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Miss Millie’s, 4123 24th St., 285-5598. Delightful Noe Valley spot for dinner and weekend brunch.

Cafe Jacqueline, 1454 Grant (@ Union). 981-5565. Romantic French restaurant in North Beach. Soufflés in a candlelit setting. OK wine list.

Borgo, 500 Fell Street (@ Laguna), 255-9108. My favorite Italian restaurant in town. Not too fancy, not too casual. Appetizers run from $8.50 to $10 and owner Sergio makes a custom-made one for nearly everyone, unless it’s really busy. BRING IN A COPY OF THIS PAPER and get a FREE appetizer (up to $7 value) when you order 2 dinner entrees. Don’t forget to do that. Entrees run from $12 to $15 (special ones run around $18.) Pasta dinners are about $10. I recommend the halibut covered with sun dried and fresh tomatoes, capers, and sautéed onions with white wine and tomato sauce. A bottle of Merlot runs around $20. The decor is humorous, too, with jeans and underwear hanging from a clothesline and letters from irate customers hanging on the wall.

Maharani Indian Restaurant, 1122 Post (@ Polk), 775-1988. Ranked the #1 best Indian restaurant in town by the SF Chronicle magazine! This is a beautiful place to eat, especially the Fantasy Room in the back. Owner Joy Kapur has an informative web site, www.maharanirestaurant.com. Get his book of love poems and mystical verses The Perfume of Love, at www.AMZN.com or at www.thelovepoems.com.

Destino, 1815 Market, 552-4451. Critically acclaimed Latin American bistro from James Schenk, formerly the manager of Zuni. Entrees average around $17. Flamenco guitar at 7pm on Tuesdays, Tango dancers at 8; 30pm on Wednesdays.

North End Caffe, 1402 Grant, 531-3017. Not as famous as some of the older cafes in North Beach, but I really like this place. Zany Dave hasn’t owned this place for years, but new head honcho Joe is an amiable Chicago boy I shoot the shit with whenever I go in there for some joe. He’s a lot friendlier than his pal who sits at the end of the bar and never says hi to me. The decor is cute; a lot of ads circa 1940 and the bathroom is a shrine to Elvis. Speaking of The King, the Elvis Gallery (which is inside this cafe) presents Distortionary Graphics: The Art of Mayhem 9/16 to 10/13. Opening reception will be 9/16, 6-8pm. View the dark visions of North Beach-based pen and ink artist James Mahan (AKA Mayhem). You may have seen him scribbling away in some dank North Beach locale. While you’re there pick up a North End T-shirt for merely $8 and a copy of The Dim Light Bar Guide, a book anyone who visits a bar should read, written by Club Deluxe’s bartender (and North End Cafe regular) Jack Yaghubian II. Only $7.95.

lulu, 816 Folsom, 495-5775. My friend from New York took me here on his expense account because he wanted to eat at "a California restaurant". He got his wish. Though the waiter was pretty funny; borderline sarcastic. That added a New York touch. Entrees generally are over $20. Swank, but cute.

The Helmand, 430 Broadway, 362-0641. A great change of place. Afghan food. Everything seems to have yogurt in it. Excellent.

Bliss Bar, 4026 - 24th Street, 826-6200. Trendy new bar in Noe Valley.Tres hip, especially for 24^th.

The Crepe House, 1755 Polk Street, 441-2421. Nice outdoor seating along Polk Gulch. Average entree is about $7. Wine, beer, coffee etc.

Caffe Proust, 1801 McAllister, 345-9560. Only 2 years old, but a future SF institution. Big hangout for the Burning Man crowd.

Yuet Lee, 1300 Stockton (at Broadway), 982-6020. Hong Kong oriented Seafood. Open till 3am. 200 items on the menu! No credit cards.

Jammin’ Java Cafe, 701 Cole St., 668-JAVA. New owner Hossam Kaddoura, who owns Java On Ocean near City College, reopens the former best cafe in town this month. Live music Fri. & Sat. Nights.

Francisco & Molly, 83 Natoma, 975-5700. Instead of waiting on line at those crowded restaurants near Pac Bell Park before a game, come here for sandwiches, beer, & wine.

Deep Sushi, 1740 Church Street, 970-DEEP. San Francisco’s next big thing. A great place to eat (if you can get a seat). I wanted to take the all-girl punk band gito gito hustler here but they left for LA.

Jezebel’s Joint, 510 Larkin. 345-9832. For strippers, trannies, doms, and... almost anyone else, I guess. . This wild Tenderloin bar brought to you by the Power Exchange, the city’s only licensed sex club. The decor’s a scream. Jezebel’s Joint now has these nightly parties:

Psychosynthesis on Wed. (Beats, Techno, Industrial, Trance.) Carnivale on Thurs. (Goth/Industrial), Debaser on Fri. (Alternative, glam, punk, Brit, roots Rock), and monthlies on Sat:

1st Sat: Rubbish: Fetish party w/ disco & funk, 2nd Sat: Burning Chrome: Techno, Industrial, Dark Trance, EBM, DHR. 3RD Sat: Shrine of Lillith: Goth/Industrial, 4th Sat: Nuttin Butt Holes: Scantily clad ladies walking around serving donuts.

Gene can be emailed here