I was going to try and have breakfast at the new location of Citizen Cake over on Fillmore Street; however, they still have not reopened yet. And from the looks of the construction going on, they won't be reopening until sometime in July (earliest) would be my guess. The "Opening in May 2010" sign that they have on their old location is not gonna happen (see my entry of April 24th). "Strike Two!"…
As I was already in the neighborhood (with legal, free, street parking for a few hours), I decide to go to Curbside Café** instead. I had eaten here a few years back and knew it to be a decent enough place. Another cozy (read: tiny) café with seating for 30 (barely), and another 3 small tables "curbside".
http://www.sfcurbside.com/
I had the Brie, Spinach, and Sundried*** Tomato Omelette. It was a nice Gallic-sounding combination and I was not disappointed. It was made with lots of fresh, not frozen, spinach; and their sundried tomatoes had to be homemade, as they did not look like they came out of a jar (you know the wrinkly, prune-like ones that are dripping in olive oil ~ which is not a bad thing, really) ~ I would guess they were actually "oven-roasted" more than "sun-dried", but what do I know, I ain't no Emeril Lagreasy…
The omelette came with home fried potatoes, which were just okay, but nothing really special. I did like the grilled French bread (or Dutch crunch?) that they served for toast; you could actually see the grill marks on the bread. Their house coffee (café de la maison?) was good and strong and they kept plying me with more (I may not get to sleep until Monday night). There was fresh cracked pepper offered and gladly accepted; although, only Tabasco® sauce was on the tables, but they did have two types: standard and the green, jalapeño style.
"Merde!", I completely missed the Chilaquiles on their menu or I probably would have ordered that. Chilaquiles are one of my favourite Mexican breakfast dishes. I guess it's okay, as I don't usually order French burritos at the local taquerias either.
(Boring) Linguistic (à propos of nothin') Anecdote of the Day:
I happened to notice there were a few transoms on the front of the restaurant: one above the door and a couple on the upper windows. (For those of you that don't know what a "transom" is, please watch any old Three Stooges short from the 30's. A transom is the little window above the door that Moe would always have Curly shimmy through to bypass a locked door.)
I was once told that the French word for transom is "vasistas". This word possibly comes from the German phrase "Was ist das?" (pronounced: "vas is das"), which simply means "What is that?".
As the apocryphal story goes… during the signing of the Treaty of Versailles after World War I, one of the German diplomats pointed up at a transom above a doorway and said "Was ist das?" never having seen one before (apparently in 1919, these were still a relatively new ~ if simple ~ means of ventilation in stuffy buildings). One of the French diplomats, not knowing the actual technical term for it either, took it to mean that this was what it was called and it seems to have stuck (the word, not the window, Knucklehead). (Sorry, but I don't know what the word for transom is in German. "Das kleine Fenster über der Tür", peut-être?)
I suppose I will just have to attempt to eat at Citizen Cake some other time after the All-Star Break.
Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Omelette ~ 6.6; Coffee ~ 6.4
*(Well, I should hope so!
This was what they had written on their specials board. I always assumed omelettes were already made from scrambled eggs. "Naïf-moi!")
**(For some reason, there is no accent aigu on the name in their menu, but there is one on their business card. This is a French-owned place and I would expect it to be spelled "Café", so I went with the more common Frenchified spelling.)
***(This didn't look quite right spelled this way on their menu. I had to look it up to be sure, and found out that this can be spelled either as "sundried", "sun-dried", or "sun dried" apparently… but just on Saturdays, not Sundrays.)
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