VinDivine - Living it Up John & Janine Style

Mangarosa - North Beach

Our friend Loren took us here one night. He squeezed us in between his dating frenzy and his Arabic class. C'mon Loren, do you need to be ANY smarter?

Anyhoo, while he's frolicking in Iceland and Norway we're in sunny Tahoe blogging away about what? Good Italian-Brazilian grub....huh?

This place is RIGHT next to one of our favorite bars Tony Niks. So we walk in and belly up to the bar and look at the drink menu. "The best margarita" is what they tout! NO WAY. How do you do that? Being the experts we are we ordered up a round and while they don't get those exact kudos, they do brew up a decent one.

We decided to stay up at the bar to eat and glad we did. For starters, Loren orders up the cheese bread. Cheese bread? Hmmmm. No hmmm's about it this stuff ROCKS. They deep fry these dough balls and inject them with cheese. So what if they lodge themselves in your arteries? They Taste Good. Continuing the Heart Health theme, we also ordered up some yucca fries, which I thought were going to be weird but we gobbled them up. Not Enough Carbs Yet! So we went in for the pastries, which are to die for: 6 of them in all, 2 cheese, 2 chicken and 2 beef...trifecta! Then we finished up with the steak which I know everyone says is the bomb, trust everyone, it is. Rare, as usual.

Everyone here seems real nice and they even have valet parking (woo hoo!). Of course we finished up the night with too many 'tinis at Tony Niks. An awesome night! Taxi!

Mangarosa
548 Stockton St
San Francisco, CA 94133

Rosewood Bar - North Beach

This bar is G-R-E-A-T! It really gets going in the later hours. Bartenders are awesome and the place is MOD. A great place to add to your bar crawl or end up from. It's about 2 blocks off the main drag of the hustle and bustle of North Beach so much so that you say to your drunken friends, "Are you sure we're going to the right place?"

Small dance floor in the back and a nice patio outdoors for you smokers to enjoy. How come the smokers get all the cool outdoor places?

Janine had her company holiday party there, awesome place to rent out for one. Hoo boy, this is a pretty good recollection of the place since everyone got their drink and dance on THAT night.

Ask for Jon Gasparini, owner. Awesome guy and a friend of ours. He also partly owns A16 and Romolo, wow, trifecta success!

Rosewood Bar
732 Broadway
San Francisco, 94133
(415) 951-4886

Bubble Lounge - North Beach

What could be better than bubbles? LOTS O' BUBBLES! This champagne bar takes the bubble. Bubblicious? Puddles of Bubbles? Yes, yes and yes. Dress HOT (no shorts and tees here chic people), get past the doorman, grab an oversized couch or chair with your posse or date, order up your $20+ glass o' bubbly and start sippin' not trippin' cuz this place packs 'em in.

You can get some CRAZY champagne in this place by the glass! Gosset, Taittinger, Krug all great vintages. They even have MORE THAN ONE choice of rosé! How extravagant!

You may need to grease the palms of the hostess to grab your space but hell, who cares when you're ponying up BUCKS for the glass.

Oh and if it's dinner you're cravin' fuggetaboutit. You want cheese, sushi rolls, foie gras, or shrimp? NP. Anything other than that go to Bix, Myth, or Bocadillos next door.

John had his 40th bday party downstairs and they do it up right. Great space, great catering and you're sure to leave with a killer buzz, I think we ended up dancing at the Comet Club all night afterwards - THAT'S how much we had to drink:-)

Bubble Lounge
714 Montgomery St.
San Francisco, CA 94111
415-434-4204

Tony Niks - North Beach

This is a BAR people, no food in here unless you count Liquid Lunch. And it's a damn good one, these 'mixologists' make some of the best sidecars and lemon drops and purple hooters you'll ever have. The Manhattans look pretty serious too.They know their stuff. Go RETRO here folks, they sure do. It's like stepping back into the 50s, (and it looks like some of the folks sitting at the bar showed up on opening day and never left!). It's got a low lit deco decor, you can hide out in the back seats and no one will know you're there. Watch out though the low lites and music can overtake your mood and you never know who has a camera around ;-)

It's small and very cozy. Go later in the evening when you want to put a cap on ya nite. We went with our friends Josh and Julia after a party, woo, what an end to a great night.

Stockton - cross is Union. No valet, but eat at Citizen Thai down the street first. Park at Romolo. Afterward, stumble over to Golden Boy Pizza around the corner for some soakage. And then, call a taxi;)

Tony Niks
1534 Stockton St
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 693-0990

 

Citizen Thai and The Monkey

This ain't no take out Thai my friend, no way. This place is great. It's got a few floors to it and frankly we've never been off of the bottom floor and we love it. In the heart of North Beach where the ole' Basta Pasta was, it's upscale Thai Restaurant and the people that work there rock. Our friend Loren introduced us to it and we're HOOKED.

Side note - It's actually TWO restaurants, "Citizen Thai" is "supposedly" a different place than "The Monkey" which is why you see two different menus. WHY you ask? Some idiotic planning rule that says in North Beach you can't have a big place.

Anyhoo, The Monkey menu is basically a noodle menu, the menu you want is the Citizen menu. Start ordering almost everything on this menu. Crying Tiger salad made us freakin weep with joy, Bags of Gold Chicken and Prawn in rice paper, are awesome. Note for couples: There are 5, make sure you split the last one or your chick will kick your ass for it. Oh, and you can't leave without ordering the Chicken Pumpkin curry, it actually comes IN a pumpkin!

We had some specialty cocktails too, try the watermelon mojito, or the red monkey...refreshinnnnnn. The wine list rocks for a Thai place, Gruner Veltliner by the glass or half bottle of Murphy Goode Fume Blanc.

No valet, but a secret, there is parking on Romolo behind the Romolo bar, but you have to be ok with driving your car up a 90 degree angle. Oh and don't tell too many people, that's OUR parking secret.

After dinner you can walk over to Romolo, Tony Niks, or the Rosewood and get your bomb on!

Citizen Thai and The Monkey
1268 Grant St.
San Francisco, CA 94133
(415) 364-0008