style roulette: last days in san francisco

Here are the last photos from our trip to San Francisco!

Our last few days were the best part of the trip - we found some new neighborhoods and I saw my friend HILARY from my old university who I hadn't seen in ages and of course THE FOOD...

My cousin and I went to some greasy little sports bar (obesity & enchiladas) to watch the Spain-Germany game one morning, then that night we all went out to a Spanish restaurant called B44 to celebrate. I love love love Spanish food but you don't see too many real Spanish restaurants around. This one was in the French Quarter of SF (gorgeous neighborhood), we sat outside in the patio (from the photo above) and had the best time. If you're ever in SF you must go there! and order paella and watch Spanish TV and eavesdrop on all the beautiful Spanish waiters!

Cultural stuff aside...what I really loved about SF was the hotel. Here's the view from the lounge and the third floor lobby:

One day we drove out to Berkeley for the day to look around and go to our favorite (& only) raw vegan restaurant in town. The lasting image I have of Berkeley is an overweight homeless guy holding a sign that said "Too ugly for porn- NEED MONEY FOR ACTING LESSONS!" This is the kind of town we're talking about. That being said we found some great places walking around and of course there was CAFE GRATITUDE for lunch...

My cousins first discovered this place when one of them, Michael, was deciding whether or not to go to college at Berkeley (Fun fact: they found a bunch of freshly rolled joints in their rental car on that trip). I think it's a pretty fascinating place. First of all your meal starts off with a question like "What are you really learning?" or "Who is your hero or SHEro?" You know, deep thoughts. Then everything on the menu has a name like "I am blessed," "I am gorgeous," etc. Of course I had to order the "I AM FABULOUS" which is actually just raw zucchini covered in cashew cream...be careful what you order in a raw vegan restaurant, friends. That being said I still LOVE this hippie freak restaurant and if you go there get a vanilla-bean smoothie and an ice cream sundae for dessert, it's made of cashews yet somehow tastes good. Or just go to people watch, Berkeley's finest are all there!

Then we drove to Telegraph Ave. and walked around for awhile, I love this street. Here's Shakespeare & Co., one of my favorite used bookstores EVER:

I'm forgetting the name of this café (Café Med maybe?) but APPARENTLY, the latte was invented here. I'm still unconvinced that lattes were invented in a hole-in-the-wall cafe in Berkeley but I'd go back anyway, their coffee rocks.

Back in San Francisco we found another favorite place: the 4-story Levi's store in Union Square, where one floor is completely for customized clothes and there's a jean jacket designed for every single state in the U.S.!

The next day I met up with Hilary, who lives in San Francisco & knows everything about everything. We had lunch at Cha Cha Cha, a fabulous Caribbean place on Haight Street (mmm fried plantain), then scoured all the thrift stores in Haight-Ashbury. Check out the crazy vintage shoes with Tahitian villages carved into the heel! A few days later she left for CHILE where she's spending this semester abroad, and she started a blog too! Check it out:

Chile a la Gringa

Later that afternoon my mom and I walked down Fillmore Street checking out all the little boutiques there. My favorites were Elizabeth Charles, which stocks a lot of designers from Australia and New Zealand (even if all I could afford was a t-shirt from the clearance rack) and they even have a Jigsaw which is even more expensive in the U.S. than it is in London!

We had a lovely vegetarian dinner at The Grove, a cozy little restaurant down the street, and then a frozen yogurt at this amazing new place called Fraiche. How good does this chocolate raspberry one look?

On our last day in SF we saw two of its fine art museums (they came free with our Citypass so we figured we might as well) - they're beautiful! We had lunch at the Legion of Honor museum and walked around, then drove over to the DeYoung before we left for San Jose. By the way the DeYoung has a huge collection of New Guinean art which is great, I've never seen anything like it, worth going just for that collection!