San FranCelia

I hit up Florio Café on Fillmore St. the other day for a birthday dinner, and it’s a really cute little (and I emphasize, little) spot. However, for the price, there is much better fare that fills you up and makes you feel like you’ve had an experience, especially in the city by the Bay. We ordered the fried asparagus to start, which was pretty tasty, but for the whole table of 5, they brought out maybe 6 or 7 pieces, and that was the large order. I feel like if something is an appetizer (and maybe this is just me), they should ensure the amount they give out is at least sizable enough for a small to medium sized party – I know they can’t customize (which would be awesome!), but come on.

We then moved on to salad, and while the Caesar that the others at our table ordered looked really good (if you screw up a Caesar, you don’t deserve to run a restaurant in the culinary Mecca that is San Francisco, I say), the salad we ordered was an endives, blue cheese, cabbage, and apple salad, that left me feeling a little sick. It was flavorful in all the wrong ways. It was sort of sour and bitter all at the same time, and I’d rather not have a bunch of cabbage and that lettuce that looks like the human circulatory system (what’s it called?) in a salad, if I can at all help it. I am pretty generous with my reviews, and I have to say this salad was really not good.

This spot does offer size options similar to the Bistro portion style that has become popular, and while this is a great idea, their sizing was off. I ordered the Butternut Squash ravioli after the waiter assured me lots of people order it and it was

really tasty, so in keeping with our style, I ordered the large. Once it came, I got 6 small raviolis in a shallow bowl with no other accoutrements, just the ravioli. This was the large order? What if someone who wasn’t, say, a small to medium sized woman, came in and wanted a real meal? There was practically no food on my plate! It was also slightly cold, which is one of my pet peeves at a restaurant. It’s like – if someone is ordering a steak and I’m ordering ravioli, start mine after theirs, will ya? The waiter was nice, but very quiet and not really around enough to fill glasses (the bus boy gave us plenty of water throughout the evening. We went in at around 6:30pm, and it was calm inside for sure). At the time we went in, we should have been made more of a priority, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve waited tables before, and if no one else is in the restaurant, it’s like… come on! I think, in fact, (besides the going to bed a 9:30pm part) this is why old people go to restaurants so early – so they can give you more hell and know that you have to do it because they are the only ones there.

Dessert was equally as average. We ordered two things for the table to share: the “molten chocolate cake” and an apple, caramel fritter type dessert. The “molten” part was off since the cake was cold, and instead of getting a warm chocolate cake à la mode which is what I thought the norm was, it came with whipped cream. Cop-out. I’ve had better molten chocolate cake at Chili’s for half the price. The fritter was really tasty and home-made-esque, so that was a pleasant surprise, at least.

Overall, I’d say this spot was pretty unimpressive. Nothing was so bad I couldn’t eat it, but that’s not saying a lot. Humans have been known to eat some crazy shiz (you’ve all seen Man vs. Wild… that guy can eat a raw camel testicle for Christ’s sake!), so you do the math. It was pretty pricey, as well, being in the trendy Fillmore/Pacific Heights neighborhood, and I didn’t think it was worth the cost at all. Good food is worth spending a little extra on, and this trade off didn’t quite equate. The company and conversation, on the flip side, was awesome, so that really did help with the overall evening. I think the birthday girl had a lot of fun, and I guess that’s really the point after all is said and done.

Peace and Love Xo

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Just checked out Funky Door Yoga last night for the first time and it’s a cool spot I think everyone would love.  They have several locations, one in the Haight, one in Berkeley, and the one I went to in mid-town, at Pine and Polk.  They are exclusively Bikram, so if you go, be aware of that.  I love Bikram yoga – it’s the most difficult yet rewarding type of yoga there is as far as I’m concerned.  I’m not a first time Bikram doer, so I didn’t have to go through anything special at Funky Door, but you may have to go through a small info talk from an instructor if you’ve never been.  I just walked in, left my shoes at the door, paid my drop-in fee of $16 and headed to the locker room.  Super easy.  Bikram , or hot yoga, is doing strength stretching in about 110 degrees, so you sweat profusely.  It sounds close to awful when you read about it on paper, but if you like yoga, or even working out to a certain

extent, it will change your life!  It’s very difficult when you are actually doing it – your heart beats hard (even though all the movements are slow and controlled) and as you can imagine and as I mentioned before, you sweat… A LOT!  But that’s part of the magic.  Imagine all of the toxins leaving your body and your muscles getting a good stretch while being kept warm continually – amazing.  You leave practically walking on air, and you almost feel high, the endorphins are running so hard.  The cool thing about this spot is that the instructor (I had Darius last night) actually opens and closes the windows during the session, so you weren’t ready to pass out at any given moment.  I went to a Bikram class once where not only was it hot like normal, but she never cracked a window to keep the air at 110 degrees.  I think this made all the difference in my experience, since the temperature of the heater along with the students’ body temperatures rising can make the room almost unbearable.  It’s a 90 minute class, so making sure you are relatively healthy is an important start.  Getting slightly dizzy or breathing hard is not uncommon.  The instructor will tell you if you’re new to stop if you need to – it’s not overly stringent.  It was a great class where I really pushed myself – totally worth going.

Short post, just needed to tell you about this awesome spot.  Have fun going and stay healthy!

Peace and Love Xo

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I had the pleasure of seeing Lily Allen in concert this past weekend at the Warfield (which, by the way, is such an amazing spot.  You feel almost like you are in some sort of old world concert hall where the crowds used to gather to be seen.  Everything from the massive double staircase to the alcoves for flowers brings you to another time), and it was such a blast!  We started off entering in the venue a bit early, so you know what that means… time for a cocktail!  I got a Stella (my favorite!) and then had the bartender make us these specialty peach shots – no idea what was in it, but it sure was tasty!  After we felt sufficiently buzzed, it was time to go in.  You unfortunately can’t drink inside the actual theater, so you have to finish up right outside the door in the lobby area.  The opening act was “Natalie Portman’s Saved Head”, and while they were upbeat and clearly enjoying themselves, they weren’t anything special – it was a large group of 6 comprised on 5 guys and 1 girl… like the Smurfs!  Anywho, we snuck out halfway through their act to grab another drink (too bad you can’t drink inside, I swear people would drink less and slower!).  We chatted for a bit then emerged right in time to hear Lily Allen starting her show.  She is dressed in this sparkly ensemble of jacket and hotpants, and looked great!  Started the show with a song off her new album, It’s Not Me, It’s You and then went into some older classics (LDN, anyone!).  She is so much fun – somehow the British make being a bit tossed and a little hot-mess-esque look fantastic!  I was not disappointed with the show thus far, except for the fact that everyone in the balcony seats next to us was sitting down!  You don’t go to a concert to sit down, you go to get up and shake it!  I can listen to a CD in my living room for free if I wanted to sit on my ass for the entire set, Jesus!  I guess we looked like we were having a good time, because one of the security/usher guys came up to us and asked us if we wanted to go stand in the orchestra section where everyone was dancing and where you could see Lily super close up!  AWESOME!  See, being a conspicuous bad-ass totally paid off!  We paid like $25 for tickets and since we were dancing, got to go to the $100 ticket section… ha!  We continued to dance our butts off and I took some really fun pictures of Lily onstage.  She sang the rest of her set, then left the stage, changed to comfy jeans and a wife beater (no bra, of course.  Go Lily!), and continued with a 4 song encore.  Her whole show was only like 12 songs or something, though, so it only lasted an hour or so.  Wish it could be longer, but to be honest, with all those people sitting like bumps on a log, and Lily continually trying to get them out of their seats, I wouldn’t have given much more than that, too.  Oh well, we had SO much fun regardless! 

 We decided after that, since Robyn never gets to go out anymore due to the lack of educational funds (she’s a teacher for our public school system) in the world’s 5^th LARGEST ECONOMY (that’s California for anyone not up to speed on your state info – so yes, we have more money in our state than most countries and we still have a lack of money for teachers and schools!), that we needed to go out and dance some more!  On the way up Market St. hailing a cab, who gets out of the cab we were hailing but 3 of our friends, one of which lives in this gorgeous loft off Market St., downtown.  We decided to go up to her house for a bit and take a bathroom brake and hang out.  So much fun!  It was then off to Kells.  Now I complain about this place more that I should for someone who always ends up there, but this bar is pretty horrid.  It’s like a grandiose frat party where instead of just drinking and dancing and having a good time, everyone (and I mean everyone) is severely worried about their appearance to others.  They have good dance music, it’s downtown, and it’s free to get in if you’re a girl, which is why, I suppose, we always end up there after events downtown, however, that doesn’t make it a good spot.  Last night was no exception to the amount of BS that ensued.  We tried going downstairs, but as usual, it was hotter than the 7^th layer of Hell (central air, ANYONE?!), so we went upstairs for the second dance floor.  The DJ upstairs there plays a fun mix to dance to, but literally stops in between every song (presumably to change to the next song).  It’s ridiculous!  I could bring my ipod in there and DJ myself, and it would probably sound better, because that’s what it’s like, for real!  Haha!  We were dancing all crazy to get our Lily Allen energy out, and everyone around us was aghast at the crazy dancing.  Listen, if you can’t go to a bar as shitty as Kells and have fun being silly, then where can you go, answer me that?!  At that point everyone is wasted, so go ahead and make an ass of yourself – they will probably think you are just suave and confident – there is no real distinction once everyone’s three sheets and in the dark. 

 Headed home after the DJ (ipod song changer?) once again had us reveling in his choice (not), and went to bed.  Good night of music, friends, and bucking the painful norm that is Kells. 

 Pictures to follow – lost my USB cable to upload pics… lame.  :)

Peace and love Xo

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