Serving breakfast all day, along with a variety of fat burgers, sandwiches, salads, pasta, steaks, and crab cakes, the Buena Vista has become a tourist destination in its own right. Buena Vista means “good view” in Spanish, and this classic spot right by the cable-car turnaround certainly lives up to its name. Converted from a boarding house to a saloon in 1916, it provided a perfect setting for fishermen and dockworkers to take a break while watching the bay, literally, “for their ships to come in.” When the fishing boats arrived, they could chug their drinks and quickly run down the hill to get back to work. Grab an empty space at one of the large, round communal tables and laugh as long-time waitress Katherine flings napkins at you and scowls if, heaven forbid, you dare not order their famed Irish coffee—a “national institution,” for it was here, in 1952, that the first Irish coffee in the U.S. (inspired by a similar drink served in Ireland’s Shannon Airport) was crafted by owner Jack Koeppler and Pulitzer Prize–winning travel writer Stanton Delaplane.