I’ve been to the Tonga Room a couple of times, even used it as a backdrop for a news special I produced, but never, ever did I try even a fraction of the drinks Bourdain enjoyed.įrom Nob Hill, he continued his San Francisco tour through a one of a kind Chinatown bar, and then headed into another bar where the dude behind the counter wore a tie. He had at least three potent drinks served with fancy umbrellas in huge lava or skull themed glasses. I lost count of the amount of drinks Bourdain consumed. It was like watching a progressive pub crawl in fast forward and skipping the right to the slurred words and stumbling in the street scenes. Any show that starts off in the Tonga Room at San Francisco’s Fairmont Hotel is bound to spark a fair amount of hilarity, and this episode of The Layover did not disappoint. Maybe I’m biased because I love San Francisco, or maybe it’s because he was inebriated for 29 out of the 30 hours he spent in SF, but it was funny. Well I was low on TV options so I decided to catch up on a couple of The Layover episodes, and I have to say, they’ve gotten better. Yeah, I’ll watch it if nothing else is on, but if I want the good stuff, I’ll save up for it.
#Anthony bourdain the layover san francisco series
I didn’t particularly like the first few episodes because it felt like a cheap off label version of Bourdain’s original series No Reservations. If you haven’t seen the show, which I highly recommend, Bourdain spends about 30 hours drinking his way through a city. He’s been all over the world, and now in his new show The Layover, Anthony Bourdain returns to my turf, San Francisco.