Big Kitchen Café • 1980

A horseshoe-shaped counter anchors this Golden Hill institution, where Judy "the Beauty on Duty" Forman has been slinging omelets and radical hospitality since 1980. Walls bloom with customers' family photos, progressive bumper stickers, and necklaces—proof that you're eating in a place that once employed a young Whoopi Goldberg as a dishwasher. The honey-baked ham and house-roasted turkey are real, the coffee flows freely, and on weekends, live music spills onto the sidewalk.