The Bocce Balls of Monte Cristo

If you know nothing else about the Monte Cristo, know this: they take their bocce ball seriously here. In this gentrifying barrio of Portrero rests the Monte Cristo--your neighborhood milonga. Celebrating their 100 year anniversary last year, the first thing you see when you enter this old school Italian social club is bocce ball postings on their left wall. After you climb the stairs there's an Italian style bar to the left, which has ten bocce ball trophies proudly displayed on top of it. And to the right is the dance room, which feels cozy like tango should. It was packed the night I was there, partly because the awesome Trio Garufa was playing. The first woman I danced with is a very nice doctor in town from Washington (you meet the most interesting people in tango!). Later I just watched in a daze as the couples flowed around the floor like a noiseless river. Noiseless, that is, upstairs. I went downstairs to check it out and was standing next to a bocce ball rack outside the kitchen hearing loud, creaking sounds from above--I thought the floor was going to come crashing down. I realized I was standing directly under the dance floor, but it sounded like bocce balls rolling above. Then I see an announcement for their upcoming stag dinners of saltimbocca, polenta & rabbit--you won't find any foo-foo Cal fusion cuisine here. And now I'm back upstairs watching a hundred tangueros float around again. Where did all that noise go? All I hear are the sweet notes of Trio Garufa as the murmering river flows as one.

Secrets From La Sonrisa

As I started getting deeper into my first year of tango here in San Francisco, I started to realize most of the classes I was taking were in the same part of town. And as I started going to more milongas I was even more surprised to see they were also in the same area. How did we end up with this embarrassment of tango riches all packed into just a few neighborhoods? I'm talking, of course, about the three tango barrios of the Mission, Portrero, & SOMA--an area I like to call La Sonrisa. Why? Well, I did a map mashup and what do those dozen tango hotspots look like on the map? That's right-a smile ("La Sonrisa" in Spanish). I wasn't surprised when I saw La Sonrisa for the first time...I smile at her every night I tango--why shouldn't she smile back?