Vesuvio Cafe

Opened in 1948, Vesuvio was the regular haunt of literary luminaries like Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and hometown hero Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Its prestigious clientele and popular neighbor, City Lights Bookstore, attracts a fair number of out-of-towners, but you’ll find regulars a-plenty perched at the scuffed-up wooden tables, sipping on something hard in the afternoon (likely, over a game of chess or a half-drafted poem). Try to score the best seat in the house—the table by the upstairs window, overlooking Vesuvio’s distinctive painted sign.