St. Francis on Camelback

I really love this restaurant. Not only the food, I am talking equally about the building. When I saw it being redone from an attempted office building I was very curious. Someone had great vision and made it all come together. It is a modern yet rustic feel making a very fun and different kind of place. The smell really takes me back to my restaurant days. In my book -the best smell in the world! A sort of smokey, wood burning, garlic-ey great smell. And I love the airy, open feel. I think its a genius yet simple feat for any restaurant to take advantage of our amazing winter weather evenings. When you are sitting inside it feels like you are outside because of the giant bar door/window that opens up an entire side of the building right at the bar, so that it is accessible also from the outside. The reclaimed wood that decorates the walls, the floor, and the ceiling combined make it just a great place to hang out. On many a night you will find that nights game, Julia Child, or whatever they are playing that night flashed up on the wall in huge projection.

Now lets talk about the food.

I ordered the wood fired flat bread which I was very happy with. It was good. The crust was very nice. And the Fig, arugula and cheese on top was perfect.

And then there is the Ahi sandwich. I give this dish 3 thumbs up and 5 stars. You just sink your teeth into this meaty patty that is perfectly seared on both sides but is melt in your mouth tender on the inside. Id say at this moment, this is my favorite eat out dish. Of course its seasonal so unfortunately, or I could look on the bright side and say fortunately I will have to try another tasty seasonal dish on my next visit.


Reviews
I have been reading a lot of reviews about this place online, at urbanspoon, and at other sites. There seems to be a theme leaning toward the negative as regards the service. Not just some, but it looks as if most people writing reviews had a bad experience (although those who had a good experience may not have written anything, as it is much more motivating to write about a bad experience-but its there nonetheless). There are only a very few complaints about the food, and those are not even very bad, things like "to expensive for what you get" or "not that great" (of course I disagree with those, but who knows, maybe the Chef was out that day) which are fairly mild and could be due to a bad day. But the service! This is upsetting to me for a few reasons. One of them is that I have been recommending this place to several people, and to you readers. How embarrassing to have someone go because I said it was great and then they are treated terribly. I hope they are doing something to fix this problem, and yes, it is a problem. I myself did not experience bad service. I did get the wrong wine, and charged for the wrong wine, but when I addressed it, she apologized, it was fixed, and they ended up comp-ing the wine altogether. That to me is good service.
I believe in letting managers and servers know on the spot what the problem is. It gives them an opportunity to fix it, and that is what really lets them know how they are doing.

Two Hippies: Pizza, Breakfast Joint, Beach House

Two Hippies. Its Simple. You either hate it or love it. I myself love the T.H. Beach House. The tacos and burritos are a great value. Lots of fresh food and I love that they put so much care into the ingredients. He tries to use as many earth friendly, organic ingredients as he can.

The Pizza place went in a few months back. The long title is "Two Hippies Dropped out of College and Opened up a Pizzeria". I know there were sceptics out there. And why not with items such as the "PB&J + Banana" Pizza, the Chinese Pizza, the Reuben Pizza, or the Cheeseburger Pizza. Dont let that scare you away, Im sure they are actually pretty tasty. But there are also the mainstream choices such as Pepperoni, Cheese, a Greek pizza (which is really good), and my favorite, the Mexican Pizza. It is loaded with toppings and ever so tasty.

The Mexican Pizza...YUM!

And I cannot foget to mention the Breakfast Joint that just opened up on 7th Avenue in Melrose between Indian School and Campbell. It is a great concept. I must say though I was not impressed with the Vegan Shake, or the Potatoes they use in the breakfast bowls. The Bowls are $6 and its a build your own bowl. You choose the ingredients that go into it. Mine, without eggs, was pretty dry. But huge. My daughter had the works in her breakfast bowl with eggs and it looked so much better. Next time I will have to go with the eggs!

Breakfast Joint Photos

Pizzeria Bianco

I am very excited. A friend actually got reservations for tonight and, as usual, I have been dreaming of pizza ever since (well...actually, even prior to the reservations I was dreaming about brick oven pizza.) I have heard some nasty little rumors that Chris Bianco will be stepping out of the kitchen due to allergies from the flour. Oh how sad. I remember going to FATE after Johnny Chu had stopped cooking and was so disappointed. But I am sure Chris has got it covered. Stay tuned....I will report back after tonight!

Well, I can tell you I was not disappointed. Of course, we had a reservation for 6:30 and when we showed up they were running behind. So we waited for another 30 min. at Bar Bianco next door chatting and sipping on our wine. It was fine, but my goodness, we had a reservation. Is anyone else ever put off by the hype of this place? Okay, I guess I don’t really mind. It really is a fun night out when you are with friends. But I hadn’t eaten a bite since lunch and I was starving since 4. However, I couldn’t stop thinking about pizza, and didn’t want to spoil my appetite, so I held out.

Finally our table is ready!

We ordered our appetizers and pizzas. We shared a green salad with vinaigrette. It was a very simple salad, but also very tasty. The greens were just so fresh and there were a few flavorful olives to top it off. If you are a prosciutto lover, I would suggest the Fontina cheese wrapped in prosciutto on top of greens. WOW that is Amazing. The Antipasto is small, but every little morsel on the plate is just so delicious. Very well thought out, perfectly cooked and seasoned.

As you read earlier I had my concerns over the pizza. I was afraid of disappointment because I have been dreaming of this for so long… Perfect, warm, soft crust, topped with flavorful tomato sauce, salty prosciutto, and fresh arugula.

The Margarita with Prosciutto and Arugula

WISEGUY

Well the verdict is in.

I loved every bite! The crust was amazing. The generous amount of thin, salty prosciutto draped over the top of the pizza was so heavenly. The arugula so fresh. It was just as good, if not better than ever. It could be the fact that I was starving. But, holding out for this great pie was well worth it.

At times I wonder.. Does food make everyone this happy? Or just me?

Americas Taco Shop

It finally opened! Americas Taco Shop on 7th Avenue. We, of course, have been to the 7th Street shop, but this is nice and close. Seeing one restaurant right after another try their hand at making a success of a restaurant at this little corner house was painful. In the last 4 years we've seen a pizza place, a Thai place, an overpriced African food place. But I am so glad to see this place, an already established success, go in. This is the perfect spot. Busy corner, great price, and deliciously great food! Welcome to the neighborhood! And I must say that I’m so glad to live in a neighborhood that houses places like Two Hippies, Postino, DaVang, Maize’s, Lola’s, St. Frances and Americas Taco Shop. I don’t feel that these places even threaten each other but are an asset to each other. We live in….."The Independant Restaurant District".

(my half eaten burrito...because I forgot to snap a shot prior to chowing down)

We all pretty much got the same thing. Our own variations of the bean and cheese burrito. Mine was the bean and cheese burrito with guac and pico. I was dreaming about it for the next few days.

 My husband cant stay away from the small $3 bottle of Coke. Yes, it is imported from Mexico (its only one country away). Okay, okay, I end up downing half of it. It is much tastier than the US made corn Syrup-ey Coke.

One thing I was excited about is that they have corn. Yes, corn-on-the-cob with all the fixin’s. Cheese, lime, chili. On my last visit, I did get the corn. It could use some improvement, and I wont get it again until then. Its almost like they blandly boil it, no salt, and serve it luke warm, so its kinda cool, mushy corn. All of us got the corn and were disappointed at the temperature it was served. Please...throw those suckers on the grill with some salt and pepper, and THEN add the shmears! But, overall, it was great nonetheless. It is most definitely worth a stop.
Americas Taco Shop
SE Corner of 7th Avenue and Campbell.

Update 2/19/10
They have just added outside seating to the 7th Ave Restaurant. What a nice place to sit. The owner says he is still working on the outside patio. Sounds like it will be similar to the 7th Street store.