Deals in Hollywood

For a recently graduated fashionista paying off loans, staying on trend on a meager budget is no easy task. It took me years to finely tune my personal style around my paycheck-to-paycheck lifestyle and I owe a debt of gratitude to my favorite consignment shops. If you’re looking for some of the best resale and consignment shops in the bay area, here is a list of shops you cannot miss. In April of 2012, Crossroads Trading Company welcomed it’s very first designer consignment shop to the family. Refinery 29 has since dubbed Fillmore & 5th one of the best consignment shops in San Francisco. Their racks and shelves are easy to navigate and never messy. From J. Crew to Alexander Wang, every dress, shirt, and shoe is organized according to style, size, and color. The staff is not pushy and very knowledgeable about brands from the lowest to the highest end. Tip: Be sure to look for their sale merchandise. Items are marked down 20% after 30 days on the rack and an additional 40% after 60 days. Sometimes, it’s worth the wait, but as all things in consignment go, you never know how long it will be in the store. Located at 1775 Union Street. Since you’re in the area, make your way over to the corner of Fillmore and Union for more designer consignment goodness. Simply Chic welcomes you to sift through their racks of carefully curated designer pieces. Louis Vuitton and Chanel bags are shelved above their amazing selection of dresses, coats, skirts, and blouses. A clean, white interior serves as a backdrop to their jaw-draping, awe inducing merchandise. Be sure to take a look at what hides behind the glass case at their front counter. Chanel costume broaches, Hermes scarves, and other beautiful trinkets teasingly twinkle back at you. Can’t make it in? Check out their website for incredible pieces sold exclusively online! Now that’s très chic! Located at 3038 Fillmore St. Once you’ve seen the best of the city, make your way over to Berkeley. Solano Avenue is your next destination for easy-to-shop “style sharing”. Urbanity is Albany’s premier designer consignment shop. Behind the enormous, asymmetrical door, a treasure trove of women’s clothing and accessories awaits you. Their racks are conveniently color coordinated and ordered by size. The lovely staff members are happy to help you find the perfect blazer for work or a shimmery number for a night on the town. A word of warning: you’re going to want to load up with as many pieces to take to the fitting room as you can. Make sure you love that Red Valentino dress! As with most consignment shops their return policy is all sales final. Don’t get discouraged if you don’t find something your first go round. New merchandise arrives daily and they even feature the best of the best on their web store. Located at 1887 Solano Avenue. Behind a quaint, Dutch door lies a consignment gold mine. Locally owned and operated in its Lakeshore storefront since 2003, Maribel offers consignment shoppers an array of designer, contemporary, and vintage clothing and accessories. Unlike the previous shops, Maribel has a more rustic motif, mom and pop general store vibe. If you have a little room left in your shopping bag, indulge yourself in a pair of vintage cowboy boots, a faux fur vest or jacket, or maybe a unique piece of jewelry. Their front counter jewelry case features incredible pieces designed by local jewelry artists. Be sure to sign up for their contact list! Maribel hosts amazing jewelry trunk shows and in-store shindigs for the locals. Located at 3251 Lakeshore Ave

San Francisco's mild, year-round spring-like weather makes it easy to find unique and fun exercise opportunities all around the city. These 5 activities are both budget-friendly and provide an opportunity to visit some of SF's most famous landmarks. (Check out even more things to do in the city.) 1) Yoga Under the beautiful skies of San Francisco, the Lombardi Sports' Free Rooftop Yoga Class (Sundays at 11am) is a 60-minute all-levels class designed to promote a healthy, well-balanced lifestyle. The class focuses on standing, seated, balancing postures, inversions, breath work and intention setting to center the mind and body. The sequences taught are offered with variations to suit all students’ levels. The classes are designed to build strength, increase flexibility and promote an overall feeling of wellbeing. 2) Biking There are two famous options for free and fitness-focused biking in SF. The first, biking across the Golden Gate Bridge towards the hills of Marin. Pay a little extra to rent a bike, or bring your own! Sunset is one of the best times to ride, stopping in Marin for a bite to eat, and then heading back to SF in the evening. The second is SF's Midnight Mystery Ride. The group meets on the third Saturday of each month at midnight (location declared the day of event), and takes riders through themed tours of the city. You'll be able to exercise while meeting other fellow bikers, and exploring the ins and outs of San Francisco. Truly an activity not to be missed. 3) Running San Francisco has a multitude of running paths and parks to exercise in. But one of the most popular and easiest to access runs is along the Embarcadero. There are very few traffic lights, and the scenery (right along the water with views of the bay bridge and the piers) is absolutely beautiful. A complete back and out run is 6.5 miles. During the day the embarcadero can get crowded, so the best times to run are in the morning or later in the evening. 4) Outdoor Circuit Training Buena Vista Park (located at Haight Street and Buena Vista East) is San Francisco's oldest park. It has spectacular views and feels like a forest escape in the middle of the city. The park's stairs provide a great base for circuit training -- running up and down the stairs for an hour, finished off with a mini strength-training circuit at the top will provide one of the best workouts you can get. Whether you decide to take one of the many staircases or dirt trails, make sure to stop at the vista points along the way to the top. 5) Hiking The rocky Land's End trail (El Camino Del Mar and 32nd Avenue) provides leafy trails, fresh sea breeze, and spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge. Following one of the Land's End trails will lead you through historic landmarks, like the turn-of-the-century Sutro Baths ruins or old gun batteries, as well as tons of beautiful and iconic San Franciscan scenery. A more unique option for hiking exists with Hiking Yoga -- a guided tour with pit stops for mini-yoga sessions. The instructors take you to parks and trails off the beaten path, offer you a cropped yoga mat for your hands when needed, and lead you through poses to stretch your body.

There are plenty of restaurants in the City serving great fried chicken, but very few offer a full bar with a decent whiskey selection.  Sure, beer pairs well, but we believe that whiskey is a better choice to imbibe with the crispy poultry.  After all, it is the other Southern staple and is a lot less filling.  Whiskey’s higher alcoholic content also helps to cut down the fat.  A natural pairing together, fried chicken can also help ward off the hangovers from too much whiskey.  Don’t believe us?  Try it yourself at one of these places. Hard Water | Pier 3, The Embarcadero It’s hard to say whether the whiskey or the chicken is the draw for this tiny 1000 square foot waterfront restaurant, owned by The Slanted Door’s Charles Phan, specializing in whiskey and Southern food.  More than 150 different bottles of whiskey (many of them premium and hard to get) are available as one or two ounce pours, providing the ultimate tasting to pair with their excellent fried chicken.  Three crispy, cornmeal coated pieces are served with a tasty pepper jelly, but the house-made hot sauce is our choice to spice it up. Make sure to get the fried alligator or pork cracklings to complete the fried experience. Mission Bowling Club | 3176 17th Street Three perfectly fried boneless thighs arrive suspended from skewers on a tray made from recycled bowling alley wood (pictured above). At $10, it’s a great deal; so much so that you should just go ahead and order two so no sharing is required. There are plenty of bourbon and rye choices to pair with the chicken. The background bowling noise adds a retro feel to this Mission joint. The Front Porch | 65a 29th Street Their motto is Mission Southern Hospitality, and they certainly deliver.  Fried chicken comes in a single order of four pieces served in a cafeteria-style tray with mashed potatoes and collard greens (pictured above), or by the bucket of 10 pieces with some popcorn thrown in. Make sure to ask for their house-made spicy sauces to dress the crispy chicken. Bourbon is the right choice to pair with their chicken, and they have more than a few selections available. Town Hall | 342 Howard Street The fried chicken has been on the menu since day one of their decade-long existence.  It’s a good thing because their version is one of the best around.  A garlic, onion, and butter solution is injected to the buttermilk-soaked chicken prior to frying, adding a ton of flavor while keeping the chicken very moist. They have lots of other good Southern-inspired food on the menu, but the fried chicken is a must-order.  A selection of one of the few bottles of bourbons is the right pairing with the chicken. Wayfare Tavern | 558 Sacramento Street Celebrity Chef Tyler Florence returned to the restaurant scene three years ago and more than proved that he can cook at this perennially crowded place. He recently shared the secret to his excellent moist fried chicken: slow cooking at a low temperature of 200oF prior to battering and frying. The chicken is accompanied by fried garlic cloves and topped with fried herbs (sage and thyme), and the best way to eat a piece is with a squeeze of lemon supplied with the dish. The dish (pictured above) is fairly large with 5 pieces, so plan on sharing and ordering a side of mac and cheese to complete the meal.  It’s a tavern, so the selection of whiskeys is great, as befits the gentlemen’s club atmosphere.