Butter stick bench
Evvia, Parkside listings, Under-study, Palazzo Tornabuoni, Restaurants of the Summer, pressed sheets, MORE
WORK • Friday Routine
Smooth operator
JON DE LA CRUZ • founding principal • de la Cruz Interior Design
Neighborhood you work in: SoMa
It’s Friday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I typically wake up around 530a, make coffee (pour-over old school Italian roast in a Chemex), and go through emails for the first two hours at home. I head out the door by 9a and call into the office from the car to connect with my senior designers.
What’s on the agenda for today?
My first stop is a restaurant project with the Che Fico team’s Back Home Hospitality. After that, I head to Woodside to work on a bungalow renovation with Arcanum Architecture and then visit another client in Atherton with whom I’m working on two houses — one in Maine and one in LA.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
When I work all day on the Peninsula, I love to pop in and sit at the bar at Evvia for an early bite while I wait for the 5p traffic to subside. Or I’ll drop by Original Joe's Westlake for a chopped salad (extra salami and Italian vinaigrette, please). If I do manage to negotiate traffic with ease, I'll pop downstairs from my house and grab a martini and pani puri from Besharam, the Indian restaurant at Minnesota Street Project with a fantastic bar program.
Any weekend getaways?
Palm Springs is a repeat destination for me. I like to get out there at least four times a year, especially when it gets too cold and gray in the Bay Area. In the height of Palm Springs summer, I enjoy the hot weather and the pool. It’s opposite of what most would expect, but I really enjoy those 100-plus-degree days because they force me to slow down and relax. I usually stay at The Holiday House or the Villa Royale. I get outside in the early mornings, have lunch by the pool, and then in the afternoon heat, I retreat indoors to get some work done or shop for clients. I re-emerge at dusk as the sun sets for warm, pleasant nights.
What was your last great vacation?
Florence. I had the very special opportunity to stay at the Palazzo Tornabuoni. Now a private residence club in the heart of the city, it’s a 16th-century palazzo once home to the Medicis and a Renaissance pope. Art, food, and shopping are all footsteps apart, which makes Florence such a mind-blowing destination. Best day ever: Grab a cashmere sweater at Brunello Cucinelli, buy some espresso cups to take home from R. Ginori 1735 across the street, and then have gnudi and bistecca alla Fiorentina at the Cantinetta Antinori.
What store or service do you always recommend?
Support your neighborhood wash and fold shop and have them iron your sheets. Smoothly pressed sheets are something you don't know you need until you do it. It’s a micro-luxury that affects your quality of life and attitude in unexplainable ways.
Where are you donating your time or money?
I really respect the work that Carolyn Rebuffel Flannery and Make it Home are doing. Her nonprofit addresses both furniture poverty and design waste by collecting gently used furniture from designers and redistributing it to social agencies with clients in need. I’m also a huge fan of Southern Exposure, a 50-year-old gallery and arts nonprofit known for its ambitious exhibitions, support of local artists and youth education programs. In this current political climate and the uncertainty of federal funding, they need our support more than ever.
Photo: September Studios
WORK LINKS: The ‘economically rational’ scammer hired by 19 startups • Bolt CEO: unlimited PTO is ‘totally broken’ • Boomerang bankers just can’t let go • The new era of work travel • Money is over.
REAL ESTATE • First Mover
Upwardly mobile
Often lumped in with the Sunset, the zone between Quintara Street, Sloat Boulevard, and the Pacific is actually called the Parkside, a development launched in 1905 when William Crocker snapped up the land from Adolph Sutro’s estate. Crocker’s bet continues to pay off in 2025 with (per Compass) 187 homes changing hands there in the past year at a median price of $1.5M. Here, three listings for those who relish the idea of saying “you know, the park in the name isn’t Golden Gate Park, it’s the trees by Pine Lake” to anyone who will listen:
→ 33 Escondido Ave (Parkside) • 3BR/4BA, 1796 SF house • Ask: $1.688M • 1948 build with original details • Days on market: 36 • Agent: Shin Kim, Keller Williams.
→ 2150 Ulloa St (Parkside) • 5BR/2.1BA, 2310 SF house • Ask: $2.2M • ocean and Sutro views with a large deck • Days on market: 12 • Agent: Veronica Gomez, Coltman Perry.
→ 2277 33rd Ave (Parkside, above) • 4BR/4BA, 2859 SF house • Ask: $2.499M • semi-detached with huge, flat backyard • Days on market: 1 • Agent: Suki Tsang, Chance Real Estate.
REAL ESTATE LINKS: AI wealth boosts luxury SF housing sales • On Billionaire’s Row, Dianne Feinstein’s mansion changes hands • TMG Partners snap up the Metreon • Prices surge in the 94108 • Downtown’s twisty Mira stuck in unconventional pit • Interest in FiDi office space ticks up • 41-story office tower pitched for Jackson Square • Apple bought $517M in Silicon Valley real estate last week.
CULTURE & LEISURE • Beat LA
Giants vs Dodgers • Oracle Park (Embarcadero) • Fri @ 715p • PLB122, $333 per
Macy Gray • On How Life Is 25th Anniversary Tour • Palace of Fine Arts (Marina) • Sat @ 8p • ORCH, row c, $110 per
& Juliet • Orpheum (Mid-Market) • Sun @ 630p • row b, $149 per
CULTURE & LEISURE LINKS: SF Arts Commission awards $10.4M in grants • Fliers for scavenger hunt Pursuit paper SF • Conservatory of Flowers corpse flower gets livestream • ‘Artist’s playground’ plots big move • Peaches Christ to direct Doris Fish biopic.
GETAWAYS • Napa
Top billing
Opened in June following a permitting snafu the month prior, Under-study, an all-day cafe from neighboring Press restaurant, offers an approachable, community-oriented complement to the tasting menus next door. The former Dean & Deluca flagship on the St. Helena highway has been turned into a colorful culinary playground (complete with a butter stick bench outside) by SF design firm Studio Terpeluk; the food and drink demonstrates the same high quality craftsmanship chef-partner Philip Tessier has shown at his higher-end spot.
Black Oak coffee is served all day paired with pastries by certified master pastry chef Frank Vollkommer: trompe-l'œil fruit entremets, croissants, and cookies — displayed museum-style on a marble countertop. A vegan miso chocolate chip cookie is of note, as is a yuzu cookie made with ceremonial grade matcha.
Further back is a teaching kitchen and wine wall with bottles from around the globe, plus a refrigerated glass case full of take-home provisions including cured fish, caviar, charcuterie, baguettes and condiments.
Under-study cross-utilizes trim from Press to make lobster corn dogs, sausage, duck and trout rillettes, while bar snacks like sweet and sour big ears, black truffle fries, and wagyu steak tartare are available to-go. You can even take home Press’s famous whole rotisserie black truffle-glazed chicken. –Amber Gibson
→ Under-study (St. Helena, CA) • 595 St Helena Hwy • Daily 7a-5p.
GETAWAYS LINKS: Second name change for OAK in two years • Reservations open for Charlie Palmer’s Wine Country hotel • Getty Villa reopens in LA • 4 new places to check out in Hilo on the Big Island • Trading business class for business jets.
LOST & FOUND • Behind the Paywall