The Routines issue
Forest Books, Bellanico, Alemany Flea Market, Stinson, Tomatero Farm, Sailing Collective, MORE
ABOUT FOUND • Routines
FOUND Routines chronicle how notable Miami area residents — across industries, neighborhoods, and interests — spend their days and nights, from the first meeting to the final nightcap or weekend getaway.
The best routines are vibrant snapshots, full of personality, useful intel, and actionable recommendations. Collectively, they paint a picture of lives well spent in and around the city.
Know someone who would make a great FOUND Routine? Hit reply or drop us a line at found@itsfoundsf.com.
WORK • Wednesday Routine
Fashion sense
EVAN KINORI • designer/owner • Evan Kinori
Neighborhood you work in: The Mission
It’s Wednesday morning, what's the scene at your workplace?
We’re a small team of four to six people, depending on the day, and start around 10/1030a at our studio, which is in the back half of the store. The studio functions as a design office (patternmaking, fabric research, sample sewing/development), regular office, warehouse for inventory, and we have a studio mate who’s a handweaver, and their loom is in there as well. It can be a lot happening in one room.
What’s on the agenda for today?
We're receiving the new garment production for spring/summer, which we’ll shoot for the website next week in our studio. I'm also working on fabric selection and development for next spring, and we’re finalizing the production for this fall’s collection.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I wanted to check something in Berkeley this weekend — so if we make it to the East Bay, then it’s a great chance to eat at any of the following: Saul’s Delicatessen, June’s Pizza, Soba Ichi, Ippuku, or Shangri-La (one of my favorite lunches).
How about a little leisure or culture?
Most weekends, we drive north to walk in the Marin Headlands, or further to Inverness/Point Reyes Seashore — the nature exploration is pretty endless around the Bay Area — or sometimes, we’ll stay in the city, and go to the William Stout bookshop or Forest Books in Japantown.
Any weekend getaways planned?
In warmer weather, driving up to Humboldt is hard to beat — rivers to swim in, redwoods to walk through, and pretty easy to find quiet spots with fewer people around. For something easier/quicker, a hike and lunch at The Pelican Inn.
What was your last great vacation?
A week in Kyoto, at the end of a pretty intense work trip/journey — just sitting down on a bench at a quiet, less frequented temple called Honen-In for an hour was a major highlight.
Is there a product or service you recommend locally?
Besides the above, I usually recommend Presidio Heights home goods store MARCH, Outta Sight Pizza, and Zuni Cafe.
Photo: Evan Kinori.
–03/12/25
WORK • Wednesday Routine
Multi-hyphenate
ANDREA GORDON • artistic director • Rainbow Zebra Productions (a resident company at the Magic Theatre)
Neighborhood you live in: Claremont Knolls, Berkeley
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
The cardinal rule of theatre is to never give up your day job, especially in the current economic situation for the arts, so I’m also a top-producing Realtor at Compass and have a podcast about the business called REalizations. Most Wednesday mornings, I have podcast sessions scheduled, then go through around 500 emails and deal with real estate work. In the afternoon, I work on anything to do with the theatre — whether it is casting, reading plays, rehearsing, marketing, or fundraising.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I’ve been writing a play called John's Ashes that will be read this coming year. Earlier in the day, I had a listing appointment at a coffeehouse (I got it) and met with my advisor for my transformative studies PhD program at CIIS to plan my next year's classes.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
We love Italian food, and I love to go to Donato & Co. in the Elmwood, or Bellanico in Oakland. Great food and ambiance!
How about a little leisure or culture?
We really enjoy playing with our pets: two cats, two dogs, and two parrots. Also, I play piano and take lessons, so I practice a fair amount (never enough). I started lessons at 60, and I am 68 now, and for my 65th birthday, I bought myself a beautiful Steinway grand. I'm getting better!
Any weekend getaways?
Sycamore Mineral Springs in Avila Beach is a favorite. The springs are great, and the whole place is super relaxing.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
I bought and framed a beautiful woodblock print by Hiroshi Yoshida called Numazaki Pasture, which, for many years, I’d searched for.
What store or service do you always recommend?
I love Your Basic Bird in the Elmwood, where the owner, Claudia, is fantastic, and she carries my children's book about my parrot, Yo-Yo Ma, called Yo-Yo in a Tree. Jon Moriarty, who owns The 14 Karats in the Elmwood, is a phenomenal jewelry artist. Also, April Higashi has a gallery on 4th Street called Shibumi. She holds beautiful curated showings of jewelry and art, and April is a master jeweler, working with organically inspired designs.
Where are you donating your time or money?
I donate five months of the year's food to the Berkeley Humane Society, and also sublet my office to them (since I wasn't using it enough). I also donate to Berkeley Repertory Theatre's school.
–06/06/25
WORK • Wednesday Routine
Flour power
THOMAS MCNAUGHTON • co-founder/co-chef • Flour + Water Hospitality Group
Neighborhood you live in: Mill Valley
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I live in Marin County, so I try to fit in a trail run before starting my work day. The proximity to nature is one of the best parts of living in the Bay Area, and it always brings me a sense of mental clarity. After my run, I'll head into work, popping by the Flour + Water test kitchen above the restaurant for a standing Zoom meeting with our leadership team. While we host private dinners there in the evening, during the day it doubles as an office and stage for our R+D.
What’s on the agenda for today?
Right now, most of my time is dedicated to planning for the expansion of Flour + Water Pizza Shop. We opened our flagship Flour + Water Pizzeria in North Beach with a dedicated dough room for pizza dough production, to centralize that process and ultimately, feed ancillary Pizza Shop locations throughout the Bay Area. Today, I'm reviewing some potential spaces; it's a long process, so we consider as many different options as possible, knowing that (of the dozens we're looking at) maybe one will move forward.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
On my radar in the Bay Area: Dalida, Prubechu, Ernest, Copra, and Outta Sight Pizza. On a trip to LA this spring for Pizza City Fest, I was excited to check out Dunsmoor and Saffy's. I really admire what Brian Dunsmoor, Ori Menashe, and Genevieve Gergis are doing.
How about a little leisure or culture?
One of the coolest things I've been to is the performance of Dear San Francisco in the old Beach Blanket Babylon space. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have two daughters, and just took them to Legoland in San Diego.
Any weekend getaways?
I love exploring small towns or revisiting favorite escapes in our Northern California backyard. Tahoe is always near the top of my list, but I recently took my bike up to the Ukiah-Mendo Gravel Epic.
What was your last great vacation?
Last fall, I went back to Bologna, where I spent a fair amount of time making pasta by hand with Italian nonnas. It was awesome to reconnect with so many old friends, especially Marcello Tori. Since 1995, he's run an amazing food and wine tour, Bluone, that really immerses you in the culture. I highly recommend it.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
My Stumpjumper Pro mountain bike.
What store or service do you always recommend?
Tam Bikes in Mill Valley and SF Running Club. We are so fortunate to be in such an epic place in the world for any style of biking or running.
Photo: Kristen Loken
–09/11/24
WORK • Wednesday Routine
Tying the knot
WINDY CHIEN • artist • Studio Windy Chien
Neighborhood you live in: After 34 years in the Mission, I recently moved to Twin Peaks.
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
My studio is in the Heath Ceramics building in the Mission. Because we limit studio visitors and meetings to Tuesdays, Wednesdays are for focusing on what we’re making. And I LOVE days like this. Our small, mighty team of three creates one large work every week. Our waiting list is six months long, so we’re working on something a collector or client has been anticipating for a while.
I eschew working with galleries and prefer to represent myself, so we’re not only making the works, we’re also negotiating sales, shipping, installing, and so much more. My production artist’s hands are full measuring, cutting and knotting rope, sanding wood, constructing shipping boxes, and more. My studio manager is communicating with the outside world, managing projects overall, and more. When not knotting, I’m experimenting, innovating and playing. The goal is to constantly evolve the art.
What’s on the agenda for today?
I’ll finish knotting a 5’ x 10’ piece for my home; we recently moved to a midcentury place on Twin Peaks and have a huge wall in the living room calling out for a beautiful rose gold Circuit Board. I can’t believe it’s taken me eight years to find the time to make something for my own house! Then I’ll start on a creamy white Circuit Board for a collector who lives on Vancouver Island. I also need to finish sketching a massive (200 feet wide) piece for a hotel on Maui.
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
I love getting an after-work cocktail at Osito, the restaurant catty-corner from the studio. Chef Seth Stowaway just redid the bar there with blue Venetian plaster walls. It’s a gorgeous space. I have a piece in their dining room — the composition of the knotting is inspired by the overhead forest canopy because Osito is a live-fire restaurant.
During the workweek, my all-Asian team and I like to order Hon’s Wun-Tun House’s pork and shrimp dumpling soup. Their broth is the best. We also love our neighbors at Flour + Water Pasta Shop for their Italian subs. You can see some of my pieces there too.
How about a little leisure or culture?
I love going to Minnesota Street Project to see what’s on the walls. This is boring, but if I’m honest, one thing I look forward to every week is the Noe Valley Farmers Market. I used to go to Alemany, but since I moved, NV is closest. It’s where I get my favorite food in the world: Early Girl tomatoes from Tomatero Farm. Those girls grow the most flavorful tomatoes I’ve ever had.
Any weekend getaways?
People sleep on The Inn at Newport Ranch, but it is an astonishingly beautiful place right on the wild Mendocino coast. You look down off the unfenced cliff edge and there are waves crashing hundreds of feet below. They also steward the redwoods on their land and cultivate their own food. The architecture is that ’70s hand-built wood style that Bay Area treasure Lloyd Kahn likes to champion.
What was your last great vacation?
Every summer, I sail with the Sailing Collective. You get a catamaran that sleeps 10, bring a bunch of friends and a chef, and it’s utter bliss. We’ve sailed Sardinia and Corsica, Greece, the Amalfi Coast, Croatia, the Bahamas, and Cape Cod. Sailing, which I found through my work as a professional knot tyer, feels like discovering one of the keys to life. I plan to sail with them every year until I die.
What store or service do you always recommend?
Bryr Clogs makes the chicest, most advanced, and forward-looking clogs — with colors to die for. The Bryr shop in the Dogpatch is gorgeous, and everything is designed and made by women. Right now, I’m test-wearing a new style that’s going to break. the. internet. It’s that good.
–10/09/24
WORK • Wednesday Routine
Chasing pavement
JOSH HARRIS • founder • Bon Vivants Hospitality (Trick Dog, Quik Dog, BVintage)
Neighborhood you live in: The Sunset
It’s Wednesday morning. What’s the scene at your workplace?
I usually show up to the office around 10a, mostly so I don’t have to wait for the street sweeper to go by. I walk down the street to grab a bagel (plain cream cheese on a plain bagel) and, as of recently, a kombucha (for gut health!). Our office is a large bi-level warehouse space in the Mission district with great natural light. I like stuff, so the scene at the office is one full of stuff. For example, there’s a growing collection of colorful architectural pottery, lots of exotic animal statues from one of our previous bars, an abundance of sculptural items (many of which are ceramic, and made by children in the 70’s and 80’s), plus furniture and design samples for our upcoming restaurant Quik Dog (planned opening: Spring 2025).
What’s on the agenda for today?
Today I have a meeting with an investor, plus a call with our menu designer to brainstorm ideas for our next menu launch in January. I typically like to leave the office with enough time to get in a hard run on Mount Sutro before a yoga class at Haum with Jacqui (my yoga north star).
Any restaurant plans today, tonight, this weekend?
Tonight I’m headed to Kitchen Istanbul with a couple friends after yoga. It’s a super cool neighborhood restaurant in the Richmond district, very close to where I grew up. The food is outstanding and has some shared flavors and dishes from my heritage. The wine list is widely regarded as one of the best in San Francisco. And if you go early enough, you can get ice cream after dinner at Toy Boat, a spot I grew up going to. I only go to about three restaurants in town and Kitchen Istanbul is one of them. (The other two are Original Joe’s and Han Il Kwan.)
How about a little leisure or culture?
I’m an ultra trail runner so pretty much the entirety of my life is dedicated to that activity. As luck would have it, I’m currently dealing with an injury and had to drop out of a race in the Marin Headlands. But I’m still planning to support one of my teammates who will be competing there. Usually on Sundays, I also hit a flea market in search of more stuff. This weekend I’ll be at the Alemany Flea Market, a true local gem.
Any weekend getaways?
Stinson Beach! I’m a big fan of West Marin; all the towns in that area are great. I particularly enjoy Stinson when it’s cold and rainy. Everything is super green, the smells are earthy and fresh – it’s the perfect place to get vert on the trails and then sit in front of a fireplace.
What was your last great vacation?
I spent this August in France. It was an incredible trip with three distinct chapters. I started in Paris with my wife to attend the Olympics and watch track and field. It was like peak joy for me! I never wanted it to end. But alas, I had to go to Corsica. Killer rock slab beaches, outstanding food, and good trails. Then I headed back to Paris for a couple days before meeting up with my running team to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime unsanctioned, unsupported, renegade endurance race. We traveled from Paris to Chamonix, where we started the race at 2a against 36 other teams. My team of six swapped legs every two miles or so for 35 hours and 27 minutes, ending 280 miles later in Marseilles. We stayed in Marseilles for a few more days (more killer beaches and great vintage shopping), before heading back to Paris and then home.
What’s a recent big-ticket purchase you love?
I recently bought what we’ve been calling The Quik Dog Adventure Wagon. It’s a former Swiss alpine fire rescue vehicle, 1990 Mercedes Benz 410 4x4, a big, red, stickshift vehicle with aluminum roll-up doors on both sides and the back. Huge wheels and tires. It’s completely one of a kind and is going to be great for trail adventures as well as Quik Dog events. In the meantime, I’ve been having a great time driving it around town.
What store or service do you always recommend?
My own side hustle, BVintage, where I sell vintage luxury watches. Watches tell stories of a bygone era and they’re instant heirlooms. If you’re looking for a gift with a sense of permanence, you can’t go wrong with a vintage Rolex.
–11/27/24