Luisa's

We visited Katie over the weekend in S.F. so my Uncle Gary, visiting from TN, could see her apartment. Of course the biggest decision we had to make was where to eat-and in the city there are too many options, not a good thing for the indecisive ones (me, mom, and Kate)! More about where we went in a minute...
Jason gets so frustrated with me when we go out to eat and he asks me where I want to go, and my standard response is typically "You decide" or "Whatever you want to eat." I just have a hard time making a decision, unless I have a super strong craving for something, which is usually Japanese, which Jason doesn't like! Have you ever heard of someone not liking Japanese food, if not sushi, fine, but there are just so many other amazing options! Do any of you have this problem? This is a pretty standard issue in my family, my poor Dad is really patient when it comes to waiting for the 3 of us to discuss options - 30 minutes later, someone is annoyed, someone doesn't care, and someone isn't hungry any more and we typically end up with Outback takeout!! I think we watch Diners, Drive-In's & Dives too much! I love me some CPK but sometimes the large chain restaurants that over populate this city just don't provide the same culinary satisfaction as finding a little gem of a dive such as the one we found on our recent visit to S.F.!
After 20 minutes of my mom, sister and I googling on our phones the local restaurants near the apartment in Marina, we came up with 2 options to walk to. My Uncle was open to anything. The usual Chicago-style pizza joint that we have frequented on our visits to S.F. called Piaxi's was shot down early on, much to my Dad's disappointment, so we found 2 Italian restaurant's to choose from within walking distance in the Marina off of Union St.
6 blocks later, we arrived at Luisa's.....and this place did not disappoint! A quaint little place, it probably could only hold 35 people at capacity. At 5pm on Saturday night, they were empty, as we were informed that the area doesn't get busy until around 8pm, so we had the place to ourselves for the better part of our meal. While nursing the baby outside, I had the pleasure of meeting Luisa herself, a vibrant, jolly woman only 84 years young (she didn't look a year over 70!) and she took a liking to Tanner immediately! She spoke to us about how she cooks all of her sauces fresh every morning, how she remembers nursing her babies back in the kitchen while she cooked and missing it, how she was 1 of 16 children!! She was so lovely to us and was kind enough to treat Talan to a lollipop (he doesn't eat them but for once was polite enough this time not to say anything!) Apparently my Uncle's spaghetti was the best he ever had, as was my dad's lasagna. I had the eggplant parmesan which was amazing....and of course I had to have dessert. Luisa informed us that the desserts were all also from fresh imported Italian ingredients - dad had lemon sorbet and I had the mousse....delicious is an understatement! It was a great evening, not just because of the food, but just sitting around after our meal enjoying our family and the good conversation...those are the best meal's.

T calls my mom's wine "Pasha's milk!"