Pre-Shift to Postcards!

Recently, my husband and I went to our top quick vacation destination, San Francisco! Living in the Central Valley, we are only about one and a half hours away, depending on the traffic of course. If we decide to stay the night, we consistently stay at our favorite spot off Broadway & Columbus called the Royal Pacific Motor Inn. It’s incredibly affordable, and yes in this case that does mean what we will kindly call ‘vintage’. Sure, it is a bit outdated, and could use a slightly less scary elevator (but truthfully, most frighten me), but it’s always clean, the staff are always friendly, and it has FREE private parking. This is absolutely unheard of in San Francisco. The icing on the cake is definitely location. Nestled right between two of my favorite neighborhoods, Chinatown & North Beach, you are never too far away from an incredible snack, or an amazing cocktail. But, that’s a conversation for another time…

I digress, back to this trip! We like to check out different neighborhoods as often as we can, and try to hit up at least one new spot every trip. Which is getting a little hard to be honest, we’ve grown to have a lot of favorites. This trips mission, ironically enough, was the Mission District’s, Tacolicious. Located on Valencia Street, this popular Mexican restaurant is a vibe once you arrive, in all the best ways. There are beautiful tiles, and murals and plants seemingly everywhere. Music playing just loud enough to feel it in your chest, but not so loud you can’t enjoy close conversation. The adorable French bulldog laying on the floor next to a water bowl tells me they are pet friendly. You can tell this is a spot people don’t come to just once. It has a whole personality to it; quirky, fun, intentional.

We love to sit at the bar if possible whenever we go out, this time was no different. We cozied up and made friendly conversation with our bartender, he and the rest of the staff were incredibly nice. Their cocktail list had a ton of options that looked good, but I have been on a banana kick lately so the choice was easy for me. Oro Colada – banana infused tequila, banana liqueur, coconut creme, Meyer lemon & vanilla. Walter (my husband) went with a Coctel de Olla – mezcal, xila, coffee liqueur, nixta liqor de elote, cold brew. They were DELICIOUS!!!

Starting out, we ordered some chicharrones de pollo, or fried chicken skin. I don’t know about you, but I love me some fried bird skin. It’s my favorite part of the turkey every year. Sure it’s not the best for you, but that’s why you only get it on special occasions.

You can’t go into a place called ‘Tacolicious’ and not order tacos, so obviously we did just that. The selection was diverse, and all looked amazing. We chose the crispy shrimp, guajillo-braised beef, vampiro, and (unfortunately not pictured) the coca-cola braised carnitas. Hey, it smelled so good… we didn’t stand a chance. Honestly I’m glad I remembered to snap a picture before we dug into them more. They were all fantastic, but I think we liked the carnitas & braised beef the most! They bring you an assortment of sauces and salsas for the tacos as well! The tacos were so good, they definitely did not need the sauces, but they were tasty none-the-less.

Tacolicious is a must stop spot if you are ever in the Mission. There are tons of great options on the menu for both food and drinks, and you can easily get comfy at a table and enjoy your company for a while there. This cute, hip little eatery has so much character, and I cannot recommend it enough!