San Francisco's Oyster-Studded Heart of Gold: Your SFoodie Lunch Planner

Jeff Poskanzer/Flickr

Hangtown Fry: It's a wonderful lunch.

You know how in It's a Wonderful Life, during the hellish vision of Jimmy Stewart's midlife man-crisis, the town morphs into Potterville, a place where everyone's all mean and slutty and otherwise effed up? All you want is for that nice place -- Bedford Falls -- to come back, along with the sweet bartender and the floozy with the heart of gold.

Well, crowding into Tadich Grill this time of year can be like slipping back into that sweet old decent town, where the wood paneling, the ancient waiters with shaggy ear hair, and above all the Hangtown Fry (a flat omelet studded with oysters and bacon) feel exactly like home. Think of it as a delicious respite, even if -- back in the office -- you find yourself getting mean and/or slutty all over again. Despite that heart of gold.

Tadich Grill 240 California (at Front), 391-1849