Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden

Hayes & Steiner Streets

San Francisco California

Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden: Folks unused to traveling along the Great Highway are often shocked to see a real Dutch windmill protruding from the shrubbery near where Golden Gate Park meets the Pacific Ocean. This windmill was constructed in 1902 to pump irrigation water for the park’s plants up to a reservoir on nearby Strawberry Hill. The windmill is no longer in service, but it is awesome to behold. The Queen Wilhelmina Tulip Garden, featuring a wide variety of tulips and other flowers, rests at the base of the windmill.

Just steps away from the Tulip Garden, there is an open-air dining room with an inviting stone fireplace. This is the dining room of the Park Chalet Garden Restaurant, a new establishment that is fast becoming a favorite with San Francisco residents who can’t get enough of their flatbread pizzas and BBQ specialties. Add in the Park Chalet’s full bar and you are in for an ideal indoor/outdoor drinking and dining experience.

Right on the other side, facing the ocean is the Golden Gate Park Visitor’s Center with WPA frescoes by famed San Francisco modernist Lucien Labaudt in the 1930s. Labaudt’s work also graces the lobby of Coit Tower and the Washington High School Library.

Upstairs is the Beach Chalet, featuring quintessential brew pub food, sea food and a dozen or so beers brewed right on the premises. All this can be enjoyed with a breathtaking view of Ocean Beach and the Pacific Ocean beyond.

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