Tiffany S.'s Profile

After hearing so much about it, I was totally excited to find out that Phat Philly was open late enough to deal with the fact that my husband was getting home late from a tour. Unfortunately, things went a teeny bit south, so we'll have to try it again. That being said, we did pick up take out and then try to open it up once we were at home! Which is totally a n00b move.

However, we knew that and to be honest, everything was delicious enough to check this place out again! I love the different veggie friendly options (I had the seitan and it was better than any seitan I have tried before from a restaurant) and the boy in the house was more than happy with the portion size. Plus, those peppers? They were the icing on the, albeit rapidly cooling and congealing, sandwich. That being said, assuming that I needed "extra cheese" was totally my bad.

For now we'll put the take away on hold and check out Phat Philly's in the now and I'll make sure to tell you all how it went!

The Tiffany Scale:
Impact on Wallet: 4 of 5                       Impact on Soul: 3 of 5
Impact on Stomach: 3 of 5                  Overall: 10 of 15

Scott's pizza tour was fantastic. I like pizza a lot and I fancied I knew plenty - but that is nothing compared to Scott. To call him "passionate" or "nerdy" is very much an understatement. The man carries around some sort of laser-sight thermometer thing to test the temperature of pizzas as they come out of the oven! When we were standing outside of John's on Bleeker street, he had trouble describing the coal that they use - so he threw up the sidewalk grate, climbed down into the basement, and brought back a few lumps to illustrate his point!

As a California native, I never really understood what the big deal was about New York pizza until I took this tour and tried the coal-oven pies at Lombardi's and John's. Thank you, Scott!

I have to open with an admission - you don't get a rider more biased than me, being the wifey of the tour driver Eric S. who was giving the tour I recently took. So, I'll let the rest of my fellow Yelpers judge Eric's tour skills for themselves, even though I believe that you'll feel the same way that I did when I met him (he's pretty awesome!)

My five star review is hopefully biased free, as I believe it's more about the experience itself, rather than the specific driver we had. The tour we went on today consisted of seven locals and only two tourists and everyone mentioned that they learned at least one thing new! We had a great time in the Yellowstone car that they had, honking and waving as we toured the city and explored everything from Chinatown alleys, painted ladies (of the Victorian variety) and the foggy breathtaking view of the bridge from Fort Point. I would definitely recommend Mr.Toad's Tours to everyone who has friends coming in to town and wants to avoid sitting through questions like - "how do cable cars work?" Because honestly? I have no idea! I'd rather leave it to the pro's and just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Plus, in addition to having a lot of different tour times/lengths, they're a local family owned business with eco-friendly cars. There are a lot of options for touring around the city based on Pier 39, but as far as I know this is the only one operating really cool vintage cars. And, if that isn't enough to convince you to give Mr. Toad's Tours a try, then I'm not sure what is! It definitely can cold and windy, so I'd recommend a warm coat and at least gloves if you're sensitive to the chilly fog air.

Most sane people choose to hire someone to do their wedding invitations for them. We on the other hand, decided to purchase a silkscreen machine and do them on our own. This would have been an easy venture if we had any experience at all in silkscreening or wedding invitations, which unfortunately we didn't.

Luckily for us, the staff at Flax is knowledgeable about all things ink and paper. We found the right shade of paper, at the right price, and were able to order it in bulk. They even offered us a student discount! That's not something any stationary store is able to do. (Students and teachers can show their IDs to receive a 10% discount on everything, not just paper!) When we were having difficulties with our silk screening, we were able to bring in our silk screen and failed prints and one of the managers helped us troubleshoot our issues. He advised us on the different types of inks and explained the pro's and con's of each, keeping their price and our budget in mind. We were even able to find coordinating envelopes and fancy cutting scissors here that helped pull our project together.

We can't wait to go back for projects non-wedding related and am excited to have found such a fun and knowledgeable staff to help me in my adventures. We may have worried about how homemade invitations would be received, but thanks to the staff at Flax, our invitations were works of DIY art. If you've decided to do it yourself, you can take comfort in the fact that with the staff of Flax behind you, you're not completely on your own!

There isn't much to say about chair rentals, other than they were local and arrived on time. What more can we say to convince you to consider this local small shop before the bigger peninsula outfits? If you're looking for inexpensive, no nonsense chairs or tables for events, Mom, Son & Daughter's are a great option.

We're a non-denominational couple so we had a lot of options for picking a venue - so many that it was hard to make a decision! Fortunately a little park near our house had just been renovated and the 100-year-old conservatory on the property had been rebuilt, so we had the perfect wedding location for us and it was right around the corner!

The conservatory once housed the rare plant collection of a large estate, and it has been renovated to exceed it's former glory. It's a little-known San Francisco landmark with as much character as other city sites like the Shakespeare Garden, and a unique charm. The interior is paneled in redwood, tall windows capture loads of sunlight (which can be scarce in the neighborhood.), and pristine grounds are anchored by giant palm trees. There are even playful little bronze statues sprinkled through the site. The space easily fit our 65 guests and everyone commented on the beauty of the space.

One thing we were worried about was parking, since the site does not include any and it is in a  residential neighborhood. But our guests that drove had no problems finding a space and some even walked from the nearby BART station. Another disadvantage is the fact that the space is entirely blank (there are no chairs, tables, or other accouterments) but for our purposes it was easy to rent what we needed, and the beauty of the space speaks for itself. Amanda Lee at the Park and Rec Department was a pleasure to work with and was available for everything we needed.

We drive or walk past Lelenita's every week, yet we'd never been in until we started thinking about wedding cakes. We set up our tasting appointment and it became rapidly apparent that while we had never spent much time thinking about cakes, these people certainly had. Elmer was extremely helpful in showing us pictures and asking questions about our wedding theme and style. His suggestions helped us figure out what we wanted our cake to look like, and then it was all just a matter of taste. We tasted many cakes that day, but now only two of them stand out as truly exceptional. The tres leches, which in the end was the cake we choose, mostly because it's more wedding like, and the guava cake. All of the cakes were perfectly balanced, yet it was the perfection of these two cakes that guarantee that we will be coming back for years to come. At the wedding, everyone complimented the cake both in presentation and in taste and we're looking forward to enjoying our top portion in a year!

The one cautionary word of advice that we have is that English is not the primarily language spoken in the neighborhood or the store. We were able to navigate the language differences with a little bit of luck, some negotiable Spanish and a lot of patience. In the end, the cake was completely worth it for us, but we recognize that it wouldn't be for everyone. If you call their bakery, you can ask to speak with Elmer, who helped us and is very fluent in English and Spanish.

If I learned anything in the course of planning our wedding, it was that something can always go wrong. In our case, it was finding out a week before the big day that our custom jewelry wouldn't make it on time. After the freaking out, the screaming and the crying, we knew it was back to the drawing board to make some decisions quickly. We knew we didn't want to go the tried and true plain bands from Kay Jewelers but we were also on a budget and couldn't afford to kidnap any custom jewelers and force them to craft our bands from scratch.

Luckily, a friend of mine had suggested checking out Red Start's safety ring, because she thought I would like the style. When I visited their site and first saw the bone series all I could think to myself was, "is it possible?" We called their office the next day and set up an appointment to meet with Amanda. When she pulled out their rings and had us try them on, explained the different options we had for finishing the sterling silver and said they would be ready the day before the wedding, I remember realizing how incredibly lucky we were to have found these wonderful jewelers just a few blocks away from our house and our venue.

Every time I look at mine or my newly bejeweled husband over the years, I'll remember the women at Red Start and how they helped saved my wedding at the last minute! Whether for the all important wedding bands, everyday jewelry or special occasion custom work, I can wholeheartedly recommend them as jewelers and last minute heroes!

One of the most important decisions a bride makes about her wedding is her dress. How she feels about this purchase seems to vary from person to person, but in my case it was purely overwhelming. My family and I had gone to a wedding expo and received an offer for a discount on a dress at David's Bridal, so after I had recovered from the expo  I made an appointment to look at dresses. My mother and I had been looking at magazines and sizing up the styles we liked, but in reality? I had zero idea about what I wanted in a wedding dress.

I had no intention of buying a dress at my fitting. However, when our consultation adviser brought out the dress I would later wear at my wedding, there was something about the lace and the pearls that felt right. I put it on and came out of the dressing room and stood in front of the mirror. It was then that my mother cautiously asked how much it was. When the adviser smiled slyly we were both terrified. However, she shocked us both when she quoted a price that was roughly $300 below our budget! It turned out that it was the last dress of the style and it simply happened to be in my size. As I stood, looking at the dress from all angles, a young girl came up to me and said "You look like a fairy princess!" It shouldn't be a surprised that I was sold.

I was further impressed by David's Bridal when I came in with my reluctant bridesmaid's a month before the wedding and explained that they'd been hesitant in picking dresses to the point of mouth frothing frustration and we needed dresses that we could leave the store with that night (since they'd waited past the point that we could have things ordered or altered.) Thanks to the knowledge of our adviser and a lot of luck and patience, we were able to get them both into dresses that they loved and looked lovely in for a lot less than they expected to pay. We even managed to coordinate with another wedding that one of my ladies was going to be in, so she only had to buy one dress for both events!

But, above all of this, my strongest recommendation goes to the alteration department. As I mentioned above, the dress had a detailed lace layer and the folks here managed to carefully lift and reapply each of the lace appliques so that the dress could be hemmed. David's Bridal has gotten a difficult wrap in the wedding scene. No, they aren't boutique or unique, but sometimes they are exactly what you need. Their dresses come in a variety of sizes and heights and their alterations are amazing. And, if you're a bride on a budget they will stick to the budget you give them and not try to sell you on things you can't afford. I did have some problems with coordinating my wedding information - they couldn't find me in my system once, despite the fact that they were at that time altering my dress (kind of scary!) But in the long run they always came through and I had no complaints outside of that.

I am really lucky. I have the benefit of being good friends with one of the delightful florists at Emilia's. This is a double win for me, because it means that I get to be friends with someone awesome who also happens to know a whole lot about flowers! Which is exactly what I needed when planning the flowers for my wedding because anyone who knows me knows that I don't know much about flowers other than they look pretty and smell nice.

Jess and the folks at Emilia's took my unclear ideas - a jumble of adjectives and a wrinkled photo from SF Bride and turned them into a work of art. I have never been too good at the small details and probably wasn't that helpful when I said things like "Oh, you know whichever flowers you think are best" or "I don't know, I kind of like the roundy, pointy, purpley yellow ones." However, the ideas some how got communicated because the flowers at the wedding represented everything I had dreamed they would be. Unique, jauntily vibrant and locally inspired.

Whether it's for an everyday pick me up, a lovely hostess gift or a wedding, you can count on the florists at Emilia's to help you make a beautiful statement in a poem of flowers. I completely recommend them for lovers of floral niceties of all kinds!