Emily J.'s Profile

This event was well worth leaving the house on a Monday evening...and in a dress and heels, no less. We opted to drive in, although Toast is also very BART-able, and found street parking within a block.

Toast really was the perfect classy setting to host such a fancy group of Yelp Elites. I enjoyed sipping on the selection of bubblies and white wines and chatting with Yelp friends, old and new.

Thanks Nique, for being your fabulous Community Manager self and for planning such a lovely party and for the opportunity to donate to Dress for Success. You definitely know how to keep it classy.

Cheers!

We played overnight tourist here while in the city for our friends' wedding reception.

The location of this hotel is great -- steps from public transportation, the Embarcadero shopping center, and the Ferry Building and waterfront. The elevators are not great for one with a fear of heights but they do provide a lovely few of the lobby, including the wall of beautiful lights extending down most of the height of the building.

Service was friendly and helpful -- from valet to front desk to housekeeping.

The three rooms we saw (we had friends staying there as well) were all nice sized and I found our king size bed to be very comfy. There were only a couple minor issues (cracked sink and squeaky heating vent) that kept our room from being perfect.

One random thing -- our friends (the ones celebrating their recent marriage) didn't have an ice bucket or glasses in their room. We wouldn't have known this except that we snuck in to their room to chill a bottle of champagne for them to enjoy on their arrival. Crunched for time, we used ours for the champagne bottle and called housekeeping to get a replacement one for our room.

I would definitely stay here again and recommend this hotel for out of town guests.

There signage always helps me find what I'm a looking for quickly which is good because I have been there a few times and have never been asked by an employee if I need any assistance.

They have self check-out lines.

My 700th review is for a great local business although it wasn't under the best circumstances.

Unfortunately, earlier this week, we realized that we had a clog somewhere that was backing up both our kitchen and bathroom sinks. After a failed DIY fix attempt, we moved on to Plan B: finding our first plumber. Ah, home ownership.

Highlights from our experience with Lett's Plumbing include:
*My honey called Lett's and received a call back within 20 minutes, as promised.
*Since we both had to be at work that day, my dad volunteered to go to our house and wait for the plumber. Stefano arrived on the early end of the two-hour time window given and got right to work. The work was complete in about an hour.
*He snaked the length of our pipes from the roof vents to the street and when that didn't clear the clog, he went in from the bathroom sink to fix the problem. I guess they always do the roof to street approach to ensure a long term solution. Well played, Lett's.
*The total bill was $150 -- $10 for the replacement of a cracked pipe under our bathroom sink and $140 for snaking the pipes and clearing the clog. This was far less than we anticipated.

We will be calling Lett's Plumbing from now on but I certainly hope we don't need them again anytime soon. Fingers crossed.

This is a good alternative to the Starbucks (inside Safeway) across the street.

A coffee drink and bagel with cream cheese will cost you about $5.

Definitely a step up from their neighbor, Occasio, with regards to both wine and friendly service, but still not one of my favorite spots in the area. I'd return for another tasting.

$5 and $10 tasting options.

Disappointing. Occasio is on my short list of Livermore wineries that I don't plan to visit again.

The wines were decent but not memorable and the service was some of the least warm we have ever experienced while wine tasting -- I can count the number of words spoken to us on two hands.

Meh.

We could have just come here and called it a day.  

Everything was fantastic from the service to the tasting and barrel rooms to the wine. We shared one of each of the $5 and $10 (reserve) tastings and we also got to sip on two barrel tastings. They had some snacks on hand -- soup and cheese and crackers -- which I didn't sample but I am sure that they were fantastic too.

We left with four bottles for under $80, thanks to a 10% discount that I think we got because we bought at least four bottles. We caught a glimpse of the owner/wine maker, a retired fire chief who makes some wonderful wine.

The two other wineries we visited did not shine nearly as bright as El Sol.

During some day after Christmas shopping, I popped in here to check out their buy one bra, get one half off sale. I opted for a quick measure and it turns out I have been wearing the wrong size for at least a couple years. This revelation was followed by trying on a variety of styles and then the salesperson gathered up my favorites for purchase. At purchase I also received a free gift -- a cute, large cosmetic bag filled with lotion, lip gloss, etc.

...and I can breathe so much better now!

We were on our way into the city and I decided that I wanted crab for lunch. When I get my mind set on something, I just have to make it happen. I searched for crab in the handy dandy yelp app and, although more than a few options popped up, this one stood out.  Being able to make reservations via Open Table was a huge bonus.  

Crab House has lots of crab options from whole or half crabs to crab pasta to crab cakes and so on. I ordered the crab melt and it was fantastic with an ample amount of fresh crab piled on top of bread and topped with melty cheese. On the side were more fries than I could consume. Portions are more than satisfactory.

Service was great and the prices are fairly reasonable considering the Pier 39, complete with a great view, location.