One has to come to San Francisco to partake of the king of shell fish--the
mammoth Pacific crab. I say "come to San Francisco" advisedly, for
while the crab is found all along the coast it is prepared nowhere so
deliciously as in San Francisco. Of course our friends in Portland will
take exception to this, but the fact remains that nowhere except in San
Francisco have so many restaurants become famous because of the way they
prepare the crab. The Pacific crab is peculiar, and while it has not the
gigantic claws such as are to be seen on those in the Parisian and
London markets, its meat is much more delicate in flavor, and the dishes
of crab prepared by artists of the gastronomic profession in San
Francisco are more savory than those found elsewhere.
In the pre-fire days there were many places which paid especial
attention to the cooking of the crab, among them being the Cobweb
Palace, previously mentioned, and Gobey's. Gobey ran one of those places
which was not in good repute, consequently when ladies went there they
were usually veiled and slipped in through an alley, but the enticement
of Gobey's crab stew was too much for conventionality and his little
private rooms were always full.
Gobey's passed with the fire, and the little restaurant bearing his
name, and in charge of his widow, in Union Square avenue, has not
attained the fame of the old place. It is possible that she knows the
secret of preparing crab as it was prepared in the Gobey's of before the
fire, but his prestige did not descend to her.
Almost all of the Italian restaurants will give you crab in many forms,
and all of them are good; many restaurants use crab meat for flavoring
other, dishes, but of all the recipes for cooking crab we have found
none that we consider so good as that of Gobey's. It is as follows: