I encounted a tourist from Richmond, Virginia on the block that includes San Francisco’s Portsmouth Square, where William Alexander Leidesdorff founded the city’s first hotel and general store in the 1840s and built California’s first public school in 1848.  She just wanted to find Jones Street, which is up at the top of Nob Hill, but when I quizzed her further, she wanted to head to Fisherman’s Wharf, where Jones St. ends.

While I directed her in the right direction, I also pointed out Jazz at Pearls, which Kim Nalley (pictured above) and husband Steve Sampson have turned into one of Conde Nast Traveler’s Top 30 Nightclubs in the World.  Nalley is a throwback to the 1930s who can put you in a trance with her interpretations of greats like Billie Holliday or Nina Simone.  She’s currently starring in a musical featuring the music of Holliday.  Most Mondays, Nalley fronts a big band that hearkens back to the days of Smalls Paradise and the Cotton Club.

Reservations for dinner and a show are highly recommended. Shows begin at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m.

Best of all, it is less than a half a block from the site of Purcell’s So Diff’rent, the world’s first jazz club, dating back to 1901.

My inadvertent walking tour patron was quite impressed. She felt cheated that she had spent so much time walking through Chinatown when so much black culture was right in her midst.