Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery

I ate until I stopped…



http://www.squatandgobble.com/
 

Squat & Gobble Cafe & Crepery has five locations currently throughout San Francisco. This morning, I ate at their original location on Fillmore Street in the Lower Haight. (The Lower Haight is so much cooler than the Upper Haight ~ where most of the touristas flock ~ and has been for twenty years or more now. There are better bars and restaurants there; including two of the best ethnic restaurants in San Francisco: Indian Oven ~ for Indian cuisine, of course; and Thep Phanom ~ for Phanomese cuisine? Both of these restaurants are highly-rated by both Michelin Guide* and Sagat** Survey; and both are also found on Fillmore Street just a block apart.) Despite the rather unfortunate choice of names for a restaurant (it always reminds me of the old "chew and screw" routine when I was younger, you'd think they would just be asking for people to come in and eat without paying; or, worse yet, check out definition #3 in Urban Dictionary for this entry: you will never want to eat turkey again… or take a bath), they are a very good place for crêpes (Note: I prefer the Frenchy spelling with the little hat thingy on the first "e"***, much like the accent aigu on the "e" in "café") and were one of the first crêperies to open in San Francisco (that was not an overpriced Frenchified place, that is), and they have been at this location since 1993.

Squat & Gobble also offer a full line of other kinds of foods: sandwiches, pastas, and other breakfast fare (omelettes, pancakes, waffles, egg cetera); but go there for their crêpes ~ just save room (if at all possible) for one of their great dessert crêpes. They also seem to employ super nice and knowledgeable people. My server was friendly and very cute (and reminded me a little of Eliza Dushku); I mean, how many people out there can reference "Home for the Holidays" (a 1995 movie starring Holly Hunter and Robert Downey, Jr., and directed by Jodie Foster) as a good Thanksgiving movie? (Plus she seemed to pretend to be interested enough in my stupid breakfast 'blog.)

 


I would normally order the Zorba the Greek (made with authentic Kalamata olives, I should point out), as it is one of my favourites of theirs; but after having eaten a lot of Greeky food already this weekend (see my Friday entries), I wanted to try something a little different so I went with one of their newest entries (which is not even on their printed menu or web-site yet):

Charred Tomatillo Crepe ~ Caramelized Onions, Jack Cheese, Avocado, Peppers (green bell), Mushrooms, Olives (not Kalamata, just the plain sliced, canned variety, but this is okay as no extra flavour was really needed), Tomatoes, and Homemade Tomatillo**** and Ranchero Sauces.

The charred tomatillo salsa was truly first-rate (I "gobbled" up ~ but no squatting ~ the half with it on it first); the ranchero salsa was good and fresh, too, but just not as excellent as the tomatillo one. The crêpe was absolutely stuffed with lots of fresh vegetables (it was easily 2-3 inches thick) and I was very pleased to see that they didn't scrimp on the avocado, there was probably at least ½ an avocado in it ~ nice!

They offer a choice of rosemary garlic potatoes or mixed baby green salad with most of their dishes. I went with the potatoes and was very glad I did; these were excellent and there was a huge amount of them. They were nicely seasoned with lots of rosemary. If this had been made with whole cloves of roasted garlic (see my Eats entry from November 13th, 2010), I would have married it (the Christian religion be damned! I have always been a big proponent of "Don't ask, don't eat!").




I had a cuppa the house coffee with the meal. They serve Capricorn Coffees ~ a good local coffee roastery since 1963 (which even predates Peet's® by three years; but they are just a manufacturer, they do not have their own cafés/shops) ~ it was hot, good, fresh, and strong (well, I was the first customer of the morning).

http://www.capricorncoffees.com/

There are bottles of Tabasco® (both standard red and the jalapeño ~ Green Pepper Sauce) and Tapatío® available, but I went with some of my own Trees Can't Dance ~ Tree Fire Sauce (Thanks again, Greg & Cindy!) on the potatoes only, the crêpe had more than enough flavour with both salsas on top and all the fresh ingredients in it.

My only real complaint is that you have to order and pay at the counter first, so the opportunity to really "squat and gobble" without paying is nullified…


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Charred Tomatillo Crepe ~ 7.1; Rosemary Garlic Potatoes ~ 7.0; Capricorn Coffee ~ 6.5


*(Michelin? Really? Do Goodyear® or Pirelli rate food, too? And would you really trust the word of some giant albino guy with goiters?)
 
**(What is the deal with all these Sagat Survey ratings restaurants seem so proud to display? Is Bob Sagat supposed to be some kinda humourous disciple of Epicurus? Next thing you know, the Olsen Twins will be rating all the bars and nightclubs around the country… well, and get paid for doing it.)
 
***(Useless cunning linguist pointer of the day:
 
This diacritical mark is actually called a "circumflex", but I just like the term "little hat thingy" better.)
 
****(A tomatillo ~ pronounced "toh-mah-TEE-yo" ~ is part of the tomato family ~ and comes from the Spanish diminutive of "tomato", but should not be confused with a standard "green tomato":
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomatillo )