The San Francisco Chronicle reported on Saturday, June 28,
1997 (Page
A15) reported:
> There was a ceremony on the sidewalk on Ellis
Street
> yesterday morning to declare John's Grill, the
old-time
> San Francisco restaurant, a national literary
landmark.
>
> The title was conferred by Friends of the
Libraries
> USA, and it's a rare honor. There are only 28
national
> literary landmarks in the whole country, exactly
the
> same number as there are major league baseball
teams.
>
> The place has a cameo role -- a single line -- in
the
> Dashiell Hammett classic, ``The Maltese Falcon,''
a
> tale of the detective Sam Spade and murder in the
San
> Francisco fog: ``Spade went to John's Grill and
asked
> the waiter to hurry his order of chops, baked
potatoes,
> sliced tomatoes . . . and was smoking a cigarette
when
> . . .''
>
> This seems pretty thin to hang a literary landmark
on,
> but experts like Don Herron, for 21 years the
president
> of the Dashiell Hammett Society, swore that
Hammett
> hung out at John's and wrote part of ``The
Maltese
> Falcon'' at a table there. Not a bad book. The
London
> Times called it ``probably the best detective story
we
> have ever read.''
[SNIP]
> A plaque was unveiled over the door, making
it
> official: John's Grill is now right up there with
Edgar
> Allen Poe's house in Philadelphia, Robert
Frost's
> cottage in Key West and the Algonquin Hotel in
New
> York. The only other literary landmark in California
is
> the City Lights Bookstore in North Beach.
[SNIP]
>
> Spade would have gotten his biggest surprise when
he
> opened the menu and looked for his favorite dish.
The
> Sam Spade chops, potatoes and tomatoes now sell
for
> $22.95. That's a lot of lettuce, kid.
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