When chef Marcus Samuelsson, founder of iconic NY comfort food joint Red Rooster Harlem, came to report on San Francisco for Travel + Leisure, did he go downtown? No. To Pac Heights? Nope. Well, he must have hit the Mission, then? Sorry, Charlie. He went to the Inner Richmond.

That's because, Samuelsson says, "I always seek out the 'B sides' of town, undiscovered neighborhoods like San Francisco’s Inner Richmond." (While everyone who lives out west is probably thinking "B side?!?," let's relax: after all, Salt-N-Pepa's “Push It,” The Smiths “How Soon is Now,” and Madonna's “Into the Groove” were all B sides, too.)

As you can see in the video below, Samuelsson hit area faves like Spices, Green Apple, and Schubert's. In his report, he also raves about Mandalay's tea leaf salad and Velo Rouge's "community spirit."

While it's tempting to roll one's eyes at terms like "undiscovered" when applied to an area that thousands of people live, work, and play in every day, it sure is refreshing to see a neighborhood beyond the usual (cough Valencia cough) profiled in a loving, knowledgable way. Next time you come to SF, Marcus, we'll take you to the Outer Sunset! We can show the people that it's way more than that one block on Judah.

[h/t Richmond SF blog]