That's sweet, JJ5. My father, who was otherwise meticulously well-spoken, said "Eye-talian." Despite the fact that he was married to an Italian woman!

My uncle, who lived there for 50 of his 80 years, alwasy referred to it as "Frisco"

We were thrilled to see the Washbag has re-opened as it was our favorite watering hole when in SF. But very disappointed to find out that the city is apparently stepping up enforcement of the 30-day or more apartment rental ordinance that NeoPatrick (I believe) brought up some time age. I just contacted a VRBO owner from whom we rented a wonderful apartment last September only to be told the city had told them they could not rent for less than 30 days. I'm really crushed as the apartment was in North Beach where there's not a lot of hotel space and it's great to have more space for the same price. May stop my plans for a return to SF this June and so the city loses my tourist dollars.

RuthMc, interesting about the follow up on that. I hadn't heard any more about it. I'm guessing that even applies to totally privately owned apartments, like the "penthouse" we rented for two weeks that was the top floor of a private house, just a block from North Beach.

"Call it want you want-just leave your money".

Always been a big fan of the WASHBAG and Mike McCourt. (Brother of author Frank McCourt and actor Malachay McCourt)

A good place for a "SF final final". Glad to hear they are trying to keep the same decor.

The two things I read religiously in The Chronicle every day
over the years:
Heerb Caen
Tales of the City

I miss them both!!

I will say that my one or two times at the Washbag after Moose sold it and opened Moose's, were not the same as in the old days. I remember some attempts to "upgrade" or modernize the menu. I think their big problem was trying to "fix" something that really wasn't broken to begin with.

Ditto Pammer. Loved Caen's "logo" when they built the Trans Am Tower.

NeoP...I thought the last version of the 'bag was pretty good. One of the best rib eyes I ever had and a pretty decent wine list.
We had brunch there on a Sunday last year and had a great bloody mary (or 2) and flatiron steak and eggs. =P~

Kal, your experience is much more recent that mine. I'm thinking the last time we were there was in 2006.

Patrick, I think the City only cracksdow on a rental in response to complaints; or at least I hope they are not wasting City resources having someone read through vrbo ads and attempt to rent for less than a week--I can think of some lovely potholes that need filling instead.

SAB, I'm not sure who would have complained about the apartment we rented. The owners own the entire building--told us it's been in the family for years. I guess it could have been one of the tenants in the non-vacation rental apartments.

Our last visit to the Washbag was either 2005 or 2006. We had dinner there (in addition to drinks at the bar) and thought the food was good. We had mussels that we thought were better than those we got on our second visit to Plouf. Not an exotic menu, but good.

My step cousins were born and raised in San Francisco and we used to travel up there a lot starting way back in the 60s. We're here in L.A. County. Personally, I've never understood why folks from S.F. get so unset when people say, "Frisco". I've quite regularly and over many decades heard folks from S.F. refer to L.A. as "Lala Land", and in a negative way, and we're not getting all up in arms over it. Happy Travels!

RuthMc--it could be a former renter. In the case of the place we used to rent for three weeks in Carmel, it was the property manager that the owner foolishly, as it turns out, fired.

Ah SF v. LA raises it's head.
Guenmai-I also don't know why some people are not bothered when others shorten their names and others are. If you were introduced to me as by a certain name, I would never shorten it. It may not bother you, but I'm one of those people who does not respond well to people who shorten my name into a diminutive.

I learned many years ago that one simply doesn't say "Frisco", but I never understood why. Do Las Vegas people get upset when you say "Vegas" or Philadelphia people if you say "Philly"?