Pork Store Cafe

It's a (no) pork fat thing, Emeril.



http://www.porkstorecafe.com/


I went to the Pork Store Cafe (sans accent aigu) this morning; the one on 16th Street over in the Mission. The original restaurant in the Haight is always a pain to get into as it is much smaller, there is always a long line to get in, and parking is less accessible. They have been open on Haight Street for over twenty years now. I think the Mission restaurant has been open for less than ten years. I remember that at one time back in the 90's they even had a (short-lived) location over in the South of Market Area.

They have local artists paintings for sale on their walls. "Buddha of Belief" by JD Lenzen ($450 ~ which seemed kinda steep to me) was right above my table. I almost sprayed it with some hot sauce by accident. The cap on the Tapatío® bottle had a crack in it (which I did not notice) and as I was shaking it up before using it, it got little splatters all over the table and wall, just missing this piece of art by inches. Maybe JD Lenzen could have then renamed it "Buddha of Unbelievable Salsa" and command another $50-100 for it.




I had the Eggs In A Tasty Nest ~ A bed of hash browns topped with bacon (skipped this), Cheddar cheese, grilled green peppers, fresh tomatos (sic*), onions and garlic with 2 eggs any style, and biscuits or toast. I opted for "over medium" and their home made buttermilk biscuits. This really ended up being more like "Eggs On A Tasty Heap", though, Uriah. I was expecting more of a deep bird's nest appearance to the dish for some reason. It was all still very good. The base of hash browns was nicely seasoned and just "grease-y" enough (with what I hoped was some kinda vegetable oil and not a porcine by-product). Their biscuits (two each) were large and fluffy, fresh and warm; they melted the pats of butter nicely and tasted great with what appeared to be real maple syrup (by the taste and viscosity), which are present on each table.




There are several other good breakfast choices for both Vegetarians and Vegans. They even offer several non-porky items: tofu scrambles, soy chorizo, vegetarian bacon, and vegetarian sausage (I don't know if these are in the patty or links format). I only noticed that they had a vegetarian bacon after I had ordered and the meal came; which really didn't matter as they specifically stated on the menu "no substitutions" with this dish. It's a good thing I didn't request "tomatoes" instead of "tomatos".

They only have Tabasco® (the standard red) and Tapatío® (with faulty caps, apparently) on the tables. I would have expected them to have a better selection of hot sauce condiments; especially at this location in the Mission, where great bottled hot sauces are easily found in any local corner bodega.

"Th-Th-That's all, f-f-folks!"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBzJGckMYO4


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Eggs IATN/OATH ~ 6.9; Homemade Biscuits ~ 6.7


*(This was spelled as such on their "Specials" menu; however, they did have it spelled correctly on their regular menu. Maybe they hired Dan Quayle to be their weekend sous chef; it's not as if he has been in demand on the inspirational speaking circuit in the past twenty years or so.)