Empiric Does Domino Doing San Francisco

Well, any of you who have taken a few days to get lost up in the hills of San Francisco know that this post is going to be about a bunch of awesomeness. Whataweekend! Thank god I took pictures or I wouldnt know where to begin. I also took my April Domino Magazine with their suggestions - for better or for worse.


The Chancellor Hotel is charming. It is an old hotel and not completely renovated but they had some sassy designer come in and make just enough changes to classify it as modern. I highly recommend it. The oh so of the moment kelly green walls, cloud like bright white duvet, bold patterned valance and van dyke brown wood finished furnishings tied the regency inspired look together. The bottle of champagne and sweet card they left in the room didn't hurt my opinion of them either. Its location was just the icing on the birthday cake. A hop skip and a jump away from pretty much everything we wanted to see and do we were happy with our decision not to rent a car.

Weeeeeeeeeeeee

Our first venture out of the room was down to the Mission, unfortunately sans my Domino (more on that later). Seeing as it was my b-day, I was on vacation and I don't answer to anyone I had decided that I was going to eat and drink my face off. We gorged on tons of food right down the street from the hotel and then hopped on the Bart and headed south to play. Overall good time but because I forgot the mag I also forgot that I needed an ice cream cone from Bi-Rite Creamery. This in addition to the psycho homeless witch who almost hit me in the face with this

made this a good time.. but not a GREAT time.

Dinner on night #1, aka my actual birthday lest we not forget, was to die for. We sat under magical firework lamps and slurped up fanny bay oysters and stiff martinis.... oh shoot. Now I want a martini. Alright, lets get this moving along. Mama's got a date with her cocktail shaker....

Town Hall

Day two we popped up to Aria in North Beach where we purchased some wonderful items, a few of which are visible in the Domino photo of his space. They will be up on our website as soon as we receive them and I will expand on our experience there at another time. Post shopping we had wine and nibbles and slowly made our way to a slew of other stores from the Domino list. Although most of these stores have a similar price point to ours and are therefore not great resources to shop we did get very inspired. In LA I rarely have time to visit our peers so it was truly a unique way skip around and waste the afternoon. Overall a wonderful day complete with a dinner with friends (John & Glen) and later an indoor tropical rainstorm (where I ate second dinner :).

Tonga Room Monsoon


Is a 3ft straw absolutely necessary to drink a scorpion bowl?

Hell Yeah!!!

Less hydrated than when we arrived we woke for another day of furniture shopping fun. Sacramento Street was top of the list and, to be frank, why? Seriously, someone out there lay it down for me because I can't for the life of me figure out why Domino was pushing this neighborhood so hard. Fortunately it is kind of a hike from our humble abode so we got some exercise in. I also photographed oodles of enviable homes and architecture which I will be posting at some point in the near future. We beat it out of there and killed a few minutes in The Musee Mecanique where I was schooled in matters of domestic bliss.....

WOW! Bet you married chicks wish you knew about this sooner?

It is at some point in every non-family vacation that you must come to terms with the fact that all you really want to be doing is drinking. I am in touch with this. Day 3 we partook in some libations and nibbles overlooking the Aquatic Park where men in speedos swam in the bay as if it were 70 degrees and not 55. I don't recommend seeing Gone Baby Gone back in your room post cocktails/pre dinner but what is done is done. Sodini's on Green St however should not be missed!

I will discuss in specifics the rest of the haunts we visited but I think this paints a pretty good picture of our trip. Among the Domino recommended favorites was definitely the Dim Sum restaurant in China Town. We feasted on things we will never know the contents of and were slapped with a whopping $15 dollar tab. Quite possibly the countries last true bargain!

We had one last day cruising Potrero Hill, over eating at Tartine Bakery, visiting fellow furniture dealers we know from LA and purchasing a human spine from Monument which is going to be wildly cool in a small glass dome.

Michael, thank you for;

a) showing enthusiasm about my birthday
b) planning ahead and making it extra special
c) being my side kick for the past 4 years

Heres to at least 4 more!!! I kid, I kid - to a lifetime of birthdays and "business" trips. I love you Darlin'. I could have gone on this trip without my Domino suggestions but I could not have gone without you.

Martini anyone?