Opened in 1861, one of San Francisco’s most opulent hotels, the Occidental Hotel at Bush and Montgomery, catered exclusively to the wealthy. The hotel provided spacious rooms with lavish furnishings. It’s indoor store, City of Paris^[1], was a high-end importer of silk and wine. The Occidental’s prime location, so close to Portsmouth Square^[2] (the City’s hub), made the hotel popular. It was a four-story brick structure designed in an Italianate style which dominated the City skyline. The hotel sustained damage in the 1868 Earthquake^[3], but repairs were quickly made.

The Occidental Hotel restaurant and bar became a popular meeting venue for City politicians. Bartender Jerry Thomas is credited for having invented the Martini: a cocktail of gin and dry vermouth garnished with an olive or slice of lemon. The name “martini” came from the town of Martinez when miners in that town would celebrate a gold find with a concoction of gin and white wine. One of these miners came into the Occidental Bar and ordered the cocktail. Thomas would tweak the recipe, and a global sensation began. 

Many famous people stayed at the Occidental Hotel, including authors Robert Lewis Stevenson, Ralph Waldo Emerson and Mark Twain. Mark Twain, at the time going by his given name Samuel Clemens, arrived in San Francisco by stagecoach in May 1864 at the age of 28. A few years earlier he and his brothers moved out west, and Clemens invested all of his money in silver-mine shares. Believing himself a soon-to-be millionaire, Clemens moved to San Francisco and into the Occidental Hotel. Unfortunately, his silver shares went bust and Clemens, having to support himself, became a reporter for local newspaper The Call^[4]. He was fired after only a couple of months as he didn’t fancy himself a beat reporter and had delegated all of his assignments to an assistant. Clemens then found work writing articles for local magazines. He went to Tuolomne County for a short time mining for gold. He wrote a story about his adventures there which was published in the New York Saturday Press. After returning to San Francisco Clemens officially changed his name to Mark Twain. 

While Twain is credited with saying “the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco”, he never actually said it, the origin of the popular phrase remaining unknown. One thing Twain did say about San Francisco was that his favorite place to was the Cliff House^[5] because the fierce wind blew a lady’s skirt aside so that one might get a glimpse of that lady’s ankle; alas, that wind also blew sand in one’s eyes so that nothing could be seen after-all.

Twain spent two and a half years in San Francisco. In 1867 he sailed to Europe as a correspondent for the Alta California. When Twain returned he wrote his first novel about his adventures entitled Innocents Abroad. The book was a huge success, and Twain moved east where he would go on to write his most famous books, Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn. Twain never returned to San Francisco.

The Occidental Hotel was completely destroyed in the 1906 Earthquake and Fires^[6]. Ceilings collapsed and the building was consumed in the ensuing fires, not to be rebuilt. The hotel no longer exists, but the martini lives on.

^[1] City of Paris: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=4358

^[2] Portsmouth Square: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3195

^[3] 1868 Earthquake: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3995

^[4] The Call: story coming December 1st

^[5] Cliff House: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=3811

^[6] 1906 Earthquake and Fires: https://thesanfranciscophoenix.com/?p=2849