Delfina. San Francisco

Let me tell you about the most wonderful 'food street' in San Francisco...maybe even in the U.S. - Eighteenth Street, between Guerrero and Dolores, in the Mission district...This is foodie heaven. On the corner is Tartine Bakery. Next to it it Delfina Pizzeria, an annex to Delfina. and next to that is Bi-Rite Market, a small, family-owned market with everything you could want to prepare a wonderful meal. A little farther up the street, and across, is Bi-Rite Creamery...unimaginably good ice cream in very imaginative flavors.

So, walking less than a block, you can have brunch, a very special pizza, shop for dinner or make a reservation at Delfina, then hop just the block for an ice cream cone to carry around the block as you try to walk off the pounds. You will have had some of the best meals ever! No exaggeration.

This particular tinybuilding is my granddaughter's. She had dinner there when she was about two weeks old. She was very well behaved and charmed all the staff and customers. Her parents also have a Delfina in their collection because it is a very special place to them. They got engaged there, had their rehearsal dinner there, and have celebrated many other times of there lives together there.

Delfina is about 3/4 inch square. The shape is somehow reminiscent of Tuscan farm outbuildings I saw there some years back. The *real* Delfina Restaurant was originally inspired by a small well-respected restaurant of the same name somewhere in Tuscany. We tried to eat there on our travels, but it was vacation season and the owners and chef had fled to wherever Italians go when they just can't stand one more American.

If you find yourself in San Francisco, go to Delfina and order the tomato-sauced pasta. So simple and so delicious.

c. 2007