Solstice – California & Divisadero

The good: The atmosphere. Good lighting, lots of yellow, orange & red. Great respite from a gloomy SF night. The food: I know this is a common suggestion of mine, but get a bunch of stuff and share. That’s what they’ll recommend you do anyway. Oh – Monday nights – all bottles of wine half off.

Restaurant gossip: the owners of Solstice, who own Fly bar as well, are opening a new restaurant called "Brick" in early May, at 1085 Sutter St. (near Larkin). Rumor says it will be very hip, and more polished than Fly and Solstice. Stay tuned.

The bad: All three of the times I’ve been here, they’ve run out of several items on the menu. On one hand, that generally means that all of the food is very fresh and that the restaurant is popular (a good sign), but on the other, the menu is very small so it’s kind of disheartening.

The bottom line: Good place to go on a Sunday night if you’re in the mood for a small-ish, semi-quiet dinner. Other nights it can get pretty noisy.

The bathroom: Is pretty cool, up the stairs from the main dining room. I went there one time on a date and had a slight panic about falling down (or up) the stairs in front of the entire restaurant (due to the open floor plan) but I’m guessing you won’t work yourself into a frenzy like I did and you’ll be fine.