perfect location

I had brunch at The Ramp this morning with my friend Bee. The Ramp has been my default Sunday post-laundromat stop for the past couple of weeks (and for the month of May, when I was last in SF). The weather has been perfect, and The Ramp offers some of the best outdoor seating in the city, right beside the water in China Basin.

But that’s part of what bothers me about the place.

If I owned a restaurant in such a perfect location, I’d want to make the dining experience as special as the surroundings. The prime plot of land deserves it.

Instead, The Ramp is furnished with beat up old wooden tables and worn umbrellas. This would be charming if it felt intentionally old, like a $150 pair of distressed jeans, but it just feels sort of half-assed. Worse, the place serves mediocre food and drinks – using plastic cups and cheap cutlery.

Their bloody mary is decent, but the plastic cup subtracts a couple of points.

It irks me that the place has no commercial incentive to improve. It does a booming business. It’s packed every weekend, and I’m one of the suckers – which in turn irks me even more.