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

Universal Cafe. San Francisco

This is the most recent tinybuilding in my granddaughter's collection. She has, at 4 months, already dined there at least twice.

This is one of the rare situations where the graphics of the restaurant's business card do not do the restaurant justice. The design, service and food and wine at Universal Cafe are much more sophisticated than this ugly card. I mean, why the red and blue; and why that nasty distorted star?

So, I had a rather hard time convincing myself to make a structure from it. If the restaurant didn't have such a presence in the SFO family's lives, I would never have bothered. My response was to make a little visual joke: the shape of the tinybuilding is reminiscent of a church - the Universal church. hahaha.

But here it is. The Universal 'church' is about 1-1/2 inch tall.

c. 2007

KidO. NYC

These three connected tiny buildings are the first in my new grand daughter's collection. There is a mommy house, a daddy house, and a baby bear house. The daddy house is about one inch high.

They are made of cards from a great kids' store in the West Village. I am sure many presents will be purchased here.

c. 2006

Bi-Rite Creamery. San Francisco

This is the yummiest ice cream store on earth. It opened in the Spring of 2007, in the Mission District. It is just up the street from Bi-Rite Market and Tartine's, and Delfina's. Can you imagine a better food street to live 'just-around-the-corner' from?

This is made from a single business card. i am particularly proud of the fold-down benches below the windows, which are just like on the real building. Although this is not an 'exact' replica of the building, it does resemble it - in actuality, the roof line is not an integral sign...but it could be/ought to be.

c. 2007