Milly Sleeping

How to spend one day in San Fran! 

If you find yourself in San Fran for one day as I did, please see a list of my favorite SF things, just able to be crammed into one day and one night! We spent most of our time in and around the Mission, which is the Mexican neighbourhood.

Coffee at Phil's Espresso, brewed “One Cup at A Time” as their banner proudly announces!

Vietnamese lunch special from Sunflower on 16th (have the tofu special – AMAYYYZING!)

A walk through The Mission...

.. Walk back via the secret garden at Wild Side West Bar and quench your thirst – Bernal Hill is big! The garden, and the whole place actually, is adorably ramshackle.

Back to the Mission to Attic for Magarita Happy Hour – I think they were $3!

[Afterwards], Mexican Vegan Dinner at Gracias Madre (by the Café Gratitude people – who were a pioneer of the vegan and raw movement – and who run their business on the following principles: Love, Acceptance, Generosity, Worth, Gratitude, Creation, Responsibility. Check out their website because their philosophies are really akin to Kuwaii’s. Gracias Madre is their newish place on Valencia St and it was just amazing.

DJ Purple at Jacks Bar (one Thursday a month) This is the most crazy Karaoke I’ve ever witnessed. Picture a large bar, everyone dancing like mad, hands in the air. DJ Purple somehow manages to make everyone sound perfect and also is an incredible sax player – performing the most awesome sax solos in everyone’s songs. Quite the experience and if you can time your visit to SF for the Thursday that it’s on, you won’t be disappointed.

[On to] Lone Palm – another cute bar in the Mission ...

... And very very late night burritos at Il Farolito – best late night fodder one is likely to find, anywhere!

NYC

We stumbled upon Sol Lewitt sculptures in a park while heading to our favorite Vegan Dim Sum (“Vegetarian Dim Sum House") on Pell Street in Chinatown.

I’ve been mesmerised by Sol Lewitt since seeing his drawings at the DIA Beacon last year. These sculptures were so beautiful ...

... and we read about his methodology too ...

Yonah Schimmels Knishes has to be the most authentic place, est 1910! I love it! There’s so much to see in the Lower East Side but this is a must-do.

Marlow and Sons is under the Williamsburg Bridge and here you can see some Kuwaii shoes dancing on Kellie (Architecture in Helskinki’s) feet when we met up with the band for a drink! Kellie and I had an amazing Italian dinner at Bar Toto in Park Slope earlier.

My birthday!

Brunch at Five Leaves, The Alexander McQueen Exhibition at the Met ...

... pretzels on the street then $5 dirty martinis during happy hour at Five Points.

Architecture in Helsinki played at Webster Hall on my birthday, it was such an amazing show; full of energy and so much love. The crowd was huge and loved it, and I got an amazing Happy Birthday shout out! Post the show, we had drinks at wine bar Von... which happened to have an amazing dance floor/party in the basement!

A stalwart: the Oyster Bar in Grand Central Station. Whisper to your pal in the “whispering hall” out the front – you stand in one corner, your friend in another, you can whisper into the corner, and through some trick of acoustics the whisper is heard by your friend loud and clear.

Also head into the bar to soak up the ambience, even though I don’t eat meat, I always take a visit to the Oyster bar, it’s semi faded glamour really sums up NY.

Panna 1 or Panna 2 indian restaurant in the Lower East Side is quite incredible for their interior concept – which is as many brightly lit fairly lights hanging from the ceiling as you could possibly hang. This picture is just a small snippet!

You actually have to duck under the lights. Tell them it’s your birthday for a fun surprise.

Head out into deepish Brooklyn for one of the most memorable pizza experiences ever at Di Fara. Dom DeMarco makes each pizza himself, and has done ever since 1964! 1964!!!!!!! It’s one of the last coal-oven pizzerias (they’re actually illegal now so the only pizzeria’s you’ll find using coal ovens are ones with a very long history.

You will wait for hours here for your pizza, but it’s worth the wait if not just for the experience. The pizza will blow your mind. I would recommend getting a whole pie because after you’ve waited an hour you’ll have really built up an appetite! Waiting though is not such a chore as you’ll be amazed to watch Mr DeMarco make each and every pie in front of you.

Make a trip to the New York Public Library and do the tour, our guide was incredibly entertaining, and very Upper East Side New York.

They had a really interested exhibition on about the history of the Library and of New York, it’s all free too (including the tour) so highly recommended for on-a-shoe-string touring. Did you know (apart from that the NYPL was the setting for THAT scary scene in Ghostbusters) that it’s built upon a massive underground lair housing all of its 1 million tomes?

 The American Folk Art Museum is a MUST SEE. It’s a small bite sized museum – such a rarity in a city where big is better – this is a manageable chunk of outsider and folk art from the 18th & 19th centuries. Many of the items are junk-art or from self-taught artists and I love that it shows this kind of art as an element in the cultural fabric of the USA and it’s a very interesting museum. The Museum itself has had a history fraught with financial strain and it seems like it might be closing down, so hurry! We saw the Quilts – Masterwork exhibition…

Spend a day at Coney Island for sure! Go on the Cyclone ...

I still can’t believe this all wood rollercoaster was built in 1929. It. Is. So. Scary. But very highly recommended! After, go to Totono’s – another Ramones hang out and generally amazing pizzeria which burnt down and has only recently re-opened, as original as ever.

Don’t come for the service, but do go for the white pie!