A Mexican restaurant in North Beach

In San Francisco, the neighborhood of North Beach is known for it's authentic Italian restaurants. If you want a quality Italian meal, it's where you go. When you want good Mexican food, you go to a neighborhood like the Mission. Earlier this week I discovered the exception to this rule. We went to Don Pisto's (510 Union Street) in North Beach and it was an amazing experience. The restaurant may be a little hard to find, as there's no sign on the exterior, but once you walk into the brick building, it is bustling and filled with enticing aromas. The interior is brick with rustic heavy wood furniture. This fits with their Mexican street food offerings, infused with a little Baja peninsula style. To the right when you walk in, is the bar, offering tasty, unique spins on sangria and margaritas. Don Pisto's doesn't have a liquor license, which may be an issue for other Mexican restaurants (who doesn't love their tequila), but not Don Pisto's. They make their margaritas with wine, which makes them really refreshing and less harsh on the head the next morning.

Right when you get seated at a table, a fresh order of chips and salsa are brought to the table. I love their green salsa, as it's heavy on the cilantro and jalapeno (two of my favorite ingredients!). We ordered a side of guacamole to go with the chips, which didn't disappoint. Other appetizers we sampled included the ahi-style tuna, which was fresh and flavorful. We ordered the whole lobster, which comes with all the fixings to make mini lobster burritos. The butter sauce it comes with is dangerously good. We also ordered a plate of the oysters. Now, before I lived in California, I wasn't an oyster fan but since being here I have changed my mind. All the oysters I've had recently, included Don Pisto's, are succulent and go down smooth. There's not a hint of sand of grittiness, which can be found in cheaper oysters. For the "main course" (which I say with amusement because by this point I'm already stuffed full), we sampled the majority of their tacos. We had the carne asada, carnitas, pescado and al pastor tacos. I'm always a fan of carnitas tacos and they were all good, but I think my favorite was the al pastor. The grilled rib chop is diced up with grilled pineapple, creating the perfect sweet and savory balance. I will definitely be eating at Don Pisto's again. I heard that they are actually know for their hamburguesa, which seems like an odd choice to order at a Mexican restaurant, but it's suppose to be amazing.

A bar without alcohol

And no, just because I live in California, I'm not talking about oxygen bars. Last Saturday night I went to drybar, a blow dry bar. Apparently this fad is huge in LA and Southern California and is working its way up the coast. I actually had the owner for my blowout and she's from the O.C. The drybar  in San Francisco is on Fillmore and they advertise "No cuts. No color. Just blowouts. Only $35." Walking in, I was blown away by the cuteness of the place. The blowout stations are lined up along a long white bar. Everything in there is white with bright yellow accents. Sex & the City was playing on the TV. You get offered cucumber or strawberry-infused water. I waited on a comfy white chair next to a table with a vase of yellow roses. When you start, they take you to a back room to get your hair washed. For an extra $10, you can get a "floater" which is a scalp massage. After getting back to your station, you flip through a picture-book "menu" and pick which blowout you want. The options are straight up, mai tai (messy, beachy), southern comfort (big volume with curls), cosmopolitan (loose curls) or sleek & smooth. They also do a Shirley Temple blowout for kids and offer updos. I got the cosmopolitan and loved it. I think this may be my favorite new form of self-pampering. It would be a fun activity to do with a group of girlfriends before a big night out. My only qualm was that I though it would last longer but halfway through the night, it had changed significantly and my hair usually holds curl pretty well. But overall, a wonderful experience and I will definitely be back again. They take about 20-30 minutes. Just make sure to schedule an appointment. Saturdays can be booked solid and the lady I had said she'd probably done 100 blowouts that day!

One of my favorite ads and it's San Francisco!

One of my favorite ad campaigns ever is the colorful work Fallon did for Bravia, promoting the color capabilities of their TV. One of the spots was the Sony Bravia Paint Ad, which timed paint explosions to an orchestra score. I love the running clown in it. The second ad, which I totally forgot about until now, was filmed on the hilly streets of San Francisco. The spot featured Bouncing Balls down the city streets of San Francisco. The colors are so vibrant and the music fits perfectly, putting the viewer in a good mood. The reason I was reminded of this ad campaign, which aired in 2006, was that I saw on another blog (Cup of Jo) that Lumas is selling photos of the bouncy balls. They look so cool. I love having photos from all the places the boyfriend and I have lived framed in our apartment and I feel like this is the perfect San Francisco photo. It's so atypical of any other city photo I've seen! Sadly they're all limited edition and sold out. Too bad. Which one is your favorite shot?

Tacos, tacos, tacos!

I can't even begin to explain to you how much better the Mexican food is in California than Minnesota, but I'm going to try. I have been on a serious taco kick since arriving in San Francisco. So far I have three places that I would highly recommend. The first place is TacoBar on Fillmore. This small little joint whips out the best tacos that have some very unique flavor profiles. I had a duck confit taco with mango salsa that was amazing. They also do brunch food, quesadillas, burritos, soups, salads and desserts. The sangria looked amazing, so I will definitely be going back to give that a try.

The next taco place apparently has kind of a famous reputation for it's tacos. A friend of my boyfriends recommended Nick's Cripsy Taco on Polk in Nob Hill and we were not disappointed. They stuff a crispy taco shell full of goodness and then wrap it in a soft tortilla shell. The trick is to get it "Nick's way," so they stuff it with cheese and guacamole. They are pretty sizable so I got a carne asada and a carnitas one and was full (and satisfied). The taco line is cash only but the bar accepts cards. The ambiance its not what you'd expect from a taco bar, with lots of red tones and chandeliers, but I guess it turns into nightclub later in the evening.

The last place has an interesting tie to Nick's. It's Tortilla Heights on Divisadero and they also serve taco's "Nick's Way." I guess the two owners use to work together, had a falling out, and when they split bitterly, the guy who owns Tortilla Heights took the recipe.Well, they're equally good at both places. Tortilla Heights has a larger menu though and more options, so you don't have to get the tacos. My boyfriend got a steak quesadilla that was pretty good, but not as spectacular as the tacos. The drinks are tasty! I had some sangrita (sangria mixed with margarita). It's a loud atmosphere and lots of fun.

Pizza in Lower Pac Heights

The other week we were exploring Fillmore (which is probably my favorite street in the city so far, I'm so happy we live near it) and wanted a casual place to eat with reasonable prices that had TVs so the boyfriend could watch the game. Pizza Inferno on Fillmore and Sutter fit the bill perfectly. It was a very open restaurant in a prime location. The local art on the walls was cool and I was tempted to think about buying until I saw the price. They have hard cider, which made me happy! They also had a broad selection of beers at reasonable prices. The wine list was shorter and the prices were a little high. For food, we started with the foccacia garlic bread, which pretty good although it could have been a little more garlicy. For the main pizza, we wanted to build our own but quickly figured out if you want more than two toppings it can get expensive quickly. So we went Italian meatball pizza, which is a fancy way of saying sausage. It was pretty good but nothing amazing. And it's a little small for two people to split. If we hadn't gotten an appetizer we would have left hungry. Basically, it was worth the money but not a deal. I think it'd be a fun place to drink and watch a game put I'm not sure if we'll be back there again for dinner anytime soon.

Mis-adventures in San Francisco

This past weekend, we had perfect weather in San Francisco. It was an excellent time to explore the city. On Saturday, we headed to Baker Beach, on the west side of the peninsula. This beach has the best views of the Golden Gate Bridge. The water was a really cool teal color and the sand was unexpectedly clean for a public city beach. There are also these infamous sand steps that go up the hill from the beach that are an intense workout to climb. There's just one thing wrong about this beach... that it has the option for nudity. We were strolling along, taking in the scenery, and all the sudden ended up at the end of the beach where all the old men sun naked. And they love to stroll around and let it all hang out.... ooooh the views at Baker Beach...

After Baker Beach we hiked the hills a bit, then headed over to walk the Golden Gate Bridge. On the bridge you get the most amazing view of the city. I was a little anxious on the bridge. I hate heights and the bridge is super high up, plus its gets extremely windy. Now, to preface this next story, my boyfriend likes to affectionately call me "a bull in a china shop." There are times in life when I lack a certain amount of grace and tend to crash into and break things. So, we're strolling along the bridge and I bump into a tourist, who is holding her camera up to take a picture. The camera, in slow motion, flies out of her hand, over the rail, and into the bay below. So, she's pissed, I feel horrible. I wrote her a check to cover the cost of her camera, making this probably one of the most expensive strolls ever taken across the Golden Gate Bridge.

I'm baaaaack!

Hello Green Eggs & Glam readers, have you missed me while I was gone? I'm officially in San Francisco now! It feels sooooo good to be back online. For my first post back, I'm going to give a run-down of our food on the road while summarizing our roadtrip out here. We left Minneapolis last Sunday and spent our first night in Kearney, Nebraska. Not an exciting drive or exciting place. The drive through Southern Minnesota, Iowa, and Nebraska is pretty boring. All the scenery is flat farmlands. And before everything blooms in the spring, its quite brown and depressing. Our dinner in Kearney was Culver's, my boyfriend's favorite fast food restaurant that isn't on the West Coast. This looked like the last stop for Culvers!

Stop two was in Denver, Colorado to visit my best friend. The drive from Nebraska to Denver is still pretty flat and boring. The mountains aren't until after Denver. The road highlight from this day was all the signs warning, "Correctional facility ahead. Do not pick up hitchhikers." We had a hotel in Aurora, a suburb right next to Denver. That night we went for amazing sushi at a place downtown by Invesco Field, Sushi Sasa. I love the sushi places where you order off a check-list that you can just give to the server. The sake and wine was pretty good too.... 

After leaving Denver, we started our drive through the mountains, which was slightly trecherous, but gorgeous! The mountains continued into Utah. It's amazing how many colors mountains can be. Utah is a spectacular drive, with the mountains and the canyons. But most of the freeway is through national parks, so make sure you know how far it is to the next town. Sometimes there won't be a gas/food/hotel stop for 120 miles! We stayed in Salina, Utah. Small, boring. We ate at some Mexican restaurant, which wasn't very Mexican at all.

Day four we dipped down to Las Vegas, Nevada to visit one of my old college roommates. She took us out on the strip. There's nothing more amusing than being able to wander around the streets with a drink in hand. We went to a Mexican restaurant, Dos Caminos in the Palazzo, for dinner. The margaritas, guacamole, and pulled pork were delicious! Her house is in Henderson, so for brunch the next morning went to M casino and spa and ate at Hash House A Go Go. My boyfriend loved it because their portions are gigantic.

Day five we arrived in California. We spent the night in some small orange growing town I don't even know the name of. And of course now that we were on the West Coast, dinner had to be at In N' Out Burger! I love their burgers, although honestly, the fries are not so spectacular. 

We left early the next morning and arrived in San Francisco! 2,200 miles of road in 6 days with two crazy cats in a 1998 Mazda Milenia. A trip to always remember....

Green Eggs & Glam is going West Coast

I'm moving to San Francisco in three weeks! The man, the kitties, and I are packing up and driving out there. But don't worry, Green Eggs & Glam will continue from the West Coast. Be prepared for restaurant and food reviews of my new city. I hope they like sparkly things out there....