• 20Mar

    Grove Cafe 121 270x480 Grove Café Downtown

    This tiny San Francisco chain is a great spot for so many things. This is their newest location and convenient to most all parts of downtown (and my loft … yea). Mission and 3rd is a popular corner – Peet’s Coffee, St. Regis Hotel and Yerba Buena Gardens/Park are the well known corners.The SF Moma is 1/2 block away and it’s only 1 block south of Market.

    They’re opened for breakfast, lunch and dinner and offer specialties, like Eggs Florentine, lasagna, chicken pot pie, plus a variety of salads, soup, cookies, beer and wine. There’s more, but you get the idea. AND, they also have FREE WIRELESS (with purchase … you get 30 minutes for each $5 purchase … it’s fair and they’re not stingy about it, which is great).

    They really are anxious to please. The young staff smiles a lot and act like they care, which I find very refreshing.

    The only thing I didn’t care for was the choices of music and sometimes the volume, but we’ll see how it goes. Hard rock isn’t my favorite, but I’m hoping it changes throughout the day. (I may need to get chat with the owner because my partner and I own a music licensing company and we also do music for restaurants, hotels and shops. And to help owners afford the service, we’re offering barter for the rest of this year! That service is: MixtEmotions. Check it out and if you know any  business owners who want to make sure their music handled professionally … and actually brings in customers, and makes them want to stay and spend money … have them contact us.)

    Grove Cafe 021 640x360 Grove Café Downtown

    Grove Cafe 091 640x360 Grove Café Downtown

    Grove Cafe 141 640x360 Grove Café Downtown


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  • 14Mar

    This little Mexican restaurant is a little gem. It’s so reminiscent of places you’ll see in Mexico and the food is definitely authentic. Weekend breakfast is one of my favorites there, but it’s all good. If you go outside, you can peek in the window near the back where there are usually one or two people making fresh corn tortillas. YUM!!! This is a bonus that keeps the food fresh and tasty.

    Prices are good and you can even sit outside and watch the ferries come and go. AND, you can see by the photo of the guys prepping food that they really enjoy working there!

    For more info about Mijita

    Mijita 14 300x168 Mijita Cocina Mexicana

    Mijita 05 300x168 Mijita Cocina Mexicana

    Mijita 20 300x168 Mijita Cocina Mexicana

    Mijita 02 300x168 Mijita Cocina Mexicana


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  • 13Jan

    The Starwood chain operates the W Hotels internationally and clearly it’s my favorite. (There’s another favorite, Leading Hotels, but they’re prices are a little stiff for my regular hotel diet.) The W chain seems to fit with my lifestyle. I enjoy simple style, good music and art, clean comfy rooms, a hip vibe that’s never pretentious or formal, great service, employees who seem real, and generally a company that’s dedicated to giving guests whatever they want, whenever they want it. They even have a button on the phones for Whatever Whenever. The concierges are anxious to help you figure out what you want to do or have. I can’t say enough good things about them. Oh, and they have free wireless Internet in the lobby, which they refer to as The Living Room. This is always one service that gets my attention. It’s a great place to hang out and people watch. We’ve seen a lot of celebrities there over the years too. Not a great reason to stay there, but it is fun to spot people from time-to-time. Alec Mapa – Ugly Betty, Sandra Bernhard-comedian, James Gosling-inventor of Java … to name a few … a real variety.

    I live 2 blocks from the one here in San Francisco and several years ago, we had a rogue fire sprinkler decide to blow and flooded our loft. We had to move out for a month and a half and lived at the W during that time. We got to know most of the people there and fell in love with the whole way they do business. We’ve since used the W chain whenever we can, when we travel. Starwood also has a great points system that can be used for rooms, air travel, food or even cash at the hotel. They’re not the cheapest chain, but they’re not the most expensive either. For me, they’re just right. For more info about the W Hotel: Click Here.

    Front entrance to the Lobby, which they call The Living Room.

    Front entrance to the Lobby, which they call The Living Room.

    YBL Flood Damage and Hotel W - 3

    Bath

    Bath

    Downtown View

    Downtown View

    Concierge and view to side entrance for check in.

    Concierge and view to side entrance for check in.

    The Dining Room - my favorite breakfast spot in the city.

    The Dining Room - my favorite breakfast spot in the city.

    Another angle of the dining room.

    Another angle of the dining room.


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