Liverpool Lil's

Where "You'll Never Eat Alone"*



http://www.liverpoollils.com/


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loyRYFUYg9g

(I know that a Beatles song would probably have been a much better choice for a Liverpudlian 'blog-entry… but S'couse** me! Besides, the only Beatles songs that I could think of that mention Liverpool place names were Penny Lane and Strawberry Fields Forever***; the meal cost more than a penny and there were no strawberries to be found in my fruit cup this morning.)



(This would be a picture of an actual ferry crossing the Mersey. I took this photo in December when I was Merseyside.)

This morning for breakfast I went to Liverpool Lil's, over in Cow Hollow (right across the street from the Presidio's Lombard Gate):

"A Friendly San Francisco neighborhood pub in the old world tradition. Fine California and English specialties**** served daily."

This is true as the inside décor (Well, who really goes to a place for its outside décor?) is all wood-paneling and such. It is a bit of a local Sports bar, too. I forgot to look for any Liverpool F.C. memorabilia, though.

I have been there a few times for dinner and drinks, but had only been there once before for "Brunch" (their term, not mine). As I have finally done my pilgrimage to the Mecca of Beatledom this past Christmas vacation, I thought I should check it out again. Unfortunately, there were no Beatles songs (or Billy Fury even) playing on the house stereo. There were some very good 'merican Blues songs playing instead (Mr. McKinley Morganfield among others).



(A statue of some guy outside the Cavern Club in Liverpool. He must be a Wareham Gatemen fan, too.)


I lucked out again today and parked across the street (right in front of the restaurant) along the Presidio boundary wall, where I first heard and then saw dozens of my friends the Wild Parrots of San Francisco roosted in the tall eucalyptus trees above me. They were still way too high up in the trees for me to get any good photos, though.

I was surprised to see (or not see) that there was no real "Full English Breakfast" (see 'blog-entry from January 1st, 2011) to be found on the menu. Now, mind you, I really don't miss the complete lack of black pudding (or other porky side products), but I actually like baked beans and grilled "tomahtoes" for breakfast; and "bubble and squeak" is one of my favourite potato-based breakfast dishes. Otherwise, they have a pretty standard breakfast (or "Brunch" even) menu. They also have several items from which to choose on their weekend specials board.




As normal, I forewent the regular printed menu and it was going to be a choice between the Banana Bread French Toast or the Vegetable Frittata. I decided on the Vegetable Frittata ~ Artichoke hearts, roasted bell peppers, spinach & mushrooms, goats cheese baked in a creamy egg pie, served with breakfast potatoes, mixed seasonal fruit cup and choice of toast. (I chose the English muffins for the toast, even though I know that this is really not a Britishlander baked good product. And these were probably just your standard Thomas'® brand, anyway.) I also had a cuppa coffee (which was served in a little mini personal pot ~ a nice touch, whot?!).




The frittata was very good and included many of my favourite ingredients. However, it was more along the style of a slice of quiche pie. The breakfast potatoes were good ~ chock full o' red bell peppers, onions, and sundry other spices and herbs ~ but just a little under-cooked (read: not burnt to a crisp) for my liking. In their defense, I was the first person there this morning and maybe they hadn't been cooked/grilled fully yet. Another minor complaint would be the completely sucky lighting inside the place. I really couldn't tell exactly what the "seasonal fruits" were in my fruit cup. I think there were apples, pineapples, cantaloupe, and honeydew melon in it, but there may have been another fruit or two (just no strawberries, I am pretty sure).

There is only Tabasco® sauce offered as a condimentary supplementation. So I went with a little Palo Alto Fire Fighters Pepper Sauce (Thanks again, Amy! This is really one of my favourite hot sauces lately.) on the breakfast potatoes.

I did like that there are freebie souvenir postcards on all of the tables. There was just no Full English Breakfast to be found… or Lil (as far as I know).


Glen Bacon Scale Rating: Vegetable Frittata ~ 6.8


*(Liverpool Lil's isn't haunted or anything, it is just that Liverpool Football Club's motto is You'll Never Walk Alone and the club's anthem is the Rodgers & Hammerstein song of the same name. Liverpool F.C. was England's most successful club of the 20th Century. They were kinda like the Y*nkees of the Soccer world; however, as of October 15th, 2010, Boston Red Sox fans can now show their kinship to the club as the ownership team of New England Sport Ventures is the same one that owns the Red Sox.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_F.C. )

**(To get this terrible pun, you have to know that Liverpudlians are colloquially known as "Scousers". This is in reference to "scouse", which is a local dish, a form of lamb or beef stew. The word comes from lobscouse ~ originally lob's course ~ or lapskaus, Norwegian for "stew" and refers to a meat based stew commonly eaten by sailors throughout Northern Europe, which became popular in seaports such as Liverpool.

Consider that the stupid cunning linguist pointer of the day.)

***(Both of which I actually got to see on my "Magical Mystery Tour" of Liverpool. And even more scarily coincidental, both of these songs were actually playing on the radio as I was typing up this 'blog-entry ~ apparently Penny Lane was the number 8 and Strawberry Fields Forever was the number 15 top hits this week in 1967 on Billboard's charts ~ but Sir Paul still remains unburied.)

****(Ironic culinary oxymoron of the day.)