Mitchell's Icecream

Good friends introduced me to this place and consequently made me addicted to the grasshopper pie flavour. Mint, caramel and chocolate chunks! What's not to like? But really, all of their flavours are yummy. Pictured above are the Macapuno coconut, the Mexican chocolate and the Halo-Halo, all crazy good.


Mitchell's icecream
688 San Jose Avenue
San Francisco

Ritual Roasters

When your dad's in town...





...you'll bring him to Ritual Roasters, where he'll order a strong macchiato for himself and an iced coffee for your mom.




As for me; I’m not a coffee drinker but every once in a while I’ll drink a latte from Ritual; it’s mild, thick and foamy, and it always comes with either a heart or a leave ’on top’. There’s usually a bunch of hipsters here (which isn’t really a bad thing in my opinion), lots of computers and a great atmosphere.
All in all, a great place to bring your coffee hungry dad on a sunny afternoon.


Ritual Roasters
1026 Valencia Street
San Francisco

Paxton Gate

When your dad's in town...



...you'll bring him to Paxton Gate because you know he'll appreciate all the quirkiness and cool interior design.





This store is one of my favourite places to bring visitors as there's a lot of taxidermy craziness going on in this store. Everything from the penis of a mink to mice dressed up in costumes is here, as well as plant terrariums, fossils, books and plants. It's heaven for lovers of skeletons and other oddities.

Paxton Gate
824 Valencia Street
San Francisco

The Pirate Supply store/ 824 Valencia

When your dad's in town...




...you'll bring him to the Pirate Supply Store. Were he, like you, will be confused and then delighted by the quirkiness on this place. It's like stepping right onto a pirate ship.

The Pirate Store doesn't look or feel like a store. And finding things to buy is sort of like a treasure hunt which, I think, is appropriate in a pirate store. My favourite part is the wall of drawers where I've spent a fair amount of time opening drawers and finding feathers, glass eyes, pirate maps and belt buckles, to name just a few.

But the very best thing about this place is that it's a volunteer organization, a tutoring center, that support children developing their writing skills.

The Pirate Store/826 Valencia
826 Valencia St
San Francisco

Dynamo Donuts

We did a quick pit stop at Dynamo Donuts a couple of weeks ago. David had the Chocolate Rose and I tried the Vanilla Bean, they were both delicious; not too sweet or sticky as I find that so many donuts are. The Lemon Thyme and Chocolate Star Anise are on my list for our next pit stop.

Dynamo Donuts
2760 24th St.
San Francisco

Pizzeria Delfina

When your mom's in town...

...you'll take her out for pizza, and you'll both agree that this pizza is the second best you've ever tasted. In fact the only pizza to beat this margherita is made by the Italian mom of your old exchange student and so, this was a pretty amazing pizza.

Pizzeria Delfina
2406 California St
 San Francisco

or

3611 18th St
San Francisco

Mission Minis

When your mom's in town...





...you have to bring her to Mission Minis because if there's anything better than cupcakes, it's cupcakes in miniature sizes.





Mission Minis
3168 22nd St
San Francisco

Four Barrel Coffee

This place makes a really good latte but, according to my dad, their regular coffee isn't anything special.  And really, you guys should listen to him because I'm not a coffee drinker at all and I only just recently started drinking a latte here and there. But if you're in the area you should definitely check this coffee shop out. It smells delicious of coffee (they have their own coffee roaster in the back of the store) and the interior design is pretty awesome.

Also, make sure to check out the cool shops, like Voyager and Taylor Stitch, that are in the same block as this coffee shop.

Four Barrel Coffee

375 Valencia St

San Francisco

Mission Week: Let me take you for a walk down Valencia Street

Starting by the Roxie Theater. Cool spot. Indie movies.

Walking down Valencia St

My favourite thriftstore; not too big, not too small -and well organized.
 Community Thrift Store. 623 Valencia St.

Check out the graffiti in the alley next to Community Thrift.









Sights on Valencia St.





Turn right when you hit 18th St and walk half a block. Then check out the murals on The Women's Building.









More sights on Valencia St.



Make sure to check out the different side streets too.
One last mural and we're done.

Note: My favourite part of Valencia Street is the stretch between 14th St and 24th street. Four Barrel Coffee is located here as well as The Pirate Store, Paxton Gate and Ritual.