In 1776, when American colonists on the east coast declared independence from England the Spanish claimed California for the King of Spain and established the Presidio at the Golden Gate. The sand trail of nearly seven miles from the Presidio to Yerba Buena Cove on the San Francisco Bay was an exhausting slog and a section close to the cove became La Calle De La Fundacion, the city’ first street, now called Grant Street.
A bench plaque in the north east corner of today’s Washington Square Park honors Juana Briones who provided weary travelers with food and rest on their journey. Today on Grant Street, a couple of blocks from where her garden grew and her cattle grazed North Beach Pipeline welcomes modern day travelers looking for respite and inspiration in the The City By The Bay. A block up from the Saloon, the city’s oldest bar (1861), North Beach Pipeline offers visitors and San Franciscans some of the finest vegetation, cannabis, California has to offer.
North Beach Pipeline opened January 21, 2022 after establishing Sunset Pipeline three years earlier on the west side of the city. Stepping into North Beach Pipeline’s beautiful, well-appointed, inviting emporium of psychoactive sustenance is way beyond the dreams of the earliest San Franciscans and the Beatniks and Hippies who walked Grant Street. North Beach Pipeline is another good reason why North Beach continues to be San Francisco’s favorite neighborhood.