Eat Drink and Be Merry at GDC

1.  Contempoarary Mexican in SF

http://www.nopalitosf.com/

Cheaper than Melbourne could do after Academy of Sciences as on that bus route near Haight Ashbury. The grocery shop next to Nopalita has great chocolate selection. (try their salted chocolates, chocolate salted almond)

2.  Tartine Bakery

http://www.tartinebakery.com/ more than an bakery like Dench

 3. Near Tartine is Delfina which has a nice food restaurant as well as a yummy pizza place

http://www.delfinasf.com/

 4.  Bi-rite creamery on same street as Delfina’s and Tartine, I highly recommend the salted caramel for a sweet and slightly salty taste sensation.

http://biritecreamery.com/

5. The Bi-rite store opposite has a good selection of yuppy Piedmonte like food!

6. The Ferry Building 3 has a range of great food including the really yummy French fusion Vietnamese food place called Slanted Door (they have a take away store and a more formal restaurant).

http://www.slanteddoor.com/restaurants                                           (end of Market Street)

Also there is a fast food version in the Westfield centre near the Moscone Centre.

http://outthedoors.com/

7: http://www.bluebottlecoffee.net/

Best coffee in San Francisco and the outlet at mint plaza is only a block or two from the conference.

8:  http://mehfilindian.com/

Good cheap indian food near the Moscone. Often full of British developers.

9:  http://www.melsdrive-in.com/

Good spot for a pre conference breakfast.

10: http://thethirstybear.com/

The thirsty bear is a great pub with some really tasty beers brewed on site. Great Spanish food and is usually packed with GDC people…The upstairs is often booked out for parties.
 11: http://www.tongaroom.com/
one of very few surviving original Tiki Bars.

Some advice about GDC

This advice is particularly targeted at those travelling from Australia to GDC. It may be useful to others and feel free to comment.

Plan ahead:

Book meetings ahead of time, everyone is trying to fit as much in as possible.
The organisers have a matchmaking facility for exhibitors and all access pass holders:
http://www.gdconf.com/news/gdc/gdc_organizers_remind_on_gdc_b.html
Schedule talks you want to see, and always have a plan B for a time slot, the unforeseen happens!
There is an online lecture planning service available:
http://schedule.gdconf.com/
and also an app. I think, but this may not be live yet.
Bring business cards.
Keep your electronics charged or bring batteries. (trying to find a free socket can be difficult at times when there are 19,000 people with, on average, 2 power hungry devices each)


Take care of yourself: 

Get breakfast every day (also an opportunity for meetings),  the conference is intense and lunch cues nearby can be long.
Comfy shoes are your friend. (SF is hard on the feet).
Get some sleep. (parties are an important opportunity for networking, but they are not the whole reason to be there!)
It's winter there at the moment, and Northern California gets cold.

Culture:

There are many homeless people in San Francisco. It's not particularly dangerous but some find it confronting.
In bars and restaurants, tipping is expected, it's how most hospitality people live. Even if you're at a free drinks function you should tip the server. (otherwise you may suddenly become invisible.)
If you aren't used to US Currency, be careful....all bills are the same size and colour. I know people who accidentally tipped $50 to a taxi driver.
California has a sales tax which is often added at the register.
The Conference Associates are really helpful and do a great job. Say thanks to them, they are volunteers!

Save money:

The cheapest way in from SF airport is BART, (train) under $5 to central SF.
For unlimited bus and trolly car in the CBD, buy a Muni Passport - $6 for one day, $10 for 3, or $15 for 7. Buy at the airport information booths, visitor centre or at selected outlets.
There's good free wifi around SF. The conference tries it's best too. (Many of the talks are subterranean, so you may not get 3G) Unfortunately it gets overloaded at break times, so you might want to snd ur twts during the "questions" time of talks.
If you plan to do a lot of work on the phone, look at buying a cheap sim, roaming is expensive.

I'll add more info if there is a demand, otherwise I hope you all enjoy yourselves and I look forward to seeing you there.

Cheers

mark