It was one fine day. In the course of our more than a decade-old friendship, BFF and I created this fun tradition of celebrating our birthdays belatedly. It could be as late as months later. This time we celebrated BFF’s May birthday in October. I am not sure if this has been a record-breaker as this has been 5 months later. Regardless, I am always very excited to plan and celebrate her birthday because she really goes all out on mine.
We met at my work where I gave her presents. She opened the presents on my work’s lovely garden patio then we took the MUNI train to the Castro neighborhood. This year her birthday venue of choice was Starbelly in San Francisco’s Castro District. We initially planned to go to UDessert Story but we decided that eating lunch first is probably better before tackling a massive dessert.
We ended up staying at Starbelly and had a fabulous couple of hours imbibing and really enjoying superb California comfort food. A month later and I am still dreaming of this delicious meal and beautiful moment with my BFF.
We picked a corner table at the bar, ordered a few delicious drinks and noshed on well-executed vegetarian plates while discussing our favorite topics — previous birthdays, books, catching up on friends and the holidays.
These were our fabulous dishes:
- Mixed Mediterranean plate, quinoa salad, crispy pea fritters, white bean puree & chile, cucumbers, market vegetables & herbed flatbread 15
- Barley salad, market citrus, cress, Oregon hazelnuts, grilled avocado & feta 15
- House cut fries with three dips 7
BFF had a couple of pretty -looking cocktails while I enjoyed a nice glass of Cava Michel Pons Reserva, Penedés, Spain NV 8.
I will let the photos enthrall you.
The venue was also bright, sunny and lovely on a warm fall Friday afternoon. It was the perfect space that we decided to not go to UDessert at all. Plus, we had no more space in our tummies which were happily full. It was another beautiful afternoon of celebrating my beautiful friend.
Leah's Cozy Notebook 