A Cold, Cracked Taste of Here and Now: A SFoodie Lunch Planner

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If you haven't by now, it's time.

A week after the first crab boats made their 4 a.m. deliveries of furiously writhing cargo to Pier 45, it's time to make your yearly pilgrimage to Swan's for a taste of Dungeness sweetness.

No guarantee the lines will have subsided much, but no matter. Even with a wait, scoring one of the 18 stools at the marble counter -- sunk in places like cathedral steps -- is a seasonal necessity. Ask for half a dozen oysters, followed by half a cold, cracked Dungeness, dunked into the bowl of sticky yellowish mayo. Or not, depending on your capacity for strict purism.

Gorge on late-bake sourdough and butter, spring for a glass of Chardonnay, and -- two days before Thanksgiving officially arrives -- realize there's nothing you're more thankful for than to be right here.

Swan Oyster Depot 1517 Polk (at Sacramento), 673-1101