Hidden Spot: Fortune Cookie Frenzy

It definitely pays to wander up and down the streets of San Francisco's Chinatown. In the very heart of the district you may find yourself drawn down a narrow alley by the sweet scent of baked vanilla cookies. The trail of wafers wafting in the air will likely lead you straight to the Golden Gate Fortune Cookie Factory, a tiny operation nestled in the middle of Ross Alley. This factory has been supplying fortune cookies to Chinatown and around the world since 1962. Don't let the word factory fool you. One tiny room houses the entire operation, with a conveyor belt right in the middle, surrounded by barrels of finished cookies, a couple of fortune cookie production pros and the owner's desk, piled high with papers and whatnot. The ancient machine cranks out small discs of dough, where pre-printed fortunes are inserted by hand and folded into perfect crescents at a wicked pace. Although "admission" to the business is free, a .50 fee for photos is sort-of-strictly enforced. You can purchase bags of freshly baked fortune cookies directly from the shop, or take it a step further with a customized order. How cool is this: you can have your own message printed and inserted into a personalized batch. What a fantastic party favor!