempt of the SS Great Eastern in November 1857.

Italian street musicians

Lynch's Slave Market by Thomas Easterly, c.1852. St. Louis. Missouri.

Mortar batteries in front of Picquet House, Light Division, 1855. Island of Guernsey. Image taken by Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869).

Calotype depicting a scene from the Great Exhibition of 1851. Hyde Park, London. Attributed to William Henry Fox Talbot.

Paris, around 1851.

Main Street – Oxford, Ohio. On the left is an Elias Kumler and RE Hills store. The large building in the center of the photo is the Mansion House Hotel.

Paris

Portrait of the writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Pyramids of El-Geezeh (from the southwest) by Francis Frith, c.1862.

Quartermaster Fabry of the 1st Hussars. One of the last surviving veterans of Napoleon's army. He is pictured here in full dress uniform and wearing the Saint Helene Medal (issued on August 12, 1857 to all veterans of the wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire). Date probably May 5, 1858.

Roadside scene, 1850s.

San Francisco, 1851.

San Francisco Harbor, 1850 or 1851.

Shew's Daguerreian Saloon, San Francisco, 1851.

From family portraits suspicious of the evil device capturing their image to political figures like Napoleon III. and the eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, this collection provides an excellent overview of the 1850s.

Read another story from us: 100-year-old photos show some of the most beautiful women from around the world

Add to this mix the famous construction and departure of the British steamship SS Great Eastern, a Persian dignitary, and a beautiful 19th-century cityscape of Jerusalem, allowing you to enjoy the world through the lens of photographers who lived and died 160 years ago worked.

The post Uncommon previous Pictures Present how Folks Lived within the 1850s appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

This article was reviewed in accordance with Science X's editorial process and guidelines. The editors highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the credibility of the content:

OK! Map of households without piped water access in the United States, 2013-2017. Note: Lighter areas indicate areas with a higher number of households without piped water. There are clusters of sanitation facilities in major cities and certain regions across the country. Photo credit: Katie Meehan.

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Map of households without piped water access in the United States, 2013-2017. Note: Lighter areas indicate areas with a higher number of households without piped water. There are clusters of sanitation facilities in major cities and certain regions across the country. Photo credit: Katie Meehan.

A team of researchers from King's College London, the University of Arizona and ECONorthwest has found that an estimated 1.1 million urban residents in the United States live in homes without proper indoor plumbing. In their paper published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the group describes their analysis of census data for 50 of the largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. and what they learned about people living without standard indoor plumbing and related amenities.

In advanced countries such as the United States, most people are assumed to have basic amenities such as access to clean water and related facilities. In this new effort, researchers have found that this is not the case for many people living in some of the country's largest cities. In reality, many people, especially minorities, live indoors without proper plumbing.

The work involved analyzing data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the federal agency that conducts nationwide surveys every ten years. To learn more about access to running water, researchers focused on data from whether people had access to “full sanitation,” meaning a bath or shower. They found that for about 500,000 households in large urban areas, the answer was no.

Analyzing the data further, the researchers found that about 1.1 million people lived in such households. They also found a connection between a given city's wealth gap and the number of people living without running water. For example, they found that percent-wealthy cities like San Francisco, Portland and Austin had some of the highest rates of what they call plumbing poverty. Using raw numbers, they found that New York, Los Angeles and San Francisco had the most people living in plumbing poverty. They also found that race played a role. On average, blacks were 35 percent more likely to live in plumbing poverty than whites. They also found that sanitation poverty was most commonly found in rented facilities, particularly mobile homes.

More information:
Meehan et al., Geographies of insecure water access and housing-water connectivity in US cities. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2020). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2007361117

Magazine information:
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

© 2020 Science X Network

The post Research reveals over 1.1 million city folks in US stay in houses with out correct indoor plumbing appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The year that marked the middle of the 19th century was a turning point for much of the world – just two years earlier, Europe had been embroiled in a series of revolutions that announced that the age of absolute monarchs and the age of nation-states were over Come. In addition to political unrest, the economy was also in transition from the First to the Second Industrial Revolution.

The end of the 18th century saw a radical improvement in manufacturing in countries such as England and France. After this breakthrough, Germany, Italy and the United States quickly caught up in the mid-19th century and developed into independent economic powers.

Candle sellers in front of the cathedral, Chartres, France. Photo taken by Charles Nègre, 1851.

The organ grinder with two children listening. Photo taken by Charles Nègre in the backyard of his workshop at Quai de Bourbon 21 on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, around 1853.

G. Roman, self-portrait, 1851.

Three chimney sweeps on the Quai de Bourbon, Paris, around 1851.

The Chimney Sweeps by Charles Nègre, c.1851-2.

A Moorish woman with her maid

Captain Hawkes and his daughters, circa 1850. Salted paper print from a reinterpreted calotype negative. Attributed to the Scottish photographer Thomas Rodger (1832 – 1883).

Carriage and team of two horses in Beaulieu, country house of Jean-Gabriel Eynard. Daguerreotype, around 1850.

“The Vampire” – Painter/photographer Henri Le Secq poses behind a gargoyle at Notre-Dame de Paris. Photo taken by Charles Nègre, 1853.

The Chattar Manzil Palace and the Royal Boat of Oude on the Gomti River in Lucknow, India. Photo taken by Felice Beato, 1858. Albumen silver print.

The Geography Lesson, 1851. Image from the stereoscopic daguerreotype of Jean Francois Antoine Claudet.

Sculpture gallery in the “Crystal Palace”, London World's Fair, 1851.

Machines became ubiquitous in manufacturing processes and millions of people earned their living by working in factories. Steamships and telegraph companies connected the New World with the Old. There were migrations from Europe to America – many of them political refugees who had to flee after the wave of national European revolutions of 1848.

But as the world changed rapidly, an invention of no less revolutionary significance would finally allow this transgression to be documented in the most realistic way. Photography arrived just in time to provide a quick and efficient tool for capturing the zeitgeist in images that would resonate for eternity.

Soon after the introduction of the first cameras, professional photographers began traveling the world in search of interesting and relevant portraits, breathtaking landscapes and events of historical significance.

These photographers emphasized the importance of capturing everyday life and ordinary people, leaving an invaluable mark on the world's cultural heritage.

Thomas Martin Easterly's Daguerreotype Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, 1851.

Daguerreotype of four children from the 1850s.

Poodle of Empress Eugénie, 1850s. Salted paper print from collodion glass negative, from the studio of André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri.

Group portrait of Franz Antoine, dated 1850s-60s.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel and others observe the launch attempt of the SS Great Eastern in November 1857.

Italian street musicians

Lynch's Slave Market by Thomas Easterly, c.1852. St. Louis. Missouri.

Mortar batteries in front of Picquet House, Light Division, 1855. Island of Guernsey. Image taken by Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869).

Calotype depicting a scene from the Great Exhibition of 1851. Hyde Park, London. Attributed to William Henry Fox Talbot.

Paris, around 1851.

Main Street – Oxford, Ohio. On the left is an Elias Kumler and RE Hills store. The large building in the center of the photo is the Mansion House Hotel.

Paris

Portrait of the writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Pyramids of El-Geezeh (from the southwest) by Francis Frith, c.1862.

Quartermaster Fabry of the 1st Hussars. One of the last surviving veterans of Napoleon's army. He is pictured here in full dress uniform and wearing the Saint Helene Medal (issued on August 12, 1857 to all veterans of the wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire). Date probably May 5, 1858.

Roadside scene, 1850s.

San Francisco, 1851.

San Francisco Harbor, 1850 or 1851.

Shew's Daguerreian Saloon, San Francisco, 1851.

From family portraits suspicious of the evil device capturing their image to political figures like Napoleon III. and the eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, this collection provides an excellent overview of the 1850s.

Read another story from us: 100-year-old photos show some of the most beautiful women from around the world

Add to this mix the famous construction and departure of the British steamship SS Great Eastern, a Persian dignitary, and a beautiful 19th-century cityscape of Jerusalem, allowing you to enjoy the world through the lens of photographers who lived and died 160 years ago worked.

The post Uncommon outdated Pictures Present how Individuals Lived within the 1850s appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The year that marked the middle of the 19th century was a turning point for much of the world – just two years earlier, Europe had been embroiled in a series of revolutions that announced that the age of absolute monarchs and the age of nation-states were over Come. In addition to political unrest, the economy was also in transition from the First to the Second Industrial Revolution.

The end of the 18th century saw a radical improvement in manufacturing in countries such as England and France. After this breakthrough, Germany, Italy and the United States quickly caught up in the mid-19th century and developed into independent economic powers.

Candle sellers in front of the cathedral, Chartres, France. Photo taken by Charles Nègre, 1851.

The organ grinder with two children listening. Photo taken by Charles Nègre in the backyard of his workshop at Quai de Bourbon 21 on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, around 1853.

G. Roman, self-portrait, 1851.

Three chimney sweeps on the Quai de Bourbon, Paris, around 1851.

The Chimney Sweeps by Charles Nègre, c.1851-2.

A Moorish woman with her maid

Captain Hawkes and his daughters, circa 1850. Salted paper print from a reinterpreted calotype negative. Attributed to the Scottish photographer Thomas Rodger (1832 – 1883).

Carriage and team of two horses in Beaulieu, country house of Jean-Gabriel Eynard. Daguerreotype, around 1850.

“The Vampire” – Painter/photographer Henri Le Secq poses behind a gargoyle at Notre-Dame de Paris. Photo taken by Charles Nègre, 1853.

The Chattar Manzil Palace and the Royal Boat of Oude on the Gomti River in Lucknow, India. Photo taken by Felice Beato, 1858. Albumen silver print.

The Geography Lesson, 1851. Image from the stereoscopic daguerreotype of Jean Francois Antoine Claudet.

Sculpture gallery in the “Crystal Palace”, London World's Fair, 1851.

Machines became ubiquitous in manufacturing processes and millions of people earned their living by working in factories. Steamships and telegraph companies connected the New World with the Old. There were migrations from Europe to America – many of them political refugees who had to flee after the wave of national European revolutions of 1848.

But as the world changed rapidly, an invention of no less revolutionary significance would finally allow this transgression to be documented in the most realistic way. Photography arrived just in time to provide a quick and efficient tool for capturing the zeitgeist in images that would resonate for eternity.

Soon after the introduction of the first cameras, professional photographers began traveling the world in search of interesting and relevant portraits, breathtaking landscapes and events of historical significance.

These photographers emphasized the importance of capturing everyday life and ordinary people, leaving an invaluable mark on the world's cultural heritage.

Thomas Martin Easterly's Daguerreotype Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, 1851.

Daguerreotype of four children from the 1850s.

Poodle of Empress Eugénie, 1850s. Salted paper print from collodion glass negative, from the studio of André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri.

Group portrait of Franz Antoine, dated 1850s-60s.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel and others observe the launch attempt of the SS Great Eastern in November 1857.

Italian street musicians

Lynch's Slave Market by Thomas Easterly, c.1852. St. Louis. Missouri.

Mortar batteries in front of Picquet House, Light Division, 1855. Island of Guernsey. Image taken by Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869).

Calotype depicting a scene from the Great Exhibition of 1851. Hyde Park, London. Attributed to William Henry Fox Talbot.

Paris, around 1851.

Main Street – Oxford, Ohio. On the left is an Elias Kumler and RE Hills store. The large building in the center of the photo is the Mansion House Hotel.

Paris

Portrait of the writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Pyramids of El-Geezeh (from the southwest) by Francis Frith, c.1862.

Quartermaster Fabry of the 1st Hussars. One of the last surviving veterans of Napoleon's army. He is pictured here in full dress uniform and wearing the Saint Helene Medal (issued on August 12, 1857 to all veterans of the wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire). Date probably May 5, 1858.

Roadside scene, 1850s.

San Francisco, 1851.

San Francisco Harbor, 1850 or 1851.

Shew's Daguerreian Saloon, San Francisco, 1851.

From family portraits suspicious of the evil device capturing their image to political figures like Napoleon III. and the eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, this collection provides an excellent overview of the 1850s.

Read another story from us: 100-year-old photos show some of the most beautiful women from around the world

Add to this mix the famous construction and departure of the British steamship SS Great Eastern, a Persian dignitary, and a beautiful 19th-century cityscape of Jerusalem, allowing you to enjoy the world through the lens of photographers who lived and died 160 years ago worked.

The post Uncommon outdated Photographs Present how Individuals Lived within the 1850s appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

The year that marked the middle of the 19th century was a turning point for much of the world – just two years earlier, Europe had been embroiled in a series of revolutions that announced that the age of absolute monarchs and the age of nation-states were over Come. In addition to political unrest, the economy was also in transition from the First to the Second Industrial Revolution.

The end of the 18th century saw a radical improvement in manufacturing in countries such as England and France. After this breakthrough, Germany, Italy and the United States quickly caught up in the mid-19th century and developed into independent economic powers.

Candle sellers in front of the cathedral, Chartres, France. Photo taken by Charles Nègre, 1851.

The organ grinder with two children listening. Photo taken by Charles Nègre in the backyard of his workshop at Quai de Bourbon 21 on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris, around 1853.

G. Roman, self-portrait, 1851.

Three chimney sweeps on the Quai de Bourbon, Paris, around 1851.

The Chimney Sweeps by Charles Nègre, c.1851-2.

A Moorish woman with her maid

Captain Hawkes and his daughters, circa 1850. Salted paper print from a reinterpreted calotype negative. Attributed to the Scottish photographer Thomas Rodger (1832 – 1883).

Carriage and team of two horses in Beaulieu, country house of Jean-Gabriel Eynard. Daguerreotype, around 1850.

“The Vampire” – Painter/photographer Henri Le Secq poses behind a gargoyle at Notre-Dame de Paris. Photo taken by Charles Nègre, 1853.

The Chattar Manzil Palace and the Royal Boat of Oude on the Gomti River in Lucknow, India. Photo taken by Felice Beato, 1858. Albumen silver print.

The Geography Lesson, 1851. Image from the stereoscopic daguerreotype of Jean Francois Antoine Claudet.

Sculpture gallery in the “Crystal Palace”, London World's Fair, 1851.

Machines became ubiquitous in manufacturing processes and millions of people earned their living by working in factories. Steamships and telegraph companies connected the New World with the Old. There were migrations from Europe to America – many of them political refugees who had to flee after the wave of national European revolutions of 1848.

But as the world changed rapidly, an invention of no less revolutionary significance would finally allow this transgression to be documented in the most realistic way. Photography arrived just in time to provide a quick and efficient tool for capturing the zeitgeist in images that would resonate for eternity.

Soon after the introduction of the first cameras, professional photographers began traveling the world in search of interesting and relevant portraits, breathtaking landscapes and events of historical significance.

These photographers emphasized the importance of capturing everyday life and ordinary people, leaving an invaluable mark on the world's cultural heritage.

Thomas Martin Easterly's Daguerreotype Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri, 1851.

Daguerreotype of four children from the 1850s.

Poodle of Empress Eugénie, 1850s. Salted paper print from collodion glass negative, from the studio of André-Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri.

Group portrait of Franz Antoine, dated 1850s-60s.

Isambard Kingdom Brunel and others observe the launch attempt of the SS Great Eastern in November 1857.

Italian street musicians

Lynch's Slave Market by Thomas Easterly, c.1852. St. Louis. Missouri.

Mortar batteries in front of Picquet House, Light Division, 1855. Island of Guernsey. Image taken by Roger Fenton (English, 1819-1869).

Calotype depicting a scene from the Great Exhibition of 1851. Hyde Park, London. Attributed to William Henry Fox Talbot.

Paris, around 1851.

Main Street – Oxford, Ohio. On the left is an Elias Kumler and RE Hills store. The large building in the center of the photo is the Mansion House Hotel.

Paris

Portrait of the writer Victor Hugo (1802-1885)

Pyramids of El-Geezeh (from the southwest) by Francis Frith, c.1862.

Quartermaster Fabry of the 1st Hussars. One of the last surviving veterans of Napoleon's army. He is shown here in full dress uniform and wearing the Saint Helene Medal (issued on August 12, 1857 to all veterans of the wars of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Empire). Date probably May 5, 1858.

Roadside scene, 1850s.

San Francisco, 1851.

San Francisco Harbor, 1850 or 1851.

Shew's Daguerreian Saloon, San Francisco, 1851.

From family portraits suspicious of the evil device capturing their image to political figures like Napoleon III. and the eighth President of the United States, Martin Van Buren, this collection provides an excellent overview of the 1850s.

Read another story from us: 100-year-old photos show some of the most beautiful women from around the world

Add to this mix the famous construction and departure of the British steamship SS Great Eastern, a Persian dignitary, and a beautiful 19th-century cityscape of Jerusalem, allowing you to enjoy the world through the lens of photographers who lived and died 160 years ago worked.

The post Uncommon previous Pictures Present how Individuals Lived within the 1850s appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

As we outlined yesterday, the amount of vacant office space in San Francisco has just hit a new pandemic-era high of nearly 21 million square feet.

For context, the 1,070-foot-tall Salesforce/Transbay tower at First and Mission, which is the tallest building in San Francisco, contains 1.35 million square feet of office space spread across 59 floors. And employing the framework we introduced back in 2020, and others have since co-opted, there is now 15.4 Salesforce Towers, or 909 Salesforce Tower floors, worth of empty office space spread across San Francisco, which is roughly enough space to accommodate between 119,000 employees, based on an average, pre-Covid office density or 160,000 (a la twitter) worker bees.

And yet again, while it’s tempting to see, promote or editorialize an opportunity to convert all the vacant office space in San Francisco into housing, the conversion of existing office space to residential use still makes absolutely no economic sense for the vast majority of San Francisco buildings, due to the relative value of each use and the costs of conversion.

The post Sufficient Empty Workplace Area for 160,000 Folks in San Francisco appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

A few months ago, I came across a curious listing for a restaurant experience where you pay to spend a day in the life of a chef.

The chef is David Yoshimura of Nisei, the fine dining Japanese restaurant in Russian Hill. I’ll admit, at first I thought the idea was pretty hilarious, charging customers $775, or $1,012 with tax and gratuity, for what seemed like a chef influencer event, glamorizing and overcharging for a peek at how the restaurant sausage is made. The experience, available to just one customer each Saturday, consists of going to the farmers’ market, then going back to the kitchen to prep and cook, and ends with an 11-course dinner.

Essentially, you’re paying more than $1,000 to work a shift at a restaurant. Is this how rich people like to spend their money? I couldn’t believe it.

Maybe I shouldn’t have been shocked. In recent years, we’ve seen luxury dining experiences proliferate in San Francisco and the Bay Area, with “farm experiences” from restaurants like Quince and Avery as well as services like Ritual, an opulent supper club that flies in chefs from around the world for dinners that cost nearly $1,000 per person. Restaurants are tapping into their wealthiest clients with tiered experiences and high-end extras. Was the Nisei experience just that, some kind of savvy side hustle from an up-and-coming chef? A wild new wealth tax perhaps?

To my surprise, my editors thought it would be a good story if I reviewed the experience and tried to find out. I agree. Delighted by the oddness of it all, I booked it, excited to peek behind the curtain, to see how the complicated machinery of a restaurant works — and determine whether paying for the privilege of making my own dinner could possibly be worth the price tag.

But then it got complicated.

As I do at any other restaurant, I booked the reservation under an alias. Everything was set for my anonymous visit. I had my trusty Groucho Marx glasses ready, then I got an email from the restaurant.

They asked me to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

The ruse was over, my plans for writing about the experience were compromised. A review would be a clear violation of any nondisclosure agreement, and besides, I wasn’t about to sign a fake name on a legal contract. I felt like I was in “Scooby Doo” and my mask was yanked off by those meddling kids.

Top: Chef David Yoshimura leads the kitchen at Nisei. Above: The San Francisco restaurant was bustling on a recent evening.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

I was prepared to abandon the story altogether. But after some deliberation, I outed myself as a critic and came to an agreement with the restaurant: I’d pay to live a day in the life of a chef and be allowed to write about it, as long as I didn’t divulge any recipes, secret techniques or other sensitive information.

But now, the story I had in mind had changed, because everyone would know my identity. It was like the chef and I were locked in a game of four-dimensional chess: not only would I spend a day in his shoes, but he would, essentially, spend a day in mine. The whole thing made my head spin.

On a rainy morning in December, I met Yoshimura at the Ferry Plaza Farmers Market. Earlier that week (long after I’d booked my visit), his restaurant, which opened in 2021, had been awarded a Michelin star and he’d received the restaurant guide’s Young Chef Award. When vendors, chefs and other restaurant folks congratulated him, he smiled graciously and said thank you. I got the sense that the praise made him a little uncomfortable.

We talked about his bringing up in Houston, where he started cooking at a steakhouse before working in New York kitchens and then eventually the Bay Area. He cut his teeth here at fine dining Mexican restaurant Californios — he was the chef de cuisine there when that restaurant was awarded Michelin stars. “It feels more personal when it’s my food,” he said, about winning a star of his own.

We proceeded to buy turnips, persimmons and decorative pine branches. Then we packed up his car and headed to the restaurant. He gathered the staff of 10 or so for a meeting; some were wearing beanies, others bandanas. Yoshimura said there’d be a packed house that night — the Michelin buzz had already translated to more reservations.

Grilled unagi and fried unagi bone at Nisei in San Francisco, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

The suppon at Nisei in San Francisco, Calif., Thursday, Dec. 29, 2022.
Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

Grilled unagi over rice (left) was the best dish during a recent meal at Nisei, while suppon (right), a turtle soup, was the only miss. Santiago Mejia / The Chronicle

The staff all greeted me warmly, but I really didn’t know what to expect. I like they were observing me, too.

I wondered: How much of this experience would be real? It didn’t feel unlike the theatrics of hospitality, where everything is calculated to give customers the best possible experience. This so-called day-in-the-life felt like an extension of that service, the idea of ​​an open kitchen taken to its logical extreme.

No longer shielded by anonymity, I also felt more exposed than I ever had as a critic. I was keenly aware of that remove between chef and restaurant critic, an inherent binary often caricatured as adversarial. Did these chiefs think of me as a wolf in sheep’s clothing?

That all melted away once I stepped in the kitchen. Yoshimura gave me a choice: follow him around while he did administrative tasks and planning, which he described as “boring,” or bounce around for a more complete picture. I chose the latter — I, after all, was performing too. I felt like I had to show them I was down to get my hands dirty, even as I worried they might make fun of my poor knife skills. (Yoshimura told me one past guest was appalled she had to work.)

From noon until 5 pm, the beginning of service, the kitchen focused on prep. I started with weighing flour and sugar for blinis, flambéing bananas on a stovetop and chopping pickles. Then I assisted with descaling anchovies with a knife. At the pastry station, I molded nerikiri (a semi-sweet white bean dessert) with my fingers and pressed them with a wood block to make them look like a sakura flower. I sliced ​​miso-marinated garlic, doing my best impression of Paulie from “Goodfellas.” I squeezed out dots of sauces, gingerly added leaf garnishes and portioned pickles on ceramic plates — ensuring each received the same amounts.

While we worked, I got to know the staff: where they’re from, what kind of music they like, their histories. It’s hard not to be endedared to a cast of characters when you share laughs and conversation, the same way you build rapport with any work family. We even shared a family meal: Yoshimura and sous chef Nicholas Razatos made excellent fried chicken.

The Dungeness crab course is served inside a crab shell at Nisei in San Francisco.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

By then, my concern about gauging the authenticity of my experience had evaporated. I came away with the belief that enough of it was real — or at least felt real. It’s the same way a theater production requires real people to put on a show. I suspended my disbelief and became a part of the Nisei show. That was especially true once service started. It was as if a switch had flipped. It was go time.

I tried my best to stay out of everyone’s way. The change in the room was palpable, the staff acutely focused on the task at hand. Watching the kitchen spring into action, living and breathing in unison, gave me clarity about fine dining restaurants that I simply did not have before. The team communicated briskly, their focus sharpened. The imperative of providing exceptional hospitality was much clearer.

At 6:30 p.m. sharp, general manager Ian Cobb, a staunchly serious man, informed me that my seat at Bar Iris, the sister bar to the restaurant, was ready. I went upstairs, shed my kitchen costume and got ready for dinner.

After tasting a few cocktails at the bar, it was showtime: I got a prime seat right in front of the kitchen window.

The first four bites arrived in a flash. I quickly spotted a dish with the anchovies I had aided in descaling: a crisp burst of aquatic umami inside dehydrated nori. It was followed by tangy, nukazuke-fermented persimmons. Shortly thereafter, chef Yoshimura, armed with a pointed smile, dropped off a blini with creamy, flambéed banana puree and a tiny quenelle of caviar. The morsel of sweetness and saltiness effortlessly lilted across my tastebuds — one of the most memorable bites of the night.

Dishes that followed included a toasted milk bread spread with gamey, creamy milkfish pate; the pucker of a garnish of cranberries scaled back the richness. A stew-like Dungeness crab dish thickened with stock admirably preserved the lightness of the crustacean. Crispy, juicy squab katsu rested in an oil spill of black curry. The only real disappointment: a turtle soup with distractingly tough meat and muscular mochi.

Throughout the meal, the staff would check on me. Some nodded knowingly, as if we shared a secret.

All other dishes folded to the might of the main event: the unagi over rice. The portion is smaller than a traditional donburi but just as sharp, smoky and flavorful. The fillet had been slowly charcoal-grilled, rendering the fat out of the skin until it was airy and crisp. It came with a piece of edible, dehydrated and fried unagi spine, spicy grated daikon, and sliced ​​miso-garlic — some of the ingredients I’d had a hand in preparing.

Nisei is located on Polk Street, with Bar Nisei drawing in customers for cocktails next door.

Santiago Mejia/The Chronicle

The eel embodied the principles of Washoku cooking, a philosophy translating to “harmony of food” that balances technique, tradition, taste and respect of food, but also expressed the nisei (second-generation Japanese) attitude of the restaurant. The melty eel is obviously grander than what you’d find at a typical Japanese restaurant, but preserves the satisfying, comforting barbecue spirit.

The unagi alone might have earned Nisei the Michelin star. I don’t really subscribe to the star dogma, but if my time at the restaurant was an indicator, it surely deserves happy face stickers, checkmarks and any other made-up signifiers of quality.

Is it possible the unagi tasted even better because I’d just seen the kind of work that goes into it?

I’ll never know for sure. Even though $1,000 is nothing to sneeze at, I concluded that the price was absolutely worth it.

Included are skills and techniques that are yours to keep; a few drinks from the bar; trying elements at every point before they make it on the plate; a family meal; and tracing ingredients from the vendor to the diner — a full-spectrum view of a fine dining restaurant.

Driving home, tired from a 12-hour shift, I came away with a new perspective and satisfaction that’s rare even in the most pampering restaurant environments. The process forces wealthy people to appreciate the process of creating luxury; a once-in-a-lifetime dissection of the high-caliber kitchen organism. If we think of fine dining restaurants as producers of edible art, this immersive experience lets diners not only eat it, but make it, too.

nisei 5-9 pm Wednesday-Sunday. 2316 Polk St., San Francisco. 415-827-6898 or restaurantnisei.com

Cesar Hernandez is The San Francisco Chronicle’s associate restaurant critic. Email: cesar.hernandez@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @cesarishafa

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8. Amenities

Current challenge: Eighty of the city violations in SROs between 2016 and 2021 cited a lack of basic services including closed bathrooms and faulty heaters. Many additional problems were undoubtedly not reported to city inspectors.

Tenants frequently complain of not having a private bathroom and having to rely on shared bathrooms that are often filthy or out of order.

Recommended: Housing units should include private bathrooms.
Studios should include a kitchenette with a sink, a microwave and/or convection oven, a two-burner cooktop and a refrigerator. Units for families should include a full cooktop, oven and microwave.

Units should use efficient electric pumps that heat, cool and provide filtered air to each dwelling. The cost is about $5,000 per unit, according to HomeRise.

Bedrooms should have a bed with a mattress, a nightstand, a dresser, a table and chairs. Metal bed frames are more durable and less vulnerable to pests.

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Dick Hafner died last week. The co-founder of the family-owned-and-operated Hafner Vineyard was a wise and ingenious man — and a friend.

He and his wife, Mary, who died in 2017, purchased their Alexander Valley ranch in 1967. In the late 20th century emergence of the Sonoma County wine industry, they qualify as pioneers, having removed prune trees to plant the vineyards that would produce their favorite wines.

Before the pandemic, we were lucky enough to spend time with Dick and Mary in a small group that met for lunch every couple of months.

In recent years, five members of our lunch group have died, including Dick and Mary, plus Pat and Ted Eliot, and Anne Teller.

All five were amazing people who believed that taking care of the land and looking out for each other should be everyone’s responsibility.

This Thanksgiving weekend becomes the right time to give thanks for the gifts they left for the rest of us.

All five seemed to live their lives in two acts, the second as compelling as the first. Their stories made for great conversations over lunch.

After time as a newspaperman in the East Bay and in Southeast Asia, Dick would become the chief spokesman for UC Berkeley during the student uprisings of the 1960s and 1970s. He had stories to tell.

Mary would join a UC student delegation to India and Pakistan and later give French cooking lessons from her Berkeley home while serving on the boards of the San Francisco AIDS Foundation and KQED.

In time, she would find herself driving a tractor to clear the land for the grapes that would become the wine that bears the Hafner name.

Ted would become the US ambassador to Afghanistan after diplomatic postings all over the world. He and Pat would marry in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon) and one of their children would be born in Moscow. Later, he would serve as executive assistant to the US treasury secretary, executive secretary to the Department of State and dean of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Pat, who grew up in Marin County, remembered riding horses as a young girl on Jack London’s Sonoma Mountain ranch, and when her husband was the ambassador to Afghanistan, she remembered traveling with her kids to pick up a car in London and then driving it back to Kabul. Not many would attempt that drive today.

In the Sonoma Valley, Anne and her late husband, Otto Teller, would establish Oak Hill Farm and become trailblazers in the organic food and farm-to-table movements.

Later, all five would become leaders of community groups aiming to make Sonoma County a more sustainable place to live.

Dick was president of the Alexander Valley Association. Mary was a longtime member of the board of the Sonoma Land Trust and was involved in other philanthropies, including as a board member of Healdsburg Forever.

Ted served on the boards of Community Foundation Sonoma County and of the Sonoma Valley Fund. He was a leader in the campaign to pass and then the campaign to renew the Sonoma County open space tax. He led too many other conservation efforts to mention here.

Pat served on the board of the environmental stewardship group Land Paths and would lead the charge to save Sonoma Mountain from development.

Anne and her late husband were founding members of the Sonoma Land Trust, which has provided permanent protection for more than 58,000 acres of land since 1976.

Keep in mind: These are only the highlights.

In our lunches, it was a pleasure to listen to them talk about lifetimes of public service. They were older than we were, and that was OK. They had a lot to share. They were smart and funny and wise.

Sonoma County is a wonderful place to live. But it doesn’t happen by accident. It requires people to step up and set examples, while encouraging others to make smart choices.

In 2020, our lunches would be lost to the pandemic.

“This Shelter In Place is for the birds!” Dick told me in an email back then. “I prefer to be in the (Healdsburg) plaza but am stuck with this great view seen from my window seat (Mary’s favorite). What a strange feeling this all is!”

Mary’s favorite view takes in the sweep of the Alexander Valley and the mountains beyond.

Thanks to people like Dick and Mary, Pat and Ted, and Anne, we live in a place where successful agriculture and the beauty of our natural surroundings come together.

Dick wrote on the Hafner Vineyard website: “We have a deep sense of belonging to the land and a strong appreciation of those who tend the soil and bring forth its products.”

And so we give thanks for the friends who touched our lives, while we reflect upon how much we miss them.

Pete Golis is a columnist for The Press Democrat. Email him at golispd@gmail.com.

You can send letters to the editor to letters@pressdemocrat.com.

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